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Romans 9:30-10:13
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness1 did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
10:1 Brothers,2 my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.3
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
[1] 9:31
[2] 10:1
[3] 10:4
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Do you have a bible? I invite you to open to Romans chapter 9 as we continue our study in Romans. Romans 9, it's also there in your worship guide. I know in a group that our size, we likely have a, wide range of people here this morning. Probably some of you have been Christians for a long time.
Jeffrey Heine:Some of you are newer to the faith. Some of you are here just because you're curious and you wanna find out maybe more about Christians, what Christianity is. Some of you probably don't know why you're here. You're not quite sure. Maybe it's because of the good looking person next to you that invited you.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm not sure why you are here, but, I'm glad you are here this morning because what we're gonna be looking at is what I think is the clearest statement we have in scripture as to how to become a Christian. How does one actually become a Christian? So if you would, we're gonna read Romans 9. We're actually gonna begin in verse 30. What shall we say then?
Jeffrey Heine:That gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it. Did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith. But as if it were based on works, they have stumbled over the stumbling stone as it is written.
Jeffrey Heine:Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Jeffrey Heine:For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim.
Jeffrey Heine:Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Jeffrey Heine:This is the word of the Lord. Please pray with me. Father, we do ask that you would honor the very reading of your word. Through your spirit, you would talk to us. Lord, I pray that perhaps for the first time, some people here would hear you, Jesus, calling them, calling them to yourself, calling them to lay down their burdens and to come and find rest.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So Lauren and I have made many mistakes as a parent. Hopefully, the mistakes haven't been too great for our kids to overcome.
Jeffrey Heine:I have heard it said that you do not get to choose as a parent if your kids go to counseling. You only get to choose what type of counseling they will need. And, and if you are a parent, you realize that. Your kids will someday be in counseling due to your parenting. You you just hope you don't mess them up too much.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not easy though being a parent because you literally have to teach your children everything. I mean, things that are just so common sense you have to teach your kids. I had to teach my kids you don't drink toilet water. You don't eat cockroaches. The worst was this.
Jeffrey Heine:One of our girls climbed up in our bathroom sink and she pulled out the little stop, and she just ate all of the black goo. I mean, she wouldn't eat dinner, but but she ate that. And we had to tell her not to do that twice. Okay? But as a parent, you're always having to tell your kids, you know, what not to do and you're always instructing them.
Jeffrey Heine:There was one area that we wanted to make sure we didn't mess up as parents. And it was this, we wanted to introduce our children to God the right way. I mean, that's a pretty big ask that we have as parents from God. Like, we have to introduce our kids to him. We help shape their very first thoughts about God.
Jeffrey Heine:So how are you gonna introduce God to your kids? What are gonna be the first truths that you put forward before them? Do you introduce God as I like to tell you kids about our creator, our redeemer, the one who forgives you, they instinctively kind of pick up on he's the one who you give thanks to because you're always thanking him for food. You're thanking him for a good day. You're thanking him for things.
Jeffrey Heine:But what's the first truth you tell your kids about God? We decided, Lauren and I, we put a lot of thought into this, and we decided we were gonna introduce our children to to God as this. He is the one who changes hearts. And so when our kids asked about God for the first time, each one of them, we said, well, God is the one who changes hearts. So I mean, once again, I think I just probably decided the type of therapy they will need someday.
Jeffrey Heine:Hopefully, that didn't mess them up too much. But but I thought that was the best introduction to them. It implies a lot. For 1, it shows them that they need a heart change. And it tells them to whom they could go forth that there is a being good enough, loving enough, and powerful enough to give them a new heart.
Jeffrey Heine:God is the one who changes hearts. Now as we have been digging through Romans 9, we have seen God change hearts. We have seen that this heart change that it happens to Christians, that this is something that Paul explains through the terms of election. Or he says, people's hearts are changed by the predetermined plan of God. Predestination.
Jeffrey Heine:And I know I did such a great job preaching that. None of y'all have any questions about predestination. Actually, know that I have questions. I have studied that for over 30 years, and not all the puzzle pieces fit into place. There's some things that are still fuzzy with me when I think through that.
Jeffrey Heine:But that's okay, because I still have a lot of questions about the trinity. I mean, we were just singing about God in 3 persons. Explain that one to me. Somehow, God is in 3 persons, yet there's one God, and also each person is fully God. Those are truths that we hold up because scripture clearly teaches them.
Jeffrey Heine:But when we try to figure out how they work together, we're not really sure. And it's similar with predestination. When it comes to the sovereignty of God and the will of man, we see that God is 100% sovereign. He is sovereign over eve our hearts. And we also see that man is 100% responsible and that our decisions matter.
