Believe and Profess
Romans 10:5-10
Pastor Ryan
Part of Romans—How God Does the Impossible
November 5, 2023

Do people know that you are a follower of Jesus?

• In Romans 9-11, Paul deals with the hard case of Israel as an illustration that God is the ultimate promise-keeper.
• Last week, Paul made the statement that Christ is the end of the Law. Not that Christ negated the Law or broke the Law. Rather, that Christ accomplished every facet of the Law so that all who could not live up to the law could simply trust in Him.
• Read Romans 10:1-10.

Romans 10:5-10

5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.
• Your perspective on the Law and the OT will be affected by your understanding of your awareness of your sin nature.
• The OT does lay out a path to be righteous according to the Law. It is a lifestyle of complete obedience and surrender. That’s why Paul quotes Leviticus 18:5 here, saying that those who live by the commandments of the law achieve righteousness.
• But for sinful human beings, the Law can never be a ladder. You can never do enough good deeds to outweigh the sin in your life.

// John 5:45-46 | Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

• What does Jesus mean that Moses wrote about him? He is making a general statement that OT testifies to the need for perfect righteousness in order to be a child of God. And Jesus, being perfect, sinless, and innocent of any transgression, was the only one who could achieve God’s standard.
• So, for Jesus, the law was a standard that He met. For us, it is a wall that we crash into that obliterates any sense of self-righteousness.

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);
• In contrast to v. 5, in v. 6-7 Paul personifies the “righteousness based on faith” to show that the knowledge God’s righteousness was obvious and available.
• While Paul’s language may seem confusing, the key is in understanding that what Paul is describing is impossible.
• Another way of putting it is: no one can ascend or descend, but everyone can repent and believe.
• Charles Hodge >> The meaning in this passage is: “The Gospel, instead of directing us to climb up into heaven (Ro 10:6-note) or to go down to the depths (Ro 10:7-note), tells us the thing required is simple and easy. Believe with your heart and you will be saved.

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
• What is the “word of faith” that Paul proclaimed (v. 8). It is v. 9, that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
• If you trust in the finished work of Jesus with your heart (that He died and rose again to forgive you of your sins), and you profess with your mouth that you have believed these things, then you will be saved.
• Cranfield >> The confession that Jesus is Lord meant the acknowledgment that Jesus shares the name and the nature, the holiness, the authority, power, majesty, and eternity of the one and only true God.
• Confession is belief made audible. Baptism is confession made visible.
• Salvation is personal, but it is not private. It is proclaimed and lived out. This is the way God has hardwired humans to live. Humans always do what they truly believe.

You’ve heard it said, “God helps those who help themselves.”

• This is unbiblical and one of the many ways that this “ladder mentality” has snuck many people’s perspective of Christiantiy. But where it come from?
• A French author from the 1600s once said “Help yourself and Heaven will help you too.” But it was the 17th century English thinker Algernon Sidney who has been credited with the now familiar wording, “God helps those who help themselves.” Benjamin Franklin later used it in his Poor Richard’s Almanack (1736) and it has been widely quoted ever since.
• It is impossible for us, as spiritually dead and morally impure individuals, to help ourselves get anywhere close to God.

John Calvin >> Faith is not a distant view, but a warm embrace of Christ.