Today, we return to our study of the fourth section in Romans 9-11 which is about the sovereignty of God. Having considered the works of God in the past history of the nation of Israel in Romans 9, we are now considering the present workings of God in the nation of Israel in Romans 10.
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Romans 10:14-15
Today, we return to our study of the fourth section in Romans 9-11 which is about the sovereignty of God. Having considered the works of God in the past history of the nation of Israel in Romans 9, we are now considering the present workings of God in the nation of Israel in Romans 10.
Monday, February 13, 2023
Romans 10:11-13
Today, we continue our study of Romans 10 where the Apostle Paul is explaining how God is sovereign and that His will is not frustrated even by the unbelief of the Jews who reject the Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ. It is true that no one ever believes unless God draws us to Himself. And, it is also true that we are all responsible with the choice we make regarding Jesus Christ. We call this a paradox. Both teachings are true; God calls men by an elective decree that is irresistible, and yet they must respond by a choice of their will, which they are free to make or not, as it pleases them.
Friday, February 10, 2023
Romans 10:5-10
Click here for the Romans 10:5-10 PODCAST
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” 6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) 7 or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ~ Romans 10:5-10
Today, we continue our study of Romans 9-11 where the main subject is the sovereignty of God. In Romans 9 we considered Israel’s past with the Lord. In that chapter we considered all that God did to position Israel to believe in Him consistently which they did not. In Romans 10, the Apostle Paul instructs us regarding Israel’s present with the Lord.
In v.5 of today’s passage we read, “For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, ‘The man who does those things shall live by them.’”
In this verse the Apostle quotes Leviticus 18:5 where God promises to fulfill the humanity of the one who walks in God’s righteousness. God promises His blessing upon those who simply obey the Ten Commandments. If we walk in God’s ways, we will live the life the Lord Jesus died to give us. Yet, we can not do the things the law prescribes perfectly. This is why the Lord Jesus came; to fulfill the Law and the Prophets on our behalf. He did this so that we could be justified in the eyes of the Father.
In v.6-7 of today’s passage we read, “6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, 'Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down from above) 7 or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”
In this passage the Apostle quotes Moses again where he points us to the importance and necessity of faith in the God of the Bible. By asking the questions, “Who will ascend into heaven?,” and “Who will descend into the abyss?,” the Apostle is saying a righteous standing does not come to us through our good behavior or our obedience to the Law. In fact, the Apostle combines two words in these verses, “faith” and “heart” to point us to how the righteousness of God is realized in and through our lives only by faith.
In v.8-9 of today’s passage we read, “8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Paul is saying here the same thing that Moses taught that salvation comes to us only by grace through faith in the God of the Bible. Moses knew that the people could not earn God’s favor or their justification before God, and he saw clearly that God would lay the foundation for salvation in the incarnation and the resurrection of of the Lord Jesus. That is why Paul quotes these words from Deuteronomy. Moses saw the coming of Christ down from heaven; he saw the resurrection, the raising of the Lord from the dead.
In these two verses are found the key elements for salvation. The mouth here speaks of our outward man, the intellectual understanding of what has happened, expressed in words; the heart is the inner man, the will, the spirit deep within us understanding the basis upon which God saves us. When we believe in our hearts that God raised Christ from the dead, when we confess with our mouths and we believe in our hearts that the Lord Jesus conquered sin and death on our behalf, we will be saved.
In v.10 of today’s passage we read, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Our salvation begins with the confession of our mouths that "Jesus is Lord." We must not twist those words to mean that we have to stand up in public somewhere and announce that we believe Jesus is Lord before we are saved. Paul does not mean it that way. What he is saying is the mouth is the symbol of the conscious acknowledgment of what we believe. It means that we have come to the place where we recognize that the Lord Jesus has demonstrated that He is Lord over our greatest enemy, death.
So, the only righteousness that gets us into heaven that comes to us is a righteousness that's very high because it must meet the infinite standard of the holiness of God. It's a righteousness that we can't gain on our own and so Christ provides it for us through His death, burial, and resurrection. And it is appropriated to us by our faith placed in Him and in Him alone.
Notice that the Apostle intentionally used the words righteousness and salvation here. Righteousness has to do with what we as believers in the Lord Jesus become. Salvation has to do with what we don't become. Righteousness has to do with what we receive. Salvation has to do with what we don't receive, punishment. Righteousness has to do with entering into blessedness. Salvation has to do with escaping His wrath and the cursedness of sin. Two great terms describing two sides of God's redemptive work in our lives in the present and in eternity.
Thursday, February 09, 2023
Romans 10:1-4
Wednesday, February 08, 2023
Romans 9:30-33
Tuesday, February 07, 2023
Romans 9:27-29
Click here for the Romans 9:27-29 PODCAST
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. 28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.” 29 And as Isaiah said before: “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.” ~ Romans 9:27-29
Today, we return to our study of Romans 9 where the Apostle Paul has established the fact that the unbelief of Israel does not violate God's promises that He gave to them in the Old Testament. It has always been that the promises were realized through faith in the One who issued the promises. The promises began for Israel with the Abrahamic Covenant. Through those promises God revealed He had an everlasting plan for Israel. In fact, God promised them that they would be as numerous as the sand of the sea.
In v.27-28 of today's passage we read, "27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. 28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth."
