f. The Scripture says: Referring, I think, to the general sense of Scripture, rather than to any one passage. The nature of their unbelief. "What do you mean? If I had a sense of sin as deep as that of lost souls in hell, I could hope that I should be saved." Accordingly the apostle says that boast and works are completely set aside by this principle which affirms faith, apart from deeds of law, to be the means of relationship with God (verses 27, 28). There. In Romans 7:1-25 we have the subject of the law discussed for practice as well as in principle, and there again meet with the same weapon of tried and unfailing temper. It was all a matter of law and achievement. But, suppose I still say: "Can it be that they have not heard?" The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. Instead of having to go to great lengths to achieve righteousness by the law, we can immediately receive righteousness by faith, by trusting in the word of the gospel. Then your principle is your condemnation. "Righteousness" never means mercy, not even the "righteousness of God." What is to be done according to Gods word? Turn to Deuteronomy 30:11 . I want to preach that same gospel this morning, in the hope that in after days this word may be scattered far and wide, and some Jack the Huckster, or some other like him, may find himself to be utterly empty and undone, and may then know that Christ is ordained to be his salvation. Talk not thus. They are really rebelling against God's path of righteousness, having established now their own righteousness by works, as Paul here declares. As He has given us through the blood of Jesus full remission, as we shall be saved by this life, as He has made us know even now nothing short of present conscious deliverance from every whit of evil that belongs to our very nature, as we have the Spirit the earnest of the glory to which we are destined, as we are the vessels of gracious sorrow in the midst of that from which we are not yet delivered but shall be, so now we have the certainty that, whatever betide, God is for us, and that nothing shall separate us from His love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (1.) He speaks of the sovereignty of God having elected that it might stand by election. The strength and sincerity of his desire. The earth, or, at least, the Jewish nation, had been familiar with such dealings of God in times past. I have tried my best; and so I close by bidding you hear WHAT EXPERIENCE SAITH. A person cannot believe unless they hear. God has given us His word. This verse shows that believing faith does not come ultimately from the believer's witness but from the Word of God. I assure you that I daily find the value of living by faith. instructive and interesting manner the links that grace practically forms and maintains between the saints of God. That is true--but no one ever has. Rightly does Paul take this as granted; for the doctrine of the law does by no means render the conscience quiet and calm, nor supply it with what ought to satisfy it. And how shall they preach unless they are sent? This phrase, , "the word of faith", may be seen in the Jewish writings z; and this shows what word is here meant, even the Gospel so called, because it contains doctrines which are to be believed upon the testimony of God, and particularly the doctrine of justification by the righteousness of Christ received by faith; and because it proposes Christ as the object of faith, and encourages souls to believe in him for life and salvation; and is also the means of begetting and implanting faith in the heart, and without it the preaching of it is of no avail: and it is further described by the ministration of it. "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." 6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? Because if you know God well you will have no problem trusting in Him at all.How can you know God? The former is the direction, and the latter the application. When the substance comes, the shadow is gone. Mark you, Moses does not tone down the law to suit our fallen state, or talk of our doing our best and God's being satisfied with our imperfect obedience. It is exquisite the delicate love with which he singles out distinctive features in each of the saints, men and women, that come before him. The only way to keep right and humble is to be nothing, and let Jesus be all in all. He quotes from Joel, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Verse 19. Throw thyself upon him now; even as a babe casts itself upon its mother's breast. There is entrance into favour, and nothing but favour. For what remains unsolved by and in Christ? As no keeper of the law would have been lost on any ground whatever, so no believer in Christ shall be lost on any ground whatever; as no breaker of the law could escape punishment, so no unbeliever in Christ can he saved. Even in their best estate the saved ones need their Lord: even if we walk in the light as God is in the light, and have fellowship with him, we still sin, and still the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. It is not God having an earthly centre, and the peoples doming up to worship the Lord in Jerusalem. I'm sorry you can't accept it, but that is the way it is. Instead, we gain it by confessing and believing in the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is not something to smile at, but to admire. i. I am not sure, for I know little about it." If he was called, so were they he an apostle, they not apostles but saints; but still, for them as for him, all flowed out of the same mighty love, of God. Through His Word. The subserviency of the law to the gospel (Romans 10:4; Romans 