Please turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 10. Our sermon text this morning is verses 5-17. You can find that on page 1124. As you are turning there, let me note a couple of things. We are in the middle of our summer study of Romans 9-11. Thank you to Peter Van Wyk for preaching last week from the end of chapter 9 into the beginning of chapter 10. It was excellent. As we get into these verses this morning, I’ll refer back to some of those points. In these three chapters, the big question is, how should we understand Israel and the Jewish people today? Especially unbelieving Jews? There were many in the apostle Paul’s day and there are many today. It’s an important question because God revealed himself to the world through Israel. So, Israel, as a people, were central in God’s plan. One thing that underlies these chapters is having a heart for their salvation. In the beginning of chapter 9, Paul put it in the most passionate of ways. If I could be cut off for their sake that they would believe, I would do it. That is how deeply he desired to see them believe in Christ. In fact, Paul says something similar at the beginning of chapter 10, verse 1 – he writes, “my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.” Our hearts desire should be the same. So that is the underlying sentiment in all three of these chapters. And what the apostle Paul has been explaining in these chapters is the relationship between unbelieving Israel and believing Israel and believing Gentiles. As I mentioned before, but just to be sure, the Gentiles are all the non-Jewish people. To explain the relationship between these groups, Paul asks questions and gives answers. That has been his approach all through Romans. And as he asks and answers questions, he makes the point that his answers are not new. I was thinking about how he’s done that. I think a good phrase that captures it is this, “it has always been that way.” He doesn’t use those words, but that idea is in every answer. For example: · Paul asks, since many Israelites do not believe in Christ, have God’s promises failed? Remember that question from three weeks ago? His answer is no. Why? Not all Israel are Israel. A subset of Israel are children of the promise. He points out that it has always been that way. · Paul next asks, is God unjust when he chooses only some to believe? The answer is no. Rather God in his sovereignty is merciful. He points out again it has always been that way. · His next question, which was last week, is a really important one. Do the Gentiles (which includes us or most of us) receive a right standing before God by faith, but the Jews are righteous by keeping the law? Paul’s answer again: no! Righteousness is only received by faith. In fact, it has always been that way. That answer is like the beating drum of these chapters. It has always been that way. That is why there are so many Old Testament quotes. And we’ll continue to see that. Alright, I know that is a long preamble, but hopefully that helps tie together where we’ve been so far. In our verses this morning, Paul addresses the next logical question, what is this faith thing? And second, how do people come to know of this faith? So, let’s turn now to God’s word. Reading of Romans 10:5-17 Prayer The word “faith” today is very squishy. I think you know what I mean. Its use is broad. We say we have faith in other people. Or we have faith in our abilities. Or we have faith that something will work out in the end. Sometimes faith refers to different religions. You’ll hear people ask, “what faith tradition do you come from?” Other times you will hear “he has a deep faith” or “she has a deep faith.” Or maybe you’ll even hear, “I have faith in science or technology to solve such and such a problem.” You see, in today’s world, faith has a lot of different meanings. But what is the faith that the apostle Paul is speaking about here? That is a crucial question. He’s told us that righteousness, which is our right standing before God, comes by faith and not works. He explained that we are righteous before God not because we are good enough. No, rather, it is because of Christ’s righteousness. When we have faith, we are given his righteousness. I like how Peter put it last week: Christ is the law. It’s a great way to think about it. Christ is the beginning of the law. He is its purpose and its fulfillment. He fulfills the law for us. And guess what, it has always been that way. But the question is, what does it actually mean to have a righteousness by faith and not the law? That is the first question that these verses address. Look at verse 5. It says, “For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.” In other words, if you think that you can become righteous by keeping the law, you ...