Chapter 10
Paul wants his people to be saved, he recognizes the zeal for God, and he recognizes the ignorance of God. They seek through the law to establish their own righteousness (previous verses) when God has already done that for them through Christ.
2021 - These two verses:
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. [Rom 10:3-4 ESV] Even more detail about the stumbling. Israel didn't realize that the Law was there as part of God's plan to impute righteousness to them through the perfection of His Son. They saw it as a way to cut God out of the "judgment business" entirely, and to make themselves whole by their own ability to keep the letter of the contract. And they were so focused on "doing for themselves" that they just failed to recognize that Jesus was God's way of "consummating the contract of the Law". The Law was never really about them, it was about God doing all the work since God makes all the rules..
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); [Rom 10:6-8 ESV]
Never understood this quotation before. Always thought it was about Jesus' triumph over sin and death and him going down to hell to proclaim his victory to them and to heaven in celebration with God's angels. Seems all wrong now, in light of the MSB note.
What this is saying is that salvation is not some big journey and quest all around the universe - to heaven and back and to hell and back. It isn't that hard. You don't have to search far and wide. In fact, the answer is right inside your own soul. Faith is all you need, right where you sit or stand or walk. And remember that this quotation is from Dt. 30:12, 13. It goes that far back. It was always just faith.
He concludes with this verse...and then builds on it still higher:
13 For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." [Rom 10:13 ESV]
Next he asks "How can they call on Him...."
So the question seems to be that it is unreasonable to expect the lost to realize that they need faith in Jesus if no one has told them, no one has been sent, no one has preached the gospel to them. How can these be condemned for a lack of faith in someone they have no inkling about? How is this ok?
2024 - This verse:
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. [Rom 10:17 ESV]. The word translated "from" in "from hearing", is the Greek word ex. As in exit. As in example. As in external. From hearing comes faith. Hearing is sort of the source from which faith is generated. In the second phrase, "hearing through the word", through is the Greek word dia. NASB translates it by, ESV as through. Here are a couple of other verses in ESV that translate dia: 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: [Mat 1:22 ESV]. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. [Mat 2:12 ESV]. The thing you must hear in order for hearing to produce faith, is the gospel, the story of the work of Christ. The word translated "word" here is NOT "logos". It is "rematos". This has an amazing meaning. The root word "rema" means ANY WORD SPOKEN BY A HUMAN VOICE that has meaning. However one might have been able to come to faith in the OT, by looking at the stars and so on, God's revelation of himself in the heavens, has been replaced by the spoken word, by preaching, by one person witnessing to another. You have to hear about Christ FROM another person, in order to be saved today. Here is the reason for missionary work! Here is why we send them. Here is why it is so vital that we also TELL OTHERS! They will not get in unless they hear from us!
What a post this might be!!! Oh my!!! See conclusion below though....
2024 - More, a few days later. ex- is the word ek-. It is written ex- when it is before a vowel. Hearing in the Greek starts with an alpha. So that is what ex-means. Here is some of the definition of the word ek- from Zodhiates: "with the primary meaning out of, from, of; spoken of such objects which before were in another but are now separated from it, either in respect of place, time, source, or origin, etc." Here is another amazing thing. ek- is the direct opposite of eis which means to become part of or to be identified with. The definition goes on and on but this is enough for now. The point here is that faith comes "out of" hearing. Faith was somewhere else, but comes to us "out of" hearing the gospel. That is pretty amazingly clear.
Then dia. This word is not separately listed in Zodhiates. That is disappointing. Yes it is!!! Found it! It is "a primitive preposition denoting the channel of an act; through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional) - after, always, among, at, to avoid, because of that, briefly. Hearing comes to us through the channel of the word of Christ. The word of Christ is the gospel, but more. I think it is everything he said, everything recorded in the NT, all the stuff in red. We must first hear the word or Christ, and then "out of" that hearing can come faith. I think this means that in order to be saved, today, under the New Covenant, someone must preach the word - or tell the word - of Christ to us, and upon hearing that message from Christ, comes saving faith. The spoken word is key.
Think of the implications of this understanding. In the OT, the mediator had not yet come. God spoke directly to Israel from Mt. Sinai and scared them so badly they never wanted to hear from him in that way again, but asked that Moses mediate for them. Saving faith at that time was based on willingness to obey the Law (that needs work, that isn't worded correctly). For Abraham, it was just about believing what God told him. But again, it was direct from God to Abraham. When all things in heaven and earth were given into Christ's hands, it changed! Dispensationalist or not, it clearly did change, and Rom 10:17 tells us what it became. It became faith out of hearing through the word of Christ. Salvation is now in Christ alone. God is there, but Christ is the necessary mediator or you cannot reach God.