Jeffrey Heine:And we hold on to both of those truths. Now Romans 9 leans into the sovereignty of God. Romans 10 leans into the responsibility of man. In Romans 9, Paul leaned into God's sovereignty, and he told us that the reason we are saved is because we are elected. In Romans chapter 10, Paul tells us that the reason that anyone is lost is not because they were not elected.
Jeffrey Heine:It's because they rejected Jesus as the Messiah. They made that decision. So, he says, God is responsible for our acceptance of the gospel. Man is responsible for their rejection of the gospel. So if you are saved, that's on God.
Jeffrey Heine:If you are lost, that's on you. And that's how chapter 10 begins here. Paul begins explaining why by and large, the Jewish people have rejected Jesus as the Messiah, and he does not say they rejected him because they weren't elected. He says they rejected him because they didn't choose him. They made a decision.
Jeffrey Heine:He uses the language of they, they misunderstood the law. They were stumbling when it came concerning the law, and because the law tripped them up, they were tripped up when they came to Jesus. Now I realize whenever we talk about the Jew and Gentile thing in church, I see it every time. I mean, every time in the congregation, I would talk about what scripture is saying about the Jews. We have these Old Testament texts.
Jeffrey Heine:I see this glazing over of people. You just kinda check out. I get it. You're Gentiles. Alright?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, I'm looking out and I'm I'm seeing mostly Gentiles here. I I So I understand that, But don't check out. The reason Paul is bringing up why it is the Jews rejected Jesus, and he brings up that they stumbled concerning the law. They made mistakes. It's because he doesn't want you to make the same mistake.
Jeffrey Heine:That's why he's bringing it up. Said they were a very religious people. They were very zealous people. They were sincere and they were sincerely wrong. And their sincerity did not lead to salvation, their sincerity was leading them to damnation.
Jeffrey Heine:Sincerity is not what matters. He wants to be crystal clear, like, what you believe does matter. Don't make the same mistake that they made concerning the law. So what is it that they were sincerely wrong about? Well, they thought this.
Jeffrey Heine:Well, God would accept me. He'll accept me if I do enough good works. He'll accept me. The Jews, they thought that they could become righteous by trying their absolute best to keep the law or the old testament. You know, if they went to synagogue each week, if they gave their money, if they tithe, you know, at least if they gave money to the, the Salvation Army guy ringing the bell every Christmas.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, that's gotta count for something. If you're a lot not as mean as other people on social media, like, that's gotta count for something. You know, we're always judging ourselves according to other people. Like I'm doing a little bit better. God's going to accept me.
Jeffrey Heine:And the Jewish people thought they could keep enough of the old testament law that it would tip the scales in their favor. And they believed this sincerely, zealously, and they were wrong. Paul responds to them by saying, you stumbled over the purpose of the law. And because you stumbled over the purpose of the law, you're now stumbling when you come to Jesus as the Messiah. And it's like, you're just tripping all over the place.
Jeffrey Heine:And as I look out into this room, it's likely a number of you have been tripping over some things concerning Christianity. There's some things you just assume that Christianity teaches, that Christians believe and it's causing you to trip and to stumble and never really come to Christ. Perhaps, for some of you, you think that Christianity is a bunch of rules that you have to follow. Or that you have to live a perfect life in order to be Christian. And so you walk into the room like this, and it was really hard for you to walk into a room like this, and you look around and all you see is perfection.
Jeffrey Heine:You see that perfect Christian there, sitting with their perfect family, who drove in in their perfect minivan. You know, they're bringing out their perfect Bible, taking perfect notes. Like, everything about them is just perfection. And all you feel is, I can never measure up to that. If that's Christianity, I can never measure up.
Jeffrey Heine:And you feel so defeated. It's like if you decided to work out and you went to a CrossFit gym for the first time. You walk in. It took everything for you to get in there. And then all you see is those chiseled physiques lifting all this weight.
Jeffrey Heine:You see perfection. And it does not inspire you. It defeats you. You are so aware of how weak you are, how flawed you are. And you think, I could give myself for 10 years, and I will never achieve that.
Jeffrey Heine:And you trip. You stumble. That's not the gospel. That's not how one comes to Christ. Now, some of you, when you come to church, you get tripped up by seeing the opposite.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not that you see perfection. You see the person you got drunk with this past Friday night. You see the person who was yelling at their wife in the parking lot. You look around and what you see are all these sinners. And you're like, I'm in a room full of bunch of hypocrites.
Jeffrey Heine:These people call themselves Christians? And you get tripped up over that. You're like the person who goes into the CrossFit gym. I use the same analogy. You go in there and you're like, I don't even have to work out and I could lift more than all these guys.
