Romans 10:1-4 ESV
“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.”
The Righteousness of Man
So, what are the main issues here? Why are they not saved?
· They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge
· They are ignorant of the true righteousness of God
· They are seeking to establish their own righteousness
· They do not submit to God’s righteousness
This is talking about people who create their own religion
and/or who follow after a false religion created in the minds of other humans.
But they do not adhere to the teachings of the Scriptures, especially not to
the gospel of Jesus Christ, or else they will cherry-pick the Scriptures they
like and they will ignore the ones that don’t fit into their theology. And many
people do this as a way to avoid having to submit to God, but to where they can
create their own version of God who fits better with their lifestyles.
The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were skilled at this. Jesus
described them in this way (based off Matthew 23):
· They do not practice what they preach
· They do their deeds to be seen by others
· They love places of honor; they love attention
· They lead people to hell on the promise of heaven
· They profess one thing but live the opposite
· They adhere to religious rituals but not to God’s righteousness
· They appear clean (righteous) outwardly but inwardly are evil
· They are full of wicked deeds, greed, hypocrisy and self-indulgence
· They persecute those who are truly righteous in God’s sight
So, when this says that they have a zeal for God, but not
according to knowledge, it means that their zeal is misdirected and it isn’t
truly for God but for their own creation of the god that they want to serve.
They may say it is for God but their actions speak the exact opposite. It is a
lot like a person who is deliberately still living in addictive sin, in direct defiance
to God and to his commands (New Covenant), but then standing up and giving
praise to God or talking about his wonderful times of fellowship with the Lord
or then preaching to others how they need to follow the Lord Jesus.
And this is what is happening in the church today in America.
So many preachers and teachers of the Scriptures are cherry-picking the
Scriptures which fit with their lifestyles and with their man-created god who
is not like God, and they are leading their people to do the same. And so they
have zeal, but it is for the god of their own minds who meets with them in
wonderful times of fellowship and of their worship of him, but who accepts them
just as they are while they are still living in sinful rebellion against him,
deliberately and habitually doing what they know is wrong and hurts others.
And when this says that they are ignorant of the
righteousness of God, it does not mean they were lacking in knowledge or
understanding of the righteousness of God, but that they choose their own
righteousness over the righteousness of God. For there are many professers of
faith in Jesus Christ today who know what the Scriptures teach, but they make
up their own gospel, anyway, so that they can continue in sin without
conscience and without guilt. So, it isn’t that they don’t know right from
wrong. They do. It is that they choose the wrong and reject the right when it
suits them.
So, they don’t submit to God’s righteousness, for then they
would have to obey the Lord in all ways. They would have to surrender control
of their lives over to Jesus Christ, but they don’t want that. Their pride will
not let them. And so in their stubbornness and rebellion they create their own
god and their own faith and their own gospel which fits with how they want to
live and so that they can still claim to be Christians and in close fellowship
with God while they continue in deliberate and habitual sin. And this can go on
for a long time, and some people never change and they die without Christ.
Now, some people’s own religion is that of legalism, which
is like the Pharisees. They were good at following a bunch of external rules
and regulations and ceremonies and customs which had nothing to do with true righteousness.
But they were full of all kinds of wickedness inside. The flip side of this is
not that much different, though, for now the majority of what is being taught
in today’s modern churches is that we can make a profession of faith in Jesus
Christ and be guaranteed heaven when we die, but we don’t have to repent of our
sins or obey the Lord (under the New Covenant).
So, whether you are a legalist who adheres to a bunch of
external customs and rules or you are a libertine who feels as though you don’t
have to obey any rules at all, but that you can live however you want and still
be saved and on your way to heaven, both are of the flesh of man. Both are
man-made religion which seeks to establish its own god and its own
righteousness and its own way to heaven which is not the narrow way but the
broad way that many follow. For neither legalism nor libertinism submits to God’s
righteousness but both seek to establish their own.
The Righteousness of God
So, what do the Scriptures teach? Jesus said that if anyone
would come after him that he must deny self and take up his cross daily (daily
die to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For, if we hold on to our old
lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for
Jesus’ sake we die with him to sin that we might live to him and to his
righteousness, then we have the hope of eternal life with God (Luke 9:23-26; 1
Peter 2:24).
Jesus also said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord,
Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one DOING the will of God
the Father who is in heaven. For on the day when Jesus returns to judge many
are going to tell the Lord what all they did for him in his name, but he is
going to declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of
lawlessness.” And this is because they sought to establish their own
righteousness and not the righteousness of God (see Matthew 7:21-23).
So, what is the righteousness of God? The Scriptures teach
that we must die with Christ to sin and follow him in obedience. Sin is to no
longer be what we practice, but righteousness and obedience to our Lord are to
be what we practice, but not in the flesh, which is impossible anyway, but by
the Spirit and in the power and working of God in our lives. For if we continue
in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord we will die in our sins. We
will not inherit eternal life with God regardless of what professions of faith
we have proclaimed in Jesus Christ. So please know and follow the truth.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom
6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal
5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col
3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb
3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
My
Heart’s Desire
An
Original Work / June 29, 2013
Based
off Rm. 10; Lu. 9:23-26; Ep. 4:20-24
Loved Ones, Oh, my heart’s desire
Is that you might come to Jesus.
Many appear zealous for God,
But they do not trust in Him.
They have not submitted to the One
Who saved them from their sins;
Not forsaken their sins,
Nor have they obeyed their King.
The word of the Lord is near you:
The word of faith we’re proclaiming:
That you must confess your faith
In Jesus as your Lord and King:
Believe in Him as your Lord,
And follow Him where’er He leads.
Share the gospel; be a witness,
And meet others’ needs.
Beautiful are the feet of those
Who bring the good news of Jesus:
Anyone who would come to Him
Must deny himself today;
Die to sin and self, and
Let the Spirit transform you in heart;
Put on your new self in Jesus,
Yielding to the cross.
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