In vs 18, Paul quotes Psa. 19:4 to show that even David realized that God's revelation of Himself had reached the whole world. Here is the quote:
18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for "Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." [Rom 10:18 ESV] There is that Psalm that says "The heavens declare the glory of God..." Somehow, this realization of God's hand in all that is may be construed by God as faith in His Son, and so none are ever condemned without opportunity first to believe. I think that's the inescapable conclusion here.
2025 - Think what this implies, if I am interpreting it correctly...
From Adam to Moses, no sin was imputed. There was no gospel either. Salvation was by faith in its simplest form. If one comprehended by the proof of nature, the proof in the heavens of stars and the sun and the moon and the interaction and complexity and repeatability of these things and the seasons...if one comprehended the watch maker from looking at the watch, that faith was counted as righteousness. THEREFORE, those who never heard or comprehended Jesus could still be counted righteous.
Then came the Law. From Moses to Jesus the Law was the way. The Law was for the Jews, but there are many examples where it was available to Gentiles - prisoners of war especially, slaves, and so on. So the question is, was righteousness by faith born of comprehending the watch maker still available once the Law came? I am going with yes because I want it still be yes. The Law was for Israel, to separate them, to teach them, and to show them that the perfection of behavior and thinking required to be righteous in the eyes of God could not be achieved by man. The Law was there to condemn. Under the Law, SIN WAS IMPUTED! The sacrificial system could appease God for unintentional sin only. Sin through ignorance was still not imputed. Deliberate sin - as the sin of Adam - WAS now imputed because thee WAS Law! The Law was not about life it was about death as justice for transgression.
Then the fulfilment of the Law by Jesus. From Jesus to now. God sent his Son, and by substituting his son for all the world, righteousness was again available to all the world...but only THROUGH the sacrifice of the Son. The stars no longer preach. The spoken name of Jesus is required - one must HEAR of Jesus - because ONLY THROUGH HIM, and not through personal enlightenment of any kind, can the righteousness of Christ be obtained.
Therefore, IF WE DO NOT SPEAK, then WE are withholding a salvation unobtainable by any other means. We are precluding the imputation of righteousness to the lost in the world. Many who could be saved from Adam to Moses are now condemned to hell for lack of hearing. God opened the door to Gentiles, but he put a condition on it. He "narrowed the door" through which salvation must be obtained. By "the word of our testimony" about Jesus we open that door. This is not a secret that we ought to keep!
2025 - AND THIS!!!! These verses finally explained:
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); [Rom 10:6-8 ESV]
These verses confirm what I am saying! From Adam to Moses, the unsaved could obtain righteousness by deducing from the heavens that there WAS a watchmaker, or by deducing God from the realization that death cannot be permanent. BUT NOW, it is in Jesus - the comprehension of imputed righteousness THROUGH CHRIST ALONE - that salvation can be found, and in HIM ONLY!!
2023 - I think I have this right. Paul told them already that they have no right to question God's condemnation of the sinners that he created. Even though God CAN condemn without even offering salvation, Paul now says it is not and has never been that way. We go back to Psalms where the heavens declare. Paul is surely saying right here that all have opportunity. Either God accepts this "unfocused realization of his existence" as saving faith, or he in fact reveals his presence to those whom he has chosen. I think this means there was never a time when faith was not counted as righteousness, even without the details. This is my proof text for that. At the same time though, Paul is making a huge case for missionary work. Perhaps the point is that if the gospel is preached, there is a higher probability of salvation. Maybe direct revelation is a rare thing, for a very few whom God chooses to show that NONE is left without a chance, but that only a few come this way. And God can do that if he wants.
It seems, in hindsight, like these three chapters - and maybe even some before this - address the hardest questions that man has yet come up with to protest God's universal condemnation, to deny the total depravity concept. Paul spent time establishing that all have sinned...and then to establish the right of the potter over the clay to destroy vessels that are imperfect. Sometimes, many times, this right is difficult to swallow. One rebels at being in total subjection to ANY authority, even God Almighty. But this is what the Bible says, and it is plainly revealed and understandable in this book.
In vss 18-21, Paul says that ALL JEWS have heard the gospel. They should have seen it in Isaiah. Isaiah says that people for whom the message was never intended "heard" and believed. Paul is saying that the gospel intended for Israel has been joyfully taken up by the Gentiles, because their ears HEARD that spoken message! In the OT, with revelation limited to the Jews, only a few understood the gospel preached by nature itself. But now it must be heard from a human mouth, and ANYONE can hear what is spoken! THAT is the change that opens the gospel to the Gentiles in the NT. The delivery system for the good news CHANGED in the NT!!!