In context, the Apostle Paul proves his point again and again by quoting several Old Testament prophets. In today's passage, Paul quotes the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah. In v.27 Paul quotes Isaiah 10:22-23, proclaiming: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea a remnant will be saved." Isaiah prophesied in Judah when Uzziah was king at about 760 B.C. He prophesied for about 48 years and he warned them that not all would be saved. Isaiah saw the unbelief of Israel. He saw then that not all Jews would be saved due to their lack of faith in the God of the Bible. The events of Jewish history monitored by Isaiah prophetically painted a picture that the Apostle Paul merely picks up on here in today's passage.
In v.28 the prophet Isaiah promised that a fast and thorough judgment was coming on Israel and very few would escape that judgment. Small number of Jews would escape the great Assyrian conquest, as history reveals. The rest entered into the judgment of their unbelief and their rejection of God. And so, this passage was prophetic for the time of Christ that only a small group will be rescued while the vast number of Jews would enter into the judgment of God on them that reject Him. Paul's point is that Israel's rejection of the gospel is no violation of God's plan. It was predicted. Fulfilled, just as was foretold.
In v.29 of today’s passage we read, “And as Isaiah said before: “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.”
Notice the change from remnant to seed, emphasizing how small the number of those who would believe would be. This is so because people do not want God to tell them what they can or can’t do.
The reason the Lord is referred here as the Lord of Sabaoth because Sabaoth means hosts which are the angels, the stars, the heavenly bodies, the planets, and the galaxies. And he says by contrast, "The Lord of the much and the Lord of the many and the Lord of the hosts has chosen a seed." And, if God didn’t from the very start have a remnant of believers, then we would have all ended up like Sodom and Gomorrah. You will remember that Sodom and Gomorrah ended up as a ruble of fire because they were not willing to be defined by God. They were literally buried in utter devastation, never to be recovered or discovered, utterly destroyed. They became a byword for complete destruction. We would all be destroyed if it weren't that God, the God of everything, had chosen a small seed.
So, the Jews would enter into a time of great unbelief, and, they would be scattered throughout the earth. And out of it there would be a small remnant. And this is the way it has always been, the only reason anyone believes is because the Lord of Sabaoth chose to leave a seed.
The God of the Bible has always been the God of the least. The Lord Jesus was called a “friend of sinners.” The religious leaders of His day saw the Lord Jesus hanging out with prostitutes, tax collectors, the downtrodden — and they hated Him for it. What caused them to hate the Lord Jesus was the very thing that caused the average person to love Him. He was accessible and available. He didn’t look down on anyone. Everyone was valuable to Him. Everyone mattered in His eyes. He was a friend, even to messed up people who had lost their way. He went to their neighborhoods. He spent meaningful time in their world.
Monday, February 06, 2023
Romans 9:22-26
Friday, February 03, 2023
Romans 9:19-21
Thursday, February 02, 2023
Romans 9:14-18
Wednesday, February 01, 2023
Romans 9:10-13
Now, it is clear in the Scriptures that man is dead in his sins, and we would have never responded to God unless He enabled us to believe. And, we can rest in the fact that God is good and just and He always does the right thing. And, it is a well established doctrine that God holds all humanity responsible to believe in the Lord Jesus for salvation.
In v.12-13 of today's passage we read, "12 it was said to her, 'The older shall serve the younger.' 13 As it is written, 'Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.'"
Between Esau and Jacob, Jacob was acceptable by God, even though he was a schemer. Esau, on the other hand, was much more admirable when he was growing up than his brother. But through the course of their lives, Jacob was the one who was brought to faith, and Esau was not. God uses this as a symbol of how He works.
The word "hated" must not be understood as though God actually disliked Esau and would have nothing to do with him and treated him with contempt. According to Genesis 36, God blessed Esau and made of him a great nation. He gave him promises which He fulfilled. As with anyone humble enough to come to faith in the God of the Bible, God set his heart on Jacob and welcomed him into a relationship with Himself. And, since Jacob believed, he like many in the scriptures forever stands for one who placed his faith in the God of the Bible. Esau, on the other hand, forever stands as one who did not place his faith in the God of the Bible.
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Romans 9:6-9
Today, we continue our study of Romans 9-11 where the main topic is the sovereignty of God. In the first eight chapters of Romans the apostle Paul has dealt with a variety of doctrines which in Romans 9-11, he expounds upon. Whereas Romans 9 is about the past history that the people of Israel had with God, Romans 10-11 are about Israel's present and their future with the Lord respectively.
Interestingly, like his grandfather, God intercepted Jacob long before he did anything meritorious. Before he was known as Israel, he was known as Jacob. The name "Jacob" means deceiver and the name "Israel" means prince with God. God named him Israel after Jacob wrestled with the angel of God all night one night. God made Jacob, the deceiver, into Israel, the prince. But those who are Israel's descendants can not necessarily claim the promises that God gave to Israel because salvation is not inherited, it is a free gift from God received by those humble enough to believe that God is faithful and true.
In v.8 of today's passage we read, "In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring."
Monday, January 30, 2023
Romans 9:1-5
Now, it appeared to many in Paul's day that the word of God failed to lead the Jews to faith in the Lord Jesus. That is until we factor in the fact that they had a choice to believe in the Lord Jesus or not. Notice the many reasons why Israel, as a whole, should have recognized the Lord Jesus as their Messiah. There are eight unique things that God granted the Israelites that should have so greatly influenced them that they should have believed in the Lord Jesus.