Pray for Jews to be Saved
Rom 10:1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and
prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.
There are those who are under the misconception that Jews are
automatically saved just be being born Jewish. The Catholic
church for example teaches that misconception. But Paul, himself
a Jew, acknowledges that Jews are not automatically saved. And
such is a very dominant theme in his letters and in the book of
Acts. And likewise Jesus says to the Jews that salvation is
contingent upon faith in Him.
"I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do
not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed
die in your sins." John
8:24 A Jew cannot be saved apart from faith in Christ
according to the gospel. Yes they have a covenant with God. That
covenant is that if they fully obey the Law of Moses, they are
righteous. But in fact no Jew has ever done so but the Lord
himself. Paul, himself a Pharisee, admits,
"Clearly no one is justified before God by
the law" Gal 3:11
There are even those under the misconception that Muslims can be
saved through Islam, which is even further from the truth. But
whether it be unbelieving Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists or the
like, we Christians should desire and pray that such be saved.
Everyone needs to be saved. But there are those Christians or
alleged Christians who disregard such people in their heart and
prayers by either falsely reckoning them already saved or saved
by some other means. Or those who reckon such people are
predestined to hell and there's nothing anyone can do about it.
Quite contrary to such a fatalistic viewpoint, Paul desires and
laborers for their salvation. Paul writes,
"I am not seeking my own good but the good
of many, so that they may be saved." 1Cor 10:33 Yet there are
those of certain theological persuasions who reckon that
attempts to save people simply marginalizes God's sovereignty.
Perhaps most famous example of this was when John Ryland heard
William Carey talking about becoming a missionary to India, and
told him,
"Sit down, young
man. When God decides to save the heathen, He will do it
without your help."
But God has so orchestrated the ministry of the gospel as to put
salvation into the hands of his saints by, for one thing, making
salvation contingent upon hearing the gospel. And much as that
concept may be considered foolish,
"it pleased God through the foolishness of the
message preached to save those who believe." 1Cor 1:21b, of which will
also become clear later in this chapter.
God's Righteousness Not
Our Own
Rom 10:2,3 For I can testify about them
that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on
knowledge. 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.
Pr 19:2 "It is not good to have zeal
without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way."
There's a sort of indoctrinated zeal whereby one is zealous
about one's preconceived notions or zealous about
institutional/denominational dogma of which one has not really
personally thought through. Such zeal discards knowledge before
really examining it. But consider the Bereans.
"Now the Bereans were of more
noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the
message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every
day to see if what Paul said was true." Acts
17:11 For they neither offhandedly discard what Paul
said, as had so many unbelievers, nor presumptuously accept what
Paul said without examining it in light of scripture, as had
others. Yet those others were equally susceptible to false
teachings, as was indicating in the book of Galatians. Among
believers, the Berean of spirit are most noble in their handling
of knowledge, and consequently least susceptible to false
teachings.
"But it is good
to be zealous in a good thing always" Gal 4:18 So long as one's
zeal does not interfere with one's objectivity.
Being righteous on God's terms is most frequently not the same
as being righteous on our own terms. Indeed many have their own
concept of righteousness or the obtaining of a righteous
standing with God which is at odds with God's. For example
notice the contrast in chapter 3 Paul makes between the
righteousness of law versus that of faith where he says,
"No one will be declared
righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through
the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness
from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the
Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God
comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe."
Rom 3:20-22
Christ the End of the
Law
Rom 10:4,5 Christ is the end of the law so that there may be
righteousness for everyone who believes. For Moses
writes about the righteousness which is of the law, "The man
who does those things shall live by them." (Lev 18:5)
The righteousness of the law is a performance based
righteousness. One is righteous so long as they do the things
required by law. Not so with regards to the righteousness which
is by faith in Jesus Christ where salvation is granted as a gift
which one does not work for. Having been saved by grace through
faith, eternal life is guaranteed as there are no rules or
regulations one must abide by in order to obtain nor maintain
one's salvation status. Rather having believed, one receives the
right to become a child of God and as such is born-again by the
Spirit of God which affects one's behavior such that righteous
behavior is naturally characteristic of those born of God. And
that is the sense in which verses are to be taken that speak of
the correlation between a person's behavior and their salvation
status, rather than in a legalistic sense as some have
misconstrued. In contrast the law of Moses is all about rules
and regulations, and failure to live up to them may quite
literally end in death. Christ ended the reign of law
"having wiped out the
handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was
contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having
nailed it to the cross." Col 2:14
Salvation by Faith
Attainable
Rom 10:6-7 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)"or
‘Who will descend into the
deep?’" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
The questions come from the Law of Moses (Deut 30:12-14). From
the context of
Deut 30:11 "For
this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not
hidden from thee, neither is it far off." It is
apparent that these questions have to do with the difficulty of
obtaining righteousness. But which righteousness? That of the
Law or that of Faith? For the reasoning in Deut 30:11-14 is that
the Law should be easy to keep. But in fact it turned out not to
be the case due to the sinful human nature. But Paul is
proposing that these verses are alluding to the righteousness
which is of faith. For obtaining the righteousness which is of
faith is a very easy thing indeed.
