Breaking Down Romans 9-11: Salvation for All

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So you see where we’re going with Romans 9, 10, and 11. Paul is talking about the salvation of the Jewish people. He’s worried about it. He’s troubled. Well, I won’t say he’s worried, but he’s deeply burdened with sorrow. So he explains that God’s purpose is being worked out, and chapter 9 is showing how it’s worked out. by God electing people. God doesn’t save people by race. He saves them as he brings them to a place where they trust in him. They come to the end of their tether. They come to the end of their resources. They are in a state of quandary, and that brings them to a willingness to receive mercy. Now, that’s what Paul is talking about regarding election. Because God has elected all the world, but he calls different ones at different times by positioning them for faith. And so then Paul concludes in chapter 9 that those who have received Christ by faith alone, his righteousness, they are the elected. That’s so interesting, isn’t it? Because we worry about election as if God were electing some and not others, when in fact we believe already that Jesus is our righteousness. Well, if you believe that Christ is your righteousness, that is an indication that you are elected. Well, you’ll say, what about the others? Well, they are elected, but they haven’t been called yet. When you believe in Christ as your righteousness, you have been called. So then Paul explains in chapter 10 what this salvation is, how it is, how it comes about. It doesn’t come about by law. It doesn’t come about by conforming to certain regulations and rituals. It comes about by a voice from the heart. Now, that’s really curious, isn’t it, and interesting. He says, if you don’t say who’s going to go up to heaven and bring Christ down, who’s going to go down into the grave to bring Christ up. In other words, don’t think of salvation as far away and unreachable. And then he says, because it’s in your heart. How amazing is this? The simplicity of it is lost on all humanity. We are always looking for complicated solutions because then we feel we’ve got something to contribute. Or if it’s complicated, it must be true, surely. The very opposite is the case. Genuine truth is simple, but we who have been blinded by sin and therefore made salvation complicated can’t see the simplicity of it. So Paul says, if you confess with your mouth that the Lord Jesus, I’m sorry, let me read that again. And 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. And then he says, for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Now, that doesn’t mean that, okay, you can believe in your heart that you’re counted righteous, but you won’t be saved until you’ve confessed it with your mouth. No, he’s saying you believe in your heart. And thus you have accepted Christ as your righteousness and you are saved, and that leads you to confess to others or to acknowledge to others that you believe in Christ. Isn’t it simple? Isn’t this why, one of the reasons anyway, and certainly a major reason, why the gospel spread throughout the world so forcefully? It wasn’t merely an intellectual idea to believe in the heart. It was the powerful, forceful conviction of the Holy Spirit that made people compelled to believe in this love, in a love that God has given to the world in giving His own Son. So then Paul says, for the Scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. Now, you know, this brings us to our personal life. Do you feel often ashamed, ashamed of your performance, ashamed of your life, ashamed that you don’t come up to the bar or meet the requirements, that you’re less than other people or whatever? All of these things that go through our minds. Remember that salvation takes away not only guilt, but also shame. Jesus died not only for our sins, and therefore took our guilt upon himself, but also for our shame, and took that shame, naked on the cross he was, took that shame upon himself on behalf of all of us. And so when shame attempts to, what shall I say, batter away at your heart and make you feel unworthy and takes away your joy and makes you feel that you should hide from the public, Don’t do it. Affirm, Lord Jesus, I thank you that I can lift up my head and walk proudly with you because you are my righteousness, not because I am basically good, but because you have counted me as your treasure. It’s really beautiful, and we can counter the ways that the mental states that we get into crush us and shrink our self-worth. We don’t get our self-worth by believing that we are basically good. We get our self-worth from knowing that Jesus has taken our sins upon the cross and and has been raised from the dead on our behalf, all for in place of us. That’s how it is. So then Scripture says, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. “…for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him.” Now, this is very, very important. Look at verse 11 and then 12 together. We’ll read them together. “…for the Scripture says whoever believes on him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him.” Paul is making the point