Good News, Bad News
Read Romans 10:
The great evangelical preacher, Donald Barnhouse, related an insightful story about a young man who applied for a job with Western Union delivering telegrams.
Fortunately, a position was available—Could he start right away? the manager wanted to know.
“Well,” said the boy, “there’s one thing I must warn you about before I get started. I am psychologically so constituted that I cannot stand any scene of unhappiness.
I’m only willing to deliver good news. Birth announcements, that’s fine. Congratulations for success, fortunes that have been received, promotions, acceptance of marriages—all the joys and bliss news that I will deliver.
But sickness and death and failure and all of that, that’s alien to my nature.
I just won’t deliver them.”
It did not take the manager very long to say, “I guess I’m still looking for the one that’s gonna fill this job, because this responsibility requires that you also announce bad news” (Swindoll, p. 321).
Such is the case with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There is good news, but there is also bad news.
We have said that the theme of the letter to the Roman believers is the gospel that is the power of God for salvation (Rom. 1:16).
Paul has already made it imminently clear in the early chapters of Romans that, as Adrian Rogers is wont to say, “It’s the bad news that makes the good news good.”
In the early chapters of Romans (esp. chapter 3), Paul made it clear that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
Following that bad news, he moves to the good news in chapters 4 and 5— though all have sinned, all can be justified (declared free of sin’s power and penalty) through faith in Jesus Christ.
The best way to learn theology is to watch the apostle Paul in action.
Did he believe only a remnant of Israel had been saved?
Yes (Rom. 9:27).
Did he believe that prayer for Israel’s salvation was still his responsibility?
Yes (Rom. 10:1). Paul’s constant ministry for the saved, as well as the unsaved, was a ministry of prayer (Rom. 1:10; 2 Cor. 13:7; Eph. 1:15-23; 3:16-17; Phil. 1:4; Col. 1:3,9-10; 1 Thess. 1:2-3; 2 Thess. 1:3,11-12; 2 Tim. 1:3; Phlm. 1:4,6).
Likewise, he tried to inculcate his readers with the importance and urgency of prayer for all types of needs (Rom. 15:30-31; 2 Cor. 1:11; Eph. 6:18-20; Col. 4:3-4; 1 Thess. 5:17,25; 2 Thess. 3:1-2; 1 Tim. 2:1; 5:5).
There was nothing in Paul’s doctrine of sovereignty, election, or predestination that could not, and should not, be touched by prayer.
Without a doubt, Paul’s prayer for Israel was that what had been taken away from them—spiritual discernment and knowledge (see Isa. 6:9-10)— would be restored to them.
He knew they were not carefully rejecting the claims of Christ, as if they knew something that he did not.
They were stumbling over Christ because of spiritual blindness.
It was as if they were walking down a path on a moonless night and stepped on the tail of the Lion of Judah who was lying in their way.
They never even knew what hit them.
Thus is the nature of spiritual blindness.
They did not lack zeal; they lacked knowledge (not “head” knowledge, gnosis, but “real” knowledge, perception, or recognition, epignosis).
As a result of their lack of knowledge, their zeal became misguided.
Interestingly, zeal (zelos) is most often translated “jealousy” in Paul’s epistles, context making the difference.
But in its essence, zeal is jealousy, and it can be in a healthy sense.
Paul is saying that because the Jews lacked spiritual perception, their jealousy was for their religious traditions rather than the things of God.
And Paul should know, as that is what he was zealous/jealous for (Acts 22:3; 21:20; Gal. 1:13-14; Phil. 3:6).
One of the most intriguing statements ever made by Christ is His Words to the “experts in the law” in Luke 11:52, where He castigates them for having “taken away the key to knowledge (gnosis).”
What was the key that was taken away that kept knowledge locked up in Israel?
The Scriptures themselves provide few certain clues.
Was it the repentance preached by the prophets (Luke 11:47-51)?
Was it the fear of the Lord (see the NIV translation of Isa. 33:6)?
If Jesus’ immediate audience, the experts in the law (scribes; Luke 11:46,52) are His specific audience, then perhaps a right understanding of the law (the Old Testament) is what the scribes had taken away from the people of Israel.
Not only did they themselves lack true knowledge, but they were preventing everyone else from gaining it as well (Luke 11:52b).
Not only did they fail to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but they failed to point Him out to the nation.
Of all people, the scribes should have seen the fulfillment of the Old Testament messianic prophecies in Jesus.
Is it any wonder that Paul quotes more passages from the Old Testament in Romans 10 than in any other passage of similar length in his writings?
He wants the church at Rome to know that the Scriptures have been clear for generation after generation about God’s plan and how to live in step with it.
The fact that Israel was out of step was due to their failure to believe, not God’s failure to make it clear.
The specific knowledge they lacked was that righteousness. . . comes from God, not from themselves.
At the end of the law, Christ made it possible for everyone who believes to attain a righteous standing before God.
As the end (telos) of the law, Christ was its fulfillment (Matt. 5:17; Rom. 10:4), not its chronological termination (Rom. 6:15).
However, it was his fulfillment of the law’s requirements, and His resulting confirmation in righteousness, that cast the law aside as a tormentor of all who bore the guilt of not keeping it.
Israel’s present spiritual condition—both in Paul’s day and in ours—can be described in one word: unbelief.
And in her unbelief, Israel serves as an illustration of the gospel message, a gospel that must be believed to be received.
In chapter 9, Paul presented divine election as one side of the coin of Israel’s unbelief.
In this chapter, Paul presents Israel’s responsibility as the other side of her own unbelief.
As we examine Romans 10:1, the question arises what will happen to the Jewish people who believe in God but not in Christ?
Since they believe in the same God, won’t they be saved?
If that were true, Paul would not have worked so hard and sacrificed so much to teach them about Christ.
Because Jesus is the most complete revelation of God, we cannot fully know God apart from Christ; and because God appointed Jesus to bring God and people together, we cannot come to God by another way.
The Jews, like everyone else, must find salvation through Jesus Christ (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).
Like Paul, we should pray that all Jews might be saved and lovingly share the Good News with them.
Rather than living by faith in God, the Jews established customs and traditions (in addition to God’s law) to try to make themselves acceptable in God’s sight. But human effort, no matter how sincere, can never substitute for the righteousness God offers us by faith.
The ONLY way to earn salvation is to be perfect—and that is impossible.
We can only hold out our empty hands and receive salvation as a gift.
Christ accomplished the purpose for which the law was given in two ways:
1. He fulfills the purpose and goal of the law (Matthew 5:17) in that He perfectly exemplified God’s desires on earth.
2. But He is also the termination of the law because in comparison to Christ, the law is powerless to save.
In order to be saved by the law, a person would have to live a perfect life, not sinning once.
Then why did God give the law since He knew people couldn’t keep it?
According to Paul, one reason the law was given was to show people how guilty they are (Galatians 3:19).
The law was a shadow of Christ—that is, the sacrificial system educated the people so that when the true sacrifice came, they would be able to understand His work (Hebrews 10:1-4).
The system of ceremonial laws was to last until the coming of Christ. The law points to our need for a Savior.
In verses 6-8, Paul adapts Moses’ farewell challenge from Deuteronomy 30:11-14 to apply to Christ.
Christ has provided our salvation through His incarnation (God in human form) and resurrection.
God’s salvation is right in front of us.
He will come to us wherever we are. All we need to do is to respond and accept His gift of salvation.
Have you ever been asked, “How do I become a Christian?”
These verses give you the beautiful answer:
Salvation is as close as your own lips and heart.
People think it must be a complicated process, but it is not.
If we believe in our heart and say with our mouth that Christ is the risen Lord, we will be saved.
This is the way Faith Works, we must first believe in our heart and then we confess with our mouth what the word of God says.
This works for the Salvation of our soul, but it also works for whatever we are petitioning God for.
We must first look to God’s Word and find a promise related to whatever it is we are asking God for (see 1 John 5:14-15), and then we hang our faith and our obedience on that promise and stand there until we receive our breakthrough.
SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things)
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Thursday, Aug 1
Faith to Faith
RECEIVED YOUR MIRACLE
by Gloria Copeland
“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
— Romans 10:10
Do you need a miracle? Then believe it, confess it, and receive it!
“Oh Gloria, I just don’t know if I can do that.”
Yes, you can! You’ve already done it once.
When you made Jesus the Lord of your life, you believed, confessed, and received the greatest miracle in the universe – the miracle of a reborn spirit!
Every other miracle you receive will come in exactly the same way.
You start by simply believing what God’s Word says concerning your area of need, by letting that Word change your heart and mind.
A lot of people try to skip that step. They try to believe for a miracle without spending enough time in the Word to change their heart and mind.
They just want to confess it with their mouth and have it instantly appear.
But that won’t happen. It’s what we believe in our heart and say with our mouth that we receive.
If you don’t have enough faith yet to believe for the miracle you need, then get it.
“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
So start filling the ears of your heart with the Word until faith for your miracle is born.
That’s what the woman did who had the issue of blood.
She believed in her heart that Jesus would heal her. Then she spoke her faith out loud.
Then she acted on that faith – and she received her miracle.
It wasn’t Jesus’ decision. He didn’t suddenly say, “You know, I think I’ll work a miracle for that little lady today.” No. She made it happen.
She took her faith and drew on the power of God.
That’s why Jesus said,
“Daughter, your faith has made you whole” (Matt. 9:22).
You have that same opportunity.
God’s power is always present everywhere.
Your faith will bring it into your life, body or circumstances.
Do it. Reach out to Jesus. Believe, confess and receive your miracle today.
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