WHO'S RESPONSIBLE? - I

Romans 10:1-13
August 27, 1995
Bob Bonner

Robert Wright, in his essay at the end of TIME magazine, 7/17/95 issue writes, "Newt Gingrich is fed up with all the finger pointing. He is tired, he says, of people blaming their problems on one another or on society at large---rather than taking responsibility for their fates..." Then later in the article, Wright sarcastically observes, "Having made this point, Gingrich proceeds to survey America's problems and blames them on various people." 

My point in quoting Wright is not to bash or politically support any one, but rather to highlight the serious problem facing all of us and the tendency to not take responsibility for our own lives, our futures and the consequences of our own decisions. Even those of us who talk about responsibility and know of its importance, we sometimes fail to accept the responsibility for our actions.

Anna Russell, in one of her folk tunes, put it this way:

"I went to my psychiatrist to be psychoanalyzed to find out why I killed the cat and blackened my husband's eyes.

He laid me on a downy couch to see what he could find, and here's what he dredged up from my subconscious mind.

When I was one, my mommy hid my dolly in a trunk and so it follows naturally, that I am always drunk.

When I was two, I saw my father kiss the maid one day, that's why I suffer now from Kleptomania.

At three, I had the feeling of ambivalence toward my brothers, so it follows naturally, that I poisoned all my lovers.

But, I'm happy, I'm happy now that I have learned the lesson this has taught, that everything I do that's wrong is someone else's fault." [Taken from a tape by Charles Swindoll, Romans 10, "Straight talk about Responsibility."]

Russell's parody of our irresponsible society is more accurate than I think even she knows. In our American culture, we don't like being held accountable for anything. We tend to look for others to blame for our faults, for our wrong choices and unhappy present day circumstances as well as what may look like a dark and foreboding future that lies ahead of us, because we haven't planned wisely. 

We love to blame others for our problems. Parents, teachers, coaches, pastors, spouses, employers, employees...you name it. We even blame God for our sin and it's end result for many, their damnation. And that's totally out of line. This morning, and next week, we want to look at what is our spiritual responsibility as it regards our own salvation and the salvation of others.

Since we have been away from our Study of Romans for three weeks, let's set the context for our study. [CHART] Romans begins by introducing the problem of every individual, that is our sin, our rebellion against God and how it has left us to a course headed for eternal damnation or separated from God. In the first 2 1/2 chapters, Paul logically shows us that not only are all of us guilty of sin, but there is nothing we can do on our own to prevent us from being permanently separated from God. We have a problem that in and of ourselves we can't solve.

Then, beginning with the middle of chapter three, Paul shows us that God, through our loving Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has provided for us the only solution for our sin. It is called "justification", which means to be declared and made righteous by God. In other words, when an individual puts their complete trust in Jesus Christ as one's Lord and savior, then that person receives Christ's righteousness and is once and for all made acceptable and approved of by God. There is nothing more that a Christian can do to improve or lessen his accepted, beloved and forgiven state before God. Jesus is the solution.

But then there is a question raised in the minds of Paul's Jewish readers, and that question is, what happens then to all of the Jewish tradition and God's calling the Jews to be his special people and their religious laws if Jesus has fulfilled it all? What about the future of the nation of Israel? Does Jesus' accomplishments cancel out God's working with the nation of Israel and cancel out all of their religious practices? In chapters 9-11, Paul deals with the Jews' concerns and in doing so, the overall uniting theme of these three chapters rests in the fact that God is the sovereign God and when all is said and done, the buck stops with Him. He is in control. He makes decisions for which He does not have to answer to anybody.

In chapter 9, Paul talked about the subject of salvation, in that if a person were to be saved, the only way a person could be saved, Jew or not, is if the sovereign God chose to save that person before the foundation of the world. But that teaching, known as predestination is only one side of the coin called "salvation." If that is all we know or believe about salvation, then we only have half of the truth. 

