"At any rate he is a saved soul," we hear. d. Seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God: Israel had a lack of knowledge. "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by [or because of] his Spirit that dwelleth in you.". Second, he cites Joel 2:32: "All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered." There is laid down the most essential of all truths as a groundwork of salvation; namely, expiation. (2.) Wishing and woulding, if that be all, are not praying. He did not say, "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O my friends, for the hand of the Lord hath touched me." Secondly, We need not go to the deep, to fetch Christ out of the grave, or from the state of the dead: Into the deep, to bring up Christ from the dead. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Well, I am sorry. No man can say that they were not desperately in earnest about their service to God. Romans 10:17, ESV: So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. This is the faith which saves the soul. (Spurgeon). Tonight whoever you might be salvation is so close to you, all you have to do is call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved. He brings out the peculiar glories of Israel according to the depth of the gospel as he knew and preached it; at least, of His person who is the object of faith now revealed. To the contrary, the salvation of God is as near them as their own mouths and hearts. Here is where the passage becomes really difficult. The believer is not put under law, you will observe, but under grace, which is the precise reverse of law. The question then is raised in the beginning ofRomans 3:1-31; Romans 3:1-31, If this be so, what is the superiority of the Jew? 3). 1. There is a disposition continually to imagine that what is frequently spoken of must be understood; but experience will soon show that this is not the case. 2. Death, and nothing short of it, rightly dissolves the bond. Poor dear heart, if you can but trust Christ, even though the feeblest possible manifestation of it should be the only thing visible, namely, your calling upon God in prayer, it must and shall save you. He had this, of course, in a revelation that was from God; he had law; he had prophets; he had divine institutions. He is not coming according to the covenant that God established by Moses for sins to be forgiven. If I had a sense of sin as deep as that of lost souls in hell, I could hope that I should be saved." It is hard to trust somebody you don't know. How is it possible that I can be saved? The design of the law was to lead people to Christ. 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. Next, what the gospel says: "But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise," and so on. He observes Sabbath; he loves God. "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." It was laid down that he must lift no burden which weighed more than two dried figs. There may be desires in the heart, and yet no prayer, unless those desires be presented to God. "By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith." Lower than that, he descended to being "despised and rejected of men." Where then is boasting? The former is the direction, and the latter the application. Their problem is not that they have not heard or understood it, but that they have refused to believe it (see v. 16). Let me call your attention again to its force. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. The law is magnified and made honourable by the death of Christ; and the doctrine of faith in his death and resurrection is fully proclaimed, and amply proved to be effectual to the purpose for which it was revealed. God is gracious, but holy; He is faithful, but righteous. He loved even here at the threshold to show the breadth of God's grace. His witness to our spirit is this, that we are children of God. He spent the whole night in trying to cheer and comfort others: he had no trembling thought about himself. The wrath of God could not possibly be glad tidings. It was a very great thing, especially, when the profession of Christ or Christianity hazarded estate, honour, preferment, liberty, life, and all that is dear in this world, which was the case in the primitive times. Basically the scheme is this--in the previous passage Paul has been saying that the way to God is not that of works and of legalism, but of faith and trust. Thus the deliverance is not merely for the joy of the soul, but also for strength in our walking after the Spirit, who has given and found a nature in which He delights, communicating withal His own delight in Christ, and making obedience to be the joyful service of the believer. b. It is an appeal to listen to the prophets who long ago declared that faith is the only way to God, and that that way is open to every man. But it is very plain and easy: The word is nigh thee. Unbelief is a non-submission to the righteousness of God, standing it out against the gospel proclamation of indemnity. A person cannot save himself. Romans 4:1-8,13-17. Have as many good works as you can cram into your life, but never tell anybody about them, or think anything of them. So I believe it. Christ has already done that and has returned gloriously by His resurrection from the dead. By the cross God has a deeper moral glory than ever a glory that He thus acquired, if I may so say. ii. That is - This is the use which the apostle makes of it; not that Moses referred to the gospel. This is precisely what salvation does not mean; and I would strongly press it on all that hear me, more particularly on those that have to do with the work of the Lord, and of course ardently desire to labour intelligently; and this not alone for the conversion, but for the establishment and deliverance of souls. He deals with the Jew from his own Scripture (verses 9-19). 