Romans 10:5-13
The overall focus of this section of Romans is the problem of the Jews. And Paul's answer, at the end of the last passage, is that God had never promised universal salvation to the Jews; rather, God had used the Jews to bring forth Christ and that salvation was only in Christ; the Jews had failed because they had trusted in their own efforts rather than relying on Christ.
In the last section, Paul said the Jews had failed because their zeal was misdirected--because they were seeking their own righteousness, a righteousness which came through the law. Here, in verse 5, Paul defines this kind of righteousness; the righteousness which comes by the law is a matter of obedience. A law defines what is right and wrong and therefore it can only justify those who do right; it can do nothing to help those in the wrong. The righteousness which comes from the law can never be a reality to fallen man, because he is already on the wrong side of the law.
But if anyone could have found justification through the law, it should have been the Jews. As we've just talked about, they had a passion and a zeal for the law. But what is more important, they had the law in a clear, exact form. They didn't have a general mass of moral philosophy—they had a set of clearly written and clearly preserved commandments which had been brought down from Heaven and given to them in an exact form.
During his farewell sermon, Moses reminded the Israelites of this; reminded them of what they had and the opportunity that gave them: this is Deuteronomy 30:11-14: “For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.”
The Jews had every opportunity to obey the law. It wasn't something far away and distant; the law was something at their fingertips, closer than their fingertips. It was something they could memorize and recite; something they could hide in their heart and repeat with their mouth. And yet they still hadn't been able to find salvation through it. If anyone could have found salvation through the law, it should have been the Jews. And they had failed.
But suppose there was something that could make the same claim as the law but better; something that was as near and present as the law but actually effective. That is what Paul says in verses 6-8. The gospel Paul has been preaching throughout the book of Romans is the righteousness which is by faith. But, as we said at the end of the last section, it isn't merely faith, but specifically faith in Christ. Christ is the end of the law to everyone that believeth. And Christ is near and present. We have just passed Christmas and that is the whole point of Christmas—that the son of God become incarnated as a human being so that God could be present as an active part of the human condition. That is why one of the names of Jesus is Immanuel which means God-with-us, God-among-us, God-present-in-our-midst. And as part of sharing our condition, Christ died, died to provide an atonement for the problem of our sin—but not only did He die, but rose again.
If Jesus had never come—if mankind had had to try to ascend to Heaven and bring Christ down to earth, then there would have been no hope. If Jesus had not been resurrected—if someone had had to try to descend to the grave to bring him back to life, then there would have been no hope. But the heart of the gospel is the reality that Jesus is alive, is present—that God has already done everything necessary for our salvation. We don't have to go on some kind of epic quest to win salvation. Christ has already fulfilled that quest. We do not have to save anyone; we have to be saved. All of which is to say that the gospel, true salvation, the righteousness which is of faith is a gift.
And, it should be noted, in this it is the same as the law. Moses did not climb up Mt. Sinai to steal the law and bring it back, like Prometheus stealing fire from the gods in the Greek myths. The law was God's gift, freely given to the Jews, part of His gracious election in choosing them as His people. It wasn't necessarily a welcome gift, but it was a gift. And I think that very fact points to the reality that it was never God's plan for the law to provide salvation, that it was always meant to point to the way of faith.
For the Jews, the law was very present, in their heart and in their mouth. All they had to do was follow it. For anyone under the sound of the gospel, the word of faith, that word was very present, in the heart and in their mouth. All they had to do was believe it.
“The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart” (v. 8) seems to have a double meaning. On one hand, as I said, this means the message, the doctrine was something accessible. They didn't have to create the gospel or develop it or decode it. God had created it and His apostles had preserved and promulgated it. But on the other hand, the nature of the gospel meant that it was accessible through the heart and the mouth; those two things became the means of activation, as we see in verse 9 where Paul summarizes the entire gospel message: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
Notice how this verse echoes verses 6-7; the gospel is based on two realities. First that Jesus is Lord; that is, that He is God, that He is something more than just a good man or a great teacher, that He is one with the self-existent God of the Old Testament--in other words, that He came down from above. Second, that God hath raised him from the dead; that is, He truly died and returned to life to provide atonement for our sins--in other words, that Christ came up again from the dead.
These are the two realities that form the backbone of the gospel. And they call for two responses from the two sides of man. From the internal side of man, they call for belief, for faith, for acceptance. And from the external side of man, they call for confession, loyalty, faithfulness. At least, this is how most people interpret this idea of confessing the Lord Jesus. Obviously, this doesn't mean that our specific words are catalysts in salvation; it doesn't mean that a mute man could not be saved. Confessing Jesus with our mouth means publicly identifying with Him. “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33) The faith Christ calls for must include a public loyalty to Him and His kingdom.
Here we have the two sides of faith—an internal assent and an external loyalty. There is no Christian faith that does not also include, to at least some extent, faithfulness. When Habakkuk says that the just shall live by faith, the Hebrew word used for faith there focuses more on this idea of faithfulness and loyalty.
But as far as the course of Paul's argument is concerned, this is the point to remember. The gospel is a gift; it is something we could never have accomplished on our own resources. When we were defeated by sin, Christ came as the victor. The whole call of the gospel is: “Remember Christ our Savior/Was born on Christmas day/To save us all from Satan's power/When we had gone astray.”
Salvation is a gift, and therefore it can only be received by faith. If it were obtained by our own efforts—if we had to scale towers or descend depths to bring salvation back, then obviously some people would have a better chance than others; some people would be at an advantage. But God has provided everything and we respond in faith. If salvation comes through belief then it is whosoever believeth on Him. There can be no difference between Jew and Greek if ethnicity and background are not a part of salvation—human differences are irrelevant here, because salvation comes from God and God is rich unto all that call upon him.
Paul summarizes the call of salvation with a quotation from the Old Testament: "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call." (Joel 2:32) The emphasis here is on the word whosoever. Salvation comes from God and all that is needed from man is to call upon God for it. And therefore, it can be received by anyone who calls upon God.
This is what the gospel is and what it was always intended to be. All the Jewish attempts (and any attempts by the modern church) to limit salvation to certain groups or classes, to earn salvation by certain actions, or to grant special spiritual privileges based on human catagories--it is all futile. The gospel cannot be mixed with any such scheme. As always, faith is the key; it is by faith (and only by faith) that anyone can be just and live.
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