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Do you have beautiful feet?

Like other biblical writers, Paul uses parts of the body to describe important spiritual functions. In Romans 10.9-13, for example, he uses the mouth and the heart respectively as metonyms for public confession and authentic belief. In verses 14-17, he uses the feet as a metonym for evangelism.

Here’s what Paul says:

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written [in Isaiah 52.7], “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah [53.1] says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Paul begins with a series of questions that move backward from effect to cause. Remember, in verse 13, he wrote, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Calling on the Lord’s name is the effect of faith. Faith is the effect of hearing a presentation of the gospel. One cannot hear such a presentation unless someone gives it. And that person will not give it unless he or she feels compelled to do so. That compulsion is itself the effect of being sent out by Christ to “make disciples,” which in turn means “teaching them to obey everything I [Jesus] have commanded you” (Matthew 28.19, 20). Salvation, then, is the final effect of faith responding to the word of Christ.

Obviously, however, Christ did not personally share the gospel with us. Someone else did as his messenger. In the ancient world, messengers ran from the scene of battle to the army’s home town in order to tell the outcome. Although callused, dusty, swollen, and sore, the messenger’s feet were considered beautiful by the townspeople if they brought good news of victory with them. Similarly, despite our manifest imperfections, people will consider us in a favorable light if they find salvation through our testimony.

So, back to the question: Do you have beautiful feet? Having believed in Jesus Christ for your own salvation, are you quick to share that faith with others? Are you the messenger who runs the marathon from battlefield to town square in order to tell others about Christ’s victory over sin and death? If not, why not? By nature, good news is meant to be shared.

If you don’t know what to say, just share your story and the Jesus story. If you’d like some practical hints about how to do that, listen to this sermon I recently gave at SeaCoast Grace Church in Cypress, California. (It may take a few minutes to download.) In it, my brother-in-law shares his story, and I offer some practical ideas about how to communicate the Jesus story. Sharing your faith isn’t difficult. It just requires the courage to stand on your feet and walk across the room to someone who needs good news.

This past weekend, I spoke at SeaCoast Grace Church about a question God asks us: "Why Aren't You Making a Difference?"

Download sermon MP3.

Download sermon handout.

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What must we do to be saved?

Romans 10.9-13 provides the answer:

That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”  For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Notice several things about this answer:

First, it excludes human effort. Suppose a swimmer is drowning. A lifeguard races out to rescue him. Does the swimmer do anything to rescue himself? Nothing, except trust the lifeguard to bring him safely to shore. Similarly, we do not contribute anything to our own salvation except putting our faith in the Great Life Saver. He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Second, it includes public confession. Paul mentions confessing with the mouth twice in these verses. He does not mean mumbling to ourselves. Instead, he means giving a public witness to our faith in Christ. And what specifically are we supposed to confess? That Jesus is Lord. In the Old Testament, the word Lord refers to God. To confess that Jesus is Lord means to publicly affirm that he is divine. And if he is divine, then we ought to love and obey him, for that is the first and greatest commandment (Matthew 22.37-40).

Third, it requires heartfelt belief. Obviously, anyone can mouth the words, “Jesus is Lord.” But our mouths ought to confess what is truly in our hearts. In these verses, Paul says that we ought to have a heartfelt belief in Jesus’ resurrection. His resurrection is the key to everything, as far as Christians are concerned. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then we will not either. If he has, then we will too.

Fourth, it excludes bigotry. The Great Life Saver does not discriminate between drowning souls. Since Paul’s special interest is with Jews and Gentiles, he mentions them. In our day, we might mention others: Israelis, Lebanese, Iraqis, Iranians, Mexicans, Canadians, and even us Americans. Paul quotes two Old Testament passages to prove the inclusiveness of salvation. Isaiah 28.16 says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” And Joel 2.32 says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Anyone means everyone, and everyone excludes no one, including you.

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In Romans 10.5-8, Paul distinguishes two ways of righteousness: by law and by faith.

Here’s what Paul writes:

Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: “The man who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by 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 deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming… 

According to Paul, righteousness by law is the way of effort. He quotes from Leviticus 18.5 in order describe this way: “The man who does these things will live by them.” For Paul, this verse sets an exacting standard of obedience to the law. If we obey it perfectly at all times, then we can attain righteousness this way. But in fact, we do not obey the law perfectly at all times. As Paul puts it in Romans 3.23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Consequently, the way of righteousness by the law is really a way of death. In the words of Romans 6.23, “the wages of sin is death.”

