“Aug 23, 2024 - In Your Mouth and In Your Heart”

Thursday, August 22, 2024

In Your Mouth and In Your Heart

Reading:  Romans 10:5-13
    
    While Paul is upset by the fact that many Jews have rejected the gospel of grace, he still maintains that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes”(Rom 10:4).  “End” here means the purpose, goal, or fulfillment of the Law of Moses; the law points to Jesus.  Even the difference between works and grace is written there.  “For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them”(Rom 10:5).  This is the equation for being good enough to please God under the Law of Moses:  if you do everything you are commanded, you will live.  It is based on perfect obedience.  

    Yet, working from Deuteronomy 30:12-13, Paul believes that even Moses wrote about a different kind of righteousness.   It does not require ascending to heaven or descending into the abyss, but “the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”(Rom 10:8).  It is close at hand and eminently doable.  How?  “because, 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.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved”(Rom 10:9-10).  These acts of submission (faith and confession) do not require superhuman strength, wisdom, or perfection.  We all have mouths and hearts; we simply must use what we have to choose to follow Jesus.  This also opens salvation up to all people, even the previously wicked, who are willing to put faith in Jesus (Rom 10:11-13).  

    There is great news here: salvation has been brought down from heaven.  God does not require us to live sinless lives to receive eternal life.  Certainly Paul’s words do not mean there is nothing we have to do; he has stressed the life of following the Spirit and slavery to righteousness that follows our commitment.  The point is that we are no longer pursuing an unattainable goal, haunted by our consciences, enslaved by our passions, frustrated by the growing gap between us and God.  Salvation is near to us—in our mouths and in our hearts—as God forgives us through our obedient faith in Jesus.

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One Thing to Think About:  If I feel that salvation is unattainable, what does that say about how I am pursuing it? 

One Thing to Pray For:  A heart to continually “call on the name of the Lord”
 

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