Romans 10
10
1Brothers, the thing I want most is for all the Jews to be saved. That is my prayer to God. 2I can say this about them: They really try to follow God. But they do not know the right way. 3They did not know the way that God makes people right with him. And they tried to make themselves right in their own way. So they did not accept God’s way of making people right. 4Christ ended the law, so that everyone who believes in him may be right with God.
5Moses writes about being made right by following the law. He says, “A person who does these things will have life forever because of them.”# Quotation from Leviticus 18:5. 6But this is what the Scripture says about being made right through faith: “Don’t say to yourself, ‘Who will go up into heaven?’” (That means, “Who will go up to heaven to get Christ and bring him down to earth?”) 7“And do not say, ‘Who will go down into the world below?’” (That means, “Who will go down to get Christ and bring him up from death?”) 8This is what the Scripture says: “God’s teaching is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart.”# Quotations from Deuteronomy 9:4; 30:12–14; Psalm 107:26. That is the teaching of faith that we tell. 9If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from death, then you will be saved. 10We believe with our hearts, and so we are made right with God. And we declare with our mouths to say that we believe, and so we are saved. 11As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disappointed.”# Quotation from Isaiah 28:16. 12That Scripture says “anyone” because there is no difference between Jew and non-Jew. The same Lord is the Lord of all and gives many blessings to all who trust in him. 13The Scripture says, “Anyone who asks the Lord for help will be saved.”# Quotation from Joel 2:32.
14But before people can trust in the Lord for help, they must believe in him. And before they can believe in the Lord, they must hear about him. And for them to hear about the Lord, someone must tell them. 15And before someone can go and tell them, he must be sent. It is written, “How beautiful is the person who comes to bring good news.”# Quotation from Isaiah 52:7.
16But not all the Jews accepted the good news. Isaiah said, “Lord, who believed what we told them?”# Quotation from Isaiah 53:1. 17So faith comes from hearing the Good News. And people hear the Good News when someone tells them about Christ.
18But I ask: Didn’t people hear the Good News? Yes, they heard—as the Scripture says:
“Their message went out through all the world.
It goes everywhere on earth.” Psalm 19:4
19Again I ask: Didn’t the people of Israel understand? Yes, they did understand. First, Moses says:
“I will use those who are not a nation to make you jealous.
I will use a nation that does not understand to make you angry.” Deuteronomy 32:21
20Then Isaiah is bold enough to say:
“I was found by those who were not asking me for help.
I made myself known to people who were not looking for me.” Isaiah 65:1
21But about Israel God says,
“All day long I stood ready to accept
people who disobey and are stubborn.” Isaiah 65:2
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Copyright © 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Romans 10
10
Israel Reduced to Religion
1-3Believe me, friends, all I want for Israel is what’s best for Israel: salvation, nothing less. I want it with all my heart and pray to God for it all the time. I readily admit that the Jews are impressively energetic regarding God—but they are doing everything exactly backward. They don’t seem to realize that this comprehensive setting-things-right that is salvation is God’s business, and a most flourishing business it is. Right across the street they set up their own salvation shops and noisily peddle their knockoffs. After all these years of refusing to really deal with God on his terms, insisting instead on making their own deals, they have nothing to show for it.
4-10The earlier revelation was intended simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for those who trust him to do it. Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers it’s not so easy—every detail of life regulated by fine print! But trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story—no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah, no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. So what exactly was Moses saying?
The word that saves is right here,
as near as the tongue in your mouth,
as close as the heart in your chest.
It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”
11-13Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.” It’s exactly the same no matter what a person’s religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help.”
14-17But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That’s why Scripture exclaims,
A sight to take your breath away!
Grand processions of people
telling all the good things of God!
But not everybody is ready for this, ready to see and hear and act. Isaiah asked what we all ask at one time or another: “Does anyone care, God? Is anyone listening and believing a word of it?” The point is: Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ’s Word is preached, there’s nothing to listen to.
18-21But haven’t there been plenty of opportunities for Israel to listen and understand what’s going on? Plenty, I’d say.
Preachers’ voices have gone ’round the world,
Their message to earth’s seven seas.
So the big question is, Why didn’t Israel understand that she had no corner on this message? Moses had it right when he predicted,
When you see God reach out to those
you consider your inferiors—outsiders!—
you’ll become insanely jealous.
When you see God reach out to people
you think are religiously stupid,
you’ll throw temper tantrums.
Isaiah dared to speak out these words of God:
People found and welcomed me
who never so much as looked for me.
And I found and welcomed people
who had never even asked about me.
Then he capped it with a damning indictment:
Day after day after day,
I beckoned Israel with open arms,
And got nothing for my trouble
but cold shoulders and icy stares.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.