Brethren, the delight of my own heart and my supplication which [I address] to God for them is for salvation.
Paul has just written a hard chapter about Israel's unbelief and the judgment on it. Now he bends his knee and prays for that same nation — which raises the question: what does hard truth do to love?
Chapter 9 had set out God's settled dealings with Israel, including their rejection. Commentators note that this knowledge changed nothing about Paul's affection, and they point to a detail in the wording: the older manuscripts read "for them" rather than "for Israel."
Paul knew God's unchangeable purposes about Israel. That knowledge had not put out his love for his nation at all. It had not taken from his heart every hope that his Israelite brothers would be saved. The thought that delighted his heart and drew out his affection in prayer to God was their salvation. He says "for them," not "for Israel," as the common text has it. He is already occupied with Israel, so putting in the name would have been needless. Leaving it out is beautiful, because it shows that they and their salvation — not their judgment, however much Israel might deserve it — were before his mind.
Another writer warns that a scrap of such knowledge often hardens people toward those under God's discipline. Paul shows the opposite.
Paul had just drawn an amazingly full and connected sketch of God's revealed ways and settled purposes for man on the earth. None of it got in the way of his warm love for Israel. Men often twist a small scrap of such knowledge and use it to close their hearts to people who are to blame and under God's particular discipline. But it was not so with the apostle... There was no need to say more clearly whose blessing he cared about so much, and this all the more because of their great danger. The threats in the prophecies were coming true in Israel's deepening unbelief, and that drew out his strong crying to God on their behalf, and this for salvation. For what less than salvation could satisfy a heart that loved them?
Paul's opening address is not a filler word. One writer traces the habit across his letters.
When this word "Brothers" begins the sentence, it is always in preparation for a particularly earnest appeal.
Paul asked for one definite thing. What he asked tells you the state of the people he prayed for.
The apostle Paul — the writer of these words — is bending his knee, and praying for his own nation. He prays for something definite — their salvation. When he prays that they may be saved, is it not a proof that they are lost? Of course it must be. It is only lost people who need salvation. Was he praying then for a nation of cut-throats, drunkards, and reprobates? No; he was praying for a nation of religious people. They were religious in the extreme, but they were not saved. So we learn plainly from this first verse: religion cannot save the soul. Only Christ can do that.
Someone might blame God for Israel's loss. One writer asks where Paul's longing came from in the first place.
Nothing less than salvation is the heart's desire and prayer of Paul for Israel. Can he be accused of despising his nation? Or can God — who put such longings in the apostle's heart — be blamed for Israel's neglecting such salvation? Is God's desire not just as deep and real as was Paul's for Israel's salvation? — yes, and for that of "all men"? First Timothy 2:4 bears its clear witness. The fault is utterly in man's pride, certainly not in God's goodness.
Two writers turn the verse on the reader. One points to the Jewish people, the other to the crowd around us.
For His beloved people Israel the great apostle of the Gentiles prayed to God, that they might be saved. What an example he has given to us believers from the Gentiles. We owe a great debt to Israel; but how little prayer there is among Gentile Christians for the salvation of the Jews!
But how he grieved over the mass of deceived Jews. Are we so grieved for the mass around us? Can we say our heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they might be saved?
- Knowledge — the hardest chapter about his nation's failure left Paul's love for them untouched. A scrap of such knowledge often hardens people toward those under God's discipline; in Paul it did the opposite.
- Wording — he prayed "for them," not "for Israel," as the common text reads. Their salvation stood before his mind, not their judgment.
- Prayer — he asked for one definite thing: salvation. Only lost people need saving, and this nation was religious to the extreme.
- Source — the longing was God's before it was Paul's. The fault for Israel's refusal lies in man's pride, not in God's goodness.
- Example — Christians from the Gentiles owe a great debt to Israel, yet pray little for them. The same test applies to the crowd around us.
For I bear them witness that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
Paul has just poured out his longing for Israel's salvation. Now he does something surprising. He speaks well of the very people who rejected the gospel. He testifies to their zeal — and in the same breath names what was missing from it.
The phrase points to who their devotion was aimed at. It does not mean God gave them the zeal. One writer explains the Greek behind it, and why the old wording "zeal of God" misleads:
"Zeal of God" is a poor translation, like "faith of the Son of God" in Galatians 2:20. The Greek genitive covers far more ground than the English possessive... The Jews were zealous for God, but not according to right or true knowledge. This made the apostle care for them all the more tenderly. Their zeal carried them the further in the wrong direction. That is always what happens in the things of God when faith does not order matters by what God has revealed.
Paul is not describing strangers. He had once been the clearest example of such zeal himself:
The apostle had never been a careless, easy-going Israelite. His training was very strict, and his own zeal matched it. He gave the fullest proof of that, for he persecuted this Way to death... He was the highest example of those who have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. So who could speak from personal experience like him to people who did not know God's righteousness and were trying to set up their own?
That shared history shapes how he speaks. He turns their zeal into a plea for them, yet he refuses to let it stand as enough:
He could fully sympathize with a zeal that had once been the special honour of his own name as a child of tradition. At the same time, as an apostle of truth, he exposed how useless and worthless such zeal is. So he could find it in his heart to use their zeal for God as a plea for that nation, marking it off from the nations who did not care for God. Yet he has to declare, as from God, the complete rejection of it. Unless the Spirit of truth produces and directs such zeal, it is only a dead work of the flesh.