that faith in him, whoever believes in him, will not be put to shame, is an equalizer. It leads to zero distinction between one race and another, between black and white, between Asian and Western, between cultured and uncultured, rich and poor. This is one of the great truths of the gospel. Amen. Amen. Amen. salvation is by works, then some are capable of working and others are not. Some are more disciplined than others. Some are more intellectually capable than others. All this human stuff places human beings in categories of quality. But not when it comes to faith, because faith is a gift from God. You say, wait a minute, Colin, I thought faith was a human response to God. No, it isn’t. Faith is a gift from God. Remember what Jesus said to Peter when Jesus asked him, who do people say that I am? And Peter gave various answers, and then Jesus says, well, who do you say that I am? You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, replies Peter. And what does Jesus say? Blessed are you, Peter, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. What does that tell us about faith? It tells us that you cannot perceive that Christ is the Savior of the world apart from and except that God gives you faith to believe it. And so faith is a gift, you see. And that is why it is an equalizer. Everybody needs faith and everybody doesn’t have it. You know, you remember Abraham, that man, wealthy, the ancient billionaire of the East, and he had everything. He had a household of about 500 people, and yet he had not the one thing that he needed, a son. And it took him 25 years to learn how to believe. The Lord God took him through one defeat after another until he learned how to trust in God’s righteousness and God’s victory and God’s ability to create a child. See, this is why we need to understand that faith is not something to be proud of, as if we had it and others don’t because we’re better than they are, but rather we are humbly thankful for it because God is the giver of all gifts. He gives Jesus, and then he gives faith to believe in Jesus. So then comes this. Well, no, the same thing. Let’s repeat those two verses again. For the Scripture says, Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. Now, you may be in the slough of despond. You may be depressed like hell. You may be in darkness right now, and you feel unworthy. You just feel you’ve been such a sinner, you’ve defailed God, you’ve been unfaithful to Him, and you have no right to call upon Him. But I tell you this, this verse says, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord, the Lord is rich towards him. You don’t have to have certain qualities to call upon his name. You can say, Lord God, I’m totally addicted to alcohol and I’m as drunk as a Lord. That’s what we say in England. The House of Lords, many of them were drunk. drunk as any sinner could be you can call on the name of the lord and when you do he will hear you you say but i’ve called upon the name of the lord so often and i’m still drunk i don’t care i do care of course But the point is this. When you call upon the name of the Lord, you believe then. Believe that he hears you, even when you’re drunk. You know, I said this, and I’ve said this many times in various seminars, and one day when I was teaching at a certain church, somebody came up to me and he said, you know, I know that what you have said is true. You know why I know it? Because Because when you came here last time, I was on the back row of this church, drunk. And you told the congregation that God receives drunkards while they drink and believe. And at that moment he said, I believed. And he said, gradually from there, I got free from alcohol. So that’s how it is, do you see? You don’t wait for certain conditions to be arrived at in your life before you believe. You call upon the name of the Lord now. And as you do so, he becomes rich towards you. God loves being called upon. This is what makes him so amazing. I kind of hate being called upon, but he loves it. That’s how it is. Whoever calls on him will not be put to shame. Therefore, there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That’s verse 13. So you see, Paul is explaining how Jewish people, and this includes the Gentiles, of course, it applies to us too, how they come to believe. He doesn’t save them by race. He doesn’t save them by ritual. He doesn’t save them because he gave them the commandments and the covenants. He moves them into positions of helplessness, one by one, over different periods of time, until they learn that they need him. And that leads them to humbly call upon him, and then they are saved. But, hey, listen, I’ve got more to tell you. There are millions who are still holding out. And do you know what God does for them? You’ll have to listen in next time. So if you want to catch up or find out what the background of this program program is, go to the archives. And if you’d like to make a donation, I’d like to receive one. Thank you. Send it to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160, or make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. See you next time. Cheerio, and God bless.