“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what with it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt behoove in thine heart that God hath raised him from the, dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the month confession in made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich, unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard.? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” —Rom. 10:1-171Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 5For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. 6But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) 7Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) 8But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! 16But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:1‑17).
WE have very clearly brought out in Rom. 10, the difference between man’s righteousness and God’s righteousness, between simple faith that trusts God, and the works of the law by which no flesh shall be justified.
The apostle begins by saying, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved,” and that, my reader, is my earnest desire for you. Let me ask you, are you saved yet? That is what God wants, He wants you to be saved and to know it too, to have the knowledge of salvation as your present possession. Perhaps you say, “I think a good deal about these things, I am not careless or indifferent; I have struggled for years to do all I can.” Yes, there is effort, there is zeal, but as Paul says in verse 2 it is a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
I do not run down your zeal, but it is misdirected, and so it bears no fruit, gives you no rest, gives you no peace in the presence of God.
There are two things brought out in verse 3.
They are ignorant, and they are active, “ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness.” Activity goes with ignorance oftentimes. If they knew a little more they would be more quiet, more restful, distrust themselves more.
“Ignorant of God’s righteousness.” What is God’s righteousness? A risen Christ in glory! God’s righteousness was displayed first in letting His own Son die on the cross. God’s righteousness came out when the Lord Jesus Christ uttered that terrible cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me,” when He drank the bitter cup of wrath to the very dregs.
Why was that righteousness? Because He stood there in the room of the sinner, and if He stood there in the sinner’s place, it was only righteous that He should bear the sinner’s doom, take on His own blessed head the wrath due to the sinner, and bear the punishment of the one whose place He had taken.
But there is another part of the righteousness of God. God was righteous in smiting Him when He bore our sins on the cross, but by His death He has met every claim of God.
All that God could claim in respect of sin Christ has fully answered, and so when He went into death, He could not be holden of death; it had no claim upon Him, and God, in righteousness, took Him out of death and set Him in glory.
Took whom? The One who died for sinners, the One who, I rejoice to say, died for me. My reader, can it be said of you that He died for thee?
But there is another thing, if Christ took my place, bore my doom, it is due to Christ, from God, that God should bring me into. Christ’s place! If Christ took my place in love, and lowly grace, it is righteousness on the part of God to give me a position with Christ in glory!
Grace took Christ into death and. judgment, that God, in righteousness, might bring you and me into the place that Christ has in heavenly glory!
Take all human righteousnesses put together, what are they all? Filthy rags! That is what God accounts them. If you made a feast in your house and invited guests, could you bear that one should sit down at your table in filthy rags? “No,” you say, “my guests must be clean and clothed.” You are quite right; and do you think God is going to have you in His house in your garments of filthy rags?
Assuredly He will not.
You may have been going about to establish your own righteousness, you may have helped in all the benevolent schemes that have been presented to you, you may have sent missionaries to preach to the heathen, and yet if you have not known Christ personally as your own Saviour, God looks on all these things as clothing you only with filthy rags.
Paul says his only desire is “to be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness.” “I have seen a man in glory,” he says, “the only man that was suitable to God, and my own righteousness was withered up by the sight, my only thought now is to get to Him, to be like Him.” Ah, yes, Paul, you have found God’s righteousness, and that has made your own as worthless as dung or dross.
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” The law comes and makes a claim upon man, and man cannot answer to the claim. The law says, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” i.e., if you have £5000 give away £2500. But that is not all, you have still £2500. Says the law, give £1250, and when that is done, still there is the inexorable claim, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” give ₤625 and so on, for the law says, “I hold you to it still,” till it makes you a beggar.
It was this that the rich young ruler spoken of in Luke 18 could not stand, if he were to inherit life according to the law; he saw what it must involve, and he went away sorrowful.
Why does the Lord answer him as He does?
He does it to test him, He saw he was not in earnest: if he had been in earnest he would have said, “Yes, let it all go, so long as I get eternal life, the thing my soul needs.” There is many a soul in hell today, who was rich on earth, who would only be too thankful to let it all go if he could, once more to have the offer of salvation.
The law can only make claims on me and convict me that I have not met its claims, and then condemn me. Christ says, on the contrary; I have met all the claims of the law and I give eternal life. Eternal life was not brought out in the Old Testament. It was reserved for the Son of God when here on earth to unfold it, and that man could only get this life, by His own death. Moses and the law could tell you how to get a long life on earth, but Jesus only can tell you how to get eternal life with Him; and how do you get it? Only from Himself, and only as a gift, received by faith.
“But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven?” —because heaven is a long way off, and Christ’s grace has brought Him down, or ‘who shall descend into the deep?’” —because He is not in the depths, He is no longer among the dead. No! God’s righteousness brought Him out from there and eternal life is nearer to thee than that, it is nearer than the friend sitting by your side, you may have it by accepting the word in simple belief in your heart.