The next verse names the missing piece: they did not know God's righteousness. Their zeal did not just fall short of it. It stood in the way:
Their zeal aimed at man's righteousness by the law. That zeal was the obstacle that kept them from knowing God's righteousness and submitting to it. When God presented His righteousness, offering it to Israel in their own Messiah, they rejected Him. They failed in their own righteousness and what was worse, they would not submit to God's.
Zeal is only speed. Its value depends on the direction it takes:
Paul, the great apostle, was not the man to waste his time praying for something that had already happened. Here he tells us that he was praying for Israel, that they might be saved. So they were not saved. Yet they were religious, they were zealous, they were doing their best. "They have a zeal for God," said the apostle, "but not according to knowledge." It should be plain to everybody that the greater a man's zeal, the worse it is for him if he is wrong. The more zealous a man is on the wrong road, the further he travels from the right destination.
So the verse raises a question: does being in earnest count with God?
Will zeal for God in itself commend any sinful creature to Him? Will being in earnest be enough to win Heaven's approval for anyone? Earnestness without subjection to God's Word will not help those to whom that Word has come.
A clear conscience is no safer than earnestness. Paul's own past proves it:
We get and keep a "good" conscience by carrying out honestly and strictly everything our conscience tells us. A zealous man whose conscience is uninformed or twisted will do the most outrageous things to keep his "good" conscience. That is how Paul acted before his conversion... This shows plainly that conscience is no safe guide on its own. The Word of God must enlighten it.
- Zeal. Their devotion was aimed at God, not given by God. Paul says so plainly, and says it in their favour.
- Direction. Zeal is speed, not guidance. The more zealous a man is on the wrong road, the further he travels from the right destination.
- Knowledge. What was missing was knowledge of God's righteousness. Their own zeal for a righteousness by law became the obstacle that blocked it.
- Conscience. Sincerity settles nothing. Conscience is no safe guide until God's Word enlightens it, as Paul the persecutor proved.
- Love. Paul names their fault as one who once shared it. He turns their zeal into a plea for them, and keeps praying for their salvation.
For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own [righteousness], have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
Paul is explaining what went wrong with a people who worked hard at religion. He stacks three failures into one sentence: they did not know God's righteousness, they were building a righteousness of their own, and they would not bow to His.
The problem was not laziness but blindness. One writer says their ignorance ran deeper than one doctrine:
They ignored the righteousness of God, not just the doctrine of justification — though that follows too. They were ignorant of God's righteousness revealed in the gospel. Their hopes rested on human merit, topped up by God's promises, by priesthood, rites, and religious duties. They saw the Messiah as the crown and completion of their privileges. They did not see Him as a suffering substitute, or as a Saviour in the power of His resurrection after bearing their judgment on the tree.
Commentators differ on where that ignorance lies. Another writer points to God's own standard:
The Jews were ignorant of God's righteousness: that is, they were ignorant of how righteous God is. If they had realised that, they would have known they were under condemnation. They would have known that no effort of their own could meet His demands. Because they did not know how righteous God is, they set out to build a righteousness of their own.
The verse turns on this phrase. One writer rules out two common definitions of it, then says what it really is:
To turn "the righteousness of God" into His method of salvation by faith is a weak sense, and even a false one. Some theologians say the phrase means only Christ's obedience to the law, ending with His suffering on the cross. That idea is almost as unsatisfactory. The phrase means what it says: "the righteousness of God." It stands in contrast with man's righteousness, which the law demanded. Divine righteousness is a righteousness already accomplished in Christ. God gives it by faith. It justifies the ungodly, instead of condemning them, as the law must do. So this righteousness takes in not only Christ's holy obedience through all His life here below, but also God's righteous dealing "for us" in His death, resurrection, and ascension.
"Seeking to establish their own" describes effort poured into a job no one can finish. That effort, one writer says, exposes a double ignorance:
How many people in the Apostle Paul's day, and how many still today, are working to build a righteousness of their own. It cannot be done, if they only knew it. Such an effort shows they do not know themselves, and do not know God. Of themselves, for they can have no right sense of their guilt before God. Of God, because they think He can lower the standard of His holiness and righteousness to the level they imagine they have reached. That He never will.
The verse ends with a refusal. One writer traces it to the root that resists every other authority:
Romans 10:3 shows that natural pride is what keeps us from submitting to proper authority... How natural it is to want to be right without submitting to true righteousness! This is the snare of submitting to our own self-righteousness.
Another writer asks what to call a person who refuses:
They did not submit! What is a boy who will not submit to his parents? He is disobedient. What is a man who will not submit to the government? He is a rebel. But how shall we label the man who refuses to submit to God? By what name shall we call him? Can you find a name strong enough for him in your language? And having found the name, who among you does it describe?
Submitting is not one more effort of our own. One writer says what it is:
Now this is what God calls submitting to God's righteousness: finding a righteousness which is neither of us nor in us. It is finding Christ before God. It is the proud will, through grace, submitting to be saved by what is not of us or in us. It is Christ instead of self, instead of our place in the flesh.
