Romans 10:1-15

Romans 10:1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

Now these people had persecuted the Apostle. Wherever he went they had followed him up; they had hindered his work: they had sought his life: and yet this was the only return that he made to them to desire and pray that they might be saved. Let us never be turned aside from this loving desire for those among whom we dwell. We wish them nothing worse we cannot wish them anything better than that they may be saved. Let us not only desire it, but let us pray for it. Let us turn our desires into the more practical and holy form of intercession.

Romans 10:2. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

Always make allowance for anything that is good in those who, as yet, are not converted. We must not be unjust with them because we desire to be faithful to them.

Romans 10:3. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

And that is the great mischief with persons who are not saved. They are very sincere, very earnest, but they will not submit to the righteousness of God; they will not agree to be made righteous by the grace of God through Jesus Christ; but they «go about» that is the Apostle's word. It is very expressive of the energy men will put into it, and the shifts to which they will have recourse, in order to work out a righteousness of their own. They will go about, aye, even to the very gates of hell; they will try to climb up by prayers, even to the gates of heaven. They will go about to establish their own righteousness, but they do not know the righteousness of God, and they refuse to submit themselves to it.

Romans 10:4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

He that believes in Christ is as righteous as the law could have made him, if he had kept it perfectly. The end of the law is righteousness; that is, the fulfilling of it; and he that hath Christ will see the law fulfilled in Christ, and the righteousness of Christ applied to himself.

Romans 10:5. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise,

Ah! that is a very different sort of thing. It does not speak about doing and living, «but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise.»

Romans 10:6. Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

There is the gospel in a nutshell. What a very simple way it is to believe these great facts about the Lord Jesus Christ really to believe them so that they become practical factors in your life. This is all the way of salvation. Christ has not to be fetched down. He has come. He has not to be fetched up. He has risen from the dead. The work is finished. What thou hast to do is to believe in that finished work and accept it as thine own, and thou shalt be saved.

Romans 10:10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

How different all this from that going about to establish our own righteousness, this setting up of prayers, and tears, and church-goings, and chapel-goings, and good works, and I know not what beside! Instead of that, here is Christ set forth, and «ye are complete in him.» If you take him to be yours, you are «accepted in the Beloved,» and «being justified by faith, you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.» Oh! what a blessing is this!

Romans 10:11. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Though he did much that he need be ashamed of, yet when the law so brought him to believe in Jesus Christ for righteousness, he is righteous, and he is so righteous that he shall never be ashamed of his righteousness, nor ashamed of his faith in Christ. Would God that some who are going about after a righteousness of their own would be led to try this method, and believe in Jesus Christ.

Romans 10:12. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek:

What a blessed word that is «There is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile»! There are some that want to keep up that difference. They say that we are Israel, or something of the kind. I do not care what we are. There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.

Romans 10:12. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

Someone said to me, «I think that the Romish Church cannot be the Church of Christ. I do not think that the Church of England is the Church of Christ. Do you think the Baptists are the Church of Christ?' And my answer was, «The Church of Christ is to be found mixed up in all churches, and no churches at all.» It is a people that God has chosen from among men, and they are to be found here and there and everywhere, a spiritual seed that God has marked out to be his own; and they are known by this that they call upon the Lord, and «the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.»

Romans 10:13. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

We call upon that name by having confidence in it; by speaking to God in prayer, using that name; by adoring and reverently proclaiming the majesty and the name of God. Whosoever shall call upon or invoke that great name shall be saved.

Romans 10:14. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?

For at the bottom of the saving invocation or call there must be real faith. There cannot be any true worship of God unless it be grounded and bottomed upon faith in God.

Romans 10:14. And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

There cannot be such a thing as believing what has never been spoken in our hearing, and has never been made known to us. Of course, reading often answers the same end as hearing. It is a kind of hearing of the Word; but a man must know, or he cannot believe.

Romans 10:14. And how shall they hear without a preacher?

How is that possible? Do you see the machinery of the gospel? There is the calling upon the name. That comes of faith. There is the faith that comes of hearing; but there is the hearing that comes of preaching. Now a little farther.

Romans 10:15. And how shall they preach, except they be sent?

Poor preaching. It will not be the kind of preaching that produces believing hearing, except they be sent. If God does not send the man, he had better have stopped at home. It is only as God sends him that God will bless him. He is bound to back up his own messenger when he delivers God's own message. «How shall they preach, except they be sent?»

Romans 10:15. As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

And they are so beautiful because, you see, God has put them at the root of everything. God makes the preacher whom he sends to be the source of so much good, or the channel of so much good, for by his preaching comes the hearing, and by the hearing comes the believing, and out of the believing come the calling upon the name and the salvation.

Romans 10:16. But they have not all obeyed the gospel.

«But.» A sorrowful «but» is this. Oh! this is the mischief of it. The gospel, then, has an authority about it; or else the Apostle would not speak of obeying the gospel. Men are bound to believe what God declares to them, and their not believing is a disobedience. «They have not all obeyed the gospel.»

Romans 10:16. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

As if there were so few that did believe it, that he had to ask who they were.

Romans 10:17. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

You are wise, therefore, dear friend, if you are seeking salvation to be a hearer of the Word; but mind that it is the Word of God that you hear, because the word of man cannot save you. It may delude you. It may give you a false peace; but the hearing that saves is hearing which comes by the Word of God. Oh! take care, then, that you do not run hither and thither just because of the cleverness of certain speakers; but keep you to the Word of God whoever preaches it, for «faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.»

Romans 10:18. But I say, Have they not heard?

These very people for whom the Apostle prayed have they not heard?

Romans 10:18. Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

The preaching of the gospel went forth amongst those Israelites, who rejected it. Wherever they went, the gospel seemed to follow them like their shadows. They could not escape from it, but they did not believe it.

Romans 10:19. But I say, Did not Israel know?

Assuredly, Israel did know, but did not believe.

Romans 10:19. First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.

Moses told them that it would be so if they rejected Christ. Christ would be preached to the Gentiles, and those whom they thought to be foolish would come in and accept what they had rejected.

Romans 10:20. But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.

He told them, therefore, that God would save a people who hitherto had never sought after God that he would send the gospel to a people that were dead in sin, and had never asked to receive the light and life of God.