In chapter 10 Paul stresses that even before a sovereign God, we as human beings also have a responsibility for our own salvation and the salvation of others. In chapter 10, we see the other side of the coin of salvation which is equally true. How these two truths of chapter 9 and chapter 10 fit together, no honest theologian can fully comprehend. Yet, every careful expositor of the scriptures has come to the place to recognize that they are, in fact, both true. God chooses some to be saved and likewise, everyone of us, if we want to be saved, we must choose to be saved. Each human being has the responsibility to seek God to be saved. 

As we look at our first segment of study for this morning, 10:1-4, we will see two principles concerning a person's responsibilities for his or her own salvation. Let's begin with verse 1. Paul writes, "Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them [meaning his fellow Jews who are yet to be saved, even though they are God's chosen people and they are obeying his religious and ceremonial laws] is for {their} salvation." Right here, Paul, by his example, answers a question that I am often asked. And that question is, "If God, according to chapter 9 of Romans chooses those whom He will save, is it profitable or okay for me to pray for someone's salvation?" And the answer is, "Sure, it is good and right to pray for the lost soul’s salvation." 

To put it another way, it is never right for us to say, "If God calls, there nothing for us to do," because the way God calls is through the preaching of the word and the praying of Christians for those who have yet to accept Christ. 

Notice another of Paul's examples of praying for the lost and encouraging Timothy, Paul's disciple, to pray for the lost in 1 Timothy 2:1-4,8. Paul writes to Timothy, "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth...Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension." 

Paul's heart pleaded and begged for the soul's of his lost brethren. If your theology or priorities has caused you to lose your zeal for the lost, then something is wrong. If it has caused you to quit praying for the lost, then your theology or your priorities are in error. The ink from chapter 9, which speaks about God predestining some to be saved, was barely dry before chapter 10 was being written by Paul. Paul prayed for those who were without Christ that God might open up their eyes and that those people would be saved. 

Now, in verse 2 Paul begins the subject of the individual's responsibility for his or her own salvation. He states, "For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge." Perhaps the most noteworthy difference between the average Jew and the average non-Jew is right here. The average Jew in Paul's day was zealous about God. The Jews took God seriously. Their whole way of life was built around God. He was the most important element in their thinking. 

But Paul says that zealousness about God is not enough concerning one getting saved. Sincerity about religion is not adequate to earn God's favor. One can be sincere about one's belief, let's say, in flying and jump off a three story building without any safety apparatus, and still die. Sincerity in that case can kill you. Similarly, sincerity and zealousness about one's belief in God will not gain one destiny with God in the future. One can be zealous and sincere about God and still go to hell. 

What is necessary, then, if one wants to spend eternity with God? Paul says "knowledge". And not just any knowledge, but specific knowledge and that specific knowledge must be applied. The very word used here for "knowledge" is not the simple word for knowledge that refers to simple facts or data or information. No, this word for "knowledge" is the word for understood and applied knowledge. The Jews, for instance, had all the facts necessary to know what is necessary to be saved or approved of by God, but many of them just hadn't applied it to their lives or taken advantage of it. 

So, what is this applied knowledge that is necessary for one to be saved? Paul tells us in verses 3-4, "For not knowing about God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, [meaning the Jews seeking their own way to prove themselves righteous or acceptable to God, the Jews] they did not subject themselves [or the refused to subject themselves] to the righteousness of God", or God's method of saving someone. Well, what is "the righteousness of God" or God's method of saving someone? Paul's been writing about it from chapter 3-8, but he briefly summarizes what he has in mind concerning the righteousness of God in verse 4 "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." 

This expression "end of the law" refers to the fulfillment of the law not the termination or voiding of God's laws. In other words, only Jesus lived up to the law in every respect and never made one mistake. Only he fulfilled the law. As a result, He is the only righteous one and has become the only source for the human race to gain righteousness or acceptability before God. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:30 and in 2 Corinthians 5:21. There Paul states, "Christ Jesus...has become for us wisdom from God---that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption...God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 

Allow me to put this in even more plain English. The Jews, like many zealously sincere religious people, have tried to prove to God in their own way that they are good enough or righteous enough for him to save them. They did not accept the fact that there is nothing one can do to make one's self acceptable before God. Therefore, the Jews had refused God's free to them, gift of righteousness that can only come to them through knowing and putting their confidence in Jesus Christ, their messiah, and what He accomplished for us on the cross. Because the Jews refused to submit their lives to Christ, they were lost. Their lost state was their responsibility because they had not received their messiah. It is because of this that they needed to be saved, and that Paul was praying for them that they would start seeking after the truth and be saved, in verse 1. 

Now, before we go further and look at Paul's explanation of this, in verses 5-13, let's state two basic responsibilities of every individual if they want to be saved.

But what if a person never heard about Jesus?" you may be thinking. We saw in our study of Romans 2 that if a person really wants to know God, no matter where they live, or what time of history they are a part of, God will reveal Himself and Christ to those who seek to know Him. So, that still puts the responsibility of knowing God's method for making a person righteous and granting salvation on the individual's back. He or she has to want to know God and to be seeking Him in order to find Him. Secondly, we are responsible to know the truth and to apply it.

We also can see from these verses that it is not enough just to know about God's method of making someone righteous. That's why our second key responsibility in being saved is: One has to put their confidence in Jesus as one's personal Lord and Savior in order to be saved.

These two human responsibilities for our own salvation were really nothing new to the Jews...at least they shouldn't have been. In the next few verses, Paul shows the Jews that these two responsibilities were laid out centuries beforehand when Moses, their forefather, was leading the Israelites. In verses 5-13, Paul is paraphrasing what Moses wrote back in Deuteronomy 30:12-14 and further explains these two areas of human responsibility. 

The gist of what Paul has to say in verses 5-13 is that throughout the history of the human race, there has always been two approaches where by people have tried to make themselves righteous or acceptable to God and only one of those approaches works. In verse 5, Paul points to one approach that a person might try to find righteousness or approval from God. He states, "For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law, shall live by that righteousness." The "that righteousness" that Paul refers to at the end of this verse is the type of righteousness that Paul has spoken of in the previous chapters of Romans: that is, the righteousness that we try to earn or prove we have by our works and efforts to live up to a certain religious or moral standards. When Paul says that those who practice this manner of trying to earn God's approval and to gain righteousness shall "live by that righteousness" he is saying that they will be judged by that approach to righteousness. And if they can't live a perfect life according to the moral laws of God without ever making one mistake, then the subtle implication is that they will be condemned eternally by their failure to succeed in this approach to earn God's favor. That's the first avenue by which one can attempt to become righteous and accepted before God. Be religious and perfectly moral.

Then in verses 6-7, Paul gives us the second avenue that one can take to gain God's approval and become righteous. Paul states, "But the righteousness based on faith speaks thus, Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down), or 'Who will descend into the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).’" At first, those words may make no sense to you, but if you understand our present context in Romans as well as the context from which these words come in Deuteronomy 30, these words make perfect sense. 

For centuries, Paul's fellow Israelites sought to establish or earn their own righteousness and approval from God through what they believed was the only way to become righteous before God, and that is to try their best to obey God's moral and religious laws. However, neither God nor Moses ever said that this was a legitimate way to be accepted by God. But nonetheless, people have believed for centuries, that the way to earn salvation is to be very religious and moral people. 

Instead, what Moses taught and what God has said all along is that if someone was going to be saved, they would have to put their trust in the work of the promised Messiah. Here, in the rest of verses 6-7, Paul is saying that when a person puts their faith in what Jesus Christ accomplished for us, that person would never say what is in the rest of verses 6-7. A more easily understood paraphrase of verses 6-7 might be helpful here. Listen to this one: Paul is saying, "A true believer who has put their faith in Jesus Christ and Christ works on the believer's behalf, this true believer doesn't imagine heroic and disciplined deeds for himself; Such as telling himself, "I'll climb the highest height, heaven itself, and there I'll find the Lord." Or, "I'll descend to the depths of the sea, into the very caverns where Christ has gone in death and burial to find him there. Then I'll prove my seriousness and righteousness before God." [Zeisler, #4351] 

A true believer would never base his lifestyle or goals on that kind of religious thinking or religiously ambitious deeds. Paul is telling us that our efforts to reach God on our own are a waste of time. Hence, that leaves the only successful approach to being made righteous is by putting one's faith or confidence in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, not trying to be religious.

The good news, Paul adds in verse 8, is that Christ is near to everyone who is seeking Him. No one has to go anywhere to find God. You don't have to go on a religious pilgrimage and climb a mountain or cross a sea to find Jesus. Paul reminds the Jews of what Moses wrote. He states, "But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your MOUTH [a Hebraism or Jewish saying for something you can talk about or even practice] and in your heart [another Hebraism for something you can understand]’"-- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, In other words, all you have to do is listen to this message, this word of faith that Paul is preaching, take God's word, His message of salvation and put it in your heart and you will be saved and your present life transformed. 

Well, what is that word or message of faith or teaching that you are instructing your readers, Paul?  He tells us, that “if you confess with your mouth Jesus {as} Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, [meaning that you understand that He died for your personal sin] you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness," The first step to salvation and a person being made righteous or approved of by God is for that person to understand the message and then to commit themselves to Jesus, as Lord of their lives. Then Paul adds, "and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." 

The word there for mouth does not mean to give merely a verbal statement that "I have trusted in Jesus" although it may include that. To confess with one's mouth is this same Hebraism that we saw back in verse 6, which means to live out in one's life or to practice what you have believed in your heart. In other words, when a person puts one's trust in Jesus as one's Lord and savior, then the result will be lived out, not just verbalized but lived out resulting in a changed life or "salvation" as Paul uses the term here. Paul is not using the term "salvation," here to stress the end result that one is delivered from sin and presented to God. The term "salvation" used here refers to one's lifestyle having been changed because one is presently living a different life right now with Jesus being one's Lord. One's lifestyle is evidence of what one believes in one's heart.

Now allow me to camp on this for just a moment so that we fully understand what Paul is saying here. To confess that Jesus is Lord over our lives means that we have come to the place where we recognize that Jesus has the right to be the master of our lives. And as a result, our lives will be different in many ways as compared to others who don't know Jesus as Lord.

For instance: if we confess Jesus as Lord with our mouths, we will be involved in public worship and the gathering together with the saints like here on Sunday morning on a regular basis. More and more, people are ignoring corporate worship on Sunday or any other day of the week, preferring the idle pleasures of our day instead. The mere fact that one takes seriously the corporate worship of their God, says much about Jesus being Lord over their lives. 

Another example of confessing Jesus as Lord is people submitting to the biblical ordinances, such as baptism and communion. In being baptized, an individual makes a personal and public statement of one's commitment to Jesus Christ as one's Lord and savior. Communion, which is taken regularly, is the continual confession that Jesus is still my Lord. I haven't turned my back upon Him. Both are taken seriously by the believer and both make a statement about Jesus being Lord over one's life.

A third modern example of confessing Jesus as Lord is revealed in how we conduct our business practices and fulfilling our commitments to people. When we promise to be somewhere at a specific time to have a job or responsibility done, then we do it. We are not to be like others who act irresponsibly because they have no one to answer to. Because we have to answer to the Lord for all that we do and say. We are to do every project, religious or secular in such a way as though we were actually given the task by Jesus Himself.

We confess Jesus as Lord by the manner in which we turn away from temptation and face the everyday trials and tragedies that are common to all people.