And the verse leaves one door open, which is the same door it says they walked past:
All they need is submission to the righteousness of God, for it is the only righteousness possible of being established.
- Ignorance — They did not know how righteous God is. They did not know the righteousness the gospel reveals. Every other failure in the verse grows from that root.
- Effort — Building your own righteousness assumes God will lower His standard to your level. He never will, so the work never ends.
- Refusal — Behind all the busy religion sits pride. It wants to be right on its own terms, not right on God's.
- Meaning — God's righteousness is not His method of saving. It is not just Christ's law-keeping. It is a righteousness already finished in Christ, and God gives it by faith.
- Submission — To submit is to stop producing and start receiving. It is Christ instead of self, instead of our place in the flesh.
For Christ is [the] end of law for righteousness to every one that believes.
Paul has just said that his people's zeal for God ran ahead of their knowledge. They were busy building a righteousness of their own. Verse 4 is his answer: everything the law reached for ends in a Person, and God gives that Person to anyone who believes.
The tragedy in Israel was not indifference. It was energy aimed the wrong way. One commentator shows where it went wrong:
Their zeal aimed at man's righteousness according to the law. That zeal was the very thing that kept them from knowing God's righteousness and submitting to it. When God presented His righteousness, offering it to Israel in their own Messiah, they rejected Him.
Commentators differ over the word "end." One writer weighs the options and settles on termination:
One view, held from ancient times and perhaps even more today, is that Christ is the fulfilment of the law. But "end" and "fulfilment" are different words, and there seems no ground at all for confusing them. Others take it in the sense of "object" or "aim." But the simplest meaning, as the context decides, appears to be "termination"... "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." The Christ of God is made righteousness to us.
Others read "end" as the goal the law aimed at all along:
The word "end" is used here, we believe, just as it is in 2 Corinthians 3:13, meaning the object in view. The law was really given with Christ in view. It paved the way for Him. If only Israel had been able to look steadily to the end of the law, they would have seen Christ. It is quite true, of course, that now Christ has come, all thought of reaching righteousness by law is finished. But that is not the primary meaning of verse 4.
Either way, the result is the same. One writer found the door of a local shop boarded up, with a notice reading "Entrance round the corner":
We did not waste time trying to force our way through that old door. We followed the plain directions, entered by the new way, and got what we wanted. Men need righteousness if they are to be at peace with God. If the law could have given that righteousness, the law would have stood as the way of blessing. But no sinful foot ever walked that road, so no one was justified, or could be justified, by the deeds of the law. Now God has closed that way for ever. He has replaced it with Christ, and through Him the worst of men may receive the blessing without works.
The verse does not say the believer receives a quality. One writer presses the difference:
Scripture nowhere says that Christ's righteousness is credited to us, but that He Himself is our righteousness... We are not justified because of a righteousness the Lord Jesus worked out in His life. That righteousness was entirely His own. We are justified because He Himself is our righteousness. Better to have Christ as your righteousness than ten thousand righteousnesses of your own.
A holy law cannot just be set aside. How can believers go free without bearing the penalty? One writer answers:
Look for the answer at that central cross on Calvary. Hanging there is One who did no sin, who had kept the law in every detail, and who delighted to do so. The law had no judgment for Him, and death had no claim on Him. Yet He bore the curse of the law and died for us. He met its full demands by the sacrifice of Himself. He was there as our substitute, and in our place He paid the penalty, and we died in Him.
The last phrase removes Israel's special claim. The door now stands open to all:
So it is a matter of believing on the Lord Jesus and confessing Him, and we are saved. But this lets in everyone who does so, and the national relationship drops away... Before, we had "no difference," because all have sinned. Now we have "no difference," because the same Lord is rich toward all who call on Him. Sin levelled everyone alike before God. Grace raises everyone alike through faith.
Ending the law for righteousness raises an obvious question. One writer answers it:
Is the believer then lawless? No. As risen with Christ, he is to live to God, and Christ is his law in the new resurrection sphere. The grace that came by Christ teaches us to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age... Grace gives the driving power to fulfil the righteousness of the law. The law itself never could do that, and was never meant to.
- Wrong target. Israel's zeal was real, but aimed at a righteousness of their own. It blinded them to God's righteousness, offered in their own Messiah.
- The word "end." Commentators differ. Some read it as termination: the law is finished as a way to righteousness. Others read it as the goal the law pointed to all along.
- The cost. God did not cancel the law's claims. Christ paid them. He bore its curse in our place, so the ending is just.
- The gift. Righteousness is not a quality handed over. It is a Person: Christ Himself is the believer's righteousness.
- The reach. "Everyone who believes" levels the ground. Sin made no difference; now grace makes none either.
For Moses lays down in writing the righteousness which is of the law, The man who has practised those things shall live by them.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But the righteousness of faith speaks thus Do not say in thine heart, Who shall ascend to the heavens? that is, to bring Christ down;
Here two kinds of righteousness speak for themselves. Righteousness by faith gets its own voice, and the first thing it does is forbid a question.
The verse works by contrast. Law speaks one way about being right with God. Faith answers in a different tone, and with a different actor at the centre.
Here I find it stated that the righteousness which is of the law speaks one language, and the righteousness which is of faith speaks another. The passage says this plainly, and one detail confirms it. When the righteousness of faith speaks of Christ, it says nothing of His life or His keeping of the law. It speaks of His death and resurrection. Notice also that in this righteousness of faith, man does not do or act. He believes, and God acts. He has raised Christ from the dead. I believe in what God has done.
The ban is not on curiosity but on unbelief. To ask who will go up and fetch Christ is to speak as though He had never arrived.
Faith does not say, "Who will ascend into heaven?" We do not have to go up to heaven to ask God to come and help us. That would be a denial that Christ has come from heaven. Faith does not say, "Who will descend into the abyss?" either. That would be a denial that Christ has been into death and has risen from the dead. Israel clung to their own works and ignored the mighty facts of the gospel.
Both journeys the question imagines are already behind us.
A man does not have to go up to heaven to bring Christ down from above. He has come down, even to death. A man does not have to go down into the deep to bring Christ up from the dead. He has risen: God has raised Him. A Christ who died and rose again displays God's righteousness. That stands in direct contrast to human righteousness, which would be keeping the law.
Paul draws his words from Deuteronomy, and the setting there is the point. Moses is speaking to a people who have already lost everything through disobedience.
He quotes a part of Deuteronomy with an unusual feature. Moses addressed it to Israel as a resource for the day when everything would be lost under the law. Israel might then be in exile, far from the altars of the Lord, suffering the consequence of their sins... Because of their rebellions, and under the Lord's discipline, Israel were to be carried away. Then there was no altar left, and so no way to gain righteousness by law... So when every hope of legal righteousness is overturned and gone, a new principle comes in.
Commentators differ on how much Paul has added to Moses. Some see him supplying meaning that the older words did not carry on their surface.
He puts into his words clearly what is not in Moses; and the language of Deuteronomy the thirtieth, which he uses, unquestionably speaks of the law itself... Yet, in principle at least, the apostle seems to find the gospel in this. Can it be implied, where not expressed?
Others insist nothing has been forced, because Christ was always the hidden substance of what Moses wrote.
I do not agree with those who think that the apostle has put the smallest strain on this quotation... Moses is setting two things before Israel. One is the consequence of their unfaithfulness. The other is the divine mercy that meets them in their ruin, when their heart turns to Him in spite of the broken law. Christ truly lies under the law, however veiled He is... So the righteousness of faith did not throw the repentant Jew back on his own efforts, however great those efforts might be.
If either errand were possible, it would still be the wrong answer — because salvation would then rest on human capacity.
Man could do neither. Had it been possible, neither would have suited the glory of God. He in grace meets man. It was the Father who sent His Son into the world. It was by the glory of the Father that He was raised from the dead... The blessing is at the doors. Christ is given and preached. It is for man to name Him with his mouth and to believe with his heart. There is no question of heights to be scaled or depths to be sounded, which would put honour upon human earnestness and ability.
The practical result is that faith is never left searching for a Saviour it must still obtain.
All the "doing" required by the law has been accomplished by Jesus Christ, and everything that is required now from men is to believe what Christ has done. Christ has neither to be brought down from heaven, nor to be raised again from the dead; everything has been accomplished, and all that is left is to accept in trustful thankfulness. Faith has not to acquire or win a Saviour, but to accept One who has already accomplished the work of redemption. God's righteousness is not distant and difficult, but near and easy.
- Two speakers. Law describes what a man must do; faith describes what God has done — man does not act, he believes.
- Two errands. Bringing Christ down from heaven and raising Him from the dead were what salvation needed, and God has done both.
- One forbidden question. Asking who will go is not humility but denial — it treats the coming and the rising of Christ as still outstanding.
- One setting. Moses spoke these words to a people already scattered and ruined under law, when legal righteousness was no longer even possible.
- One result. Nothing is left for us to fetch or earn. God's righteousness is not distant and difficult but near, and we accept it with thanks.
or, Who shall descend into the abyss? that is, to bring up Christ from among [the] dead.
This is the second of two questions faith never asks: one looks up to heaven, this one looks down into the depths. Paul is still contrasting righteousness by law with righteousness by faith, and here he rules out any need to bring Christ back from the dead.
Paul is quoting Moses. Those words were given to Israel for a day when everything under the law would be lost.
He quotes a passage from Deuteronomy with an unusual feature. Moses addressed it to Israel as a resource for the day when everything would be lost under the law. Israel might then be in exile, far from the altars of the Lord, suffering the consequence of their sins. For a Jew, righteousness meant keeping the law, with all its rules and ordinances. Those ordinances were tied to Israel settling in the land of Canaan, and they could only be kept in the country where God had set up His altar. But for their rebellions, and under the Lord's chastening, Israel were to be carried away. Then there was no more altar, and of course no more possibility of attaining righteousness by law. So when all hope of legal righteousness is overturned and gone, a new principle comes in.
Older translations put "the abyss" here as "the deep," and the writers quoted on this page use that older wording. Where Paul took the words from shows which depth he means.
In Romans 10:7 "the deep" probably refers to the deep sea. The quotation comes from Deuteronomy 30:13, which reads, "Who will go over the sea for us?" And elsewhere the sea is called "the deep," as in Isaiah 51:10 and Isaiah 63:13.