"Do not say in your heart,
'Who will ascend into heaven?'"
(that is, to bring Christ
down)
What he means is "Don't presume that you must live
perfectly to obtain this righteousness"
This brings Christ down by denying his holiness which is
imputed to the believer and by denying his resurrection and
ascension into heaven.
Eph 2:6 "And hath raised us
up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus:"
or 'Who will descend into the
deep?'"
(that is, to bring Christ up
from the dead).
What he means is "Don't presume that you can gain this
righteousness by paying for your own sin"
Ps 49:7-9 "None of them can by any means redeem his
brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: (For the
redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for
ever:) That he should still live for ever, and not see
corruption."
This brings Christ up from the dead in that it devalues his
death.
This is the problem with the righteousness which is of the
law.
For under the law to be right with God we must live in a
continual state of perfect holiness.
If we fail, there is no penalty great enough for us to
redeem ourselves.
The Word of Faith
Rom 10:8 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:
The word of faith is the message of the gospel. When asked
, "What must I do to be saved?"
The Word of God responds,
"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved."
Acts 16:30,31 It's as
simple as that.
And while the Old Covenant embraced by external rituals, the the
New Covenant is embraced in the heart:
"I will put my law in their inward
parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their
God, and they shall be my people." declares the LORD. "I
will put my law in their minds and write it on their
hearts." Heb
8:10
And it is not only the obtaining of the righteousness which is
of faith that is an easy thing, but also practicing the
righteousness of faith is also easy, as John notes in
"This is love for God: to obey
his commands. And his
commands are not burdensome, for everyone
born of God overcomes the world." 1John 5:3-4a
God's commands are not burdensome to those who have been born of
God. Rather such become natural to them, having become new
creatures in Christ (
2Cor 5:17).
How to Be Saved
Rom 10:9,10 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. For it is with
your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with
your mouth that you confess and are saved.
This is an example of the word of faith which Paul preached. Of
course many presentations of the gospel we find in the Bible
elaborate upon many of these points. The gospels of Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John elaborate extensively on who Jesus is and
give the factual history of his death and resurrection. And in
particular the first three elaborate upon Jesus being Lord,
while John speaks much of the concept of salvation through faith
in Christ, as does much of Paul's writings.
Consider the essential elements upon which salvation is
contingent:
1. Confessing with your mouth - is speaking of a genuine
conviction upon which you're willing to take action, rather than
a mere opinion which one keeps to themselves. And while such an
opinion may be characterized as "faith", it is not the kind of
faith that saves.
Paul writes in
2Cor 4:13 It is written: "I believed;
therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we
also believe and therefore speak. Thus speaking of
one's conviction is an outworking of the kind of faith that
saves. In contrast are those unwilling to take a public stand
for the faith. For example it says in
John 12:42
"Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in
him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their
faith" And there are those who to this day claim to
have faith in Christ but refuse to take a public stand on that
faith, whether it be avoiding getting baptized, or neglecting to
be involved in evangelism, or shunning association with the
Christian community.
2. Jesus as Lord
To accept Jesus as Savior is not sufficient. Many are not told
that
"he died for all, that
those who live should no longer live for themselves but for
him who died for them and was raised again." 2Cor 5:15 To confess Jesus as Lord is
to pledge allegiance to obey Him. Eternal life is free like
joining the army is free. It's not merely like signing a fire
insurance policy.
3. Believing in your heart
At the same time it shouldn't be mere confession. For Jesus
said,
"Why do you call me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?" Luke 6:46 Mere lipservice
is not the same as heart belief.
