Coffee Shop Chapel

October 2

Romans 10:5-6, “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, 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.”

We are about to embark on an exciting trip into a very interesting passage of Scripture. Many are likely to be offended at what the Apostle Paul says in our text. Pluralism is the current “in philosophy” of most of today’s churches and religions. It is not politically correct to suggest, let alone preach, that some religions are better than others. The “let’s all just get along with one another” crowd certainly has no intention of getting along with those of us who dare to say that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. We who preach such a message find ourselves being categorized as uncouth and/or wickedly immoral. The truth is, “all [religions] are wrong that do not call us out of our own inadequate self-righteousness to faith in Jesus Christ.” (Boice)

That is, in a nut-shell, what Paul has been teaching us in this section of Romans. Paul has been explaining that the unbelief of his countrymen (the Jews) is not God’s fault, it was their own fault, because the Gospel had been communicated to them. Paul gives us an analysis of the situation by contrasting “a righteousness that is by law” with “a righteousness that is by faith.” Boice writes that our current text describes “three kinds of religion, pointing us away from the two wrong kinds of religion to the true religion that confesses Jesus Christ as Lord.”

“These three religions are: (1) the religion of works, (2) the religion of signs, and (3) the religion of faith. Paul develops them by telling us: (1) how legalism speaks, (20 how faith does not speak, and (3) how faith does speak.” (Boice)

Paul has explained in great detail the religion of works. But in our current text he adds a confirming quotation from the law of Moses. In verse 5 of our text, Paul quotes Leviticus 18:5, “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.” Paul also quotes the Leviticus verse in Galatians 3:12, “And the law is not of faith: but, the man that doeth them shall live in them.” In both quotes Paul “contrasts the way of works with the way of faith and show that they are mutually exclusive.” (Boice)

Moses, in the Leviticus passage, seems to be telling the people that they need to keep the law, and if they do keep it, God will bless them with an abundant life. Boice writes, “On the simplest level it is true that any person will be blessed to the extent that he or she lives according to the revealed law of God. That is only a way of saying that people who love God, keep the Sabbath, honor their parents, tell the truth, are faithful in their marriages, and do not steal or covet things that are not theirs, will be happy. People who dishonor God, break faith, cheat, lie, and live for material possessions are miserable.”

We also can take the Leviticus passage as saying that if the Jews, as a people, would keep God’s law, God would prosper them as a nation. 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Both points, individuals being obedient, and the nation being obedient to God, are true, but those are not the points Paul is making by quoting Leviticus 18:5. Paul certainly believed that morality is better than immorality, and that morality bring blessing. But to these truths, Paul would add two other important eternal life giving truths:

1. In religion, we are talking about more than mere morality, we are talking about how a person can be right (as in righteous) before God. It is true that if anyone could keep the law of God perfectly, that one would have (earn) eternal life. But no one can keep the law of God perfectly. “Therefore, salvation is beyond the grasp of those who are merely law-keepers.” (Boice) Our right standing before God must come by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.

2. You cannot mix the way of faith and the way of works. If you think you are going to be saved by keeping the law, you better keep all of it, all the time, forever. James 2:10, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Boice writes, “You cannot make up for your deficiencies [in keeping the law] by adding faith to it, just as it is also impossible to begin by faith and then add law.” Paul states this truth in Galatians 5:2, “Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.”

No one can be saved by works, no matter how hard they try. But this is what most of the world’s religions teach people to do, work for your salvation. Jesus was politically incorrect, John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Paul was also politically incorrect, and the Bible is politically incorrect, for they all teach us that if we are to be saved, we must give up any thought of contributing to our salvation and instead trust Christ and His work alone to save us.

F. Godet said that Christ “charged Himself with the doing.” He has left us “only the believing.”

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

Thank you Jim.

I am praying for you!

Dan

 

October 4

Romans 10:5-6, “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, 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.”

The first religion in our text is the religion of legalism, which adds works to faith or faith to works. Ephesians 2:8-9 not only eliminates works, it also states that the faith we exercise is not from ourselves, it is rather a gift from God, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Titus 3:5-6 also makes it abundantly clear that our salvation is all of God through Christ, and none of us, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.”

The second religion that Paul speaks of in our text, is the religion of signs, and in this religion we learn how faith does not speak. Paul loosely quotes from Deuteronomy 30:11-14, “For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.”

“Israel had the law and that law was all they needed. They were not to seek out an additional revelation but rather were to occupy themselves with obeying what they had already been given.” (Boice) Paul explains what Moses said by adding “that is, to bring Christ down from above” and “that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.” Why did Paul add these seemingly confusing explanations? Boice gives us three overlapping meanings:

1. Israel did not need an additional word from God. That is the literal meaning of the words from Deuteronomy. The law contained announcements of the gospel. In Romans 4, Paul showed that the doctrine of justification by faith was known to Abraham and David. Abraham was justified by faith before the law of Moses was given, and David was justified by faith after the law of Moses was given. One of the most thrilling messages you could ever hear would be a Jewish believer in Jesus Christ, preaching justification by faith, provided by Messiah Jesus, all based on Old Testament Scripture.

Paul application of these Deuteronomy verses to the church age is, we do not need any additional messages from any apostle or prophet. We have what we need already, it is the message that was proclaimed by the apostles: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus [Jesus is Lord], and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9).

2. Israel did not need to do something in order to bring the Messiah to them. Johannes Munck, Danish New Testament scholar, states that “the Jews held that it would require an effort to bring the Messiah down from heaven. Israel must repent before the Messianic era can begin.” The Jews wanted to do something to earn their salvation. But even before the Messiah came to earth, both Abraham and David illustrated the truth that salvation was (and is) by faith through grace, and not of works. Today, we know that Messiah has come, “so there is no need to ascend into heaven to bring Him down. He died for sin and has been resurrected. So there is no need to descend into the world of the dead to bring Him back. All that is needed is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel.” (Boice)

3. Neither Israel nor Christians today are to look for miracles. “If someone could produce Christ or His power on demand, bringing Him down from above or up from below, that person would be a miracle worker. But we are not to look for that, any more than we are to look for an additional revelation.” (Boice)

Both Moses and Jesus were used of God to do miracles. In the Deuteronomy text, Moses was about to die, and the people were anxious about who would lead them. Their biggest concern was “Who is going to lead us when Moses, the miracle worker, is gone?” What Moses tells them is that they do not need another miracle worker, because they have the law of God which contains the Gospel. “But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it” (Deut. 30:14).

The Jews in Moses and Joshua’s day wanted miracles! The Jews in Jesus’ day wanted miracles! Matthew 12:38-42, “Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.”

Boice writes, “Jonah did no miracles in Nineveh, yet Nineveh repented. Solomon did no miracles in Israel, yet the Queen of the South came to hear him speak. So the Jews’ demand that Jesus give them a sign was actually an evasion, since their real problem was that they did not like what He was teaching. However, just as the ‘preaching’ of Jonah reached the people of Nineveh and the ‘wisdom’ of Solomon reached the Queen of the South, so the word of the gospel is the means by which God saves sinners today.”

Do miracles occur today? God is not bound by anything and Scripture certainly teaches us that “Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8), so He is obviously as able to do miraculous things today as He ever was. “But we are not to seek miracles as part of the gospel presentation. For a religion of signs and wonders is as false a gospel as the religion of works. Both are attempts to do something that God has declared outside true Christian proclamation, and signs, as well as works, detract fatally from the message of Christ’s atonement.”

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

(Please pray for Jim as he recovers from his recent stroke.)

 

Thank you Jim - you speak from the heart and from your experience!

God bless you!

Dan Todd

 

October 6

Romans 10:5-9, “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, 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.”

In Romans 9-11, Paul deals with Jewish unbelief in her Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. In our text, we have seen that righteousness does not come through the law, because no one can keep that law. Paul also told us how faith does not speak, it does not call for signs. Now we come to the question, “But what saith it?” Or how does faith speak? Paul writes that “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 [Jesus is Lord], and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved,” verses 8-9.

This third religion that Paul speaks of is the religion of faith, the true religion. Boice writes, “First, it is a religion based on Jesus and His work alone.” In Romans 10:4, one of the applications was that “Christ is everything.” He is “the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” In this text the message is the same, “for the message that is near us, in our mouths and hearts, is Jesus, and the confession of faith through which we are saved is that ‘Jesus is Lord’ and that God raised Him from the dead.” (Boice) There is a lot of biblical theology here, but it is all about the Savior. Christianity is Jesus Christ, and anything that detracts from Him or His work (our works or signs) is a false religion.

The second essential of this true religion is faith. “We are not saved by works or miracles, but this does not mean that salvation is somehow extraneous to us in the sense that it happens mechanically. On the contrary, it is as intimate and life-transforming as anything could possible be. It finds us as dead men and women, under the curse of God, and it changes us into spiritually regenerated people who now live under God’s protecting love and blessing.” (Boice) Faith, which is Paul’s message, is how this marvellous transformation happens!

The life giving message of verse 9 is stated in the second person. You must confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you must believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and when you do this, you will be saved. “It is not of works, and it is not in response to miracles. But it is of faith! Therefore, it is only those who believe on the Son of God who are saved.” (Boice)

Boice writes, “This kind of religion is not calculated to stroke the fallen Adamic ego, and it is not ‘spectacular’ in a worldly sense. It will not win the attention of the world as would jumping unharmed from the pinnacle of the temple or casting out demons or predicting the future or healing the sick or turning hurricanes aside. But it is God’s true religion. And what is most important, it is the teaching God honors in accomplishing the most important miracle of all, namely, the regeneration of a dead soul, so that one who was formerly bound for hell is thereafter bound for heaven.”

In the last forty years, the preaching of biblical theology has been pushed aside by psychology and sociology. Both psychology and sociology have their place, but of the utmost importance is the exposition of the Bible that lifts up Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and calls upon all persons to turn from their sin and trust the risen Lord for their salvation. Why is this so important? Paul answers that question in Romans 10:10-11, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”

I close today with the words of a song written in 1957 by George Beverly Shea:

There’s the wonder of sunset at evening,
The wonder as sunrise I see;
But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
Is the wonder that God loves me.

There’s the wonder of springtime and harvest,
The sky, the stars, the sun;
But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
Is a wonder that’s only begun.

O the wonder of it all! The wonder of it all!
Just to think that God loves me.
O the wonder of it all! The wonder of it all!
Just to think that God loves me.

Thank you Father, for sending your precious Son to take my (our) place and purchase my (our) salvation. May I (we) never forget the tremendous price that was paid to freely give me (us) what I (we) could not purchase at any price. Amen!

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd