ROMANS, CHAPTER 10
[Verses 1-21]
(12-14-11)
Review:
Romans 9:30-33) [NIV] What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;
31) [NIV] but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.
32) [NIV] Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the “stumbling stone.”
33) [NIV] As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
QUESTION: Why did many Gentiles find “righteousness,” a right standing with God, and many Jews did not?
ANSWER: The Gentiles sought for a right relationship with God through faith, that is, through the machanism of putting their trust in the Lord Jesus. The Jews sought for a right relationship with God by earning their way, by keeping the Law.
NOTE: There is no mention in the above verses that are dealing with a subject that affects eternity that God did the choosing. Just the opposite, people “pursued” it.
On To This Week’s Lesson:
Romans 10:1-21) [NIV] Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.
Romans 9:1-3) [KJV] I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
2) [KJV] That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3) [KJV] For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
QUESTION: What do the beginnings of Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 show us?
ANSWER: He longs for his countrymen, the Jews, to be saved.
2) [NIV] For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.
3) [NIV] Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
QUESTION: What were the Jews doing wrong?
ANSWER: They didn’t understand that “righteousness,” a right standing with God, comes from God as a gift to us who believe. It can’t be earned. They tried to become righteous. Paul said that the effort to become righteous is a failure to “submit to God’s righteousness.”
4) [NIV] Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
(KJV) For Christ [is] the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
QUESTION: What does “the end of the law” mean?
ANSWER: Some suggest it means that it’s the end of the sacrificial Law, but we must still keep the moral Law.
QUESTION: What’s wrong with that idea?
ANSWER: If Paul is just referring to the end of the sacrificial Law then I must still keep the moral Law to become right with God.
QUESTION: Again, what does “the end of the law” mean?
ANSWER: It means that the Law has no authority to bring accusations against me. My right standing with God isn’t a result of my keeping all the commandments of the Law; it’s a result of my placing my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Since righteousness comes from Christ, then only Christ can bring charges against me; and He won’t. See the verses below:
Romans 8:33-34) [KJV] Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? [It is] God that justifieth.
34) [KJV] Who [is] he that condemneth? [It is] Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
5) [NIV] Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: “The man who does these things will live by them.”
QUESTION: What does the Law teach us about righteousness?
ANSWER: We must do all the Law for all our life to be found righteous.
6) [NIV] But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down)
7) [NIV] “or ‘’Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
8) [NIV] But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:
9) [NIV] That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10) [NIV] For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
QUESTION: What does faith say about righteousness?
ANSWER: Everything needed for our salvation is already done! We don’t have to go to Heaven to talk Jesus into coming to earth to die again; and, we don’t have to descend into Paradise to bring Jesus back from the dead. He’s already died for us! He’s already risen from the dead!
QUESTION: What else does faith say about righteousness?
ANSWER: Salvation is as close to you as your heart and your mouth. Believe the Gospel story in your heart; confess with your mouth that “Jesus is Lord!”
NOTE: The unsaved will miss Heaven by less than a foot, which is the distance between the heart and the mouth. All who believe in their heart that Jesus died to save them and from the abundance of the heart confess Him as Lord will go to Heaven.
11) [NIV] As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
12) [NIV] For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile-the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,
13) [NIV] for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
QUESTION: Who will go to Heaven?
ANSWER: Absolutely everyone who sincerely calls out to God to save him/her will go to Heaven!
14) [NIV] How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
15) [NIV] And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
QUESTION: What must be done to get people to call “on the name of the Lord”?
ANSWER: Somebody has to tell that individual about what Jesus has done for them.
16) [NIV] But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”
17) [NIV] Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
QUESTION: Why doesn’t everyone who hears the Gospel get saved?
ANSWER: Some refuse to believe “our message.”
QUESTION: Where does saving faith come from?
ANSWER: Faith comes as a result of hearing the “message,” and the saving “message” comes from what the Lord Jesus taught us through His own words and the words of His Apostles.
NOTE: We can bring another message to people, but the only message that will save them in the Gospel message.
18) [NIV] But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
19) [NIV] Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, “I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”
20) [NIV] And Isaiah boldly says, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”
21) [NIV] But concerning Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
QUESTION: Why, then didn’t all the Jews become Christians?
ANSWER: They heard the message from the Apostles, but they didn’t believe it.
QUESTION: What was God’s response to the disbelief of the Jews?
ANSWER: God said He would make Israel jealous by moving in the lives of people who were not a nation. That’s referring to Christians. We are not a nation in the sense that Israel is a nation; rather, we are made up of people from all nations.
QUESTION: What people found God?
ANSWER: People whose history had not been one of seeking the God of the Jews found Him.
QUESTION: How?
ANSWER: God revealed Himself to them.
QUESTION: Again, why didn’t the majority of the Jewish people find Him?
ANSWER: They ignored all of God’s messages and invitations to them.