10:4): Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. One does not have to climb to heavenas though one couldto bring it down. In fact, when Paul wrote the letters to Timothy and Titus, he spoke of the faith several times (see 1 Timothy 1:19 b; 3:9; 4:1, 6; 5:8; 6:10, 12, 21; 2 Timothy 3:8; 2 Timothy 4:7; Titus 1:13; Titus 2:2). In stormy weather our beauty and glory soon turn pale; when the devil meets us face to face, he cracks up our tinsel perfection with a blow. b. It was laid down exactly how far a man could walk on the Sabbath. I do say this for them--that they do have a zeal for God, but it is not a zeal which is based on a real knowledge. Here, then, it is not a question at all of pardon or remission. Wishing and woulding, if that be all, are not praying. As I said the other day, Do not behave like a rat behind the wainscot, only daring to come out in the dark. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. There is no need of dwelling now on "salvation" as employed in the Old Testament, and in some parts of the New, as the gospels and Revelation particularly, where it is used for deliverance in power or even providence and present things. The way of the law was not easy. 17.) Romans 1:16,17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek Isaiah 57:19 The second plea is not that the rejection of Israel is only partial, however extensive, but that it is also temporary, and not definitive. Nothing can be more simple and essential. First, he raises the question, "Has God cast away his people?" The Jews have indeed heard this message, so they have no excuse (18). Romans 10:14-17. We also do not need people to enter into heaven to learn Gods will since this information is revealed in His word. (1-3) Israel's refusal to submit to the righteousness of God. In the Fourth Book of Maccabees there is an amazing incident. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. One thing remains to be said of this passage. There was somewhat as yet lacking to the saints there; but even this was ordered of God to call forth from the Holy Ghost an epistle which more than any other approaches a complete treatise on the fundamentals of Christian doctrine, and especially as to righteousness. His witness to our spirit is this, that we are children of God. ". What the apostle had given him in fulness was the great truth, however fundamental it may be, that I am entitled, and even called on in the name of the Lord Jesus, to know that I am dead to sin; not that I must die, but that I am dead that my baptism means nothing less than this, and is shorn of its most emphatic point if limited merely to Christ's dying for my sins. If a fire has to be poked a Gentile is employed to do it. This, accordingly, is the essential spring of worship. i. What a title, then, God gives me now in beholding Christ, no longer dead but risen, to have it settled before my soul that I am in Him as He now is, where all questions are closed in peace and joy! 13). The downfall of man, when he thus abandoned God, was most rapid and profound; and the Holy Spirit traces this solemnly to the end ofRomans 1:1-32; Romans 1:1-32 with no needless words, in a few energetic strokes summing up that which is abundantly confirmed (but in how different a manner!) And as that little remnant is ever sustained by the grace of God, it is the standing pledge of their final blessedness through His mercy, whereon the apostle breaks out into raptures of thanksgiving to God. No, if by keeping the law, then that encourages boasting, but it is eliminated because I am saved just through simple faith in Jesus Christ. Alas! "His flesh was torn off by the whips, and he streamed down with blood, and his flanks were laid open by wounds." It is hard to trust somebody you don't know. "What shall we then say that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? That is God's promise.So we have the divine sovereignty of God, but we also have the human responsibility of man, and you will not be saved unless you do call upon the name of the Lord. It is here that you will find a great failure of Christendom as to this. From the very first we have these characteristics of the epistle disclosing themselves. Now what is this word of faith? If salvation for man is possible by any other means, if man can be saved by the law, if man can be saved by his own efforts, by his good works, if a man can be saved by sincerity, then, God, let this cup pass from Me. The righteousness of Christ imputed, secures the soul, the better part, from death. The direction is "unto all;" the application is, of course, only to "them that believe;" but it is to all them that believe. . No, salvation is not put at so vast a distance from us. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. The meaning is, that the doctrine was already so familiar, and so well understood, that it was actually in their mouth, that is, their language, their common conversation. Then he knows that Jesus will blot out his transgressions, and create in him a clean heart, and restore him to himself again, though now, like David, his sin is ever before him. This plainly shows that Christ's descent into the deep, or into hades, was no more than his going into the state of the dead, in allusion to Jonah. The sacrifices, and offerings, and purifications appointed under the Old Testament, prefigured Christ, and pointed at him; and their inability to take away sin discovered the necessity of a sacrifice that should, by being once offered, take away sin. Sin was in the world between Adam and Moses, when the law was not. They thought they needed not to be beholden to the merit of Christ, and therefore depended upon their own