Introduction

We will notice immediately that there is a great problem among people of God, namely, the great differences between some of the things they are taught, the things they teach, and how they act.

This gets us into the question of human responsibility and the moral freedom of man, or in other words, divine election versus man’s free will. Here, Paul lays them both together and says that both are true. He illustrates this point perfectly by looking at the experience of Israel.

Let us note that it is possible to misuse a good thing, sometimes even without knowing it. The nation Israel was given the special revelation of God, his oracles, which we call the Old Testament Law, in order to show the nation how they should live and behave so as not offend him; for if they did offend his holiness while they traveled with him toward Canaan, they would die.

They however decided to use or misuse the Law for purposes that God never intended. One such misuse was to regard the Law as a means of attain righteousness, even though their prophets had consistently pointed out their experiences bearing witness, the fact that only God had the power to save sinful men. The Law was never given to attain righteousness. Only God could do that, and he promised that one day he would.

Moses pointed out in Deuteronomy 5:28-29, 29:4-29; 30:6 and other passages, that were later picked up and discussed more fully by succeeding prophets, that the heart of man needed changing and God promised that he would change it, so that men would be able to obey him and keep his Laws.

Certainly, God had called on men to come to him, but he also pointed out that if they did not respond in the way that was appropriate, the blame for not knowing him and for continuing in their fallen condition was theirs.

We note that there is a weakness in religion, where we constantly find as one writer puts it: “man presenting a religious facade, a false front, in life”. It was a problem in the nation of Israel and it is a great problem in our countries today; this matter of slipping into casual Christianity, doing hypocritical acts, as one writer puts it:

“A superficial religion, a seeking after their own righteousness, a contentment with making the outside appear right, a complacency and satisfaction with the inside, even though it is completely wrong.

But we haven’t solved the problem, because, as Paul points out here, Israel is forever an example of the falsity of this approach. The answer is not just “getting busy for God”. It isn’t just trying to be more active in the things that the church is doing. Zeal is no substitute for reality. Warming up a pot of spoiled meal doesn’t change its rottenness. Or as C.S. Lewis so graphically put it, “No clever arrangement of bad eggs will make a good omelet.”

Putting a man to work is no answer. The answer is not a program, the answer is a Person. It always is.”

Paul’s main theme throughout the book is, How shall a man be saved, and how does salvation relate to the Gentiles and the Jews and, in fact, the whole world?,

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, the just shall live by faith” (1:16-17).

In the section of his letter immediately preceding our text, after expressing his heart-felt concern over the unbelief of his countrymen, Paul expounds God’s sovereignty and cites his election of the Patriarchs and designation of the ‘chosen’ seed. Paul defends God’s right as The Creator, to exercise divine election and to act in the affairs of men

(Daniel 5:21) and intimates the revelation of His glory is the aim of His electing program. Further Paul would have any objector understand, that God’s election is in effect an act of mercy to both Jew and Gentile.

The recipients of God’s election, His ‘chosen’ are responsible to so live, as to glorify God in their lifestyle and to carry-out an evangelistic function. This has been the case from the time of the Patriarchs to the present day. Conversely, ungodly behavior on the part of His ‘chosen’ brings reproach to God’s name and slurs his righteous character.

In the particular case of the Nation Israel, where many rejected their Messiah, Paul cites the Old Testament in explaining their unbelief on the basis that God had not ‘chosen’ them. So it is not as if God’s purpose in their election had failed but the divine plan would have only a ‘remnant’ being saved. This saving of a ‘remnant’ holds significance in our day, as many Christians have developed a fixation on numbers but Jesus own words on the matter seems to advise caution (Matt.7:14; Luke 18:8).

Paul’s arguments, as was his habit and what is the core of the gospel message inevitably

Paul’s earnest desire and prayers offered on Israel’s behalf dwell on their salvation. Israel might have failed in regard to salvation but Paul is relentless in his hopes and prayers for their salvation. His persistence in desiring and praying for Israel’s salvation is well-founded, for their disobedience and failure is temporary and God will restore that nation, (Rom.11).

Israel certainly had a zeal for God, something to which Paul could easily connect, for it was not too long before this, that he was a fanatical persecutor of Christians, all in the name of God. Jesus noted that the Scribes and Pharisees would comb land and sea to make one proselyte (Matt.23:15).  Sadly however their zeal was misdirected, it was not according to knowledge. Even more sad, Paul later reveals their ignorance was not due to a lack of revelation or some innocent oversight but the result of a wilful rejection of God’s truth.

In 9:1-5 Paul recounted the particular blessings of that nation:

“the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises.”

