Sermon notes May 18th, 2025

ROMANS 10

CONCERN- Paul’s ‘heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved’. Their zeal in trying to establish their own righteousness, which they can never do, shows their ignorance of God’s righteousness. That can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is ‘the end of the law to righteousness to everyone who believes’. In other words they must come to faith in Christ to be saved. 

CONFESSION- Paul shows from the Scriptures the principles of salvation which now apply to faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That principle is that when one’s faith in the living Christ is personal and real, that believer will confess this openly and by mouth to others. This will form part of a changed lifestyle. The challenge is whether one’s faith is real enough to produce the willingness to stand out and confess personal faith in Christ. The encouragement given is that anyone trusting in Him, whether Jew or Gentile, will never be put to shame, but will be saved. God’s richness of mercy more than compensates for the poverty caused by our sin.  

CALL- Given that whoever calls on Him will know His salvation, the logical question is asked as to how unbelievers are going to hear of Christ in order to call upon Him. The answer is that preachers of the gospel must be sent to tell them, always bearing in mind that even then there will be many who do not obey the gospel and turn to Christ, though the offer is open to them. 

CONCLUSION- The simple conclusion is that saving faith is produced by hearing God’s Word. 

COMPARISON- Using the Old Testament Scriptures, the comparison is made between Gentiles, who have believed and come to know God’s blessing, and the Israelites, who are thus provoked to jealousy by seeing outsiders come to know God.

 The God who longs that they should turn to Him. Although God will judge sin, He confirms to Israel that: ‘All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people’. God is always willing to welcome returning sinners, be they Jews or Gentiles.

Prepare Your Heart                  (Copyright © 2020 by Phil Collins, PhD.)

Open yourself to God’s presence. Ask God to speak to you and to reveal Himself through His Word. Then read the passage.

Reflect and Write.

• How did Paul describe the gospel of Jesus, the “word of faith” that he preached (vv. 8–9)?
• What must a person do to be saved? 
• Who can receive salvation (see v. 12)?
• How do verses 11 and 13 confirm what Paul wrote in verse 10? 
• How do these verses bring you comfort and confidence?  
• Who can you share this message of hope with today?

Romans 10                                                      New King James Version

1   Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 

• Paul’s teachings were most distasteful to the unconverted Jews. They considered him a traitor and an enemy of Israel. But here he assures his Christian brethren to whom he was writing that the thing that would bring the greatest delight to his heart and the thing for which he prays to God most earnestly for Israel is that they may be saved.

2    For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 

• Far from condemning them as godless and irreligious Jews, the apostle gives his testimony that they have a zeal for God. This was apparent from their careful observance of the rituals and ceremonies of Judaism, and from their intolerance of every contrary doctrine. But zeal is not enough; it must be combined with truth. Otherwise, it can do more harm than good.

3   For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 

• This is where they failed. They were ignorant of God’s righteousness, ignorant of the fact that God imputes righteousness on the principle of faith and not of works. They went about trying to produce a righteousness of their own by law-keeping. They tried to win God’s favor by their own efforts, their own character, their own good works. They steadfastly refused to submit to God’s plan for reckoning righteous those ungodly sinners who believe on His Son.

4   For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 

• If they had only believed on Christ, they would have seen that He is the end of the law for righteousness. The purpose of the law is to reveal sin, to convict and condemn transgressors. It can never impart righteousness. The penalty of the broken law is death. In His death, Christ paid the penalty of the law which men had broken. When a sinner receives the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, the law has nothing more to say to him. Through the death of his Substitute, he has died to the law. He is through with the law and with the futile attempt to achieve righteousness through it.

5   For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” 

• Of course, this statement presents an ideal which no sinful man can meet. All it is saying is that if a man could keep the law perfectly and perpetually, he would not be condemned to death. But the law was given to people who were already sinners and who were already condemned to death. Even if they could keep the law perfectly from that day forward, they still would be lost because God requires payment for those sins which are past. Any hopes that men may have for obtaining righteousness by the law are doomed to failure from the outset.

6   But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) 

7   or, “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 

• In order to show that the language of faith is quite different from that of the law, Paul first quotes from Deuteronomy 30:12, 13, which reads: It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear and do it?”
• Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?”
• The interesting thing is that, in their setting in Deuteronomy, these verses are not referring to faith and the gospel at all. They are speaking about the law, and specifically the commandment to “turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut. 30:10b). God is saying that the law is not hidden, distant, or inaccessible. A man doesn’t have to go up to heaven or cross the sea to find it. It is near, at hand and waiting to be obeyed.
• But the Apostle Paul takes these words and reapplies them to the gospel. He says that the language of faith doesn’t ask a man to climb to heaven to bring Christ down. For one thing, that would be utterly impossible; but it would also be quite unnecessary, because Christ has already come down to earth in His Incarnation!

ROMANS 10:8

8   But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 

• If the gospel doesn’t tell men to do the humanly impossible, or to do what has already been done by the Lord, what then does it say?
• Again, Paul adapts a verse from Deuteronomy 30 to say that the gospel is near, accessible, intelligible, and easily obtained; it can be expressed in familiar conversation (in your mouth); and it can be readily understood in the mind (in your heart) (Deut. 30:14). It is the good news of salvation by faith which Paul and the other apostles preached.

9   that 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. 