We confess Jesus as Lord by our explicit attempts to reach out to those who have not yet met Jesus and introduce them to Him.

And finally, we can confess Jesus at the time of our death, by the way we die or even by a statement of our faith read by someone else at our own funerals.

Confessing Jesus as Lord is a way of life. It is not mere lip service.

A second point that needs to be stressed from these verses has to do with Jesus being Lord. There is much confusion today and teaching about putting your trust in Jesus as one's savior and then maybe at some other time, trusting Jesus as one's Lord or as one's master over one's life. I don't see scripture teaching that concept. Nowhere in all of scripture can you find one single reference to a person accepting or putting their trust in Jesus as one's savior. In every place that it refers to putting one's trust in Jesus or to believe in Jesus, and there are seven specific times that statement is made, it says each time that we are to put our trust in Him as our Lord or master. You will not find anywhere in scripture that one is to put one's trust in Jesus as one's savior. Saving is what He does, Lord is who He is.

In other words, you can't trust in Jesus as simply one's savior or way of escaping hell, and then go on to run you own life any way you please, including deliberately doing those things you know God says is wrong, and be saved. You accept Jesus as your master and then He becomes your savior. He is only both to you if you accept Him as Lord. He is nothing to you any other way. If you today believe that because you prayed a simple prayer to have Jesus be your savior but you have not submitted your life to Jesus as the ruler and the controller over your life, then you, my friend don't understand who Jesus is, and hence, most likely, you aren't saved. He is either Lord or He is nothing!

The best example I can point to of this is in Acts 16, when the Philippian jailor asked Paul what could he do to be saved and Paul told him, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved..." The jailor was saved not because he cleaned up his life and never sinned again, but was saved because He chose to make Jesus Lord and wanted Him to transform the jailor's life.

But, if you have been reading chapter 9 of Romans you might ask, "What if God hasn't chosen me to be saved? Will I still be held responsible for not seeking after Jesus and making Him Lord?" Paul answers that question of the individual's personal responsibility in chapter 10, verses 11-13. He states, "For the Scripture says, [note: this is an Old Testament quote. Paul is using an Old Testament quote that salvation by faith has always been God's plan, because these Jews are OT students. God's vehicle of salvation was never a personal works plan.] whoever [notice that this is unlimited and universal. This does not just say, "When the elect person decides to trust in Jesus, but] Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same {Lord} is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord [meaning put their faith in Jesus as one's Lord] will be saved." 

Notice: In contrast to chapter 9, Paul puts the responsibility for an individual's salvation squarely upon the individual's shoulders, not God's process of election. From our human perspective, God is saying, that if a person is not saved, that person won't be saved because they refused to accept God's gracious gift of salvation in Jesus, not because God sent them to Hell. They won't be saved because they rejected the Lordship or the control by Jesus of their lives. God rightfully holds both the elect and non elect responsible for their choice to receive or reject Jesus Christ.

At this point let's summarize what we have seen from this passage by way of making four applications. We have in our home a stitchery that my wife has hand crafted. It reads, "My life is but a weaving between my God and me, I do not chose the colors, He worketh steadily. Oft times He weaveth sorrow and I in foolish pride, forget He sees the upper and I the underside. Not till the room is silent, and shuttles cease to fly, will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why. Dark threads are as needful in the skilled Weaver's hand as threads of gold and silver in the pattern that He plans." I read you this to illustrate the importance of keeping the proper perspective as we look at these four applications. That stitched piece has two sides. One that is finished, and the underside with its exposed loose ends of threads which looks rag tag to us. Just as this stitchery has two sides or two perspectives and both are true, so does these truths about man's responsibility concerning salvation and God's selection or predestination of some people. 

When we were looking at chapter 9, we were looking at the truth from God's perspective. In chapter 10, we are looking at it from our perspective. If we don't keep in mind that there are two concurrent sides to this issue of salvation, and learn to live with the tension that both sides present, we could end up with an errant theological point of view, called armenianism or a very strict version of Calvinism. Armenianism teaches that we are totally free agents and that everything depends upon us, and that isn't completely true. Strict Calvinism teaches that God does everything and we have no responsibility and that isn't true either. God has a part and so do we. Both sides leave us with some unanswerable questions that we have to leave with God, because our finite minds can't answer them.

Rather than us arguing over what we don't understand fully, God, bottom line says, "Just pay attention to what is your responsibility and do it. Leave the inscrutable to me!"

These following applications from our study this morning are looking at this issue of salvation from the human race's point of view and responsibility.

The first conclusion that we draw from these verses is that God's offer of salvation to the human race is universal and genuine. Verses 11-13 made this clear. The "whoever's" and the "all's" mean that God's offer is to everybody. He genuinely desires that all people would take up His offer of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Secondly, God has made it clear that each person will be held responsible for what they do with Jesus Christ. You neighbor is not unsaved because he has not been elected by God. Your neighbor is unsaved because he has rejected Jesus Christ or put off trusting Jesus Christ. Therefore, don't buy it when someone makes the excuse of rejecting Jesus because they blame a bad church experience or because of other religious hypocrites they have met or because of a Christian businessman who has taken someone to the cleaners financially speaking. If a person is wrestling with life or God, that person is wrestling because they are refusing in one form or another to seek God first and to make Him number one in their lives.

Thirdly, God is responsible only to do what He has promised. If he promised to save those who trusted Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior, then He must save them. If He promised that those who didn't put their trust in Jesus as their Lord and savior wouldn't be saved, then they won't be saved. That's God's responsibility as judge. It is not ours. We can only explain what He says His ground rules are, He is the one who will carry out what He has promised as the judge.

Finally, there is no such thing in scripture as a secret service Christian or a nominal Christian. The early church knew of no such creature. Our faith was never designed to be a private inward belief as many in past generations have been made to believe. True faith in Christ was designed to have a very outward and public expression. That's the point behind Paul's words of confessing Jesus Christ as Lord, is all about. Our actions and words, our jokes, our uses of our time, talents and finances should make a statement to the world at large that Jesus is our Lord, that He is the number one priority in our lives. We may be golfers or fisherman or interested in the arts, but first and foremost that which drives our lives is our relationship with Jesus Christ.

This doesn't mean that we won't or don't make mistakes or sin. But it does mean that the overall way we handle ourselves and the focus of our speech will declare our loyalty to Jesus Christ as Lord. It means that we are not passive, simply waiting for Jesus to come, but we are active servants for our Lord as ambassadors for Jesus Christ, inviting others to meet Him. 

Ask yourself this question and answer it only for yourself. If you are married, ask your spouse how you as a couple would answer it as well. If Jesus came to you and asked you to give evidence in this last week or month, that you have been faithful as His ambassador to this world to use the talents He has given you to reach out to the lost for Christ or to reach out to build up other believers, what specific things could you point to that would show Him your faithful service on a daily basis? Would you have anything to show Him that would reveal that you are a faithful steward of all that He has given you? For instance: for what lost person have you been praying that they might meet Jesus? For which Christians outside your immediate family are you praying for? In what way have you specifically served the Lord or your local fellowship on an on going basis? What ministry are you involved in right now to which someone can hold you accountable to Your Lord? For instance: Maybe you are committed to working with Campus Life, or Hannah's home for unwed mothers and therefore don't any additional time to actually perform a service for the Lord here, at Crossroads. That's great. But if you are not specifically involved in some form of weekly service outside this fellowship or inside this fellowship, what does that say about Jesus being Your Lord? 

Jesus is either Lord of your life or He isn't. As someone stands back and looks at your Christianity, would you be charged with being a nominal Christian, which isn't Christian at all, or would they say, "Jesus is the Lord of that person's life. There is a responsible Christian"? 

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