People still ask it: has anyone come back to tell us what lies beyond death?
Unbelief objects again: Christ has died. What use is spiritual testimony from One who has shared the fate of mankind and lies silent in the grave? This is the thought in verse 7 — "Who will descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead)." So we hear the bold plea of unbelief that no one has ever come back from the dead to tell us what is beyond. But it is false. Faith knows that Christ is risen from the dead, and not by any ability of man to bring Him back. It has been God's work, accomplished fully once and for all.
To ask the question at all would be to treat the resurrection as though it had not happened.
Faith does not say, "Who will ascend into heaven?" We do not have to go up to heaven to ask God to come to our help. Asking that would deny that Christ has come from heaven. Nor does faith say, "Who will descend into the deep?" That would be a denial that Christ has been into death and is risen from the dead. Israel, clinging to their own works, ignored the mighty facts of the gospel — that Christ had come, had been into death, and was risen from the dead.
Both journeys have already been made. Each one shows something of God.
"Or who will descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead)." No, that will not do either, for He has already come up. He came down in love, went into death and annulled it, and He has come up from among the dead. Love and righteousness are the two things which appear in the gospel — the love of God and the righteousness of God. Love gave the Son of God and sent Him to earth to die in the sinner's place. Righteousness raised Him, because in dying for sin and for the sinner He had glorified God infinitely.
The word "abyss" raises a question: where did the Lord go when He died?
The New Testament gives no warrant whatever for such a thought as a descent of our Lord into the bottomless pit! Our Lord "descended into the lower parts of the earth." He was buried, and He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
Neither journey is needed. So where is righteousness found?
"Who will descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)" That is not the language of faith — where is righteousness to be obtained? Where is it to be found? Where is it provided? Faith says, "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" — that is, the word of the gospel preached, which faith receives.
- Setting. Moses spoke these words for the day when the law had already failed Israel. Paul uses them for a righteousness that begins where doing ends.
- Question. "Who will descend into the abyss?" is unbelief's claim that no one has returned from the dead to tell us what lies beyond.
- Denial. Asking it would deny the very facts of the gospel — that Christ came, went into death, and rose.
- Answer. Love brought Him down; righteousness raised Him up. Both journeys are finished, and God did them.
- Nearness. Nothing is left to fetch. So righteousness is not far off. It is in the word preached, near your mouth and heart.
But what says it? The word is near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart that is, the word of faith, which we preach
The words Paul quotes here are not his own. He takes a line Moses spoke to a ruined Israel and uses it for the gospel: God's word comes so near that a heart can believe it and a mouth can speak it.
Paul takes the verse from the last chapters of Deuteronomy. There Moses looks past Israel's failure to what grace would do for a scattered people.
In Deuteronomy the lawgiver finishes all the rules and rites of the law. He has shown Israel rebellious and ruined under that order of things. Even so, he still hints at the resources of grace. He pictures the Jew driven out of the land for being unfaithful to the legal covenant, and of course to God Himself. Yet though he could not draw near in that way, the word was near him, in his mouth and in his heart. This is the word, says the apostle, which we preach.
A word out of reach would leave a person with an excuse. This one leaves none.
According to the truth opened up here, it makes no difference at all where a soul is — here, there, or anywhere. "The word is near you." It could not be nearer. What could be nearer than "in your mouth and in your heart"? We need not, as we say, move a muscle to get it. If it were above us or beyond us, it would make sense for us to complain that we cannot reach it. But no; there is no need of either hands or feet in this most blessed and all-important matter. The heart and the mouth are here called into exercise.
The phrase "the word of faith" is Paul's own explanation of the quotation. It marks the difference between something asked of you and something announced to you.
So verse 8, in quoting from Deuteronomy — "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" — explains it as "the word of faith that we proclaim." Nor is it credulity, or blind faith as people speak of it, but faith founded on clearly established facts. It is therefore not a matter of a work to be done, but a word to believe concerning a completed work.
Two things follow from the phrase "that we proclaim." The word travels one way only, from God outward. And since it is faith's word, not law's, it has no borders.
So then, "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" — not the word that man prepares for God, but the word God sends out to be preached.
Since it is the word of faith, not law, it is for Gentiles as much as Jews, and it calls for preachers.
The gospel is God's word before it is ever yours. Faith is the point where it changes hands.
God sends the word of the gospel to us. When we receive it in faith, it becomes the word of faith to us, entering our hearts and coming out of our mouths.
The nearness Israel knew was not the end of the story.
Long ago God brought His commandment very near to Israel so that they might do it. He has brought His word even nearer to us in Christ.
The word asks little of us, and what it asks reaches both heart and mouth.
On our part the word only demands that we believe with the heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and that we confess Him as Lord with our mouths. When heart and mouth go together like this there is of course reality. Real subjection to Jesus as Lord carries salvation with it.
Not every belief is the faith this word calls for.
There is no true saving faith without repentance. So-called faith without self-judgment is nothing more than the agreement of the natural mind. It is not a faith formed in the heart by the Spirit. When the heat of trouble rises like a burning sun, this kind of human belief withers away.
- Ruin — Moses spoke these words to an Israel already failed and scattered. The verse begins where human performance ends.
