Romans 10:1-21 How Can They Hear

In our passage this morning, we see Paul’s heart for people, especially for the Jewish people who haven’t yet accepted Jesus as their Lord. Paul’s heart desire is for everyone to know Jesus and to accept him as their Lord and Saviour, especially his fellow Jews. Paul wants them to know and embrace the gospel, to embrace Jesus who’s the core of the gospel news. It’s like when we have family who’ve drifted away from Jesus, or maybe you’ve accepted Jesus but your family and loved ones haven’t yet; when that happens, your deepest desire is that they will come to know Jesus and follow him with you.

The Jews know God. They follow the Law and do all the sacrifice and ritual stuff, but it comes more out of a sense of fear and duty rather than love and relationship. They follow the Law to the letter, even tithing a tenth of their spices to the temple, yet they’re unable to see how the Law points to Jesus, how the Law teaches us about our relationship with God and our neighbours. The 70 years in exile in Babylon has made them focus intently on fulfilling the letter of the Law and they forgot that the reason they went into exile was because they forgot that the heart of the Law is to love God and their neighbour and protect the vulnerable among them. Jesus is the culmination of the Law, living it out completely in his life and relationship with God the Father. Jesus lives it out on the cross through complete obedience to God’s will and out of complete love for us. The Jews are looking to the Law, Paul calls them to look to Jesus.

Paul’s desire is that the Israelites will move from the righteousness that is by the law, focusing on rule keeping, and embrace the righteousness that is by faith which says… the word is near you; it is in your mouth and heart. The word here is Jesus, we learn that from the first chapter in John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus didn’t hate the Pharisees; he wanted them to see that their salvation wasn’t coming from following the rules, but that it comes through him. Jesus freaks out on them for tithing spices and every small thing they own, but that’s because they’ve forgotten the heart of God for the poor, oppressed, widow and orphan. Jesus wants, just as Paul does, for their faith to make it past their head and into their hearts and to transform their lives. When we share the Gospel news with others, we’re not just giving them knowledge, we’re inviting them into a relationship with Jesus.

We can do all the laws and rules and still not be saved from our sin. You can know that Jesus is Lord, that he died on the cross for our sin, and was raised from the dead to show sin and death are defeated, and still be far from God. The Jews know God, they know him really well since God has been with them and saved them many times in the past, but they’re not accepting and following Jesus. Satan knows God and still is far from God, and definitely is not a follower of Jesus.

Paul encourages us, saying, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Jesus tells his disciples in John 14 that he is the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through him. Jesus goes on to say that if they really knew him, then they would know the Father as well. If you want to know God, Jesus is saying, you need to know him.

If Jesus is our Lord, then our allegiance and loyalty need to be given completely to him, our identity rooted completely in Jesus. Claiming Jesus as Lord is saying to the world that we’re not giving our allegiance to Caesar or anything else: Jesus is first! Richard Niell Donovan writes, “Rome considered Caesar to be Lord, and required its citizens and subjects to say, “Caesar is Lord.” To proclaim Jesus as Lord was to invite charges of disloyalty or treason, for which the penalty was death. It is likely that some of the Christians to whom Paul wrote this epistle knew Christians who had died for confessing that Jesus is Lord—and yet they continued their public proclamation—and so the church prospered, even as it was nurtured by the blood of the saints.” Claiming Jesus as Lord is not a light thing to claim. Paul says we need to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, meaning that you’re trusting that Jesus really was sent from God and that he’s God’s only begotten son. This needs to be deep down faith, from the heart.

The hardest thing for the Jews was to move from following the Law to accepting Jesus as God’s son and as their Lord. It’s not much different today. There’s a surprising interest in spiritual and supernatural things, most people have a sense that there is more to the world than what we can experience through our senses. While many people will admit to a spiritual reality, our challenge is to help them see that Jesus is at the center of the spiritual realm and he calls us to follow him and accept him as the most important thing and person in our lives and hearts, to accept him as our Lord.

Paul asks, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” I am often surprised by how little many people know about God and Jesus. We think everyone still knows the biblical stories of Christmas and Good Friday, but even those are being forgotten and this has been happening a while now. While at Redeemer University in the late 90s, an English professor, Deborah Bowen arrived after having taught at the University of Ottawa. She was surprised that half her students there didn’t know even the simple stories of the Bible. Jesus was a myth or a swear word, while Christmas was trees and gifts, and Easter was chocolate and bunnies.

How can they know who Jesus is if no one has even told them, how can they believe in Jesus if no one has ever taken the time to talk to them about God and Jesus? This is Paul’s question concerning the Jews, how about our co-workers, fellow students and neighbours?  There’s an interest in spiritual things today, just check out how many tv shows deal with spiritual or supernatural topics. Whenever I talk to someone in our city about faith and Jesus, I’ve never had anyone tell me off or walk away. Most times there’s interest, even if they’re only being polite. But how will the people in our city hear about Jesus if we don’t talk about him; share how he makes a difference in our lives and how his way changes us.

The people in our lives need to hear of the peace that passes all understanding that Jesus gives us; to offer them the freedom to stop chasing after all the things that we’re told will make us more beautiful, smarter, wealthier, more popular, more whatever. They need to hear that they can find forgiveness for all the wrong stuff in their past, that they’ve been given gifts and skills to bring change into our community, that Jesus calls us to create a community where everyone’s treated with honour because they’re created in the image of God, that we’re challenged to help others flourish and develop the potential God has placed in them, to live in grace and hope rather than fear and oppression. They need to know that they are loved by Jesus, that they belong to him. So many people are searching for a place where they can belong, be accepted. If we don’t tell them about Jesus and how he’s able to transform their lives, who will?

In the end, we want the people in our city to know the same thing Paul wanted the Jews to know, found in Romans 8:38–39,  ^“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” May the Lord give you the words and courage needed to share Jesus and remember, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” May your feet be beautiful this week and every week!