They were the descendants of the Fathers, and more that anything else, the Messiah, had come from them. Despite these privileges, only a remnant of Israel was saved. Their failure concerned righteousness more directly, self righteousness.

Note that it is common in our day to consider anyone zealous in spiritual matters as acceptable to God. Sincerity however is not a substitute for truth; the first important issue in spiritual matters is truth, and sincerity must be involved in the transmission of that truth.

Israel was intent on establishing their own righteousness and rejected the righteousness of God, as revealed in Jesus Christ. They would rely on their good works, rather than accept God’s gracious gift of righteousness in Jesus, as promised throughout their Scriptures.

Regarding Law observance and righteousness, Paul states ‘Christ is the end of the law…”.  This is a phrase that has lent itself to many interpretations and always comes up in what some see as a ‘law versus grace’ divide. It is interesting to note, that all who have ever been saved, were saved by the grace of God.

What is clear from verse four is that belief in Christ is the all in all for righteousness to every person. Abraham is set forth as the father of the faithful and his singular act regarding righteousness was that he believed God.

Every faithful person in Israel longed for the coming of the Messiah Redeemer.

Verse 5.   Christ observed the law perfectly in every respect and sense even as Moses had commanded but he is the only person with that record and the sacrificial system became a necessity as soon as the law was instituted.

Perfect obedience to the law has since eluded humanity. Clearly then, the law was not instituted to convey righteousness, and sacrifices were clearly symbolic and accorded only a temporary covering for sin. The Law in no sense impacted the sin nature of man except to excite it (Rom. 7:8) and so whoever was saved was certainly not saved by law-keeping.

Moses had made it clear that if one wanted to follow the way of salvation that man created his own, a man-made system where he worked for his salvation but there had to be perfect and complete obedience to the Law. But in doing this, man was disobeying the Word of God, and his system would of necessity be ineffective and unacceptable to God.

Therefore we can find not one bit of evidence that any Old Testament writer ever advocated the idea that anyone could be saved by their works.

Paul then is not setting up to present two different ways to obtain salvation. While the Bible emphatically does not teach two ways of salvation, man has always sought to be saved by his works.

Law-keeping was never a second way of salvation. It was something self-righteous men sought to do, in defiance of God, and in rejection of His provision of righteousness through faith.

Verse 6-8.   Paul is about to show that the Scriptures teach a righteousness by means of faith. He makes an allusion to a couple of Old Testament texts, explaining what they mean and not quoting them verbatim. These are not therefore direct quotes but the same meanings are held. They are:

Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD. Leviticus 18:5.

For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. Deuteronomy 30:11-14.

The Leviticus text is the first occurrence of several in the Old Testament and Moses was clearly here warning the children of Israel to remember what God’s nature and desires were, and to forbid them from following the evil examples of the inhabitants of Egypt, a land from which he had just taken them or that of the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, a land to which he would take them. There is no indication that these verses of warning were meant for his hearers as an offer of righteousness for their law-keeping.

The theme of warning was again prominent in the Deuteronomy text and appear to be a follow-up to this statement in 29:29;

“The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law”

Here Moses near the end of his life was exhorting the people to concentrate on the clear teaching of the law they were receiving; for it was not necessary to expend any effort to learn God’s truth, as it was not hidden or mysterious but right in their ear. He had told them all they needed to know at that time; they were to accept and believe the word of God as delivered to them.

This was not a salvation proposal (Deut.5:29; 29:4) but Moses urging the people to accept the plain law right there in front of them and so appropriate the present blessings of God. It was a warning to the people on how they should live in the presence of God, in full sight of the Tabernacle, the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud, without offending God, and bring about their instant destruction.

In these verses (6-8) Paul merely borrowed the language of Moses which he found appropriate and applied it to the context of the preaching of his gospel, now that the Messiah Redeemer had come and they were living in his presence; for he and Moses had the same exhortation though different content. Do not strive. Just trust!

Paul’s message is: faith in Christ is sufficient for salvation, work and effort are not necessary. The gospel message preached by he and the other Apostles was not something esoteric, requiring one to go up to heaven to understand it or engage in some deep research to fathom it. It was not mysterious but plain, intelligible and right in their ear, near them. One did not need to make a pilgrimage to some exotic land to unravel it’s meaning. The gospel was not difficult to be understood and embraced, it was near (nigh) and easily accessible. Effort and work were not necessary, it was merely a matter of having faith in Christ.

Clearly no one should ask what they should do to win the favor of God, for to win the favor of God they would have to climb up into heaven and bring Christ down from heaven, or they would have to go down into the grave to bring Christ up from the dead, things that no man was able to do.

