Romans 10:5-17
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday. This is a podcast of first Lutheran Church that looks at the readings for the upcoming Sunday. So you can be familiar with them. When you come to church. I examine the Old Testament, epistle reading and Gospel reading for each week with a few notes and a simple explanation. So let's get started. The Epistle reading for August 13, is from Romans chapter 10, verses five through 17. It reads, For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteous based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe with your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches and all who call on him. For everyone who calls them the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him, of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Here ends the reading. Romans 10 comes in the middle of a difficult section of Romans. In Romans nine, we talked about Paul's sadness and his grief over the loss of Israel, all the number of Israelites who have turned away from the Savior, Jesus Christ. And he explains how the Word of God has not failed because of this, that God's promises are certain and true. Here we turn and look at some more positive sections about talking about how the righteousness based on faith is different from the righteousness of the law. And so let's begin. It reads, For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, and the person who does the commandments shall live by them. So the Old Testament, the righteousness that is based on the law is very simple. Do God's commandments, and live. Now, of course, in Romans one through three, St. Paul tells us that, that we just can't do that, that whether you are Jewish, and have tried to follow the law your whole life, or Gentile and didn't know about the law, everyone falls short of God's demand, and cannot be righteous by the law. So he continues, but the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. This is a little confusing, but I think we can we can see it in the idea of trying to lay hold of God's promises and drag them down something by our own efforts. And I think a modern way of doing this is the the language around your personal relationship with Jesus. One of the ideas behind this is it turns prayer into something that we do to build our relationship as if it's a work that we can do to make us closer to Jesus. Almost like we have to climb up into heaven and grab Jesus and force him into our lives. This is a kind of works righteousness. And St. Paul counters that with but what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. So instead of needing to climb up into heaven to to forge a relationship with Jesus, it's very simple. The Word of God works on the person by the power of the Holy Spirit to deliver faith and bring about salvation. There's no climbing into heaven. There is no descending into the depths of the earth. We don't have to force God to deliver anything to us. He simply give sit through the preaching of the word in the gospel. He continues, For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses, as and is saved. For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So with the heart, we believe, and are justified by the gift of faith that God gives us, and we confess, he's used as the word with the mouth. You don't actually need to be able to speak to believe in Jesus, but he uses that phrase, We confess, and we are saved. So whether you are a Jew or Greek, no matter who you are, when we call him the name of the Lord, we are saved. Then he continues, how then will they call on Him whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news? St. Paul is giving us a simple question series of questions. The points is to everyone needs to have some missionary come into their life, and give them the gospel. Now for many Christians, that began with parents, who shared the gospel in baptism, who brought their children to church. But it also happens as pastors and other church workers are sent out into the world. And what happens is, as Christians go out into the world, it's the proclamation of the gospel, the giving of the gospel to the world that calls people to this faith so that they can believe that is why he says, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. Paul continues, but they have not obeyed the gospel for Isaiah says, Lord who is believed what he has heard from us. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Now, sadly, not everyone who hears the gospel believes, but that doesn't change the fact that faith comes from hearing and hearing comes from the proclamation of the Word of Christ.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai