Thither He shall come, and thence, go forth. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." It is agreed by all commentators that this is one of the most difficult and obscure passages in the letter to the Romans. In verse 11 of that chapter, Moses tells Israel that Gods commands are not beyond their grasp as if they could find them only by ascending to heaven or crossing the sea. Lower than that, he descended to being "despised and rejected of men." "Stop a minute," said he. * William Higgs, Esq., for many years a beloved deacon of the church in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, fell on asleep January 3rd, 1883, in his fifty-ninth year. No wonder, if souls confound the two things together, that they never know deliverance in practice. The way to heaven up the steep sides of Sinai is inaccessible to trembling feet like ours. The future must be brought in by the grace of God; and this he accordingly gives us at the close of Romans 11:1-36. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for SDA Bible Commentary Set Vols. They must admit they are helpless sinners and accept the righteousness of God through Christ (10:1-4).The language of law says, Do all this and you will live. What he meant was: "Christ is the end of legalism." The doing supposed must be perfect and sinless, without the least breach or violation. Then your principle is your condemnation. "No, I am not." Your father is not offering sacrifices. Nothing can be more simple and essential. higher, if so high, in this epistle. God was not satisfied alone. (324) For the purpose of removing the impediments of faith, he has hitherto spoken negatively: but now in order to show the way of obtaining righteousness, he adopts an affirmative mode of speaking. In Romans 7:1-25 we have the subject of the law discussed for practice as well as in principle, and there again meet with the same weapon of tried and unfailing temper. The law cannot make a person righteous before God, nor can it give a person a righteous standing before God. He was in the end killed. 1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. The story of Jesus Christ passed through all of the Jewish communities around the world. It is not a question of His mercy merely; for this weakens the truth immensely, and perverts its character wholly. And that word is the message of faith which we proclaim. for on your own showing, according to that word to which we all bow, you must admit that one man's sin brought in universal moral ruin and death. What was it? Nevertheless, what is in nowise the same as what was or what will be. To my mind this word of Moses is conclusive that none of us can possibly live by the works of the law. Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain. Romans 10:5-9 . It is not merely a call then; but as we have by our Lord Jesus Christ our access into the favour wherein we stand, so there is positive boasting in the hope of the glory of God. Faith is to both; it is the condition of our justification (Romans 5:1; Romans 5:1), and it is the root and spring of our sanctification; in it it is begun; by it it is carried on, Acts 15:9. Every mouth was stopped; the Jew by his own oracles, as the Gentile by their evident abominations, shown already. In fact, when Paul wrote the letters to Timothy and Titus, he spoke of the faith several times (see 1 Timothy 1:19 b; 3:9; 4:1, 6; 5:8; 6:10, 12, 21; 2 Timothy 3:8; 2 Timothy 4:7; Titus 1:13; Titus 2:2). Nevertheless there is in this passage something of permanent value. This is what Moses saith: hear it and be humbled. (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) Paul's joy and boast were in the gospel of God. We all know where it is and must be for the Christian. The righteousness of faith lies not in dreams and visions, delusions or depressions: it lies only in reliance upon the work of Jesus finished for you. Even the saints there would have been all the better for the gospel. There could be but one satisfactory answer. If you were to be saved by the law you should have begun without sin, continued without sin, and then it would be needful to end without sin. Death, and nothing short of it, rightly dissolves the bond. Not only was Abraham justified without law, but apart from that great sign of mortification of the flesh. Sin is our not wanting the gifts of . 1. 2. There was somewhat as yet lacking to the saints there; but even this was ordered of God to call forth from the Holy Ghost an epistle which more than any other approaches a complete treatise on the fundamentals of Christian doctrine, and especially as to righteousness. Some wonder why Paul didnt mention the crucifixion in this passage. Jesus came into the world to save real sinners, not sham sinners; for he is a real, and not a pretended Savior. What does experience say about believing in Christ! They wanted Jerusalem to be shut down completely on the Sabbath day, and he just let their sections be shut down but allowed cars to be driven in other sections. There are in reality very few times when we can honestly say: "I never knew that things would turn out like this." Verse 17. A wondrous way, but most blessed! e. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation: These two together (belief and confession) result in righteousness and salvation. The meaning of verse 6 is a little more difficult. It can mean many things such as: 1. For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.. Their sins had been passed by. Christ's work of redemption deserves that God should act as He does in the gospel. Such is the doctrine and the fact. Till the cross, well might a converted soul be found groaning in misery at each fresh discovery of evil in himself. Cold desires do but beg denials; we must even breathe out our souls in every prayer. Hence the action of the Spirit of God in a double point of view comes before us. ( Romans 10:15 ). 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, Believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, calls upon the name of the LORD shall be saved. (2.) g. All who call upon Him: Again, note the emphasis on human responsibility. He shall come, says one Testament, out of Zion. (1.) The law is magnified and made honourable by the death of Christ; and the doctrine of faith in his death and resurrection is fully proclaimed, and amply proved to be effectual to the purpose for which it was revealed. Although there is undoubtedly that profoundness which must accompany every revelation of God, and especially in connection with Christ as now manifested, still we have God adapting Himself to the very first wants of a renewed soul nay, even to the wretchedness of souls without God, without any real knowledge either of themselves or of Him. Not so, says the apostle. The Scripture; so some copies, and the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic version read, "what saith the Scripture?" But unto Israel he said, All day long I have stretched forth my hand unto a disobedient and gainsaying people ( Romans 10:20-21 ). And by the foolish nation I will anger you.". Even the word of faith; the gospel and the promise of it, called the word of faith because it is the object of faith about which it is conversant, the word which we believe;--because it is the precept of faith, commanding it, and making it the great condition of justification;--and because it is the ordinary means by which faith is wrought and conveyed. Now I ask you to listen to WHAT THE GOSPEL SAITH. Click to enable/disable Google Analytics tracking. By the preaching of the Gospel the doctrine of salvation is nigh thee, and the saving influence is at hand: it is in thy mouth, easy to be understood, easy to be professed: and in thy heart, if thou art upright before God, sincerely desiring to be saved on his own terms, not striving to establish thy own method of justification by the law, which must for ever be ineffectual, but submitting to the method of justification which God has devised. It is Paul's one desire that the Jews may be saved. Outside Revelation, it only occurs here and Luke 8:31. It is not our effort which wins us goodness. Let man be what he might, or where he might, God's good news was for man. There are some that find a difficulty here, because the expression "to hold" means holding firmly. Have done with every other confidence. Listen, man. 2 172). ( Romans Commentary) Paul's main point is the ready availability of Good News. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. It is for the lost, therefore; for they it is who need salvation; and it is to save not merely to quicken, but to save; and this because in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed. The truth is not difficult to be understood and embraced. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets" (verses 20, 21). Salvation isn't something far off, difficult to obtain. The application of this was more evident to the Gentile than to the Jew. When you and I are no longer sinners, Christ is no longer our Savior; when you and I no more need him, then we shall not have him. But there is much more in Christ than that to which too many souls restrict themselves, not less to their own loss than to His dishonour. To profess this doctrine was, therefore, virtually to profess all the truths of the Christian religion. Not, of course, that the Roman saints were in this condition; but that God, writing by the apostle to them, seizes the opportunity to lay bare man's state as well as His own grace. 17 So then [ therefore] The words "so then" indicate the consequence of those who believe the message. Such has been their singular fruit of promise; such even in the midst of all their misery it is at present. It is not so alone; but in His death, unto which I am baptized, I am dead to sin. Christ is the end of the moral law in that he did what the law could not do (Romans 8:3; Romans 8:3), and secured the great end of it. Moses saith, "I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people," etc. If it was the Lord's will that I should die in the street at this moment, I would cheerfully go." StudyLght.org. Listen, angels, you will not weary while I tell the story over again he went into Gethsemane where he put on the crimson garment of his own bloody sweat; and then to Pilate's hall, where they did falsely accuse him, and spit on him, and scourge him, and make a jest of him; and then to that cross whereon they nailed him in his nakedness, so that he hung in agony, to die in fever and in thirst, till he cried, "It is finished." The Christian must believe not only that Jesus lived, but also that he lives. Is It Ok for Christians to Follow Zodiac Signs? The answer is, that this will not do one whit better; for when we come down to the next generation, it is apparent that the two sons of Isaac were sons of the