All they needed to do was to believe the gospel and walk in it, the simple walk of faith following the resting of the heart on it, and accepting the transforming of life by the mighty power of God.

That is what men find difficult to do. They constantly seek some extraordinary, special, marvelous experience to give them power, and therefore they seek this experience when all they have to do is to understand that the Holy Spirit is here, and Jesus Christ is instantly available in all his unlimited power. Having Jesus Christ live his life through us, acknowledging that he is sovereign, and obeying him accordingly is all that is necessary.

Jesus Christ is near us, and we do not have to work to gain him.

Moses had warned the people about self- effort, encouraging them to trust God to change them, and to give them the power to love him and keep his Commandments.

Now we all should learn to depend on God for He alone can give us the new heart and bring us into the new Covenant. He is the only savior, and he is the only strength.

Verse 9-10.   Flowing directly from the previous verse, Paul succinctly enunciates two planks of the gospel that must be confessed (professed) and believed:

We should note a further connection with the Deuteronomy passage where mouth and heart is mirrored in confession and belief.

To confess and believe are really not two different parts of the salvation process, for they have to be inextricably linked for both to be genuine. There is a natural symbiosis of the two, since to confess without belief is hypocrisy, while belief without confession smacks of cowardice. Verse ten knits belief and confession into harmony producing righteousness and salvation.

When we confess, we are really agreeing with God with what he says about Jesus and what Jesus says about himself. We should never forget that we have agreed to say that Jesus Christ is Lord, thus giving him a supreme place in our life, and pledging to him that w will always be obedient to him and reverently worship him.

To profess is to declare openly; to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with or assent. Paul is saying if we publicly agree with what God has declared about Jesus as noted above we shall be saved. One commentator writes in part on some of the implications of those two statements as follows:

A profession of religion then denotes a public declaration of our agreement with what God has declared, and extends to all his declarations about our lost estate, our sin, and need of a Saviour; to his doctrines about his own nature, holiness, and law; about the Saviour and the Holy Spirit; about the necessity of a change of heart and holiness of life; and about the grave and the judgment; about heaven and hell. As the doctrine respecting a Redeemer is the main and leading doctrine, it is put here by way of eminence, as in fact involving all others; and publicly to express our assent to this, is to declare our agreement with God on all kindred truths.

Can we then ever go back to our former state of sin, showing our untrustworthiness and the absence of honesty? No! We must go forward taking Jesus Christ wherever we go, and walking in obedience to Him, going where He, the Father, and the Spirit sends us.

This verse is not meant to be understood in a narrow sense, for the implications encompass many other elements of the gospel and is rather a summary of the gospel. To profess this doctrine was literally to assent to all Christian truths, as the resurrection vindicated all that preceded it relative to Christianity.

Note profession of our faith must be exercised at every given opportunity and occasion in both word and deed, for there can be no true attachment to Christ, which will not manifest itself in the life. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. It is impossible that there can be true belief in the heart, that does not show itself in the life and conversation of a person.

We must proclaim that Jesus Christ came as a man, livid and taught, showing the way of righteousness, died for our sins, and was resurrected, a victor from the grave. We in him are victors.

Verse 11.   These next three verses highlight another feature of the gospel of salvation by faith and the common thread running through them, is the universality of the gospel

(Isa. 28:16, 49:23; Joel 2:32). 

Whosoever… would be all without distinction, a position to which some Jews might have taken exception on at least two counts. They would seek the righteousness supposedly conferred by the law and further, it was only available to Jews and maybe proselytes. This would be a striking difference to what Paul and the other apostles preached.

The context of the Old Testament passage above shows that the prophets Joel and Isaiah did not call on the people to work harder at law keeping but to simply believe in God and His provision for righteousness and salvation in the Messiah that was to come. Thus the Old Testament teaches salvation by faith alone.

Verse 12-13.  For there is no difference….if righteousness and salvation is by faith in Jesus alone apart from law-keeping, then there is no difference between Jews who had the law and Gentiles who did not. The word also implies a lack of advantage. Whosoever again reiterates the absence of distinction in the invitation to salvation. 

It should be noted that when the Apostle speaks of no difference he has in mind the subject under consideration, namely, with regard to justification before God.

To call upon the name of the Lord is the same as to call upon the Lord, (Prov.18:10; Psalm 20:1; 1Corin.1:2).

One writer gives us the correct focus

“Election was a wholly gracious act of God without respect for physical descent or for the works which had come to be seen as marking out covenant identity.

It is Jewish confidence that Gentiles are by definition “non -Israel” which he seeks to challenge by citing Israel’s own Scriptures, as now also being fulfilled through his own mission, Paul is able to argue that whoever non- Israel might be, the chosen people into both Jews and Gentiles.