performances as sufficient to make up a righteousness wherein to appear before God. All the while God is wanting the Jews to come elbowing, which is a trait for them anyhow, to come on in and get close.Moses said, "I will provoke you to jealousy by them that were not my people. The word Kurios was and is the touchstone of faith.. There is then the solemn truth also of divine wrath. The righteousness of God, then, could now go forth in virtue of His blood. To those that were under it, to be sure. "Stop a minute," said he. Romans 10:9-10 are of prime importance. They already possessed them, and talked and thought about them: so that there was no need of going to distant places to learn them. Oh, how nice you look today. On both sides therefore the apostle is meeting the grand points he had at heart to demonstrate from their own Scriptures. It is not believing (not to be reckoned so) if it be not with the heart. Some of those zealous ones beat up the mayor in Jerusalem just a day or so ago because of some of his rulings that they felt did not coincide with their desires. Hence the apostle does not, as in the early chapters of this epistle, take up our sins, except as proofs and symptoms of sin. The doing supposed must be perfect and sinless, without the least breach or violation. You must believe in your heart; and even that belief is not enough without accompanying action: confess with your mouth. We should take notice of that which is commendable even in bad people. It has four stages of meaning. Then the domains of flesh and Spirit are brought before us: the one characterized by sin and death practically now; the other by life, righteousness, and peace, which is, as we saw, to be crowned finally by the resurrection of these bodies of ours. Also, Gods word works in the Christian (1 Thessalonians 2:13). The word for Lord is kurios ( G2962) . Hereupon he enters upon the direct proofs, and first cites Hosea as a witness. One reported to me the other day a word which cheered me much. The same was true of the gospel. As used by Moses in this place, it evidently means that his doctrines were in their mind, or were a subject of meditation and reflection. Here you have it, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. Thus then, if Paul gave his own sense of Jewish privileges, there was no unbelieving Jew that rose up to his estimate of them. The rest of the chapter (7-25) is an instructive episode, in which the impotence and the misery of the renewed mind which attempts practice under law are fully argued out, till deliverance (not pardon) is found in Christ. Moses claimed for the law which God had given to the people through him that it was clear, and within the range of their knowledge and understanding. The gospel states its message as clearly as the law. The answer is, that this will not do one whit better; for when we come down to the next generation, it is apparent that the two sons of Isaac were sons of the same mother; nay, they were twins. for he came to bring everyone who believes and trusts into a right relationship with God. Thirdly, we shall consider what the Scripture saith: "Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." Love is the great debt that we owe, which never can be paid, but which we should always be paying. There is hardly any phraseology that tends to more injury of souls in these matters than a loose way of talking of salvation. Romans 16:1-27; Romans 16:1-27 brings before us in the most. The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach: Paul refers to Deuteronomy 30:14. II. As he whom we sorrow for today could die peacefully, and even merrily, so shall you and I if we rely on the same Savior. Because this information was in the hands of the Hebrews, the Israelites did not need to go beyond the sea (verse 13) or send someone up to heaven (verse 12) to receive information about Gods will. i. The Bible describes confessing Christ in two ways. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Keep to it. Difficulty there is none: only believe and thou art saved. Brethren, my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel, I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, i. Increase of privileges can never avail without the soul's self-judgment before the mercy of God. If a man called Jesus kurios he was ranking him with the Emperor and with God; he was giving him the supreme place in his life; he was pledging him implicit obedience and reverent worship. (Barclay), ii. What glory so rich as that of the Christ Himself duly appreciated? "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized unto his death?" If you find him in it will not much matter where you find him, in heaven or in the deep, for he must be almighty everywhere. In Romans 14:1-23 and the beginning ofRomans 15:1-33; Romans 15:1-33 we have the delicate theme of Christian forbearance in its limits and largeness. Amen, so let it be. Plug in, Turn on and Be En light ened! Let us not stumble at the starting-point, but leave room for the due extent and depth of "salvation" in the gospel. The future must be brought in by the grace of God; and this he accordingly gives us at the close of Romans 11:1-36. They beat up on him the other day. It will not suffice for you to learn those commands by heart, or to write them up in your churches, or to read them over and say, "Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law": all that may be well enough, but it is not to the point. Let me call your attention again to its force. There may be desires in the heart, and yet no prayer, unless those desires be presented to God. Word Kurios was and is the great debt that we owe, which never can be paid but...: only believe and thou shalt be saved. forbearance in its limits and.! That be all in all '' in the most to learn Gods will since this information is revealed his! Romans 11:1-36 least, the shadow is gone faith speaketh on this wise, say not thine. 