Running hard… in the wrong direction! (Romans 9:30-10:13)
Billy Milton - May 1, 2005
I’m sorry that I missed Peter last week but I understand from those of you who were there that he was very challenging and a little bit controversial as well. Excellent! We certainly enjoyed a good discussion on ch 9 at our housegroup.
When I was at college we devoted quite a lot of time to studying Romans 9-11. These 3 chapters have become quite a hotbed of controversy as scholars debate Israel’s present position in God’s plans. Are they still God’s chosen people? Is there still a separate plan of salvation for them? Is it right to toss all Palestinians out of the land of Israel? Sadly, one person will utterly condemn another depending on their answer to those questions and questions like that. Where does Israel feature in God’s plans today? Well, to simplify things a bit let me narrow the options down to the three basic positions that people take on the Jewish/Gentile question:
View 1 - The 2 roads/2 passports position
This view states that God has always dealt with, and will continue to deal with, the Jews purely on the basis of the Old Covenant (the Law) and the Gentiles under the New Covenant (salvation in Christ). When Christ comes again to wrap up history, we will be judged and accepted or rejected based on these two completely separate criteria.
View 2 – The 2 roads/1 passport position
This view suggests that God is happy for the Jews to work out their salvation under the Law and for the Gentiles to come to salvation by faith in Christ but at the end of their lives, or when Christ returns, each Jew will be presented with their Messiah (Jesus Christ) and accepted or rejected then based on how they react to Christ.
View 3 – The 1 road/1 passport position
This view, which is the most commonly held view by evangelicals, is that Jew and Gentile alike can only approach God because of the death of Jesus Christ. It is grace not works that will be the deciding factor for either group. That will involve a conscious decision now and not a second chance after death.
I’m listing these views, not because I’m going to major on them this morning but more to give you a broader background as to the possibilities. I’ll refer back to the various models over the next few weeks and those who are following me are welcome to refer to them as well.
Whatever view you do decide to adopt you need to be careful that it is consistent with all that we have been studying so far. I believe Peter C. made the point that it is a mistake to wrench these 3 chapters out of their setting and treat them as a separate little section that can stand-alone. I agree with him - they can’t stand-alone. Paul quite deliberately places them after chapters 1-8! What has he been at pains to stress in 1-8? GET A RESPONSE Yes, we are all sinners – Jew and Gentile alike. None of us can be saved by our works, only by faith – Jew and Gentile alike. There is no one who does good, thinks good, speaks good or fears God – Jew and Gentile alike. For all who believe - Jew and Gentile alike – salvation is guaranteed and cannot be snatched away from us.
Paul has spent an awful lot of time levelling the playing field and laying the foundation for what he is about to propose in ch. 9-11 and what I believe he is proposing is view 3. The only way to God is through Jesus Christ – there is only one road and one passport to heaven. Now, I know that not everyone here agrees with me and I also know that some very clever scholars disagree with me, so please make a study of this yourself and let me know where you end up.
So, if you accept view 3, where does this leave the good, law abiding Jew? It leaves them running hard but in the wrong direction, and that’s such a sad thing to do. No matter how fit you are; how talented; how dedicated; how ruthless you are, if you don’t run in the right direction then it is all for nothing. You will never cross the finishing line. At the end of ch 9 Paul uses this metaphor of a race and he indicates that the Jews are indeed running hard; pursuing righteousness …but doing it by works. And Paul has already made it very clear that righteousness is gained only by faith. Remember in ch 4 he says that Abraham was declared righteous by God before he was circumcised, before he could do any works to merit it. In fact most of ch 4 is a sad indictment against working for your salvation – just as many Jews, and today even more sadly many Gentiles, are trying to do. I noticed the other day a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses knocking doors round our way. Do you know what they were doing? Working for their salvation. They believe that only so many people will get in to heaven and so they work as hard as they can to be in that number, but never have any assurance that they will be. Every time I meet a JW I long to talk to them about grace and certainty. I admire their zeal, and I wish that more Christians were prepared to move outside their comfort zones in a similar way, but through their mis-interpretation of the Bible, they have lost that security of knowing that salvation comes by faith in Christ alone.
