How Shall People Be Saved?
Read Romans 10: 1-21.
Having demonstrated God’s sovereignty in salvation from the Scriptures, Paul again returns to the situation of his Jewish brethren. How does salvation come to anyone?
• Paul was not criticising the sincerity of his brethren. But is sincerity enough? What does sincerity need in order to be effective?
• What was the true purpose of the law? (See Galatians 3:24)
• Whose righteousness were they mistakenly trusting in?
• Whose righteousness should they have been seeking if they had properly understood the law?
• Given the impossibly high personal standards which the law sets what would be necessary for an individual to feel they had fulfilled them?
• Paul provides an allusion to Moses words to God’s people in Deuteronomy 30:11ff. What is the word that is very near? (5-9)
• Verse 9 speaks of confession and belief. Why do these two words go together?
• What are we confessing and what are we believing? Why are they both vital?
• This invitation is open to all. Consider Isaiah 28:16 and Joel 2:32. Why would Paul reference these verses to his readers? (11-13)
• How are people ordinarily brought into God’s kingdom? (14-16)
• Who is Paul identifying as having heard the message in verse 18?
• Who are those who are not a nation; those who provoke Israel to jealousy? (19)
• What lesson should Israel have learned from God’s salvation of Gentiles? (20)
• What hope should this give us with regard to people who we desire to be saved?
• What impression about God’s attitude toward the Jewish people are we left with in verse 21?
Some notes:
Hopefully, the idea that sincerity is not enough is not that radical. I usually explain to the folk that you can sincerely believe that a bus will not hurt you, but if it does, you will be sincerely wrong. Sincerity must be wedded to truth to be beneficial.
The law was a tutor, a guardian, a school bus driver. Having a tutor is not the same thing as having knowledge, having a guardian is not the same thing as being mature, beign on a school bus will not see you graduate school. They take you to knowlede and maturity. The law is the means to God’s end, not the end in itself.
Paul’s interpretation of Deuteronomy shows the pattern that Jesus taught that the Scriptures testify about Him. Jesus is the word that is very near.
Confession and belief point to the essential unity between mind and spirit. We are not saved by a formula of words. We are saved by the relationship that God establishes with us. The words give expression to the relationship.
The confession that Christ is Lord points to His divinity. The belief in the resurrection affirms the reality and effectiveness of His saving work.
The message is open to all. The salvation of the Gentiles has been long promised.
Israel had heard this message, but had not responded. The salvation of the Gentles was a lesson that salvation is by grace, and also a lesson not to take God for granted.
The fact that the salvation of the Gentiles is presented as a means of the Israelites being provoked by jealousy to receive the Gospel.
This is a message which speaks of God’s great love for His people, and fills us with hope for their future.
It fills us with hope for all those who have received the Gospel of the Kingdom and have not responded as yet.
God is a saving God.
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