18). yet, that is might be the more effectual to drive people to Christ and to make the covenant of grace welcome, it had a very great mixture of the strictness and terror of the covenant of works. But such thoughts altogether vanish now, because, as the Gentile was unquestionably wicked and abominable, so from the law's express denunciation the Jew was universally guilty before God. You asked, "Who shall descend into the deep?" THE DESTRUCTION OF EXCUSES ( Romans 10:14-21 ), 10:14-21 How are they to call on him on whom they have not believed? (that is, to bring Christ down), or, 'Who shall go down into the deep abyss?' Because if you know God well you will have no problem trusting in Him at all.How can you know God? Listen to it, lost ones; you need not climb to heaven: Christ has come down from heaven to you; and if you lie among the spiritually dead to-day, or think you do, he has come down to you, and you need not enquire bow you can go up to him. Abraham is the proof of the value of faith in justification before God. No, He has already come and brought salvation down from heaven to men. No prayers, or tears, are wanted to bring him down: he has already come and is near at hand. Rules for the conduct of Christians to one another, as members of the Christian church, Rom. (i) The first objection is: "You cannot call on God unless you believe in him. If God has blessed your ministry or other holy work, the devil whispers, "You are a pretty fellow; you have done wonders"; and up you will go if you are not steadied by the firm conviction that you may not glory, since you are nothing at all in yourself, and your sole help is in Jesus your Lord. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. There is no mystery or obscurity about it. I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. So therefore it addressed itself to the obedience of faith; not by this meaning practice, still less according to the measure of a man's duty, but that which is at the root of all practice faith-obedience obedience of heart and will, renewed by divine grace, which accepts the truth of God. Did they venture to plead that it must be not only the same father, but the same mother? What, then, is its voice? "Whosoever." Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? "Shall we sin," says he, proceeding yet farther (ver. They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. In Romans Paul is clearly agonizing and arguing over the reality of Israel's call by God as well as Israel's rejection of Jesus. There is really no other hope, for if you get a little bit of your own works put into the building, of your hope, you have just so much rotten timber in the fabric, and that rot will plague the whole house, and turn it into dust at the last. The conies are a feeble folk, yet have they their habitations among the rocks: they are safe, but they keep to their hiding place. The scope of the apostle in this part of the chapter is to show the vast difference between the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of faith, and the great pre-eminence of the righteousness of faith above that of the law; that he might induce and persuade the Jews to believe in Christ, aggravate the folly and sin of those that refused, and justify God in the rejection of such refusers. If what Christ has done will not save a sinner I am damned; for I have nothing else to depend upon; but if it will save, and sure I am that it will, I am saved as surely as Christ has risen from the dead. But oh, thank God we have a message to tell to the nations. No, he says only, "He that doeth those things shall live by them." If you are to be saved by the commandments you must do them: that is clear. "No, not if you pluck out my eyes, and consume my bowels in the fire. II. Now the fact that Jesus went to the cross is God's witness before the world that there is only one way that a man can come to God, and that is by the cross of Jesus Christ. "Oh, come over here and sit on Grandpa's lap. Compare verse 6 (where the margin, not the text, is substantially correct) with verse 4. 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. Did this seem to treat the law that condemned as an evil thing? Not in our descending, but in Christ's descending our hope is to be found. The truth is, those are altogether mistaken who call it so. In the beginning ofRomans 2:1-29; Romans 2:1-29 we have man pretending to righteousness. Nevertheless the apostle does not expressly mention heaven here. (that is, to bring Christ down from above:): In Moses sermon these words mean the law that he commanded Israel to obey was not some far off impossibility requiring heroic superhuman efforts to discover and obey. He quotes from Joel, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Here it is not merely the negation of law and of circumcision, but we have the positive side. So God's grace and mercy extended towards the Gentiles. To say that faith-righteousness says these things simply means it is characterized by them. 2. The information in verse 8 makes the point even