Paul opens ch 10 in a similar manner to the way that he opened up ch 9. “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.” If the two roads/two passport model is correct, why would Paul wish himself cursed and cut off from Christ in 9:3 and desperate that Israel might be saved in 10:1-2? He acknowledges that they are working hard but also says that their hard work is not based on knowledge. In v4 he says that Christ is the end of the law for those who believe. In other words when a person comes to faith in Christ, and we’ve said this so often in the past, they are no longer required to live by the law but they live under grace. That’s a great place to be, isn’t it? Are you prepared to share that wonderful freedom with those who are still working hard to achieve salvation through their hard work?
I know that some of you have never had that life changing experience and although you come along to church quite regularly it hasn’t quite hit your heart yet. I’m also aware that many of you, maybe even most of you, have never had the joy of sitting with someone and leading them to faith in Christ. So how do you do it? If it’s not by keeping your nose clean and working hard, how do you become a Christian?
Well Paul provides a very simple but effective model for us to follow in vv9-10.
In fact it’s as simple as A, B, C, D. Let me run through this with you. You might want to write this down so that you can either do it yourself or use it when talking to others. The ABCD of becoming a Christian:
A = Acknowledge or Admit
B = Believe
C = Confess
D = Declare
A = Acknowledge or Admit
This whole section from vv9-13 talks about being saved. Before we can be saved we need to acknowledge that we need to be saved. We need to admit that we’re sinners and powerless to do anything about it. Last week I spoke to a lady after the service and she told me quite clearly that she was NOT a Christian. I said to her that that was a great place to start from – at least she had no doubt where she stood before God. She freely admitted she was a sinner. 15 minutes later she had become a Christian. It all started with step 1 – admitting.
B = Believe
“Believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead.” Why is this so important? Well its important for a number of reason, not least being that it raises Christianity from being just an intellectual pursuit into a supernatural faith. If Jesus rose from the dead then everything else he claimed has to be true as well. I suppose that the belief in the resurrection actually represents a whole lot more – a belief in the deity of Christ; his death in our place; the fact that death can no longer hold the Christian in its clutches; a sure and certain hope for the future. All this and more becomes a reality because of our belief in the resurrection.
C = Confess
I think this one’s the biggy. “Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.” This is much more than mouthing the words “Jesus is Lord”. To pick up on something Peter C. referred to last week, its putting Christ firmly on the throne of your life. It’s saying that he is Lord of my work life; my social life; my family life; my finances and my ambitions. He is Lord of every area of my life. As I say, that’s a biggy isn’t it? Can I say as lovingly as I can – if you’re not prepared to confess Jesus as Lord then don’t mess about with God. There are too many Christians bringing disrepute to the name of God and we don’t need one more. I remember sitting at a country station near Carlisle when a drunken man came and sat beside me. I must confess that I was secretly hoping he wouldn’t talk to me, but in that wonderfully free way that drunk people have he began a loud conversation with me. His talk was punctuated with swear words and some details about his longsuffering wife that I had no wish to know and after about 10 minutes of a rather one-sided conversation he asked me what I did for a living. I told him I was a Pastor of a Church and without so much as a batting of an eyelid he said, “Oh… I’m a Christian too.” I think our views of what a Christian is diverged somewhat but, had he truly been a Christian, it would certainly have put me off believing.
Can we say Jesus is Lord, even when no one is looking?
D = Declare
The Bible never condones secret discipleship. One of the first things we need to do is to tell others. Declare where we stand. The lady I spoke about last week did it in fine style when I encouraged her to tell someone! EXPAND Its one of the best ways to build your faith – tell someone.
And let me close by quoting this marvellous verse, v13. If you perhaps think that God might not accept you then listen to this, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” No doubt about it. Call on the name of Jesus today and you will enter into this relationship with him. That’s a cast iron promise from God’s word.