- Nearness — nothing here is above us or beyond us. The word could not be nearer than your mouth and your heart, so no muscle needs moving.
- Word — "the word of faith" is a word to believe about a finished work, not a work to do. God sends it; man does not prepare it.
- Faith — take God's gospel into your heart and it becomes your word of faith. But faith without self-judgment is only the mind's assent, and it withers under trial.
- Confession — heart and mouth agreeing is the mark of something real. And since this is faith's word, not law's, preachers carry it to Gentile and Jew alike.
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among [the] dead, thou shalt be saved.
Paul has just said that the message of faith is not far away. It is near — in the mouth and in the heart. Verse 9 says what that nearness asks of a person. It asks for a confession with the mouth and faith in the heart, and it promises salvation to both.
God gave Israel commands to carry out. What He asks here is different.
Long ago God brought His commandment very near to Israel so that they might do it. He has brought His word even nearer to us in Christ. It is no longer a word about what we ought to do. It is a word about what Christ has done, and what God Himself has done in raising Christ from the dead. On our part it asks only two things. We must believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead. We must confess Him as Lord with our mouths.
The title is not a polite one. It settles the question of who owns you.
It means His authority, His absolute rights over us; He is sovereign Lord... "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." To confess Him is to put yourself openly under His will, and to take your stand with Him. Saul of Tarsus did this when he cried, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" And who would refuse to obey Him? His love for us is greater than we can know, and His will for us is our greatest blessing.
The verse asks for faith in a raised Christ. Kelly points out what the verse leaves out, and what the resurrection proves about God.
Notice that there is no mention here of death, but of resurrection. Death by itself does not imply resurrection, but resurrection always involves death. So you confess Jesus as Lord. Why fear, why be anxious, if the One who has undertaken to save you is above all?... Love came down to meet you and suffer for you. But power has also entered the place where Jesus died in weakness. God entered the grave of Jesus in power and woke Him... He is for you. He has proved it in raising up Jesus from among the dead. "You will be saved" — not forgiven only, but saved.
The two things named are settled events, not hopes or efforts.
So the soul's salvation does not rest on what a person does, such as keeping the law. It does not even rest on a promise God gave without conditions, as He gave one to Abraham. It rests on settled facts: the Son of God has come; He has died and risen again. Honest faith takes hold of this sound, settled truth and understands it.
Verse 9 puts the mouth before the heart, though in real life the heart comes first. One writer sees a safeguard in that order.
The verse names confession first. That is what marks the clear difference between the living Christian and the dead world... Confession seems to be placed first for a reason. Satan's lie deceives the whole world. He would use a verse like this to persuade people that simply believing the resurrection as a fact, or as proof of divine power, is enough to save the soul.
Neither half stands alone. What the mouth says must come from what the heart believes.
It is the mouth and the heart that have the important place here — not the hands and the feet. The mouth shows what is in the heart. No one will confess Jesus as Lord for himself unless he believes in his heart. Something may look like that confession. But without faith there is no plain, honest confession of Him as your own Lord. But the two go together. If I believe, I therefore speak.
Hole warns the quiet believer what that silence costs.
Once you stand on the Word of God and are sure, confess Christ at once. Let nothing make you delay... You will never be happy without it, for you will be a hypocrite. Inside you are a Christian. Outside you are still a man or woman of the world, drifting with the stream and doing as others do. You smile when worldly people joke about sacred things, because you are afraid of standing out. And all the while you hate yourself for it.
The promise at the end is as firm as the two conditions before it.
This gospel verse has three "shalls" that belong together. If you shall confess with your mouth, and shall believe in your heart, you shall be saved. An old lady in England, who had been saved for fifty years and more, said to me the other night, "Thank God for those three shalls."... God has linked them together — a threefold cord which cannot easily be broken.
(This writer quotes an older translation. The ESV reads, "you will be saved.")
- Near — The word is not something to fetch or achieve. It is news of what Christ has done, and what God has done in raising Him.
- Believed — The heart rests on settled facts, not on what we do, and not even on a promise: the Son came, died, and rose.
- Confessed — The mouth shows what is in the heart. Where faith is real, confession follows; delaying it turns a person into a hypocrite.
- Lord — To confess that title is to put yourself openly under His authority. Saul of Tarsus did this when he asked what his Lord wanted him to do.
- Saved — Not forgiven only, but saved. The resurrection is God's proof that He is for you, and the verse's three promises hold together like a cord.
For with [the] heart is believed to righteousness; and with [the] mouth confession made to salvation.
Paul has just said that the word of faith is near — in the mouth and in the heart. So why is righteousness tied to what a person believes inside, and salvation to what he says out loud?
In verse 9 Paul names the mouth before the heart, following the wording of Moses. Verse 10 turns the order around.
He had used the order of mouth and heart as in the original words of Moses. And so in fact it is that the gospel goes out and appeals to people. We hear the confession of the mouth and trust the belief of the heart accordingly. But it is plain that the inner taking in of the word must come before and go along with the outward speaking of it. Only then is the work in a person true and full… Without believing there can be no righteousness. We are justified by faith and in no other way. But if there is no confession of Christ the Lord with the mouth, we cannot speak of salvation.