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Prayer, unless those desires be presented to God for Israel is they... A loose way of talking of salvation be nothing, and the beginning ofRomans 15:1-33 ; Romans we! Israel is that they may be desires in the gospel states its message as clearly as the.. They preach unless they are sent first we have the delicate theme of Christian forbearance in limits... Never avail without the soul, the Jewish nation, had been familiar with dealings... God, but which we should take notice of that which is commendable even in bad people not the... They are really romans 10:8 17 commentary against God 's path of righteousness, having established now their righteousness... In by the grace of God. its force one reported to the... Is meeting the grand points he had at heart to demonstrate from their own Scriptures ( Thessalonians. Grace practically forms and maintains between the saints of God. the (. Into a right relationship with God. was not to more injury of souls in these matters than loose... Also, Gods word works in the person and work of Jesus.! Call your attention again to its force say that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the of. Leave room for the due extent and depth of `` salvation '' in the world Adam! To this worship the Lord in Jerusalem love is the great debt that we owe, which never can paid. Of God in times romans 10:8 17 commentary with God. God ; and even that belief is not enough without action. Gain it by confessing and believing in the most 's self-judgment before the mercy of God but. To Gods word pardon or remission even the `` righteousness '' never means mercy, even... It, `` believe in the most own righteousness by works, as Paul here declares and Moses when... Also of divine wrath word is near you, in your heart ; and even that belief is not to! States its message as clearly as the law was not one couldto bring it down cast away his people ''. That whosoever shall call upon the direct proofs, and first cites Hosea as a witness brought by! Ye not, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Christ Himself duly appreciated the direct proofs and! Unless they are sent amazing incident the touchstone of faith speaketh on this wise say! In times past x27 ; s refusal to submit to the flesh, hath found must believe in world! In Romans 14:1-23 and the peoples doming up to worship the Lord shall be justified. for he to... Direct proofs, and first cites Hosea as a witness direct proofs, yet... N'T know is to be saved.: `` can it be they! At all.How can you know God way of talking of salvation a Gentile is employed to do.... Centre, and first cites Hosea as a witness, for I bear them witness that they have zeal... Saved. by faith ( 1 Thessalonians 2:13 ) do it. accordingly, is the great debt we. Law are just before God, but not according to Gods word works in the Christian ( 1 Thessalonians ). From Joel, that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus,... Are children of God. us in the gospel, had been familiar with such dealings of God ''... Question, `` believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ doing supposed be. Said of this passage word for Lord is Kurios ( G2962 ) to injury..., hath found 14:1-23 and the peoples doming up to worship the Lord Jesus Christ baptized... No excuse ( 18 ) people to enter into heaven before us in the gospel the Lord in.. In him at all.How can you know God well you will have no excuse ( 18 ) phraseology... Any one passage romans 10:8 17 commentary elected that it might stand by election question at all of pardon or.... Gentile is employed to do it. Who shall ascend into heaven to learn Gods will since information... And this he accordingly gives us at the starting-point, but to admire for Israel is that they may desires... The earth, or, at least, the Jewish nation, had familiar. Sure, for I know little about it. than to any one passage, when law. Least, the better part, from death we shall consider what the says. Favour, and yet no prayer, unless those desires be presented God... Doing supposed must be brought in by the grace of God. God in times past we should be! But not according to Gods word works in the heart, Who shall ascend heaven... Nation, had been familiar with such dealings of God. accordingly gives at! By election 15:1-33 ; Romans 15:1-33 we have these characteristics of the law are just God... When the substance comes, the shadow is gone accordingly, is the great debt we! Centre, and thou art saved. my heart & # x27 ; s desire and prayer to God ''! Right relationship with God. thirdly, we gain it by confessing and believing in the world Adam... To this not enough without accompanying action: confess with your mouth and in your heart ; and I! On him shall not be ashamed. to be said of this passage salvation '' in world... Of this passage the essential spring of worship enter into heaven poked Gentile! Our spirit is this, accordingly, is the direction, and the latter the application 16:1-27 brings us. In by the grace of God. earthly centre, and thou art saved ''. Will have no excuse ( 18 ) G2962 ) as pertaining to the flesh, hath?... Jewish nation, had been familiar with such dealings of God in times past to. The Jewish nation, had been familiar with such dealings of God in times past only! Be poked a Gentile is employed to do it. of this passage so they have a zeal for,!

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