Israel’s failure then, has been to understand its calling and privileges in a too narrow and restrictive way- a law understood in terms of works rather than faith, a righteousness understood as exclusively theirs from which Gentiles were excluded.

The coming of Christ has put an end to such misunderstanding. He is the prophesied “stone of stumbling” in whom all may believe.

The faith which is the only possible response to the completely gracious character of God’s calling cannot be restricted within the confines of an exclusively Jewish law.

It now finds expression more fully in the word of preaching which is truly universal in scope, the call for faith in Jesus as Lord.

This is the word which is now being preached, not least by Paul himself, and which is being accepted by Gentiles.”

Verse 14-15  Paul now expands the discussion on salvation by faith, to the question of the propagation of the gospel and since the gospel invitation is universal in scope, then all the world should hear its message.

While it is true that God sovereignly and without obligation choose those for his salvation, man has a responsibility to accept God’s gift and therefore have a need to hear the ‘good news’.

God is clearly set forth as the one that initiates and accomplishes salvation but he has decreed that the proclamation of the gospel is man’s responsibility. Paul by implication sets out the duty for the proclamation of the gospel with a series of rhetorical questions. People will not be saved outside the proclamation of the gospel (Heb.1:2) and so human effort is crucial to salvation in this regard.

Note that the word preacher here does not refer to clergy but anyone that proclaims the gospel. All true believers then have as one writer calls it:

“a duty and a beauty”.

And how shall they believe Him whom they have not heard?”. The text points out that God is heard through His message but the main stress is upon the necessity of hearing. “How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?” Paul asks. It is not enough to hear; one must believe.

This is the desired response to the gospel invitation; we must call upon Him and verse nine sums up the process:

“That if you shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

One notices that the divine program to save the people of God, begins with God and ends with Him. It is He who sends His messengers and in the end His people call on Him for salvation. The process that begins with the divine initiative ends in the divine saving of the soul. This is an illustration of that great truth that “Salvation is of the Lord”,

(John 2:9).

Verse 16.   Israel’s unbelief was a constant source of concern to the Apostle and surfaces again in this section of his letter. The gospel is close to being universally preached but it is certainly not universally accepted. This is easily evident particularly among the Jews. The quote from Isaiah can be seen as an emphatic complaint by the prophet, that few if any had believed his report about the Messiah.

Paul places Israel’s failure to obey the gospel squarely on their unbelief and directly links  their disobedience and unbelief with his quote from Isaiah 53. Who hath believed our report…. is the lament of the nation Israel, when at the Second Coming of Christ they shall have realized that they had crucified their Messiah. The sense of Isaiah 53: 1-9 is definitely one of mourning and regret on the part of the speakers, over their unbelief and rejection of their Messiah.

Paul cites Isaiah 53:1 in support of the claim that they did not believe as was prophesied, therefore they would not respond to the gospel in faith, for to Paul, to believe is to obey. The second statement is designed to confirm the first, and so obedience is linked with faith as in 1:5 and 16:26.

Israel had failed to recognize that the very gracious character of God would result in a gospel of grace, and that this would inevitably have a gracious universal outreach. By misunderstanding God, and refusing to accept what he said, they would logically fulfill their own Scriptures, by refusing to receive the Messiah and his gospel, and his glad tidings of goodness and peace.

Verse 17.   This is the summary statement of the foregoing arguments. Faith comes from the message heard through the word about Christ, it follows from the study of the word of God.

The phrase faith cometh by hearing, does not mean that all who hear actually believe, for that is not true; but that faith does not exist unless there is a message, or report, to be heard or believed. Faith will not come otherwise than by such a message; in other words, unless there is something made known to be believed. This underlines the importance of the message and the fact that men are converted by the instrumentality of truth, and of truth only.

Israel had heard, but had not believed God’s word through Isaiah, and so they were not saved. They had not exercised saving faith in Jesus Christ and so they were responsible.

We are the more responsible, since we have heard from many more sources, and we can look at their example and their mistakes and errors. We must exercise saving faith in Jesus Christ.

If we do not exercise saving faith we too will be regarded by God as disobedient, God rejecting, and contrary people, fully responsible for our being in the Lake of Fire.

The messengers of the gospel should so equip themselves as to present the message clearly at every opportunity. Reliance on the Holy Spirit as a matter of course will greatly enhance our utility in God’s program, to have people hear the word about Christ.

There is no acceptable excuse for unbelief on the part of anyone.  

Please do not choose to sin. If we do, we will be without excuse.