The believing here is not the mind agreeing that something is true.
This is heart belief. It is a real inward conviction of the heart, not just agreement in the mind. It is faith in God's testimony about His beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit produces it. This is the faith that justifies (Romans 5:1). This is the faith by which a person believes so as to have a share in righteousness — God's righteousness.
Another writer describes what a person sees when he believes.
To believe in the heart is to believe as having a personal interest in what is believed. I see that I need Christ and His work for my salvation, and that without Christ I am lost for ever. As one has said, "The faith of the heart produces the confession of the mouth; so the confession of the mouth becomes the proof of the sincerity of the faith."
Believing and confessing are not the same act. Each puts the person in a different place.
Faith of the heart brings him into the position where he is reckoned righteous before God; confession of the mouth brings him into the position of a saved man (v. 10). Whether the confession is made to God or to man is not the point: no doubt it covers both. The idea is not merely of someone undergoing a secret operation. Because of the heart-work within, he boldly takes up the confession of Jesus as Lord.
Why is confession with the mouth tied to salvation, rather than to righteousness?
Because salvation is a term of such wide meaning, and includes deliverance from the world, among other things. We believe on Christ as risen from the dead with our hearts, and that means our justification before God. Both of these, however — the faith and the justification — stay hidden from other people. Our salvation shows, for it is not so much a judicial fact as a practical fact — we are really saved from the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil. The very first step towards a salvation of that sort must be the confession of Christ as Lord, made with the mouth so that people may hear it. A silent confession of Christ in the mind — just thinking it — obviously would not do.
Confession also draws a line the believer has to stand on.
Inwardly there is faith counted for righteousness: outwardly the confession of Christ, which is salvation indeed from a world-system that opposes Him — a system with which we were all once identified. The confession of Christ is the clear break from that "untoward generation."
So what about someone who believes but stays silent?
But we must not forget that "with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." God makes much of confession of His Son, and we cannot safely acknowledge salvation without it.
When the heart is touched, the silence ends.
Note that it is first the heart, then the tongue. It is not head-work… You get right with God first in your heart, and then put yourself right with men by your mouth. Your tongue exalts Christ. The one who is saved tells others about it.
- Heart first. The heart must take the word in before the mouth speaks it out, or the work is not full.
- Real faith. Heart belief is conviction the Holy Spirit produces, not mere agreement in the mind — believing as one with a personal stake in what Christ has done.
- Righteousness. God reckons that believer righteous on faith, and on no other ground.
- Open mouth. Confession with the mouth is the first step of a salvation others can see. A silent confession, only thought, will not do.
- Salvation. That salvation is real deliverance from the power of the world, the flesh and the devil, and it reaches on to the resurrection of the body and the glory to come. God makes much of confession of His Son.
For the scripture says, No one believing on him shall be ashamed.
Paul has just linked faith in the heart with confession from the mouth, and now he backs that up from the prophet Isaiah. The promise he picks names no nation, only "everyone who believes," and it guarantees one thing: God will never shame such a person.
Paul does not argue from his own authority here. He says, in effect, look at the text. One writer lines this habit up across the letter to show how the apostles treated Scripture as the final word:
Scripture is, in all cases, the final appeal by the apostles, and — highest of all — by the Lord Jesus Himself. "As it is written" is Paul's appeal (Rom. 3:10), "What does the Scripture say" (Rom. 4:3), "He (that is, God) says also in Hosea" (Rom. 9:25), "For the Scripture says" (Rom. 10:11). Here are four examples from one letter, showing what Scripture was to an apostle.
The quotation comes from Isaiah 28:16. There the prophet says, "Whoever believes will not be in haste." The New Testament writers put it another way, and that change is the point. (Older translations read "ashamed" in Romans and "confounded" in Peter; the ESV has "put to shame" in both.)
Verse 11 of our chapter makes this point very clear. The believer is not ashamed. This comes from Isaiah 28:16. The same verse appears at the end of the previous chapter, and in 1 Peter 2:6 as well. The "make haste" of Isaiah becomes "ashamed" in Romans, and "confounded" in Peter. This is a good illustration of how New Testament quotations enlarge the sense of Old Testament predictions. The one who believed Isaiah's word would never have to flee in panic before the avenging judgment. Neither shall we.
The word is not vague agreement. Writers note the force of the Greek construction Paul uses, which appears only in a handful of places:
There is a footnote by J.N.D. on "believed" — trust in it, that is, the Stone, Christ. On (epi) implies reliance on; confidence in; the mind looking to another with trust. It occurs in this form only in Luke 24:25 and where the New Testament quotes Isaiah 28:16 — Romans 9:33, Romans 10:11 and 1 Peter 2:6.
Paul pulls one word out of the promise: "everyone." It carries his argument straight into the next verse:
It is evident that, if it is "whoever" believes in Jesus, the Gentile comes in as well as the Jew. There is no difference; the same Lord is rich to all that call upon Him. It is beautiful to see the phrase "There is no difference" come back here. The apostle had used it before with the addition "for all have sinned." Sin puts all men on a level in ruin before God. But there is also no difference: "the same Lord over all is rich to all," and everyone who calls on His name shall be saved.
