Title: The How and the How Come
I. The Proposition…(what took Paul so long?)
Paul here is boiling down the entirety of salvation into a few sentences. Do you find it peculiar that Paul has waited this long to explain how one literally becomes a believe? I mean, Romans is considered by most scholars to be the quintessential theological book. And most believer would readily say that salvation and Christ’s atonement for our sin with what being a believer is all about.
So why does Paul wait until the 10th chapter to explain how one becomes a Christian? Well, to answer that, let’s look at some of the major topic Paul has covered so far.
1. He’s explained (in detail) the fallen state of mankind and each individuals personal debt to a Holy God.
2. He’s outlines the perfect Holiness and Judgement of God.
3. He’s explained how God’s righteousness can overcome sin.
Only now does he bring up how this all works together for that sweet moment of salvation.
Are you catching my subtle point? If you really want to impact someone with the importance of salvation, it is absolutely necessary to illustrate Three things:
1. The true nature of fallen man
2. The Perfection of God
3. God’s power to overcome our sin
Only then will someone begin to grasp the beautiful glory and wonderful richness of His salvation. Yet most of us in this room became believers first, then started to learn what we were saved from. I know I did. I became a believe at 19. At about 21 I really began to understand how much I was saved from, and how much more awesome did God become to me in my learning!
We will teach the entirety of the Gospel here at Heritage. When people are saved, they will know why, and what from.
V12 Again, Paul makes clear that the Gentiles and Jews are calling on the same God, there is no distinction, all are one in Christ.
II. The Plan
Last week I made a bit deal about the fact that it is not to say that God’s message is not just in us, but it is us. Some of you looked a bit confused by that and I hope to clear that up right now.
Read vv14-15
Paul uses some simple logic and works backwards by asking some questions. Already in verse 13 Paul makes in abundantly clear that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
But then Paul asks, “How can they call on Jesus if they do not believe in him?”
And then, “How can they believe in Him if they haven’t heard of him?”
And then, “How can they hear of him if nobody preaches Jesus to them?”
And finally, “How can a preacher preach to them if a preacher is not sent to them by us. (The Church!)
Now, Paul is making his point using simple logic, but don’t be fooled, there is much more than that going on here. Paul is also outlining the Church’s role in other people’s salvation. We’d hopefully all agree by this point that saving people is God’s work, not ours.
But what tools does God use to promote His message? Us. He chooses to use us as his predominant method to share and spread the good news.
Therefore saying “God is sovereign in salivation” cannot equal “I have no role in someone’s salvation.”
You very well may play a HUGE role in another accepting Christ.
This is yet another reason why we must evangelize. Can anyone tell me the biggest reason we must evangelize? (God commanded us to.)
Why do we evangelize:
1. God commanded us.
2. We are his chosen instruments to convey His message to a lost and wicked world
3. (As we discussed last week) We can’t help it! Our nature is changed! We must proclaim the good news!
Indeed God is sovereign over salvation. And in his sovereignty he chose you and I to share the Good News with the lost. Can you think of a higher honor?
And yet, most of us would readily admit that the area of our Christian walk that needs the most work is our evangelism. Perhaps the first step in changing that is realizing what an honor it is, not only to be chosen, but to be chosen as an ambassador for the King of the Universe.