Tuesday, May 3, 2016,
4:25 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song, “My Sheep.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Romans 10:1-13 (ESV).
Submission to God
(vv. 1-4)
Brothers,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I
bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to
knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to
establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Many people today claim to be Christians. They claim to
believe in Jesus Christ as Savior of their lives. Yet, not all of them are
truly saved from their sins. Not all of them truly have a relationship with
Jesus Christ. Why? Because it is not enough just to confess with your mouth
that you know Christ, or even to believe intellectually in his death and
resurrection. Salvation from sin involves submission to God’s righteousness. We
can’t say we believe in Jesus and then make up our own beliefs about God and
about Jesus. We can’t pull a few scriptures out of context, either, and build a
whole doctrine around them while ignoring the bulk of teaching in the New
Testament concerning our salvation, and what it means to truly believe in Jesus
Christ as Lord (master-owner) and as Savior of our lives.
So many people today are teaching a gospel of salvation
absent of the cross of Christ in the life of the believer. Not only did Jesus
have to die on a cross for our sins, but we must die with him in death to sin,
and we must be resurrected with him in newness of life, “created to be like God
in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24; cf. Ro. 6). Belief in Jesus
Christ is not a religion or a set of religious practices we perform. When we
trust in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives, we surrender our lives
to Jesus Christ, i.e. to God, in submission of our wills to the will of God for
our lives. We die to our old lives of living for sin and self, and we are born
anew of the Spirit of God to new lives to be lived for God and to his
righteousness and holiness (See: Luke 9:23-25; John 6:35-66; Ac.
26:16-18; Ro. 6:1-23; 8:1-14; 2 Co. 5:15; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 4:17-24; 1 Pet.
2:24-25; & 1 Jn. 1:5-9).
It is much more difficult to reach people with the true
gospel of our salvation who have been convinced that faith in Jesus Christ
requires nothing of them whatsoever. They have sought to establish their own
righteousness based on a lie, which tells them they don’t have to turn from
their sins, and they don’t have to obey God, which means they believe they don’t
have to submit to God’s righteousness. They are being taught that all they have
to do is have some kind of mystical and undefined “belief” in Jesus Christ which
absolves them of all guilt and punishment for their sin, and which guarantees
them heaven when they die. Yet, what they are being told gives them free license
to continue living sinful lifestyles without guilt and without remorse, while
claiming the promise of heaven when they die.
May this never be! Jesus did not die that horrible death on
a cross for our sins so that we could continue in sin guilt-free. That is not
freedom! That is still bondage to sin whitewashed to make it look like
salvation. If we are not delivered out of slavery to sin, then that is no
deliverance at all, for we are still destined to eternal punishment without
God. If we are not called to obedience, to surrender to God, to submission to
his will for our lives, and to walk in his righteousness and holiness, then why
call ourselves Christians at all? A Christian is a Christ follower. To follow
means to obey. Jesus put sin to death on a cross not just to forgive us of our
sins but to eradicate sin from our lives. Amen!
Jesus is Lord
(vv. 5-13)
For
Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person
who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on
faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that
is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to
bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in
your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
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.
For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to
shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is
Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who
calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Many people who call themselves Christians pull this section
of scripture out of context and build a whole doctrine around it, using it to
claim that if one just confesses audibly their faith in Jesus Christ, and if
they believe in his bodily resurrection, then they are saved from their sins,
have the hope of heaven when they die, and that nothing more is required of
them – no submission to God’s righteousness, no repentance, and no obedience to
God’s instructions to us, which he left for us to teach us about his righteousness
and about holy living. But, is that really what this is saying?
Paul was addressing these thoughts primarily to the Jews.
For them, if they audibly confessed that Jesus is Lord, they were saying that
they believed that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah prophesied about by
Moses and by the prophets of old. This was not a mere audible confession for
them, for when they did this, they risked rejection and/or death from their
family, friends and religious community. Also, to confess that Jesus is Lord is
to publicly acknowledge him to be owner-master of our lives. If Jesus is truly
owner-master, then that means we obey him, we submit to his righteousness, we
walk in his holiness, and we live to do what pleases him instead of living for
ourselves and for what we want.
As well, their belief in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead
was not to be a mere intellectual belief, either, but it was to be from their
hearts. Our hearts are the center of our being, where we make decisions about
morality and our life choices regarding who we are and what we do. So, if we
believe in our hearts, i.e. in our innermost being (character and will) that
Jesus not only died for our sins, but that he was resurrected from the dead in
conquering death, hell, Satan and sin, we make a moral choice of our will to
submit to his Lordship over our lives, and to submit to his righteousness being
lived out through our lives. We die with Christ in death to sin, and we are
resurrected with Christ in newness of life – a new life in Christ Jesus which
is to be lived to his righteousness.
Calling on Jesus, too, is not a mere verbal call to him
requesting forgiveness for our sins. To call on the name of Jesus is to make an
appeal to him in accord with his divine character and will. It is to make a
serious or an urgent request to a higher court (God’s court) for a reversal of
decision regarding our eternal destiny. It involves pleading with God for his
mercy. And, it incorporates repentance - turning from sin to God (See: Is.
55:6-7). Yet, the appeal is not founded on the basis of our goodness, but on
God’s goodness and mercy, and on Jesus’ sacrificial death on a cross for our
sins.
So, what is the point of this passage of scripture? First of
all, I believe it is to point out that no one can obey the law with absolute
perfection. No one is saved by keeping the law. We can never be good enough to
earn or to deserve our own salvation. That is why Jesus died for our sins. He
who knew no sin became sin for us, and thus when he died our sins died with
him. Only by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, and not of our own
doing, can we have such a great salvation from sin, be delivered out of bondage
to sin, and have the promise of eternal life with God. Our salvation is a free gift
of God, not of works lest any of us should boast that we somehow did something
to affect our own salvation. Even the faith to believe is a gift from God.
Yet, faith in Jesus Christ is not just an emotional decision,
verbal confession, or an intellectual assent to what Jesus did for us in dying
for our sins. Faith in Jesus Christ involves submission to God’s righteousness,
and it makes Jesus Lord (master-owner) of our lives, for Jesus died that we
might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24).
My Sheep / An
Original Work / June 24, 2012
Based off John 10:1-18 NIV
My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and
obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they
follow me.
They will never follow
strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they
know not;
They do not follow him.
So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will
be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.
Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for
the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me
eternally.
The thief only comes to steal
and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life
that
You may have it to the full…
They know my voice, so they
follow me.
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