Jeffrey Heine:And we all hate people like that. Don't we? Don't stumble over that. It's actually you're tripping over the same things. And that's I have to perform.
Jeffrey Heine:I I have to achieve. That's how you become a Christian. I've gotta strive up to some certain standard. And once I meet that, then finally God will accept me. And if you believe that, you're tripping over the same things that the Jews were tripping over concerning the law.
Jeffrey Heine:But, Paul says this in verse 4. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness To everyone who believes. And when Paul says that Christ is the end of the law, he's not just talking about the cessation of the law there. He's talking about the purpose or the end goal or the fulfillment of the law. The purpose of the law wasn't just even have rules to follow, the purpose of the law was to lead us to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:You miss Jesus? You miss the point of it all. That's what Jesus told us in John chapter 5. He's going to all these very religious, morally outstanding people. He says, you search the scriptures because you think in them you'll find life.
Jeffrey Heine:But these are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you might have life. The scriptures are to lead us to Jesus. So Christianity is not about, what you do. It is about what someone else has done for you. And Jesus lived a perfect life for you.
Jeffrey Heine:He kept the law, and he gives us his righteousness if you would just believe it. Now listen to Paul's words in verse 6. But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, That is to bring Christ up. In other words, Paul is saying, you don't have to do some great deed in order to become a Christian. It's not like, you know, The Wizard of Oz where it's bring back the broom of the wicked witch of the west.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, you have to somehow do some great herculean task to show your worth. Paul says not at all. Or as he puts it, there is no need for you to climb all the way up to heaven, because God came down to us in the person of Jesus. And there's no reason for you to have to descend all the way into the abyss, because Jesus went down there. He went to the grave itself, and he came back.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus is accessible to you. I've I've mentioned this, you know, numerous times, but every summer, I love to go out west, and I will hike and hike and hike. I love to climb mountains. For some reason, God has just kinda wired me this way. I love to spend just days exhausting myself trying to go up to the tallest peaks.
Jeffrey Heine:But even if I could climb Everest, that's not heaven. There's no way I could ever climb there. When I was in college, one of the stupid things I did in college it's the time to get it all out. I would go spelunking. So I actually would go into the abyss, over the Tennessee Alabama Georgia border.
Jeffrey Heine:The tag area there. You actually have some of the largest caves in the world. And, so I would go and explore them with my friends. And, one of the routes that we had read about was a very difficult route, and it would actually take days to go through. And so, we went in and I am now over 24 hours, crawling through this cave with my friend.
Jeffrey Heine:And finally it reaches a point where even my helmet wouldn't fit through. So I had to leave my helmet behind and I'm just laying down flat and I'm just inching myself like this. And and it's at that point I realized, I don't want to be here. It's like, it was it was right when I it's just in me and it hit me fast. It's like, I really don't wanna be here.
Jeffrey Heine:And I was 24 hours from daylight. It's as fast as I could go. It will be 24 hours before I could get out of there. And I started, like, almost having a panic attack. And I was just just calm down.
Jeffrey Heine:Just calm down. But at that moment, I felt crushed. I mean, I I felt like I was suffocating. And for some of you, that's how you view Christianity. You feel like you gotta go to the depths.
Jeffrey Heine:What you're being asked to do, it's it's crushing you. It's suffocating you. That's not Christianity. Jesus went to the depths for you. He's not asking you to do anything like that.
Jeffrey Heine:So what is he asking you to do? What is necessary for you to become a Christian? What must one do to be saved in other words or to have eternal life? Well Paul says in verse 8 this, the word is near you. It's in your mouth and it's in your heart.
Jeffrey Heine:Or in other words, salvation is so so close. I know God feels like he's a 1000000 miles away that you can never get out of the mess you're in. Oh, but he's so close. He's as close as your mouth and your heart. You can't get closer than that.
Jeffrey Heine:He's right there. And we read this in verses 9 and 10. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified. And with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Jeffrey Heine:And by saved, don't run away from that word. Saved, Paul means that you are forgiven. You've been given a new life, a new heart. The Holy Spirit comes inside you to dwell. You're adopted as his child.
Jeffrey Heine:You're promised everlasting life that you will physically rise from the dead someday and enjoy a redeemed world. That's what it means to be saved. And all of this is yours, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. That's it. And he's not asking for 2 different things here.
Jeffrey Heine:It's really just one thing. I don't think Paul's, he knows, you know there's annoying like 2 step verification processes, you know. That that's not what Paul's doing here. Like the 2 step verification for salvation. This is one thought.
Jeffrey Heine:In Hebrew, you know the, literary device they would often use as Hebrew parallelism, saying the same thing 2 different ways. And really you have that here. You confess what you believe. You confess what you believe. So what must you believe confess?