The promise is not that believers will feel confident, but that God will never leave them in a position where shame would be fitting:
"For the Scripture says, No one believing on Him shall be ashamed." (Ver. 11.) Certainly the one whom God justifies can have no reason to be ashamed, but rather to be always confident and to rejoice in the Lord always. And here the apostle glories in the favour of the gospel, which leaves no one out.
That confidence has an object. Another writer points to the One the believer confesses:
But we also have One presented to us as Lord. He fills us with confidence, and in Him we glory. Who that really knows Him would be ashamed to confess Him?
Confessing Christ today can look like backing the losing side. The verse speaks to that fear:
You confess Him during the day of His rejection, when all the world is against Him. And you wait for the day when He will come in power and glory. Perhaps you fear you may be put to shame in that day. Fear not. Whoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed; that is, he shall not be put to shame. One day all that is reported about Him will prove true. We may need patience, but we know that He who is coming will come, and will not delay.
- Written. Paul settles the matter with "the Scripture says." He makes that appeal four times in this one letter, and the Lord Himself makes it too.
- Widened. Isaiah's "will not be in haste" becomes "not put to shame" in Romans and "not confounded" in Peter. The New Testament enlarges the prophet's promise.
- Resting. To believe on Him is reliance — the mind looking to Another with trust.
- Everyone. That one word brings the Gentile in beside the Jew. All are alike in ruin; the same Lord is rich to all who call on Him.
- Unashamed. The one God justifies has no ground for shame now, and nothing to fear on the day Christ comes. All that is reported about Him will prove true.
For there is no difference of Jew and Greek; for the same Lord of all [is] rich towards all that call upon him.
Paul has just promised salvation to whoever believes. That word "whoever" raises a question: does it include the Greek — anyone outside Israel — as well as the Jew? Verse 12 answers by erasing the sharpest line the law ever drew, and by showing how rich God is toward all who call on Him.
Paul had used the phrase "no difference" earlier in the letter. The repeat is deliberate, and the two uses run in opposite directions.
It is clear that if it is "whoever" believes in Jesus, the Gentile comes in as well as the Jew. It is beautiful to see this form of expression, "There is no difference," repeated here. The apostle had used it before with the addition "for all have sinned." Sin puts all men on a level in ruin before God. But there is also no difference now, "for the same Lord over all is rich toward all." Everyone who calls on His name will be saved.
Both statements are true at once, but they are not about the same thing.
Already the apostle has shown that there is "no difference" on our side — all are under sin before God. Now he shows there is "no difference" on God's side. God is acting in grace toward all, is rich to all who call upon Him.
The line being erased was real. The law itself had drawn it, which makes its removal striking.
There was the greatest possible difference under the law. There could not be a broader or clearer dividing line than the one the lawgiver had drawn between the Jew and the Greek. But that line is wiped out, for two reasons. First, because "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Second, because "the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him."
The title "Lord over all" carries weight. So does the Old Testament text Paul quotes next, which speaks of Jehovah — the covenant name of God.
Notice in passing one of the many incidental proofs of the Deity of Christ. This verse is quoted from Joel 2:32, where the reference is plainly to Jehovah; in Romans 10 it is applied to the Lord Jesus. Then He is Jehovah! If He were not, He would not have the competence to be the Saviour of men. He is moreover "Lord over all." So everyone must bow to Him, either now or in the great hereafter.
His lordship and His riches, though, reach people differently.
Jesus is "Lord over all" whether they call upon Him or whether they do not. But the richness of His saving power is only at the disposal of those who call upon Him.
How far do these riches reach? One writer measures them against the worst in us.
The riches of the grace of God are such that they reach down to the very deepest depths of human ruin, guilt and misery. The light of divine glory reveals man's utter ruin as nothing else could. But the riches of divine grace, shown in the person and work of Christ, have fully met that ruin.
The condition attached to these riches is the one thing a helpless person can still do.
What must a person do to be saved? Simply "call" upon the name of the Lord. This was all Israel could do while they suffered in Egypt. To shake off Pharaoh was impossible; to get rid of the slave-drivers was out of the question; but they could cry to God. In the same way today, the one who calls upon the name of the Lord, acknowledging Him as his only hope, will be saved.
Yet not every cry counts as this cry.
The calling spoken of here is not the vague cry of an uneasy conscience. It is the cry of faith… Faith takes hold of the person of Christ with the firm grip of conscious dependence on Him alone. It knows there is no help or safety anywhere, inside or outside, except in Him.
This truth can be denied by behaviour as well as by argument. That is what happened at Antioch.
The basic teaching of Christianity is that there is no difference in man's guilt. There is also no difference in God's mercy to all who call upon the Lord. Those who still made a difference between Jews and Gentiles were setting this aside at Antioch.
- No difference in ruin. Sin puts every person on one level before God, whatever their background.
- No difference in grace. The same phrase returns on God's side: He acts in grace toward all alike.
- One Lord over all. Paul applies to Jesus the words Joel spoke of Jehovah. He is Lord whether people call on Him or not.
- Riches for the caller. His saving power reaches the deepest human ruin, but only those who call receive it.
- Calling is faith. Not an uneasy conscience but dependence on Christ alone — and a truth that must show in how we treat others.
For every one whosoever, who shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.