Romans 10:16,17 - Faith comes from hearing

10:16

Paul now quotes Is 53:1. Paul has been teaching that all can be saved. Someone may have objected that while some Gentiles believed, many/most did not. While it is clear from the Scriptures that all can be saved, it is equally clear that not all will be saved. Just as not all Israel is saved, for many did not believe. We need to accept that all can be saved, many will not be saved. But many “surprising” people will be saved. Saul, the arch persecutor of believers was saved and became the chief apostle to the Gentiles. The Gentiles themselves were saved.

10:17

“Faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”. Paul has been stressing that faith is the key thing. Faith is what God is looking for in a person. And faith arises after hearing the message, so they need to hear. And it is the word of Christ, the gospel, that people need to hear. We need to be clear that it is the word of Christ that is key. Some seem to think that messages about the environment or anti-racism are the key. They may be important, but they are not the key to salvation.

Leviticus 25:39-46 - Do not make your brother a slave

25:39-43

We get more instructions on not exploiting the poor. An Israelite was not to enslave a fellow Israelite. Instead they were to be treated as hired workers. So they were not your permanent possession. Moreover, at the Jubilee they, along with their families, were to be released. The motivation for this is that they belong to God, they are His servants. So they must not be sold as slaves, and not treated ruthlessly. The poor are often exploited because they are considered to be weak and vulnerable, and of little or no worth. The Biblical view is that everyone belongs to God and therefore has inherent worth. As our society becomes increasingly godless this view increasingly breaks down. Perhaps the clearest example of this is abortion, where the life of the unborn is considered to be of no consequence.

25:44-46

While Israelites were not allowed to enslave fellow Israelites, they were allowed to buy slaves from other nations. They were allowed to treat these slaves as their property, even to the point of passing them on to their children. The prohibition on slavery applied only to fellow Israelites. There is no getting around the fact that we find this to be problematic. There isn’t a simple answer to this, though the conditions for the treatment of slaves under the Law was better than was the case among the nations. Taking a wider view, under the gospel there is neither Jew nor Gentile, so the distinction between Israelites and others vanishes, and all are to be treated the same.

Romans 10:14,15 - How are they to hear without someone preaching?

10:14,15

Paul was criticised by the Jews for his going to the Gentiles, for his treating them as equals. But if everyone who calls on the name of the Lord is saved, they can only do this if someone tells them about the Lord. And the implication is that God wants all people to call upon His Name. In order to call on the Name of the Lord they need to believe, and if they are to believe then they need to hear so that they know what to believe in. If they are to hear, they need someone to tell them, someone to preach to them. And the person who preaches needs to be sent. Preaching is a God centred exercise. The preacher is sent by God, and the message is God’s message. By the way, this gives the lie to the notion that preaching is of limited use, “use words only if necessary”. Words are necessary! Actions should accompany this, but words are not an optional extra.

Leviticus 25:35-38 - Take no interest from him

25:35

Society is not to be “everyman for himself”. So if someone became poor others were to help them. The same principle is carried forward into the New Testament (Gal 6:2). It is interesting that it states that they are to help them as they would a “foreigner or stranger”. Helping the needy was a core principle of the operation of God’s society.

25:36-38

No one was to take advantage of the poor, and a specific application of this is given, namely lending money at interest, or making a profit out of selling food to them. God then reminds them that it was He who brought them out of Egypt and gave them the land. None of us is independent. We have what we have because God gave it to us. At the same time we must note that we all have a responsibility. See, for example. 2 Thess 3:10.

Romans 10:11-13 - Everyone who call on the name of the Lord will be saved

10:11-13

Paul quotes from Is 28:16. His key point here is that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, the universality of God’s salvation. This is not “universalism”, which means all are saved, rather it means anyone, regardless of ethnicity, background etc will be saved if they put their trust in the Lord. Paul wants to drive home to the Jews that there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. There is one Lord and He bestows His riches, His grace, on all without distinction. So why did God choose Israel? Why is the Old Testament predominantly about Israel? There isn’t a simple one line answer to this, and I don’t pretend to have a complete understanding, but here are a few thoughts. First of all Israel acts as a microcosm of God’s dealings with man. We see the utter sinfulness of Israel again and again in the Old Testament. We see God’s unwavering commitment to them, that sinful as they were, His plans for them were tremendous blessing. Israel went wrong in thinking she was privileged (in the wrong sense). She did have many benefits as Paul has pointed out, but she failed to grasp the true nature of her sinfulness and her need for a saviour.

Leviticus 25:29-34 - That is their possession forever

25:29-31

We now get rules for houses in walled cities. A clear distinction is drawn between houses in cities, and those in unwalled villages. For a house within a city the seller could only redeem it within the first year, and it was not to be returned at the Jubilee. After the first year the buyer owned it permanently. More importance seems to be attached to the land, hence the different rules for houses in villages.

25:32-34

The Levites were a special case. They were given Levitical towns, and Levites always had the right to redeem the houses, an, if they had not been redeemed, they were returned to them at the Jubilee. The Levites were treated differently when entering the Promised Land, so their towns had a different status and role than the walled cities.

Romans 10:9,10 - If you confess that Jesus is Lord

10:9

In order to be saved we need to confess Jesus as Lord, and believe that God raised Him from the dead. There is a twofold importance (at least!) to confessing Jesus as Lord. In the immediate political situation it declared that Caesar is not Lord, I direct confrontation with the Roman Empire. This would become very important, and is important in our day. However, Paul here is more concerned with the Jews, and in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) “Lord” is used over 600 times to translate “YHWH”. So it is declaring the divinity of Christ.

10:10

“With the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Believing with the heart is more than a mere intellectual assent. It is also more than an emotional response. The heart was seen as the centre of the will. So to believe in one's heart meant the direction of one’s life was determined by the belief that Christ was raised from the dead. If Christ was raised from the dead then that changes everything, including how we should live our lives. We also need to declare publicly that Christ is Lord.