Written by: Christopher Woods
Romans 10 v 9-13
If you use your mouth to say, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe in your heart
that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. We believe with our
hearts, and so we are made right with God. And we use our mouths to say that
we believe, and so we are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts
in him will never be disappointed.” That Scripture says “anyone” because there
is no difference between those who are Jews and those who are not. The same
Lord is the Lord of all and gives many blessings to all who trust in him, as
the Scripture says, “Anyone who calls on the Lord will be saved.”
Notes
The words “Jesus is Lord” are the earliest creedal form that we know of that
the first Christians used in public worship. To confess (the Greek for this
is homologeo) means to give verbal affirmation of our faith, or in other
words, to acknowledge with our mouth that Jesus Christ died and rose again
for us. In this confession, however, it is not enough to merely utter the
words of the creed with our mouths; we must also believe them inwardly from
the heart.
“Jesus is Lord” carried great weight in Paul’s day, although today the word “Lord” is only used in diplomatic circles. It was a title of respect (similar to saying “Sir”), a form of address reserved for Roman emperors, a title given to Greek gods, and the title used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament name for God: Yahweh.
When we confess Jesus as Lord, we are acknowledging his supreme position in creation. We are then pledging our obedience and worship under his authority for our present and future safekeeping.
Prayer exercise
Spend a few minutes reflecting on the word “Lord” and its different possible
meanings. What does “Jesus is Lord” mean to you in your life right now? How
does Jesus being your Lord make a difference?
Romans 10 v 14-15
But before people can ask the Lord for help, they must believe in him; and
before they can believe in him, they must hear about him; and for them to
hear about the Lord, someone must tell them; and before someone can go and
tell them, that person must be sent. It is written, “How beautiful is the
person who comes to bring good news.”
Notes
The verse “How beautiful is the person who comes to bring good news” is a quotation
from Isaiah 52 v 7. The herald is bringing good news to the Jewish people
in exile about the end of their captivity in Babylon and their guaranteed
return to the homeland.
Just as the feet of the herald (metaphorically speaking) were beautiful, so were the feet of the Lord Jesus who brought good news to the people of God under the Roman dictatorship during the early part of the first century.
When we have heard and received the Gospel (the Good News of Jesus Christ), we need to share it with others. There can be no faith, no understanding, no preaching, until those who have received the Gospel share it with non-believers. The Greek word for “preach” (kerusso) must not be limited to the Sunday morning sermon from the pulpit. It means that all Christians are to announce the Good News wherever they have the opportunity – in a friend’s home, at the workplace, on the bus or train – whatever the God-given circumstance might be. Let us prepare ourselves in prayer for this divine mission.
Prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, in response to what I have just read, please prepare me to
be ready to share your good news to people I meet today. Amen
Romans 10 v 16-18
But not all the Jews accepted the good news. As Isaiah said, “Lord, who believed
what we told them?” So faith comes from hearing the Good News, and people
hear the Good News when someone tells them about Christ.
But I ask: Didn’t people hear the Good News? Yes, they heard—as the Scripture
says:
“Their message went out through all the world; their words go everywhere on
earth.”
Notes
“But not all the Jews accepted the good news.” Many Jewish people did not accept
the Gospel of Jesus Christ when St Paul proclaimed it. They heard it all
right but refused to believe it and submit to it. It was also true in the
prophet Isaiah’s day: “Lord, who believed what we told them?”. Many of the
Jewish people of the Old Testament had failed to respond in the eighth century
BC, just as many of them had when Jesus and Paul expounded it.
We also need to be prepared for a negative response at times, perhaps more often than not in these unbelieving days. However, having allowed the message to change ourselves, we ought to change the way we look upon others who have not heard the Gospel. One tremendous incentive for receiving our message is when non-believers see the Gospel changing us. As someone has so rightly said: “we need to walk the talk”.
“Didn’t people hear the Good News?” Some might argue that the Jewish people who did not accept the Good News were not given enough chances to hear, or that somehow the message should have been made clearer for them. They heard all right, and the message has gone to the four corners of the globe (St Paul is quoting from Psalm 19 v 4). When we pass on the message of Jesus, we become part of the “words” which go out everywhere.
Prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, help me to pass on your “words” to my part of the world –
to my family, my town, my friends, my school or university, my workplace,
wherever I may be. Thank you for the privilege of being able to bring your
good news to people. Amen
Romans 10 v 19-21
Again 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 them jealous.
I will use a nation that does not understand to make them angry.”
Then Isaiah is bold enough to say:
“I was found by those who were not asking me for help.
I said, ‘Here I am. Here I am,’ to a nation that was not praying to me.”
But about Israel God says,
“All day long I stood ready to accept people who turned against me.”
Notes
Paul puts a question to the unbelieving Jewish people - “Didn't the people
of Israel understand” - and answers it without waiting for an answer: “Yes,
they did understand.” The Jewish people’s knowledge of the Old Testament
scriptures should have led them to believe in Christ. Paul quotes first from
the book of Deuteronomy 32 v 21 and then from Isaiah 65 v 1 to make the Jewish
people who did not accept the Good News jealous of God’s offer of salvation
to the Gentiles.
God is the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews, and the Gentiles had found Yahweh (the Old Testament name for God) almost by accident. It is important to remember that God loves Gentiles as well as Jewish people. Gentiles consist of everyone who is not born a Jew. Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight.
Even though God loved the Jewish nation, they were frequently stubborn and disobedient during Old Testament history. However, God was still holding out his hands to his special people – hands of welcome and of giving. All day long, he was - and still is - ready to welcome back his people on the strength of the covenant he made with them during the time of the patriarchs and the prophets.
Prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you that people of all races, of all nations are precious
in your sight. Help me to understand that I am precious in your sight as
well. Amen
Romans 11 v 1-6
So I ask: Did God throw out his people? No! I myself am an Israelite from the
family of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God chose the Israelites to
be his people before they were born, and he has not thrown his people out.
Surely you know what the Scripture says about Elijah, how he prayed to God
against the people of Israel. “Lord,” he said, “they have killed your prophets,
and they have destroyed your altars. I am the only prophet left, and now
they are trying to kill me, too.” But what answer did God give Elijah? He
said, “But I have left 7,000 people in Israel who have never bowed down before
Baal.” It is the same now. There are a few people that God has chosen by
his grace. And if he chose them by grace, it is not for the things they have
done. If they could be made God’s people by what they did, God’s gift of
grace would not really be a gift.
Notes
Because in the Old Testament the Jewish people constantly rebelled against
God, one might be tempted to think they would have been rejected, but they
were not. Paul asks the rhetorical question: “Did God throw out his people?
No!” The Apostle Paul could speak for himself, as he himself was Jewish with
an aristocratic forebear – Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. After all, God
had chosen the Jewish people as his special people before the year one.
Even as the nation of Israel had been disobedient over centuries, there had always been some who had remained loyal to God – Elijah for example, and 7,000 in the nation at the time of his prophecies. None of them had bowed the knee to Baal, the god of the Canaanites. At the time of the Apostle Paul’s writing, there were still plenty of Jewish people who believed in Jesus. They had been called by God’s grace, not by what they had done, but by what God had done in their lives. They had received God’s unmerited favour – a gift which is either accepted or rejected.
It is good to remember that there are more and more Jewish people turning to Jesus in our own day and age. They have understood that "grace” is a gift and are readily receiving it – that’s Jesus!
Prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for your gift of “grace”, which I cannot earn but
which you give freely. Help me to understand more and more the meaning of
“grace” in my life. Amen
Romans 11 v 7-10
So this is what has happened: although the Israelites tried to be right with
God, they did not succeed, but the ones God chose did become right with him.
The others were made stubborn and refused to listen to God. As it is written
in the Scriptures:
“God gave the people a dull mind so they could not understand.”
“But to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands; you don’t
really understand what you see with your eyes or hear with your ears.”
And David says:
“Let their own feasts trap them and cause their ruin; let their feasts cause
them to stumble and be paid back.
Let their eyes be closed so they cannot see and their backs be for ever weak
from troubles.”
Notes
What Israel sought so earnestly, it did not obtain. The Jewish people had endeavoured
to obtain God’s acceptance by keeping to the works of the law, but God did
not accept all of them. Instead, he accepted a remnant which accepted his
sovereignty and grace and were justified by their faith. The majority of
the Jewish people were foreseen by God to be rebellious and insensitive to
his call. They refused to listen.
Paul quotes two Old Testament verses to back up his argument. The first is from Isaiah 29 v 10 and the second from Deuteronomy 29 v 4. Their eyes were blinded so they could not see and their ears deafened so they could not hear. This was happening in Paul’s time as he went from town to town preaching, and it is still occurring today – people close their hearts to shut out the good news of Christ’s salvation.
The other quotation in verse 9 is taken from Psalm 69 v 22-23. “Let their own feasts trap them and cause their ruin...”. The blessings which God offered the Jewish people had rebounded on them. The blessings should have led them to Christ. Instead they had become a snare and a trap and a rod upon their backs (see Psalm 69 v 22-23 in the NLV translation of the Bible).
Prayer exercise
Think for a few minutes on this phrase: “people close their hearts to shut
out the good news of Christ’s salvation”. Reflect on what the reasons might
be for this. Pride? Rebellion? Bad experiences with the church? Ask God to
help you reach people you know who may have closed their hearts, for whatever
reason.
Romans 11 v 11-12
So I ask: when the Jews fell, did that fall destroy them? No! But their mistake
brought salvation to those who are not Jews, in order to make the Jews jealous.
The Jews’ mistake brought rich blessings for the world, and the Jews’ loss
brought rich blessings for the non-Jewish people. So surely the world will
receive much richer blessings when enough Jews become the kind of people
God wants.
Notes
“So I ask: when the Jews fell, did that fall destroy them?” This is the tenth
time in this epistle that Paul has asked this rhetorical question, and the
answer is a categorical “No!” Israel’s failure to respond had not placed
them outside the pale. Their fall was not fatal. Their mistake had brought
salvation to the Gentiles.
When Paul went on his missionary journeys, he would first visit the Jewish synagogues to proclaim the good news of Jesus. If he was shouted down or turned away, he would go to the Gentiles to share it with them instead. The response from the Gentiles resulted in the Jewish people becoming jealous, and it brought blessings to the Gentile world.
“So surely the world will receive much richer blessings...” Paul looked beyond the present to a future time when Israel would accept the riches still on offer. The world then would be blessed in a richer manner than at the time of writing.
I believe we are seeing these words being fulfilled today as the Christian Church is being strengthened in a new way. More and more Jewish people are turning to Jesus and recognising him as their Messiah. They are called Messianic Jews and we need to pray for them.
Prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you that you still love Jewish people and that many
all around the world are coming to faith in you as the Messiah. Please help
and strengthen them as they make a stand for you, and I pray that many more
will come to know you as their saviour. Amen
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes