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Paul’s burden in Romans ten is to point out the problem which continued to block Israel from God’s many blessings, up to and even including salvation itself. They continued to seek to establish their own righteousness and allowed their knowledge of God’s righteousness to go unheeded. This problem lay at the root of the rest of their problems concerning God and salvation. Paul expands that point in the middle and latter verses of the chapter.

Perhaps some thought (as many today), that it was some spectacular personal accomplishment that would bring them into God’s favor, maybe a feat like ascending into heaven itself or descending into the deep (Romans 10.6-7). Yet, Paul calmly affirmed that such was not the case; it was not a matter of personal accomplishment; it was a matter of acknowledging what God through Christ had already accomplished. God’s righteousness was not accessed through the grandiose plans of men; it was accessed through active confidence [faith] in what God had already provided.

Romans 10.9 is not God’s plan of salvation, and neither is Romans 10.10. No one verse describes all that God requires of a man to be pleasing in His sight. Man is not saved by confession alone, faith alone, or calling on God’s name alone. Man is not saved by any “alone”. That is why we speak of God’s plan of salvation. It is not difficult or complex, but neither is it a plan that can be communicated in one or two sentences. If that were the case, why did God bother to write an entire Bible, a book comprised of 66 books, almost 1200 chapters, and in excess of 31,000 words? If God’s righteousness can be accessed by faith alone, confession alone, or by calling alone, that can be expressed on a post-it note and still have room to spare!

Paul’s point was and is this: God and God alone declares the means to man’s salvation! He needs no help in establishing the plan; He just needs us to hear and to submit. God absolutely decreed that if man is to be saved, he must hear His word. That degree went out in Eden and it echoes from Calvary. Hearing God speak through His appointed messengers is essential to salvation and that is Paul’s argument in Romans 10.14-17. How could one call on someone in whom they have not believed? How can someone believe in someone of whom they have not heard? How can one hear without a messenger? All of these rhetorical questions for a part of his powerful argument that hearing is an essential part of God’s plan of salvation.

But, had Israel not heard? Were they bereft of that grand privilege? “Absolutely not!” Paul affirmed. In fact, the sound of God’s messengers had called loud, long, and hard to Israel! If anyone should have known that God expected men to hear, Israel should have known! “Their [God’s messengers] sound,” Paul says, “has gone out to all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world.” So the problem was not one of hearing. Rather, Paul concludes this chapter by quoting Isaiah’s words, “All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people.” (Romans 10.21). The problem with Israel was that they were disobedient and contrary! Hardly a faith only passage would you say?

Questions:

1. When we seek to find righteousness through self appointed means, what do we imply about God’s system of righteousness?

2. If that is our attitude toward righteousness, what must God conclude about us?

3. Who decreed that hearing and faith are a part of the plan of salvation? When did God begin to expect man to hear and heed His word? When did He stop (if He ever did)?

4. How near is God’s word to us? How much effort does it take to open it and read it? What merit can one claim by simply following that part of the plan? To whom does the glory belong when a sinner accepts God’s plan by obeying the gospel?

"'Winging It" from Stan Smith

Moralism