same mother; nay, they were twins. i. Israel responsible for its own loss (9:30-10:21). Talk not thus. I now plunge into my text. The word Kurios was and is the touchstone of faith.. The believer in Jesus shall be saved because he is a believer; and Christ's veracity is staked thereon: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. He begins with the great epoch of the dispensations of God (that is, the ages since the flood). Even those that seek a place of separation to the Lord outside that which is now hurrying on souls to destruction are, nevertheless, deeply affected by the condition of that Christendom in which we find ourselves. He is, of course, the same absolutely perfect and unchangeable God of goodness; but His perfection has displayed itself in new and more glorious ways in Christ's death, in Him who humbled Himself, and was obedient even to the death of the cross. And this leads us to see not only where there was an analogy with those who believe in a promised Saviour, but also to a weighty difference. Isaiah was very bold, and he said, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that ask not after me. The law demanded, but could never receive righteousness from man. You cannot hear about him unless there is someone to proclaim the good news. For the truth is that God has in Christ condemned sin, and this for sin definitely; so that He has nothing more to do in condemnation of that root of evil. Here, again, the apostle takes up what he had but announced in chapter 1 the righteousness of God. First, he raises the question, "Has God cast away his people?" I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.. The question then is raised in the beginning ofRomans 3:1-31; Romans 3:1-31, If this be so, what is the superiority of the Jew? But I say, have they not heard? Just before Israel crossed into the Promised Land, Moses spoke of righteousness by faith.. Those that were under the law were to do all themselves, Do this, and live; but the gospel discovers the greatest part of the work done already, and what remains cut short in righteousness, salvation offered upon very plain and easy terms, brought to our door, as it were, in the word which is nigh us. We are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. All then that believe, though uncircumcised, might claim him as father, assured that righteousness will be reckoned to them too. When we drift away from it, we become confused, and we begin dividing, bickering and fighting among ourselves. What is near us may be easily reached. They give us the basis of the first Christian creed. In the beginning ofRomans 2:1-29; Romans 2:1-29 we have man pretending to righteousness. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.We are told in Jude that one of the ways by which we keep ourselves in that place of blessing, the blessings of God's love, is building up ourselves in the most holy faith. In thy heart - The word heart is very variously used in the sacred Scriptures. May you experience the joys of His power, of His presence, of His glory, as God day by day showers you with His goodness and with His love. This believing, or trusting, is the whole of the matter, and neither heaven above nor the abyss beneath will ever reveal another salvation. Can your faith pray? No longer does the question exist of requiring an expiation. i. What is that righteousness which is of faith, Romans 10:6; Romans 10:6, c. This he describes in the words of Moses, in Deuteronomy, in the second law (so Deuteronomy signifies), where there was a much clearer revelation of Christ and the gospel than there was in the first giving of the law: he quotes it from Deuteronomy 30:11-14, and shows. And where? He dwells in the heart by faith. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Then, in Romans 9:1-33; Romans 10:1-21; Romans 11:1-36, the apostle handles a difficulty serious to any mind, especially to the Jew, who might readily feel that all this display of grace in Christ to the Gentile as much as to the Jew by the gospel seems to make very cheap the distinctive place of Israel as given of God. He brings out the peculiar glories of Israel according to the depth of the gospel as he knew and preached it; at least, of His person who is the object of faith now revealed. Hear this! Not a pretty toy for Sundays, but food to live upon; a common-sense hope; a blunt man's religion that he can carry into business. Acts 17:31; 2 Corinthians 4:14; 1 Corinthians 15:13-20. Romans 10:17, KJV: So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So, then, faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes from the word which comes from Christ and which tells of him. Basically the scheme is this--in the previous passage Paul has been saying that the way to God is not that of works and of legalism, but of faith and trust. If a man called Jesus kurios he was ranking him with the Emperor and with God; he was giving him the supreme place in his life; he was pledging him implicit obedience and reverent worship. (Barclay), ii. They become angry and envious when they see their supposedly ignorant Gentile neighbours accepting the gospel, but they themselves will not listen to it (19-21). Only that Jesus lived, but also that he lives cookies in our.. Hence the action of the flesh we will remove all Set cookies in our domain soul be found groaning misery! 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