As we move into chapter 10 of Romans, I want to remind us once again that this is a portion of a complete letter. I think we’ve said something about that every week of this series so far. Our repetition is on purpose. We want you to know, and we ourselves have to remember as we write, that we are breaking Paul’s writings down into parts of a whole. Each section must be considered alongside the others, set firmly within the context it was written. Why do we keep saying things like this? Because Romans can be challenging. The manner in which Paul writes can be confusing. And too many parts of this complete letter have been taken out of context and weaponized to cause harm as well as stir conflict among followers of Jesus. We don’t want to contribute to the confusion, nor do we ever want to cause harm. So it is important to both of us that we consider the whole letter even as we break it down into smaller portions.
With that in mind, I want to remind us of a few points Luanne asked us to remember last week:
Paul knows that God has not written the Israelites off–God doesn’t write any of us off, so Paul continues to reach out to them and pray for them.
Will we ever understand all there is to know about God? No. He is God. But what he has revealed to us over and over is he comes to us. He doesn’t force himself upon us, but He has already turned toward us.
God is always right here, always loves us, and always has open arms waiting for our return.
. . . God does not reject anyone. We push God away. Paul agonized over his people choosing tradition–their theology, their system–over Him.
Chapter 10 begins much like chapter 9 ends. Paul continues to lament that the Israelites’ hearts have not yet been awakened to the good news of Jesus:
My beloved brothers and sisters, the passionate desire of my heart and constant prayer to God is for my fellow Israelites to experience salvation. For I know that although they are deeply devoted to God, they are unenlightened. And since they’ve ignored the righteousness God gives, wanting instead to be acceptable to God because of their own works, they’ve refused to submit to God’s faith-righteousness. For the Christ is the end of the law… (Romans 10:1-4a, TPT)
I won’t spend too long here, but I do want to highlight that “salvation” in this passage is the word that has its roots in sōzō, a word you’re familiar with if you’ve read this blog for a while. If you’re new here, we love this word! It means to keep safe, to rescue from danger; to preserve; to heal; to make whole. The cry of Paul’s heart is for his people, whom he deeply loves, to be made whole and complete in Jesus. He longs to see their zeal lead them into the fullest, most complete understanding of God–that God was made visible in Jesus, and that their wholeness and their healing is found in him alone. He is passionate that these people who are deeply devoted to God, come to see–as he had–that their own righteousness and devotion can’t save them. They don’t have the power to make themselves whole and complete. Their adherence and commitment to the law had made the law their God. This idolatry clouded their vision and they couldn’t see that the One their scriptures had been pointing to all along was Jesus–the fulfillment of the law–whose righteousness flows through all who trust and abide in him.
(A brief note: “Righteousness” in this passage is the Greek word dikaiosynē, another word we’re kind of obsessed with because, at its root, it is defined as the setting-all-things-right, shalom justice of God. It is connected to the wholeness, healing, completeness, and restoration–the sōzō–of all things.)
Pastor John reminded us on Sunday that this picture Paul paints of the Israelites’ devotion to the law–their religiosity–is not unfamiliar to us. They wanted to be religious enough to find favor with God. Do we do that? Do you? I know a lot about living this way. Gratefully, I don’t live in this space anymore, but for most of my life, this is the water I swam in nearly drowned in. I fully believed that I had to earn God’s love–and everyone else’s. I was taught how to do and keep doing. I had no idea I was allowed to be, to stop striving and hustling for the worth that was already mine simply by existing as one who is dearly loved by my creator.
It took a lot of years for me to understand that God’s love is complete, all-encompassing, unconditional, perfect. God does not withhold love from us. It is the air we breathe and the water we’re already swimming in, whether we’re aware of it or not. I had gotten caught in a pocket of stagnant water that looked “right” at first glance, but was toxic to my soul. Fortunately, my little toxic pool was never separated from the gaze of God and never fully isolated from the ocean of grace. Tidal waves of Jesus’ love crashed into my stagnant pool, bringing life to the dead theology that told me my salvation depended on my own efforts (which was great news, because I had all but given up on trying and had made quite the mess of things).
Romans 10:8, quoting Deuteronomy 30:14, tells us how very close God’s love is to us at all times:
“God’s living message is very close to you, as close as your own heart beating in your chest and as near as the tongue in your mouth.” (TPT)
Even when we resist it…
Even when we’re blind to it…
Even when we actively choose something else…
Even when we’re pretty good at being “good’…
Even when our own goodness usurps the role of God in our lives…
Even when we think our own righteousness is enough…
…we are not rejected by our God.
God’s ‘living message’–Jesus–keeps coming for us. He is with us as Emmanuel. He pursues us, and meets us on our own religious roads to offer us a better way. As the verse above states, he’s as close as our own heartbeat, and he’s not going anywhere. He is patient, kind, and his goodness is greater than we will ever, in our humanity, be able to comprehend. There is nothing we can do to receive more love–we are already fully loved by God. The love God has for us is not based on anything we do or don’t do. It’s based on the very character of the One who chose to become enfleshed in our humanity and walk this earth to show us the true nature of his heart toward his creation. We don’t have to do more or be more to try to get more. We can’t possible get more than we’ve already been given.
Pastor John asked us, “What’s the story that has a hold on you?” It’s a question worth sitting with for a while. There is one story–the best story–that changes everything. One that has the power to set things right and heal what’s broken. It’s the story of Jesus–the good news that Paul so desperately longed for all people to accept and understand. What story are you believing?
–Laura
Laura asks us a good question. What story are you believing? What do you believe about God? What do you believe about God’s love, God’s approval, God’s acceptance of you? What do you believe about salvation? Do you believe, that in addition to Jesus’ victory over death, salvation (sōzō) means to keep safe, to rescue from danger; to preserve; to heal; to make whole? Do you believe that God deeply desires that for you and for the entire world–that he truly wants to make all things new?
As we each continue to walk with Christ, it’s always a good idea think through what we’re believing and why. Paul’s lament for his fellow Israelites comes from the fact that they were believing their theology over the living God who had revealed himself fully in the person of Jesus. They are grounded and rooted in their tradition and their understanding of how to become acceptable to God. And here’s the deal–their understanding is biblical, but their understanding isn’t Jesus. A scripture passage that I refer to often is John 5:39-40, which relays Jesus’ words to the Pharisees and teachers of the law as he tries to help them see that he, himself is the source of life. Beginning with verse 37, Jesus says to them:
…And my Father himself, who gave me this mission, has also testified that I am his Son. But you have never heard his voice nor seen his face, nor does his Word truly live inside of you, for you refuse to believe in me or to embrace me as God’s messenger. You are busy analyzing the Scriptures, frantically poring over them in hopes of gaining eternal life. Everything you read points to me, yet you still refuse to come to me so I can give you the life you’re looking for—eternal life! (TPT)
I’ll write it again this week–Christianity is founded on Jesus. Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is God. Jesus shows us what God is like. Jesus reconciles us to God. The scriptures we read point to Jesus; salvation is in Jesus. Many harmful things have been done throughout history (and are still being done) using Bible verses as justification to back up man-made theology. Unfortunately, that type of theology has a tendency to make us mean and judgmental instead of leading us to being saved, rescued, healed and made whole in Jesus. When our lives are founded on the living Jesus, the fruit of the Spirit is born in us. That fruit draws people to Christ. Theology in and of itself is not bad–it’s literally the study of God, but our lives and our faith mustn’t be based in our theology. They must be based in Jesus. Christianity should look like Jesus the Christ. Our lives are transformed as we lean into Jesus, and the world is transformed as we are transformed.