Jeffrey Heine:Well, it's the lordship and the resurrection of Jesus. Now in Paul's day, it's different than ours. People had to confess that Caesar was Lord. And by this, they meant that Caesar was their king, That they lived under his reign. And so when Christians confessed Jesus is Lord, it was seen as treason.
Jeffrey Heine:They were saying that we'd no longer recognize Caesar as our Lord. We are living in another kingdom with another king. And this is why Christians could be thrown to the lions. They were committing treason by acknowledging another lordship other than Caesar. That's the bare minimum of what is meant by this.
Jeffrey Heine:This whole new lordship, this whole new kingship. Jesus is your master. You're in his kingdom. But Christians also meant when they said Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is God. They were calling Jesus God Himself.
Jeffrey Heine:The the word Lord here, in the Greek old testament, that word Lord is the word they used for Yahweh all throughout the Greek old testament. You actually see this in verse 13 in which Paul is quoting from the Old Testament. He quotes from Joel chapter 2. And he says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now that word Lord in Hebrew is the word Yahweh.
Jeffrey Heine:God himself. But here he says, Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Yahweh. So to confess Jesus as Lord is to confess that he is the sovereign God. Yahweh Himself, who has complete authority over your life.
Jeffrey Heine:So we confess Jesus is Lord. And then we believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. That the resurrection is the proof that Jesus is Lord. That the grave itself didn't have the power to keep God down. But he was raised to life.
Jeffrey Heine:That God triumphs, and Jesus triumphed over sin and death. So the resurrection is the proof that he is who he said he was, and he did what he said he would do. And Paul says, if you believe this, you are saved. Once again, it's not a great work. Just believe.
Jeffrey Heine:If you read through your Bibles, you'll find the word believe or the word faith. 464 times. It's the advantage of Bible software. You could just look it up. But the reason that is I mean, scripture's just saturated.
Jeffrey Heine:Believe. Have faith. The reason that's there is because it's the central part of Christianity. We believe in Jesus. We put our faith in Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:That's why we have John 316. For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever, what? Believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. We're in acts 16, when the jailer goes to Paul and says, what must I do to be saved? Paul just says, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
Jeffrey Heine:Believe. And now, this is not just an intellectual belief. James tells us that even the demons believe. But that's not a belief that leads to salvation. You know demons actually have way better theology than you or me.
Jeffrey Heine:They're way more orthodox. They really There's not a doubt in their mind that Jesus is God. Not a doubt in their mind that Jesus rose from the dead. Demons, Satan himself have an incredible orthodox belief. But it's a belief that leads to damnation, not a belief that leads to salvation.
Jeffrey Heine:So what kind of belief are we supposed to have here? It's very important. It's not just an intellectual belief. What Paul is describing here is is a transfer of your trust. Whom are you trusting in?
Jeffrey Heine:A saving belief is a trusting belief. It's when you transfer trusting in your own good works to save you, being your own God, and you transfer it over and say, Jesus, you alone saved me. When you have that kind of belief, you were saved. Do you believe that? Paul then says in verse 12, If you do, then all the riches of Jesus are given to you.
Jeffrey Heine:All the riches. That's everything we've been looking at in Romans. Once again, that's you're forgiven of your sins. You're given a new heart. A new joyful heart that loves God.
Jeffrey Heine:His spirit comes to dwell inside of you. You're adopted. You get to call God, Father, Abba, Father. You are promised resurrection to come, a new body, life with him, everlasting. The riches are immense.
Jeffrey Heine:All of you joyfully call out to him as Lord and Savior. Now some of you today, I believe need to be reintroduced to God. I think when you look back at maybe your first memories of God, it it didn't give a good impression. You you thought of God first maybe as he's the one who's really distant, vague. He's the one I can never reach.
Jeffrey Heine:Or perhaps you associate God with guilt or shame. You just always felt dirty when when people talked about God. Or maybe you associate God with the one who gives you a list of all these rules that you have to follow. Or maybe your impression of God is he's the one who's disappointed in me. Let me reintroduce you to who God is.
Jeffrey Heine:You see him in Jesus. Jesus is Yahweh. He is God. And he's the one who changes hearts. He's the one who will joyfully change your heart should you call out to him.
Jeffrey Heine:He's the one who offers you forgiveness and everlasting life. He's the one who says, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And I invite you in this moment to come to him. Pray with me. Father, thank you for coming to us, through your son, Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus, thank you for doing the works we can never do. For living the perfect life we can never live. Spirit of God, thank you for coming in us and taking away our heart of stone and giving us a soft heart of flesh that loves and longs for you. And father, if there's anyone here who has never heard you calling them, in this moment, may they hear you. We pray this in the name of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen.