Lectionary Calendar. But this does not content the apostle, or rather the Spirit of God; for he goes on to point out that Isaiah "is very bold" in a similar way; that is, there is no concealing the truth of the matter. And this leads us to see not only where there was an analogy with those who believe in a promised Saviour, but also to a weighty difference. Cold desires do but beg denials; we must even breathe out our souls in every prayer. Surely if equal birth-tie could ensure community of blessing if a charter from God depended on being sprung from the same father and mother, there was no case so strong, no claim so evident, as that of Esau to take the same rights as Jacob. d. But what does it say? 5 Things You Should Know about the ESV Bible Translation. So there must be confession with the mouth. There is no language where their voice is not heard. But what saith it? 3). They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Romans 8:1-39 displays this comforting truth in its fulness. He here shows the fatal mistake that the unbelieving Jews were guilty of, which was their ruin. He demands perfect and entire obedience, if life is to come of it. Angels saw him and wondered. The Text Thus corruption not only overspread morals, but became an integral part of the religion of men, and had thus a quasi-divine sanction. You say, "Chuck, that is too narrow. Therefore it is here for the first time that we find salvation spoken of in the grand results that are now brought before us in Romans 5:1-11. How shall they hear without a preacher? You already have it; all you have to do is obey it (Vol. Some wonder why Paul didnt mention the crucifixion in this passage. Changes will take effect once you reload the page. Let it not be! That it is not at all hard or difficult. Next, this precious gospel translates these questions, and then answers them. a. I will provoke you to jealousy: God told Israel that He would bring others close to Him and make them jealous. It could not therefore be the source or means of his righteousness. (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) I have had almost thirty years among you, and God has been very gracious to us, so that we have lost very few comparatively by death; but now many are going home, and, according to the course of nature, many of our honored brethren and sisters will soon follow. How are they to hear without someone to proclaim the good news to them? I will make you angry with a nation that has no understanding." And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? We are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. When God established His covenant with Israel, God established the various offerings that they must bring to Him for their sins. The rest of the chapter (7-25) is an instructive episode, in which the impotence and the misery of the renewed mind which attempts practice under law are fully argued out, till deliverance (not pardon) is found in Christ. 6 But the righteousness which is of faith saith thus, Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? Men have an infinite and fatal capacity for shutting their minds to what they do not wish to see, and stopping their ears to what they do not wish to hear. Antiochus ordered him to eat pork. 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. Here, then, it is a comparison of the two great heads Adam and Christ, and the immeasurable superiority of the second man is shown. Then, fourthly, we will hear what experience saith; for we may bring in the experience of believers to back up the declarations of God. The nature of their unbelief. We accordingly are dead, says he, to the law; not (as no doubt almost all of us know) that the law dies, but that we are dead to the law in the death of Christ. This is as certain and clear as the utterance of that dreadful roll of thunder which has just now left on your minds the thought, "He that doeth these things shall live by them.". No, you must not: the gospel is simple; salvation is as plain as a pikestaff; familiar an homespun; easy as the A B C of your childhood. Yes, and I find a self-denying, Christ-exalting faith to be good in times of jubilation and success. 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. (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) The Jews built on a false foundation, and refused to come to Christ for free salvation by faith, and numbers in every age do the same in various ways. Was it possible to limit this to Israel? . The soul therefore now is represented for the first time as already justified and in possession of peace with God. And what was all this about? If you want your faith increased, study the Word of God. Bible > Commentaries > Romans 10:9 . He begins with the great epoch of the dispensations of God (that is, the ages since the flood). It seems incredible that a man should die like that for a law like that. They are a disobedient and contrary people, and all the more so because of their great responsibility before God. The resurrection was an essential of Christian belief. The ground taken by a Jew for supposing God exclusively for Israel was, that they had the law, which was the measure of what God claimed from man; and this the Gentile had not. Let the cross pass. 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. There never was an hour since Israel's existence as a nation that God has not had His remnant of them. His answer is: "You cannot say that Israel never got the chance to hear; for scripture plainly says that God's message has gone out to all the world.". It is not so alone; but in His death, unto which I am baptized, I am dead to sin. The righteousness of faith, on the other hand, is easily available to all men upon the conditions mentioned in the next phrases. For instance, if a man signs a contract without having read the conditions, he cannot complain if afterwards he finds out that the conditions are very different from what he thought they were. The second passage is from Isaiah 65:1 where God says that, in a strange way, he has been found by a people who were not looking for him at all. We have had justification, both by blood and also in virtue of Christ's resurrection. To call Jesus kurios ( G2962) was to count him unique. To make his point Paul uses two Old Testament quotations. This, however, will be put to the test by-and-by. It is just as clear as ever the law was, and quite as sharply distinct. Christ's work of redemption deserves that God should act as He does in the gospel. Thus the first argument shows that the rejection was not total; the second, that it was but for a season. Paul deals with that objection by quoting Isaiah 52:7. Commentary on Romans 8:10-17 (Read Romans 8:10-17) If the Spirit be in us, Christ is in us. And I heard Keith giving his testimony on television the other night and he said that living here in southern California, going to UCLA and all, he was twenty-four years old before he ever heard about Jesus Christ. But when Paul emphasizes the need to believe that God has raised him from the dead, it is not that we believe the resurrection as opposed to the cross, but encompassing the work of Jesus on the cross. The language of faith says, Do nothing. Jack answered, "I never get lower than I am, for I am down at the bottom. No, confess yourself a sinner; trust in the sinner's Savior, and you are saved. What a title, then, God gives me now in beholding Christ, no longer dead but risen, to have it settled before my soul that I am in Him as He now is, where all questions are closed in peace and joy! (i) A man must say Jesus Christ is Lord. Christ is the end of the ceremonial law; he is the period of it, because he is the perfection of it. First of all the apostle points out that death has come in, and that this was no consequence of law, but before it. One said somewhat roughly to him a fortnight before, "Don't be downhearted; you may got better yet." He can meet the sinner, but He justifies the believer; and in this, instead of trenching on His glory, there is a deeper revelation and maintenance of it than if there never had been sin or a sinner. First, then, a man to be a Christian must have a sense of the utter uniqueness of Jesus Christ. 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 truth is, those are altogether mistaken who call it so. The "word of faith" means the message that righteousness comes by faith. This is all perfectly true true of a Jew as of a pagan true of any unrenewed man that never heard of a Saviour. If you were to be saved by the law you should have begun without sin, continued without sin, and then it would be needful to end without sin. There is no need to bring Christ down to find out what God wants. Believe in Christ as you would believe in your friend: believe that he died for sinners, and trust in him for salvation. 8, after thanking God through Jesus for their faith spoken of everywhere, and telling them of his prayers for them, he briefly discloses the desire of his heart about them his long-cherished hope according to the grace of the gospel to reach Rome his confidence in the love of God that through him some spiritual gift would be imparted to them, that they might be established, and, according to the spirit of grace which filled his own heart, that he too might be comforted together with them "by the mutual faith both of you and me" (vv. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge ( Romans 10:1-2 ). There can be no one to proclaim the good news unless God commissions someone to do so." Judge ye whether any one of us has fulfilled the whole law. The doctrine of Moses and of the gospel was nigh; that is, it was easily obtained, embraced, and understood. This is what Moses saith: hear it and be humbled. Rather does it add to his guilt: such is man's evil state and will. "Always remember to keep your voice down," said another. This is what that word of faith says, even the gospel which we preach. "To all that be at Rome, beloved of God, called saints" (ver. When we drift away from it, we become confused, and we begin dividing, bickering and fighting among ourselves. How can they call on him in whom they have not believed? Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.We are told in Jude that one of the ways by which we keep ourselves in that place of blessing, the blessings of God's love, is building up ourselves in the most holy faith. He does not, however, exclude other parts of the word, no, not even the precepts of the law; but his design is, to show that remission of sins stands for righteousness, even apart from that strict obedience which the law demands. He will not be ashamed to own that Christ in whom he trusts; he that believes in the heart will not be ashamed to confess with the mouth. [b.] Second Sunday in Lent Our Savior/Redeemer Pettibone/Woodworth, ND: Sun, Feb 20, 2005 Second Sunday in Lent : IN NOMINE JESU . The sacrifices, and offerings, and purifications appointed under the Old Testament, prefigured Christ, and pointed at him; and their inability to take away sin discovered the necessity of a sacrifice that should, by being once offered, take away sin. . I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. why am I still under bondage and misery from the constant evil of my nature, over which I seem to have no power whatever? And the cross offends people, because the cross tells you there is only one way to God. But unto Israel he said, All day long I have stretched forth my hand unto a disobedient and gainsaying people ( Romans 10:20-21 ). So I believe it. The subserviency of the law to the gospel (Romans 10:4; Romans 10:4): Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Our website uses cookies to store user preferences. I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.. Because many among them had not believed his report because they did not trust in Gods word through Isaiah and other messengers of the gospel. (b) It is the normal title of the Roman Emperors. 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. The soul is brought into peace with God, as it finds its standing in the grace of God, and, more than that, rejoices in hope of the glory of God. The word is close to you, it is even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord, and will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved ( Romans 10:8-9 ). "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." But even if it were not already broken, should we get through to-morrow with its temptations, bearing such a heart as we have within us, without breaking that perfect and spotless law? The first is Moses himself. Though Israel heard, they did not exercise saving faith in Christ making them (and us) all the more responsible. He knew whom he had believed, and knew what the Lord had done for him, and he could not see a weak point in it all. To this day there are strict orthodox Jews in this country who will not poke or mend a fire on the Sabbath or switch on a light. There was a most important trial of man in the person of Adam; but after this, what dispensation was there? It must also be noticed, that the word, by which we have a firm and calm trust as to our salvation, had been set forth even by Moses: This is the word of faith. Thus, they are seeking for a righteousness from works, their good works, and they have rejected that righteousness that God has established for them. These things are matters of conscience, and depend much for their solution on the degree to which souls have attained. Then there is another and crowning part of the blessing: "And not only so, but also boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation." "No, not if you pluck out my eyes, and consume my bowels in the fire. And that word is the message of faith which we proclaim. Jesus said, "Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads to eternal life and few there be that find it, but broad is the way and broad is the gate that leads to destruction" ( Matthew 7:13-14 ). Where lies the value of belonging to the circumcised people of God? (325) The contrast, by which the difference between the law and the gospel appears, is indeed to be understood: and from this distinction we learn, that as the law demands works, so the gospel requires nothing else, but that men bring faith to receive the grace of God. The past prepared the way, as it is said here, "which God had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, [here we have the great central object of God's gospel, even the person of Christ, God's Son,] which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh" (ver. Them ( and us ) all the more responsible and all the responsible! 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