Romans 10:8-21

Paul’s main burden in writing Romans was to explain God’s full plan of salva= tion for man. Romans 9-11 is= a section inserted by Paul covering God’s Selection.

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So far we have learned that God’s selection is of Him who calls. H= is salvation is out of His mercy based upon His sovereignty through a righteousness which= is out of faith.= God’s selection is through Christ who is the end of the law and who is very near. This mornin= g we shall fellowship to see just how near this wonderful salvations is.

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Romans 10 has much to do with speaking= , hearing<= span style=3D'mso-arabic-font-family:Arial;mso-cyrillic-font-family:"Arial Narro= w"; mso-default-font-family:"Arial Narrow";mso-greek-font-family:"Arial Narrow"; mso-hebrew-font-family:Arial;mso-latin-font-family:"Arial Narrow";mso-latin= ext-font-family: "Arial Narrow"'>, and believing. Verses 6-8 contain quotes from Deuteronomy 30:12-14.&= nbsp; (Read verses 11-20 to understand the full context.) What God told Israel = in these verses is that His commandment (word) is not hard to keep nor is it far off. It is neither in heaven = nor across the sea. You don’t have to go there to get it that it could be brought back, then heard and obeyed. According to v. 14 the word is very near you, in your mouth and in y= our heart that you may do it. If = you read the entire context, this is an appeal to hear the word of Jehovah and do it. By doing so, you shall li= ve (choose life). What was the w= ord that Jehovah commanded Israel to keep? It was to love Jehov= ah your God and obey His voice and cling to Him that He would be their life. .=

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The message to today’s chosen people is no different. Our salvation is of, in, and throu= gh Christ, God’s living Word. We don’t have to go to heaven to obtain this Word. Nor do we have to go to the abyss = to bring this living Word up from there. The reality is, today more then ever, the instant speaking of God in NEAR us. It is in our mouth and in our heart. We just have to speak = it and believe it (v. 8).

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Our speaking forth of Jesus as Lord based upon the belief in our heart that God= has raised Him from the dead issues in our salvation (v.9)! Outward works are not necessary. The word confess means ‘ to agree with’. Therefore, to confess with the mou= th and believe in the heart means that the mouth agrees with the heart. To say the name of the Lord withou= t belief in the heart is empty. To bel= ieve in the heart and not confess with the mouth makes our belief dead. Confessi= on is the visible part and the substantiation of our faith. Verse 11 tells us that “Ever= yone who believes on Him shall not be put to shame.”

Verse 13 declares that “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” This proves tha= t to be saved is dependent on Christ. Our salvation is not dependent on works. It is dependent on invoking the na= me of Jesus, seeking Him for our salvation day by day.

We find in verses 14-15 an important point. That is, for= a person to call on the Lord for salvation they need to believe first. But how can they believe if they h= ave not heard the good news? Or how c= an they hear without someone proclaiming the good news to them? In verse 15 we have three important= active words: proclaim, feet,= and announce. We need to be activ= e to move with our feet and announce the Good News of Jesus as the Gospel!<= /o:p>

Verse 16 implies that belief in the gospel needs obedience and obedience is the result of listening. How can = one believe? The answer is in ver= se 17, “So then faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” For faith to be generated in a person, they need to hear the word of Christ. They need to hear fresh speaking f= rom the announcers of the gospel that produces faith in the hearers. Without such announcing, faith can= not come. Then, after salvation, = we need to be under the constant hearing of faith so that our faith can grow.<= o:p>

Finally, in verses 18-21, Paul declares that Israel has heard but they did= not believe. As a result God trie= d to provoke them to jealousy and anger through His receiving of a people who we= re not seeking after Him. He “stretched out His hands” to try to gain them, but to no avail. However, all is not lo= st regarding Israel as we shall see in the weeks to follow.

It is interesting to see that God is God. He is the chooser, however from these verses we can see that His heart is for all to come to Him. You may ask then, is it God’s selection, or our obedience to His calling? The answer is both! Praise Him for His mercy and= grace!