By contrast, righteousness by faith is an effortless way. We do nothing to get it. It is a gift. In the words of Romans 6.23, “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul illustrates the effortlessness of faith by riffing on Deuteronomy 30.11-14. In that passage, Moses had said to the Israelites:

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

What is Moses’ point, and what is Paul’s? Moses is not saying that the law is easy to obey. He is saying that it is easy to find. Finding God’s will is not a game of hide-and-seek in which we must search the highest heavens and the depths of the earth. Rather, God has revealed it to us precisely “so you may obey it.” Paul uses Moses’ words to make a similar point about the gospel. Finding the gospel does not require strenuous effort. Through Christ, God undertook all the hard work of making it known.

How do we come to know the gospel for ourselves? That’s the topic of our next Daily Word.

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For the past few days, we have been studying Paul’s explanation of why his fellow Jews rejected Christ. Their rejection is not a failure on God’s part. And God nonetheless used their rejection to extend salvation to us Gentiles. But we still don’t know why they rejected Christ. Romans 9.30-10.4 supplies the answer. 

Here’s what Paul writes: 

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written [in Isaiah 8.14 and 28.16]: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."    

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.  Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. 

There are several crucial terms in this passage: 

First, righteousness. The righteousness of God is the overarching theme of Romans. It refers not so much to God’s character as to his gift of salvation. He is righteous, true, but through the cross he graciously makes us righteous too. 

Second, works, which should be paired with law. According to Paul, his fellow Jews “pursued a law of righteousness…as if it were by works.” And they were “zealous” in doing so. But as Paul had shown in Romans 3.20, pursuing righteousness by works was impossible because “no one will be declared righteous in [God’s] sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” 

Third, faith. If we do not become righteous by works, faith is the only remaining option. Faith is trust in God. It is the humble attitude of a person who knows he cannot rescue himself and must trust the good graces of his Rescuer. Righteousness by faith is the essence of the gospel, according to Romans 1.17: “in the gospel righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last.” 

And fourth, Christ. According to Romans 8.3-4: “what the law was powerless to do…, God did by sending his own Son…to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us.” On the cross, God makes the Great Exchange of Christ’s righteousness for our unrighteousness. Only by trusting God to do this can we be saved. 

Faith is difficult, though. It highlights our powerlessness and inability. That is why Christ is a “stumbling stone.” But unless Christ is the “end” of our efforts at self-salvation, he cannot be the beginning of our life with God.

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Christianity is Jewish. And yet, most Christians are not Jews and have not been for nearly two thousand years. So, how did a first-century offshoot of Judaism become home to billions of Gentiles? Romans 9-11 is Paul’s answer to this question. Here’s an outline of his answer so far: 

• Jews are God’s Chosen People, and his supreme gift to them and the entire world is Jesus Christ (Romans 9.1-5).
• Unfortunately, the vast majority of Jews in Jesus’ day rejected him. This rejection does not signal a failure in God’s plan, however, for God’s plan was always based on grace, not race (verses 6-13).
• God uses human beings to accomplish his plan, through both positive “mercy” and negative “hardening” (verses 14-18).
• While we do not fully understand the justice of how God uses us  to accomplish his plan, we have no right to question it (verses 19-21).

That’s Paul’s argument so far. Today, I want to consider how Romans 9.22-29 continues the argument. Paul begins by asking two questions:  

What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?  

These questions are rhetorical. Paul believes that they express how God has in fact acted. He has delayed judgment on “the objects of his wrath” in order to extend salvation to “the objects of his mercy.” In the specific context of Romans 9-11, that means he has delayed judgment against unbelieving Israel in order to offer Gentiles grace. 

Paul proves this through a succession of prophetic proof texts: 

As he says in Hosea [2.23]:  

“I will call them ‘my people’
who are not my people;
and I will call her ‘my loved one’
who is not my loved one,” 

and [in Hosea 1.10],  

“It will happen that in the very place
where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
they will be called 'sons of the living God.’”  

Isaiah [10.22-23] cries out concerning Israel: 

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth
with speed and finality.” 

It is just as Isaiah [1.9] said previously:  

“Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.” 

So, to return to my opening question: How did a first-century offshoot of Judaism become home to billions of Gentiles? Because God providentially turned the unbelief of Jews in Jesus’ day to the benefit of Gentiles, such as you and me. According to the Bible, God’s plan was to bless his Chosen People and through them the entire world (Genesis 12.1-3). And that is what is in fact now happening. Even so, God is not yet done with his Chosen People. He still desires to save them. 

More on that tomorrow.

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One of the most frustrating things about the Bible is that it often does not directly answer the questions we put to it. For example, Romans 9.19-29 explicitly asks how humans can be morally responsible for actions God willed them to do. Instead of just answering the question, Paul asks a challenging question of his own. 

Here’s what Paul writes in Romans 9.19-21: 

One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”  Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? 

Keep in mind the context of these remarks.

First, Paul is trying to make theological sense of why God’s Chosen People rejected Jesus Christ. He is quite sure that it is not because of failure on God’s part. As he puts it in Romans 9.6, “It is not as though God’s word had failed.”

Second, in verses 7-13, he points out that grace, not race, is the foundation of God’s promise of salvation.

Third, according to verses 14-18, God utilizes people in order to accomplish his salvation plan. For example, he uses Moses positively but Pharaoh negatively. In the words of verse 18, “God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens those he wants to harden.” 

Paul’s line of reasoning in verses 6-18 brings up the very good question in verse 19: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” Why are we morally responsible for our actions if God has mercy on some but hardens others? This is the age-old debate over predestination and free will. 

Unfortunately for us, Paul does not directly settle this debate. Instead, he challenges our right to ask the question. Lumps of clay do not talk back to the potter, after all. The potter gets to choose whether he’s going to make a Ming vase or a chamber pot. In the great drama of salvation, God gets to choose Moses for one role and Pharaoh for another. 

Now, Paul’s answer is pretty strong medicine. It basically says, “God is God. You’re not. So quit challenging his authority!” And that is the basic spiritual issue. Do we submit to God’s authority or not? Ever since Adam and Eve, we haven’t simply obeyed God. We’ve challenged God. So, when Paul sniffs out a challenge to God’s authority in the question about God’s will and human responsibility, he asserts the primacy of God’s will in very strong terms. 

Does this mean, then, that God predestines some people for heaven and others for hell? No. If God hardened innocent people’s hearts, then he would be acting unjustly. But since the fall, there are no innocent people. If God chooses guilty Moses to accomplish his plan one way and guilty Pharaoh to accomplish his plan another way, who’s to complain?

This past weekend, I spoke to SeaCoast Grace Church about personal evangelism. The title of my message was, "Why Don't You Tell Others about Me?" My text was Matthew 28.16-20, and I had the privilege of interviewing my brother-in-law Rick as part of the message.

Download sermon MP3.

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In the ocean of biblical interpretation, Romans 9-11 is very deep water. And Romans 9.14-29, which we begin studying today, has particularly high waves and strong undercurrents. Are you ready to swim hard? Here’s what Paul writes in verses 14-18: 

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses [in Exodus 33.19], “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh [in Exodus 9.16]: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”  Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

 Let’s swim this passage one stroke at a time. 

Our first stroke is Paul’s question: “Is God unjust?” This question arises because of what Paul wrote previously in verses 6-13. There, he recited biblical history and noted that God chose Isaac’s descendants over Ishmael’s and Jacob’s descendants over Esau’s to be “the children of the promise.” To our minds, and the minds of Paul’s original readers, God’s choice of one over another raises the issue of whether God treats people justly. Because Paul wants us to believe in God intelligently, he sets out to demonstrate God’s justice to us. 

Our second stroke is God’s grace: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” Given what we have read so far in Romans, it should be very clear that we do not have any right to God’s mercy or compassion because of our “desire or effort.” We are sinners; what we deserve is the punishment of our sins. And that punishment is great. “The wages of sin is death,” Paul writes in Romans 6.23. But he goes on to say, “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” But if God gives us grace we do not deserve, he obviously cannot be charged with injustice toward us. 

Our third, and hardest stroke, is God’s hardening: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” That God might use someone to display his power and proclaim his name is not inherently unjust. After all, that is why God raised up Jesus. The problem arises when God uses someone to do so in a negative way. God “hardens whom he wants to harden,” is how Paul puts it. The “hardening” of Pharaoh’s heart is mentioned almost forty times in Exodus 4-14. Sometimes God does the hardening; sometimes Pharaoh does. God might be unjust if he hardened an innocent man’s heart, but Pharaoh was not an innocent man. Rather, he was an oppressive tyrant quite capable of hardening his own heart. 

And that brings us to our fourth and final stroke: our response. God is gracious. Are you softening or hardening your heart toward him today?