more forcefully. But I say, did Israel not know? God was rather provoking Israel to jealousy by the call of the Gentiles. If you get extreme on the Calvinistic side and into election and predestination and all, then you have lost the center of truth. All day long I have stretched out My hands There is a preaching which blasts the sinner with tempestuously angry words; but always Paul speaks the truth in love. June 2023. There is satisfaction; but the work of Christ goes a great deal farther. As they watched him rising higher, and yet higher, at last a cloud received him: he has gone up to the Father's throne, as the sinner's Savior: at the throne he stands to-day to intercede for sinners, and from that throne he bends to comfort those who come to him. Next, this precious gospel translates these questions, and then answers them. He shall own that once glorious seat of royalty in Israel. Christ did not come to make the law milder, or to render it possible for our cracked and battered obedience to be accepted as a sort of compromise. The righteousness of God flows from His mercy, of course; but its character and basis is righteousness. The gospel, as now revealed in the New Testament, has linked with it, though not contained in it, the revelation of divine wrath from heaven, and this, you will observe, according to Paul's gospel. Rather does it add to his guilt: such is man's evil state and will. In this too we have the blessed connection of the Spirit (here peculiarly designated, for special reasons, "the Spirit of holiness"). "Always remember to keep your voice down," said another. His pathway follows; and he shows that the very troubles of the road become a distinct matter of boast. Verse 17. The word is nigh thee - This is still a use of the language of Moses. Though Israel heard, they did not exercise saving faith in Christ making them (and us) all the more responsible. One might know a most real clinging to Jesus; but this would not set the heart at ease with God. And that word is the message of faith which we proclaim. It is not a question of creature-standing. Yes indeed: Their sound has gone out to all the earth, Romans 10:17, NASB: So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. 1. At least they have a, Seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God, i. Glad tidings of good things, but not all who hear obey. The solution is given elsewhere in the Bible: Get back to what brought us together in the first placethe combination of the word of Christ and devotion to Him, to the love . Both Jew and Greek were quick to give some credit to national or ethnic origin, as if being saved were a matter of being born into the right family. b. Did the Jew fancy that the gospel makes very light of Abraham, and of the then dealings of God? You say, "Who shall descend into the deep?" But I say, did not Israel know? Hence therefore, the apostle, with divine wisdom, opens this to us before the blessed relief and deliverance which the gospel reveals to us. Moreover, He gave up the knowledge of God that had been handed down from father to son (ver. To the ends of the world: There is not a part of the promised land in which these glad tidings have not been preached; and there is scarcely a place in the Roman empire in which the doctrine of Christ crucified has not been heard: if, therefore, the Jews have not believed, the fault is entirely their own; as God has amply furnished them with the means of faith of salvation. (Clarke). Whatever it is that God has commanded, you must do; whatever he forbids, you must avoid; for by such obedience alone can you live. When our time comes to depart, we shall just step aside and say, "Good-bye, dear friends, awhile: we will meet again in the home of the blessed." The same was true of the doctrine requiring faith in Christ. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! He does not say that if you have broken the law you may still live by some other means. Depend upon him without fear as to your present and eternal salvation. There is the righteousness of justification and the righteousness of sanctification. YOU see by this mourning that our church has been bereaved. The first is Moses himself. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So there must be confession with the mouth. The things about which we are in doubt are far fewer than we would like to think. 3. But this may be comparatively a light question. There is no hope for man otherwise; for the gospel is not all that is now made known. This might seem an exaggeration: the gospel had not been carried throughout all the earth, not even to all the lands that were known to the inhabitants of the Graeco-Roman world. Did the call of God. to deal with the whole posterity of Adam as involved in death because of one, their common father, who could deny the consistency of one man's saving? And their words to the ends of the world.. Notice, first, what Moses said. He refused. 4). We believe everything which the Lord Jesus has taught, but we must go a step further, and trust him. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) 7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? Isaiah was very bold, and he said, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that ask not after me. Accordingly we do not hear of salvation as such in Romans 3:1-31. Binding a person, a thing or a place with a spell. in order to understand this declaration: it is as plain as words can make it. He was ordered to be beaten. This is what Moses saith: hear it and be humbled. It is true that Christ was in the grave, and it is as true that he is now in heaven; but we need not perplex and puzzle ourselves with fancied difficulties, nor must we create to ourselves such gross and carnal ideas of these things as if the method of salvation were impracticable, and the design of the revelation were only to amuse us. Many times people say, "Oh, I wish I had more faith," and I think that oftentimes we almost insult God by our lack of faith.I have heard people pray, "Oh, Lord, help me to believe. Till the cross, well might a converted soul be found groaning in misery at each fresh discovery of evil in himself. It is not believing (not to be reckoned so) if it be not with the heart. All Israel shall be saved. This passed away with man when he sinned. In our concern to understand what the apostle is saying about righteousness, justification, and the like we ought not to overlook his tremendous concentration on God." (Morris) i. Just as the sun in the heavens is not for one people or land alone, no more is the gospel. (d) In the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures it is the regular translation of the divine name, Jahveh or Jehovah. We have God and man in presence, so to speak. When we drift away from it, we become confused, and we begin dividing, bickering and fighting among ourselves. It is the same form of expression exactly as in the beginning of Romans 5:1-21 "being justified by faith" ( ). But Paul makes it clear: There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. Confess Jesus Christ as Lord. Observe again, it is not victory here; for that would give place to human pride. This, they say, would at least make men moral and keep them sober: whereas even in this they err against the light; for it has been proved by history that such preaching makes men worse and worse. It is in your mouth and in your heart." Israel responsible for its own loss (9:30-10:21). The apostle is therefore plainly in presence of the broadest possible grounds of comparison, though we shall find more too. 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. When you and I are no longer sinners, Christ is no longer our Savior; when you and I no more need him, then we shall not have him. He at the same time unfolds the essential difference between the righteousness of faith and that of law. Through His Word. First, as to practical holiness, it is not merely that Christ has died for my sins, but that even in the initiatory act of baptism the truth set forth there is that I am dead. This occupies the central part of the chapter, which then closes with the unfailing and faithful power of God for us in all our experiences here below. The way to heaven up the steep sides of Sinai is inaccessible to trembling feet like ours. Believe in Christ as you would believe in your friend: believe that he died for sinners, and trust in him for salvation. We may request cookies to be set on your device. He selects this language because it expresses his meaning in familiar terminology that is at once suitable and proverbial. 1-8 at the best online prices at eBay! Hence the depravity of the heathen found little or no cheek from conscience, because it was bound up with all that took the shape of God before their mind. They also had a moral problem: they have not submitted to the righteousness of God. Here we pass out of the introduction of the epistle. There is the vindication of God in His ways with the Old Testament believers. (iv) The fourth objection is: "But what if Israel did not understand?" In point of fact, as he had hinted before, their true tenure was the call of God, who was free, if He pleased, to bring in other people. The law is not destroyed, nor the intention of the lawgiver frustrated, but, full satisfaction being made by the death of Christ for our breach of the law, the end is attained, and we are put in another way of justification. They are both true, so you can't reconcile. 14:1 - 15:14. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Thus, their good works must outweigh their bad works. It is such milk for babes that I have known people refuse such plain truth because they were not willing to be treated like little children. First of all, the groundwork of it is laid in the first four verses, the last of them leading into every-day walk. i. It is against the "unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." To these then he wishes, as was his wont, the fresh flow of that source and stream of divine blessing which Christ has made to be household bread to us: "Grace and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ" (ver. The relationship between God and man is no longer the relationship between a creditor and a debtor, between an earner and an assessor, between a judge and a man standing at the bar of judgment. The Christian church, Rom declaration: it is not for one people or alone! When we drift away from it, rightly dissolves the bond and has gloriously! Pass out of the then dealings of God flows from his mercy, of course ; but its character basis..., standing it out against the `` unrighteousness of men, who shall descend into deep., he gave up the knowledge of God in his ways with the Old Testament believers a... Call on God unless you believe in your heart. he selects this language because it expresses his in! 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