Text: Rom 10:1-21
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
St. Paul laments that most of his countrymen rejected Jesus as the Messiah. And he analyzes why this is. Following mainly the lead of the Pharisees, those who rejected Jesus, did so because they rejected the Gospel: which is “the righteousness based on faith.” Instead, they sought “the righteousness that is based on the law.” In other words, this is the distinction between justification by grace – which is received by faith – (Eph 2:8-9) vs. the justification that one can earn by perfectly obeying the Law (Luke 10:28).
Justification by the Gospel (as opposed to the Law) is based on the person of Christ: “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,” as Paul quotes Deuteronomy (30:14). Of course, the Word is both the Incarnate Jesus (John 1:14) and “the word of faith that we proclaim.” And here, St. Paul reveals the truth of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ – who both ascended “into heaven” and descended “into the abyss.” This is one of those texts of Scripture that are clear and impossible to distort or interpret away: “If you confess with your mouth and Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” This is the Gospel, and Christianity itself is the very Good News of justification by grace, through faith, for the sake of Christ, as testified in the Scriptures.
And the Scriptures are consistent, with the New Testament completing the Old, with Jesus fulfilling the Law (Matt 5:17), with the sacrifice that covered Adam and Eve’s shame (Gen 3:21) being brought to completion on the cross by the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
So what does this mean, dear friends? It means we now understand fully the Word of God in the Old Testament, as Paul cites it again and again: “Everyone who believes in Him shall not be put to shame” (Ps 25:3). St. Paul’s Jewish countrymen – trapped in the delusion that they could keep the Law and earn salvation by works – rejected the very grace of God that is for all: both “Jew and Greek.”
And this is why we are here right now, dear friends: you who hear this Gospel, and I who proclaim it. For “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.” And this is not new in the sense that this is something innovative that changes the Old Testament. For Isaiah was also a preacher of the Word of Christ, and he asks a rhetorical question (as does St Paul so often): “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” (Isa 53:1). But it is new in that it has been fully revealed to the world – and also to you as a beloved creature of God hearing this Gospel at this very moment. God wants you to believe, so He wants you to hear this Good News. In order to hear it, you need someone to preach it (that is, to proclaim it). And in order to have a preacher, he must be sent. And this, dear friends, is how justification happens: not by your perfection in keeping the Law, but in your believing the Word of God that is preached to you by one who has been called and ordained for that purpose, who proclaims the Word of God, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us joyfully confess Him: God in the flesh, who as our High Priest offered Himself as the Lamb for our justification, so that we can be declared righteous before God. Let us believe that Word, and let us proclaim it and let us confess it – whether we are preachers or hearers. We have Good News for a world that desperately needs to hear it and believe it: both “Jew and Greek.”
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord” – our Lord Jesus Christ – “will be saved.”
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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