Today Paul answers the simple question of what must we do to be saved. Paul says, “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.” And he says, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” It is just that simple and yet as we look at all the unbelieving people of our world we might think, it is just that difficult. To confess that Jesus is Lord is to confess that He is truly God and truly man. To call on the name of the Lord is to recognize our own failings and how we cannot save ourselves, but we must be completely dependent on Jesus. Both of these things are indeed difficult, even impossible for us, in and of ourselves and so we have many religions, cults, and sects in our world who take the road of human reason and logic and, really the bottom line is they make themselves out to be their own gods, even if it is only subtly.
Paul begins by distinguishing between righteousness based on Law and righteousness based on faith. We begin at verse five, “5For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”’ (that is, to bring Christ down) 7or ‘”Who will descend into the abyss?”’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8But 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); 9because, 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. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’ 12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (v. 5-13).
Paul begins by telling us that Moses gave the Law and about that Law he says that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. In other words he says that you must live by the law in order to be saved. Of course Paul knows, as we know, that this is impossible. We cannot keep the Law, at least not as we ought to keep the Law, perfectly as God demands. And apart from the Lord helping us we cannot even keep the Law imperfectly. As Paul has addressed us before, the purpose of the Law is not to show us how good we need to be in order to be saved, but to show us how sinful we are in order for us to see our need to look outside ourselves for a Savior.
Paul goes on to tell us about faith. He says that faith does not require heroic measures, such as bringing Christ down from heaven or taking Him up from the dead. No, faith means believing and confessing that Jesus is Lord. And here, this word “Lord” is the Hebrew name of God, “Yahweh,” that is the God who revealed Himself to Moses in the wilderness. “The Word is near you,” almost sounds like Paul is echoing the Gospel of the Apostle John as he declares that “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God . . .” and “. . . The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” Jesus is the Word who was in the beginning with the Father and the Holy Spirit at the creation of the world. Jesus is the Word made flesh. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Word of the Law of the Commandments. Jesus is the Word of the Gospel which gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith. Jesus is the Word that is near us each and every day.
And this Word is for all people. There is no distinction. Remember, the promise to send a Savior was given before there were Jews and Gentiles. Today we might express this by saying that in God’s eyes there is no distinction between the races or better, between the cultures; the same Lord is Lord of all. Everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved.
So, again this week we are reminded of the importance of the means of grace. We are reminded that God calls to faith, gives faith, strengthens faith and works through the Means of Grace to do so. And Paul goes on to explain this giving and working in the next section.
How important are the means of grace? And what about those who have not heard? Paul goes on to say, “14But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ 16But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ 17So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (v. 14-17).
The means of grace are so important. The means of grace are indeed a matter of faith, life and salvation. These words tie in with the old question about those we think have not had an opportunity to hear the Gospel, how can they be held accountable for their lack of faith? The fact of the matter is that they have had the opportunity, but somewhere along the line their fathers failed to share the faith and so they are being punished for the sins of the fathers. Remember, we all go back to Noah who had the word. Thanks be to God that He allows for other opportunities to hear the Word so that those whose fathers fail to share the Word may hear it elsewhere and be given faith through that Word.
Paul says, “How can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” How can one hear unless some one is sent to administer the means of grace? Notice the importance of the means of grace and making use of them? God’s usual way of coming to us is through means, namely through the means of grace, His Holy Word, Holy Absolution, Holy Baptism and His Holy Supper. And notice the importance, again, of making regular, every Sunday, and diligent, everyday, use of these means. When we absent ourselves from these means then we fall into this group about whom Paul is speaking, how can we believe if we do not hear?
And Paul speaks of the importance of the Office of Holy Ministry. How can one preach unless one is sent? Notice, a man does not and cannot appoint himself for the Office of Holy Ministry. Simply to feel a calling does not validate such a calling. A man’s calling by God is validated when God through a congregation, calls him into the Office of Holy Ministry in order to preach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments, the means of grace.
Notice the bottom line in Paul’s words for us this morning. The bottom line is the Word of God. Certainly I could stand up here every Sunday and entertain you. Or I could stand up here and try to motivate you, which would amount to preaching law to you because that is what such motivation is, telling you what you have to do in order for God to do something for you. I could preach to you that now that you are saved now you need to be obedient to God’s words, in other words, chase you back to the law. I could tell you that you need to do good things in order to overcome the bad you have done. I could even use some great Christian sounding words, words your itching ears might want to hear. I could tell you how God wants you to succeed in life. I could tell you that all you have to do is believe hard enough or all you have to do is work hard enough and God will reward you. (I could sound like many of the preachers you hear on TV.) But, is that what God promises us and is that what God tells us in His Word? Does God promise us great success and happiness in life? The last few weeks we have been following along with Paul and he has been telling us and encouraging us because, especially as a Christian, life will have times of trials and affliction. God’s Word, which is what I am to preach to you, begins with the Word made flesh, Jesus, who came to do what we are unable to do, who came to pay the price for our sins by dying on the cross.
So, what does this mean? And what is important? What is important is the means of grace through which the Holy Spirit gives faith, forgiveness, life and salvation and works a response of faith. Oh, we might make it in life without these means. We might be quite successful and we might even believe that God has made us successful. Even more important, for our eternal salvation, is the forgiveness of sins and faith in Jesus. Paul does not even mention success as a part of salvation, but he does mention faith, believing and confessing our faith.
Faith and confession of faith is important and so the Office of Holy Ministry is important. God has given us the Office of Holy Ministry and He has called some men into this Office for the administration of the means of grace, preaching the Gospel, administering of absolution, the forgiveness of sins, and administering the sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
The important things Paul tells us are, hearing, believing and confessing. These three work together. We hear the Word which gives faith. Faith motivates us to confess that we believe. And as we believe, so that becomes our confession. This hearing, believing , and confessing are reflected in our worship. Our worship practice, that is our Divine Service flows out of our confession of faith and our confession of faith flows out of and instructs us in our worship practice, our Divine Service. Because we believe the means of grace are the way in which our Lord comes to us, so our worship practice is that our worship is permeated with the means of grace, beginning with the invocation which reminds us of our baptism, to our confession and hearing the most wonderful words of Holy Absolution, to our responsive readings which are our repeating back to God the very words He has given us to say, and to our celebration of the Lord’s Holy Supper. As we worship this way we understand the importance of the means of grace and we are strengthened and kept in faith.
Paul continually reminds us of the importance of the Word, namely, the Gospel, and the Word, Jesus, God in flesh. The Jesus of the Bible is not a Jesus of glory. He is not a Jesus of success, at least not in the terms the world would like to frame Him. As a matter of fact, He is a God who gave up the glory that was His, as God, in heaven, in order to go to the cross, to pay the price for ours sins. The Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus of the Word is a Jesus of the cross. And He is a Jesus for all.
Paul covers a lot for us this morning and clears up some misunderstandings about the Word. There is no distinction between races or cultures, for there is only one God and one Lord who calls to and gives faith and he does this through His means of grace, as the Holy Spirit works through these means, the Holy Bible, Holy Absolution, Holy Baptism, and the Holy Supper, so that we might respond by listening, believing and confessing that Jesus Christ is Yahweh. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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