Romans 10:13-17
God’s Word is our Great Heritage - it is something given to us by God. It has the weight of an inheritance and the comfort of a birthright. It encompasses us and protects us with its insights but it also compels us to live up to a certain standard because we are marked by forgiveness.
This Heritage that is the Word of God is God’s crystal clear understanding of reality placed into human language so that humans could internalize it and digest it. Well, what is this clear understanding that is starting to become clearer and clearer to us? It is Sin and Grace. It is the sin housed in our human souls/hearts and the blood of Jesus that washes away that very real filth.
We are searching out this heritage through the month of February; as the month progresses, we will see astounding love displayed in the rich heritage of God’s Word. In our text for this weekend, the word, “faith” establishes in the believer, a steadfast acceptance of our deep, personal sin as well as the phenomenal Good News of Jesus our loving Savior.
Romans 10:13-17
English Standard Version
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will 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? 15 And 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!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Faith comes from hearing.
Let’s explore what that faith rests in and holds onto.
A certain modern philosopher hinted at a point that is illustrated in Romans 10:13 (“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”) and in Romans 10:17 (“faith”). In those two verses we have our horrible plight (our hearts), the need to be saved, and the faith to trust that Jesus the Lord is the Savior from that tragic end.
Who is it that actually calls on the name of the Lord? What is the state of that particular human being who finds himself in need? What is it in the human spirit that drives a person to want Jesus as Savior as well as “need Jesus” as Savior?
Here is how he, the philosopher, approached the topic:
Schindler’s list, the movie, is a traumatic account of a German businessman who found a way to help 100’s of Jews escape the Nazi meatgrinder. Most of us know the story. There are three basic characters in this movie: Schindler, the hero; the Nazis - the perpetrator; the Jews - the victims. If the reality of our human hearts would rise to the surface, which of these three characters would we instantly portray?
His advice, if we want to get to the nuts and bolts of Romans 10:13, was to read history as if you are the perpetrator and NOT the noble intervener (hero). We want to imagine that we would have been like Schindler or at worst, like the Jews who suffered. But Matthew 15:19 paints a much more sinister view of our own human hearts. The need to be saved is much more bleak than often dare admit.
If we read history in that way and imagine ourselves, according to our darkened human hearts, to possess an evil that is willing and able to stand on the side and ignore the atrocities flung headlessly against others and maybe even experience ourselves as the perpetrator of evil, then we are starting to understand the train wreck that is inside of our human soul - the need for a Savior. That is when the cry for help starts to swell in our lungs and we call on the name of the Lord Jesus.
Here is how it sounds in a prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, my willful, evil heart would lustfully sit in Genghis Kahn’s saddle in order to tear through lives on the Mongolian plateau. The dank prison of my soul would lock away lives in bitter cells so that I could thrive. My spirit’s natural self cares not for the pain of others. I would be the Auschwitz prison guard, just taking orders.
There is no evil villain in all the history of mankind whose evil nature I could not equal. Make that truth evident to me and release me from my dark heart.
I have a heart that is capable of the darkest evils. Forgive me and help me.
“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person” (Matthew 15:19-20).
Thank you for your powerful saving Word of Truth that shows me who I am and rescues me by the blood of Jesus.
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
The Light of your Word, Jesus, lets me see that my evil self is cleansed by your painfully shed blood.
Thank you for such a willing and complete sacrifice!
Amen.
Since “faith comes by hearing” (Romans 10:17) that our hearts are in dire need of rescue, let us be quick to the task of letting the Heritage of God’s Word slice through the crisp, clean exterior of our public image. We can faithfully walk with hearts that are laid bare to the truth of our dark motives and neglectful, self-centered evil. AND we are quick to explore the myriad riches of Christ’s grace poured out for our complete salvation! “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!” (Romans 10:13).
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