Romans 10
Getting saved, the short course
Misdirected Passion of the Jews
1Dear family, I pray to God that the Jews will be saved. I want this with all my heart. 2I can tell you they have a passion for God. But it’s misguided. They don’t know any better. 3They don’t understand how people get on good terms with God. They don’t realize that it’s because of what God does. They think it’s because of something they have to do. So they miss out on connecting with God.4The Messiah finished the work that the Jewish law started: putting people on good terms with God. [1] Now, God accepts everyone who believes in the Messiah.
Say It Out Loud, “Jesus Is Lord”
5The Law had its way of putting people on good terms with God. Moses explained it this way, “Anyone devoted to these laws must show it in the way they live.” [2] 6Faith has its way of putting people on good terms with God. Here’s what our Bible says about that. “There’s no need to talk about who will go up to heaven and bring the Messiah to us. [3] 7And there’s no need to ask who will go down to where the dead stay and bring the Messiah back to us.”8The Bible says this too. “God’s word is right there with you. You feel it in your heart and you speak it from your lips.” [4] This is what we preach about faith. 9Say out loud that Jesus is Lord. Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. If you can do that, you’re going to be saved. 10If we believe this in our hearts, we’re on good terms with God. And if we said it out loud, we’re saved.
11The Bible says, “No one is going to regret putting their faith in him.” [5] 12Jew. Not a Jew. Makes no difference. There’s one Lord. He’s the Lord of everyone. He’s generous in his kindness to everyone who asks him for help.
Ask for Salvation, and You Get It
13The Bible says, “Everyone who asks for God’s help will be saved.” [6] 14But how can people ask for God’s help if they don’t believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they’ve never heard of him? And how can they hear about him unless someone spreads the word? 15And how can they spread the word unless someone sends them on this mission? The Bible says, “It’s a beautiful sound, the feet of those who bring us the good news.” [7]16The bad news is that not everyone believed the good news. Isaiah asked, “Lord, has anyone out there believed what we’ve been telling them?” [8] 17We’ve got to hear the message before we can put our faith in it. The message I’m talking about is the good news. It comes from Christ. [9]
What Happened to Israel?
18Haven’t my fellow Jews heard the good news? They sure have. As the Bible says:“Their voice rings out to the entire world.
Their words reach everywhere on earth.” [10]
“I’m going to make you jealous of people who aren’t even a nation.
I’m going to make you angry at people who don’t understand a thing about me.” [11]
“People who weren’t even looking for me found me.
People who weren’t even asking about me now know me very well.” [12]
“I’ve stood here all day long extending my hand
to these people who absolutely refuse to accept it.” [13]
Footnotes
“On good terms with God” is often translated “righteousness.”
Leviticus 18:5. The Greek words are phrased ambiguously. Some Bibles say Paul meant that if people what to live, they better obey the laws.
Bible experts debate what Paul is trying to say. He may be paraphrasing or at least referencing Deuteronomy 30:11-14. There, Moses says the law isn’t out of reach. “What I’m telling you to do isn’t hard. You don’t have to go hunting for the secret of how to do it.
You don’t have to ask, ‘Who on earth can we send to heaven to find out what we’re supposed to do?’ And you don’t have to ask, ‘Who can we send to the other side of the sea to find out what we’re supposed to do?’ You know what you need to do. The command is in your heart. It’s on your lips when you recite the words. You have everything you need to follow the law.” Some scholars say Paul may also have been referring to a teaching in the Gospel of John. “The only one who has ever gone up to heaven is the one who came down from heaven. You’re looking at him, the Son of Humans” (John 3:13).
“You know what you need to do. The command is in your heart. It’s on your lips when you recite the words. You have everything you need to follow the law” (Deuteronomy 30:14).
“You can count on this rock to hold you. It’ll give you no worry” (Isaiah 28:16).
“I’ll spare everyone devoted to the LORD” (Joel 2:32).
“How beautiful to see on the mountains / A messenger bringing news of peace” (Isaiah 52:7).
Isaiah 53:1
It’s unclear if Paul meant that the message was about Jesus, by Jesus, or both.
Psalm 19:4
Deuteronomy 32:21. Paul seems to be applying the quotation as a prophecy about God inviting non-Jews into his kingdom.
Isaiah 65:1
“All day long I reached out to people. All day long they brushed me off” (Isaiah 65:2).
Discussion Questions
- 1
Christianity started as a branch of the Jewish religion. The first Christians were Jews, like Jesus and his disciples and the apostle Paul. But by some 30 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, which is about the time Paul wrote his letter to Christians in Rome, most Jews wanted nothing to do with the Jesus Movement. Why do you think Jews—then and now—would struggle over Paul’s main idea: “The Messiah finished the work that the Jewish law started: putting people on good terms with God. Now, God accepts everyone who believes in the Messiah” (Romans 10:4)?
- 2
If Christianity was such a hard sell to Jews during Paul’s ministry—which it was, since they beat him up, stoned him, and ran him out of town time and again—why do you think Christianity was so popular when it first started as a religious movement inside the Jewish religion?
- 3
Paul might seem to be saying there are two ways to get on good terms with God: “The law” (Romans 10:5) and “Faith” (Romans 10:6). If you had to argue that Paul couldn’t possibly be saying something like that, how would you defend yourself?
- 4
Bible experts debate what Paul was trying to say in Romans 10:6-7. “There’s no need to talk about who will go up to heaven and bring the Messiah to us. And there’s no need to ask who will go down to where the dead stay and bring the Messiah back to us.” Which of the following guesses would make most sense to you?
- We don’t have to call the Messiah down from heaven or raise him from the dead because God already did that for us.
- We don’t have to go looking high and low, from heaven to hell, to find salvation. It came to us.
- Salvation isn’t far away. We can find it in God’s word “right there with you. You feel it in your heart and you speak it from your lips” (Romans 10:8).
- 5
There’s a debate among Bible experts regarding what Paul says in Romans about predestination. In some places, Paul seems to say that God picked the people who would be saved: “God knew who would become his children. That’s why he chose them to take on the characteristics of his Son and to become the first among many of God’s children” (Romans 8:29). But here he says, “Everyone who asks for God’s help will be saved” (Romans 10:13). Which is it?
- 6
LIFE APPLICATION. “Say out loud that Jesus is Lord. Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. If you can do that, you’re going to be saved” (Romans 10:9). Do you think it’s that simple? Can we simply say that Jesus is Lord and believe that he rose from the dead and then go on living a selfish and sinful life?
- 7
LIFE APPLICATION. What do you think a Christian looks like? In the short course, Paul says a Christian is someone who acknowledges that Jesus is the leader of their life and that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9). If that’s Christianity 101, what would a graduate course in Christianity say a Christian looks like?
- 8
LIFE APPLICATION. Do you think the call to ministry is unique—different than a desire someone has for any other kind of job? Paul starts this letter to the Romans by saying he “serves Christ Jesus as an official messenger” (1:1). And he may be referring to himself as someone sent to “spread the word . . . on this mission” (Romans 10:15).
Maps/Guides