4. The Resurrection
Jesus's resurrection is essential part of the gospel. Paul
writes,
"What I received I
passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that
he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" 1Cor 15:3,4
Believe and Confess
unto Salvation
Rom 10:11-13 As the Scripture says, "Anyone
who believes in him will never be put to shame." (Is
28:16) For there is
no difference between Jew and Gentile— the same Lord is Lord
of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone
who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Joel
2:32)
The quote from
Isaiah 28:16
was mentioned previously in
Rom
9:33 as also Peter mentions it in
1Peter 2:6 The word "trust"
(NIV) is literally the word "believe"
(pisteuo) Though one who believes in Jesus
will likely suffer shame in this life, just as the Lord himself
did, they will never suffer shame in the sight of God. But
Paul's emphasis in quoting this verse is the "ANYONE", which
includes ANYONE. Faith in Christ is the sole requirement for
salvation for everyone.
But faith is exercised firstly by prayer as indicated by the
quote from Joel, and those who have believed characteristically
talk to the LORD Jesus in prayer. Peter also uses the quote from
Joel in his first sermon on Pentecost recorded in
Acts 2:21, preaching the
gospel. But it is not a matter of technique. You'll read many
tracts today which end with some version of a sinner's prayer.
The downside of including such a prayer is that people may get
the impression that it's just a matter of technique. But faith
in Christ is not faith in a technique, let alone a matter of
ceremony. Nor is having someone pray for you the same as you
yourself calling on the Lord. If you believe in Jesus, then talk
with him. Don't simply go up to him and read off something
someone else has written.
Furthermore some simply pray in a sort of experimental fashion.
When you're calling on the Lord for salvation you shouldn't have
to use the word "IF". But if you have not yet come to faith, you
can nonetheless pray in a
Rev
3:20 fashion that you would like to get to know the
Lord. Then later after you've gotten to know some about him you
may come to trust in him, at which time you can call on him for
salvation.
Jesus is the LORD God. And it is necessary to acknowledge that
fact to be saved. For the verse in
Joel 2:32 "Everyone who calls on the name
of the Lord will be saved." Is preceded
with "I am the LORD your God"
Joel 2:27
Preaching Necessary
Rom 10:14,15 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? And how can they preach unless they
are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of
those who bring good news!"
Again notice that calling on the Lord in a sort of experimental
fashion is excluded here. For the kind of prayer he refers to
here is contingent upon a person actually believing in Christ. A
person cannot legitimately call on the Lord in the sense spoken
of here unless they first believe.
But how can a person come to believe in Christ if they don't
know about Christ? How do you get to know Christ? It's not by
some sort of spiritual experience or through dreams. It's by
hearing what has been recorded of him in the Bible. For notice
that he goes on to indicate that the kind of "hearing" he's
referring to is hearing a message which is preached to them by
some human being who had been sent on a mission to do so. This
as opposed to one imagining that they hear God's voice speaking
to them directly in their head. For that's not the way God
ordained the message of the gospel to be communicated.
Thus Jesus commissioned his disciples, a commission passed on to
the whole of the Christian community,
"Go into all the world and preach the good
news to all creation." Mk 16:15 Salvation, under the New Covenant is
contingent upon hearing and believing the gospel. And thus
salvation of the world is in the hands of the Christian
community. For if we withhold the message, if we neglect to
preach the gospel, there will be people who will not be saved
who could have been saved, had they heard and believed.
Obviously I have issues with
those who excuse themselves and discourage others from being
active in the ministry of the gospel saying, "If God wants
those people saved he can do it without your help.",
which is what William Carey's Presbyterian minister said to
him with regards to his ministry in India. In contrast, after
preaching the gospel in Acts 2, with many other words he testified and exhorted
them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation."
Acts 2:40 For God has
ordained that people be saved through cooperation -
cooperation on our part as ministers of the gospel, working
together with God in the ministry, and cooperation on the
listener's part, accepting the message by faith. This as
opposed to the fatalistic view advocated by some in the
Christian community.
You Christians who know the gospel, the Bible authorizes you to
propagate the message.
"God has committed
to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s
ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us."
2Cor 5:19b-20a The Thessalonians had been believers for
just a short time before Paul wrote to them saying,
"The Lord’s message rang out
from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia— your faith in God
has become known everywhere." 1Thess 1:8a And Paul writes,
"I believed and therefore I
spoke" 2Cor 4:13b
The Lord authorizes you to preach the gospel and make disciples.
Then Jesus came to them and
said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded
you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Mt 28:18-20 The church age
has not ended yet, so get to it! Consider yourselves sent.
Faith from Hearing the
Message Preached
Rom 10:16,17 But not all the Israelites
accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our
message?"
(Is 53:1) Consequently,
faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard
through the Word of God.
Paul quotes Isaiah to indicate that the scriptures had predicted
that most Jews would not come to believe the good news. And Paul
is quoting the first verse in Isaiah 53. How can a Jew read
Isaiah chapter 53, which their own prophet wrote, and not see
Christ in it? This is a great defense to Jews who argue that God
endorses only those who are popular among Jews. For who are they
to argue against the scriptures. In fact throughout the whole of
the Old Testament, the principle seems to have been that the
majority of Israelites characteristically went the wrong way
again and again and again. Thus Jesus said,
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the
prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed
to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks
under her wings, but you were not willing." Mt 23:37
But for those who are listening and learning from the Father,
faith in Christ comes from hearing the message of the gospel.
The message is not heard through the preaching of one's
"personal testimony", much as one's personal experiences may win
a hearing. But the message leading to genuine faith in Christ is
heard through the preaching of the Word of God - the Bible.
"And you also were included in
Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation." Eph 1:13a
Ignorance is No Excuse
Rom 10:18 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." (Ps
19:4)
Notice the context of the quote from Ps 19
The heavens declare the glory of
God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day
they pour forth speech; night after night they display
knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice
is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their
words to the ends of the world. Ps 19:1-4a
This is not the gospel message. This is not the good news. Paul
writes of some the essentials of the gospel saying to the
Corinthians,
"Now,
brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to
you, which you received and on which you have taken your
stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the
word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures" 1Cor 15:1-4 But here there's no mention of
Christ's death, burial, or resurrection. No mention of Christ
dying for our sins.
What Paul is referring to here is the same as he referred to in
Romans 1:20, namely that
"since the creation of the
world God’s invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine
nature— have been clearly seen, being understood from what has
been made, so that men are without excuse."
That is, with regards to the existence of God and consequently
one's accountability to God, there is no one who can exuse
themselves on these matters seeing as there is sufficient
evidence that God is our Creator. This information is sufficient
to condemn a person, but not to save them. To be saved they have
to hear and believe the gospel
Provoking Jews to Envy
Rom 10:19 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." (Deut 32:21)
The context of the quote from Deut follows:
"You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
you forgot the God who gave you birth. The LORD saw this and
rejected them because he was angered by his sons and
daughters. "I will hide my face from them," he said, "and see
what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation,
children who are unfaithful. They made me jealous by what is
no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make
them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them
angry by a nation that has no understanding." Deut 32:18-21 That's how the scriptures
characterize the Israelites. Despite their religious elite
attitude and prejudice against Gentiles, they are not
characteristically godly. Such is their history.
Also Paul later writes,
"salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious."
Rom 11:11b Such envy
results in some coming to faith, but leads others to persecute
Christians.
"When the Jews saw the
multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and
blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul." Acts 13:45 The effect is
part of human nature in that if you take any religion, say
there's a Catholic who apathetic about his religion and doesn't
take it seriously, but if you criticize Catholicism, suddenly
he'll become very Catholic. Or if one thinks themselves to be
religiously superior to others, but then finds those others to
know and put into practice the scriptures better than he, that
may motivate such a person to take his religion more seriously.
For some it's a positive effect, for others a negative.
God Rejects the
"Religous"
Rom 10:20-21 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." (Is
65:1) But
concerning Israel he says, "All
day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and
obstinate people." (Is 65:2)
There are those who seek the Lord and are encouraged to do so.
"Seek the LORD while he may be
found; call on him while he is near." Is 55:6 But then there's the
parable of the hidden treasure.
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a
field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his
joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." Mt 13:44 The impression is
that the man simply happened to find it walking across a field.
This is like those who aren't particularly seeking God, but
happen to hear the message and come to faith. The quote from
Is 65:1 continues,
"To a nation that did not call
on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’" Likewise
it says near the end of the Bible,
"The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who
hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and
whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of
life." Rev 22:17
But the quote from Is 65 continues concerning Israel,
"All day long I have held out
my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good,
pursuing their own imaginations— a people who continually
provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and
burning incense on altars of brick; who sit among the graves
and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh
of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat; who say,
‘Keep away; don’t come near me, for I am too sacred for you!’
Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps
burning all day." Is
65:2-5
Likewise is God's attitude towards Christians who reckon
themselves religiously elite, but who walk in ways that are not
good, pursuing their own imaginations. But Jesus said,
"Whoever has my commands and
obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will
be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself
to him." John 14:21