I am being transformed. I am not who I used to be. For years I bargained with God and had a deep fear that God was disappointed in me. I tried to work out a system with him to gain approval and get guarantees from him. This was Luanne-made theology. Guess what? It didn’t work. It was exhausting, and like Laura, I would get frustrated with myself, I couldn’t maintain my own “goodness”, and then I’d give up. Pastor John reminded us that this type of “theology” is idolatry. We are worshiping self and living as if salvation comes through us and our actions rather than through Jesus. We think that receiving God’s love comes through doing more in order to earn it. If we think we need to do or be more for God to love us, we are missing out. I was missing out. Finally, in a battle with God that kept me up night after night, he showed me my barter system of theology. As soon as I saw it, I knew God was showing me truth. But here’s the crazy thing–I still wrestled with God over my own theology. I wanted God to do it my way. He didn’t submit to my will, so I was stuck. God had shown me that he loved me, and I could choose to stay right where I was–stuck in my dead-end theology, or I could surrender completely to him. I didn’t want to stay stuck, (and I wanted to sleep), so I said (a little begrudgingly), okay, we’ll do this Your way. In a millisecond I was flooded with peace, with light, with joy–even typing it out fills me with deep love and gratitude for God. That was the moment my walk with Jesus transferred from being about me and my actions to being about him. I fell in love with Jesus and I’ve not been the same since. My life is transformed and is transforming. Can I explain it? No. But is it real? Absolutely. And just in case you wonder, is the Bible part of it? Of course. I love scripture, but my faith is not founded in scripture. It has to be founded in Jesus.
Last week I ran into a friend who brings my heart incredible joy. Just a very few years ago, she showed up at church (another friend brought her). She’d been afraid to come because she feared rejection. Her life was in absolute tatters. She tried to be invisible; cried the entire time, and laughs (now) about how mortified she was that people saw her, welcomed her, talked to her, and acted like they wanted her there. She kept coming, even while doing her best to avoid human relationships. She had been deeply wounded in her life, and was scared of people and of God’s judgment. Fast-forward a few years. She is a joy-filled bright light. When we chatted last week, she shared that she is still blown away by how much her life has changed. She knows she is loved, and her love for Jesus oozes out of every pore. She has been, and is being transformed because she fell in love with Jesus and leans into him. She chose to receive the gift of God’s love. She can’t explain her transformation, yet many of us have had the beautiful gift of walking with her and seeing her transformation take place with our own eyes.
Romans 10:9-10 are verses that are really well known: If you declare 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 profess your faith and are saved.
Those verses from this week’s chapter can still make it sound as if salvation is dependent upon us and our actions, so much so that some people use the above verses as a formula. My belief regarding those verses is the heart is the emphasis…it is from the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45). The work of salvation is an inner work of receiving, taking in, and embracing the gift of God offered to us through Jesus, the gift of God’s love, God’s grace, God’s acceptance, God’s salvation. Our part is to receive. Once we believe and receive, the natural progression is speaking about Jesus. How can we help but do that–we’ve experienced his love and respond with love for him.
Using The Passion Translation I’ll wrap up my portion of this post up with some excerpts from the remainder of Chapter 10:
“God’s living message is very close to you, as close as your own heart beating in your chest and as near as the tongue in your mouth. (v. 8)
The heart that believes in him receives the gift of the righteousness of God—and then the mouth gives thanks… (v.10)
Faith eliminates the distinction between Jew and non-Jew, for he is the same Lord Jehovah for all people. And he has enough treasures to lavish generously upon all who call on him. And it’s true: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Yahweh will be rescued and experience new life. (v. 12,13)
All through the book of Romans up to this point, Paul has been weaving the message that God is here, God loves us, God has made himself known through creation and now through Jesus, we can’t be good on our own, in Jesus we are not condemned, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, we can embrace life in Jesus or reject life in Jesus, but life is only found in him.
Faith, then, is birthed in a heart that responds to God’s anointed utterance of the Anointed One. (Romans 10:17)
We are so loved–receive it!
Luanne
Enter In. . . 