10   For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 

Matthew 10:32-33 RSV "So everyone who acknowledges me before me, I also will acknowledge..." "So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven" 

• In further explanation, Paul writes that with the heart one believes unto righteousness. It is not a mere intellectual assent but a genuine acceptance with one’s whole inward being. When a person does that, he is instantly justified.
• Then with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; that is, the believer publicly confesses the salvation he has already received. Confession is not a condition of salvation but the inevitable outward expression of what has happened: “If on Jesus Christ you trust, speak for Him you surely must.” When a person really believes something, he wants to share it with others. So, when a person is genuinely born again, it is too good to keep secret. He confesses Christ.
• The Scriptures assume that when a person is saved, he will make a public confession of that salvation. The two go together. Thus, “If there be no confession of Christ the Lord with the mouth, we cannot speak of salvation; as our Lord said, ‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.’ Here the baptism is the confession of the mouth.

Mark 16:16

16   He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

• “A heart believing unto righteousness, and a mouth making confession unto salvation, are not really two things, but two sides of the same coin.”
• The question arises why confession comes first in 10:9, then belief, whereas in 10:10 belief comes first, then confession. The answer is not hard to find. In verse 9 the emphasis is on the Incarnation and the resurrection, and these doctrines are mentioned in their chronological order. The Incarnation comes first—Jesus is Lord. Then the resurrection—God raised Him from the dead. In verse 10 the emphasis is on the order of events in the salvation of a sinner. First, he believes, then he makes a public confession of his salvation.

ROMANS 10:11-12

11   For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 

12   For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 

• In Romans 3:23 we learned that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile as far as the need for salvation is concerned, for all are sinners. Now we learn that there is no distinction as far as the availability of salvation is concerned. The Lord is not an exclusive God, but is Lord over all mankind. He is rich in grace and mercy to all who call upon Him.

ROMANS 10:13-14

13   For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

14   How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 

• In a series of three “hows” (how shall they call … believe … hear without a preacher), the apostle goes back over the steps that lead to the salvation of Jews and Gentiles. Perhaps it will be clearer if we reverse the order, as follows:

God sends out His servants.                                                                                               They preach the good news of salvation.                                                               Sinners hear God’s offer of life in Christ.                                                            Some of those who hear believe the message.                                                        Those who believe call on the Lord.                                                               Those who call on Him are saved.

ROMANS 10:15-16

15   And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:                                “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,                         Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

• God is the One who sends. We are the ones who are sent. What are you doing about it? Do we have the beautiful feet which Isaiah ascribed to Him who brought glad tidings of good things (Isa. 52:7)? Isaiah writes of the beautiful feet of Him—that is, the Messiah. Here in Romans 10:15 the “him” becomes “them.” He came with beautiful feet 1,993 years ago. Now it is our privilege and responsibility to go with beautiful feet to a lost and dying world.

16   But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 

• But Paul’s ever-present grief is that the people of Israel did not all listen to the gospel. Isaiah had prophesied as much when he asked, “Lord, who has believed our report?” (Isa. 53:1). The question calls for the answer, “Not many.” When the announcement of the Messiah’s First Advent was heralded, not many responded.

ROMANS 10:17-18

17   So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

• But hearing with the ears is not enough. A person must hear with an open heart and mind, willing to be shown the truth of God. If he does, he will find that the word has the ring of truth, and that the truth is self-authenticating. He will then believe. It should be clear, of course, that the hearing alluded to in this verse does not involve the ears exclusively. The message might be read, for example. So “to hear” means to receive the word by whatever means.

18   But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed:                                                  “Their sound has gone out to all the earth,                                                              And their words to the ends of the world.”

• What then has been the problem? Haven’t both Jews and Gentiles heard the gospel preached? Yes. Paul borrows the words of Psalm 19:4 to show that they have. He says, Yes, indeed:

“Their sound has gone out to all the earth,                                           And their words to the ends of the world.”

• But the surprising thing is that these words from Psalm 19 are not speaking of the gospel. Rather, they describe the universal witness of the sun, moon, and stars to the glory of God. But as we said, Paul borrows them and says, in effect, that they are equally true of the worldwide proclamation of the gospel in his own day. 
• By inspiration of the Spirit of God, the apostle often takes an OT passage and applies it in quite a different way. The same Spirit who originally gave the words surely has the right to reapply them later on.

ROMANS 10:19

19   But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says:                                                           “I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation,                                                   I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.” 

• The call of the Gentiles and the rejection of the gospel by the majority of Jews should not have come as a surprise to the nation of Israel. Their own Scriptures foretold exactly what would happen. For example God warned that He would provoke Israel to jealousy by a non-nation (the Gentiles), and anger Israel by a foolish, idolatrous nation (Deut. 32:21).

ROMANS 10:20-21

20   But Isaiah is very bold and says:                                                                      “I was found by those who did not seek Me;                                                                        I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”

• In even bolder language, Isaiah quotes the Lord as being found by the Gentiles, who weren’t really looking for Him, and being made manifest to those who weren’t inquiring for Him (Isa. 65:1). Taken as a whole, the Gentiles didn’t seek after God. They were satisfied with their pagan religions. But many of them did respond when they heard the gospel. Relatively speaking, the Gentiles responded more than the Jews

21   But to Israel he says:                                                                                       “All day long I have stretched out My hands                                                                              To a disobedient and contrary people.”

• Against this picture of the Gentiles flocking to Jehovah, Isaiah portrays the Lord standing all day long with outstretched, beckoning hands to the nation of Israel, and being met with disobedience and stubborn refusal.