Do you believe God has raised Him from the dead? “Yes,” you say. Why was He among the dead? For us poor sinners! God in righteousness let Him go into death, but God in righteousness also raised Him from among the dead, and the glory of the Father salutes Him. Do you believe it? “I do,” you say.
And are you willing to own it, to confess the Lord? “Yes.” Then, he says, “Thou shalt be saved.” Can there be a doubt when God speaks like this? Do you believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead? And do you confess with your mouth that blessed Lord Jesus? You are not ashamed to own Him?
Then God says, “Thou,” I like the individuality of that word “Thou shalt be saved.” Satan says to you perhaps, “No, you will not.”
Your own heart whispers to you fears and doubts. God says, “Thou shalt.” Will He keep His word? You know He will. Then you certainly must be saved or God must break His word. You say directly, “He cannot do that.” Then you cannot be lost, if simply believing in Jesus.
You become righteous the moment you believe. You are righteous before God by faith, and confess in the presence of men unto salvation.
The moment you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, God expects that you will not be ashamed before man to own Him, and you will never be put to shame before God.
“For the same, Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.” How beautiful! No matter what you have been, you may be steeped in sin of the blackest dye, you may have no character, and no respectability, and no money in your pocket either, and the devil may be standing by your side whispering into your ear, and reminding you of all your sins. Never mind, have you called on the name of the Lord? Because the man that calls must be saved, “For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved!”
I love to hear the sinner calling on the name of the Lord, for I know there never was one soul that called on Him whom He cast off, whom He refused to hear, never! But do not let this verse make you presume to put it off do not say, because this scripture is true therefore, I will delay calling till my deathbed; I will call then, and He will hear me, and I shall be saved, for oh, my reader, you may never have a deathbed on which to call on Him, in one moment you may be hurried from time into eternity, and that call, which assuredly would have saved you, you may never have time to give. Do not risk it for God is not mocked.
Do not you be like one whom I heard of but a short time since, one who knew this scripture well, and who, because he knew it, presumed upon it. He believed it was God’s word, believed it was true, “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” and because of this very scripture he put off calling.
To all who pressed his soul’s eternal welfare on him this truth, was his invariable answer, and that he intended to take advantage of it someday, he meant to call on the name of the Lord before he died.
“And did he? Was he saved?” I think I hear you ask, “this procrastinator, this prosumer upon the grace and long-suffering of God.” I will tell you. He was in the hunting field one day, and his noble well-trained horse rose to leap a hedge in pursuit of the game. On the other side of the hedge was a flock of sheep feeding, the sheep were frightened and scattered right and left at the noise of the horse’s footsteps, the sudden movement of the sheep startled the horse and it missed its footing and fell, throwing its rider violently. Instead of “Lord save me,” coming from the rider’s lips as he fell, he exclaimed, “Devil take ye” to the sheep. However, it was not the sheep, but the soul of this man that the devil took at that moment, for these were his last words, as he broke his neck in his fall, and died on the spot!
Ah! my reader, there is everything for faith, but there is nothing for presumption in this verse, and do not forget that procrastination has done more to fill hell than has open sin.
Oh, how blessedly free is the gospel! “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” But who is it incites to the call? none other than God. Himself. He is the spring of it all by first calling on the sinner in the gospel, and then waiting to hear the anxious soul’s responsive call. This is most clear from verses 14-15. “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.” Here is the divine authority for preaching. Who sends? God! Whom does He send?
The preacher. And what does the preacher preach? Christ! Have you heard? and have you believed, my reader?
God sends out the preacher, and the preacher preaches, and the sinner hears, and hearing believes, and believing calls on the name of the Lord. The circle is complete, it begins with God and goes back to God. The moment you have called on the Lord what is the next thing? You are saved! That is the Lord’s own word. Believing you call, and calling you are saved, and being saved you have eternal life.
Surely God Himself, my reader, is calling you by this paper at this moment, will you not hearken to His voice? Listen, listen to Him now, believe His word and get hold for yourself of God’s own righteousness, which is Christ the Lord.
It is very simple. Listen only to the word of God. If you do you will be sure to believe.
Why? Because “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Faith is the reception into the heart of a divine testimony. Here the testimony is that Christ died and rose. Faith believes it, and goes further and says “He loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Be simple, my reader, trust the Lord fully, confess Him plainly, and then go on your way rejoicing in Him, which you have every right to do till you see Him in glory, and then you and I will fall before Him in happiest fellowship with God’s redeemed, and say,
“Thousand, thousand thanks to Thee
Jesus, Lord! forever be!”
W. T. P. W.