submit to the gospel
“For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” (Romans 10:13)
The debate today regarding the determination as to whether one is truly saved has not strayed far from the original conflicts within the early church; Paul consistently challenged the influences of works-oriented Pharisaic teachings emphasizing a need to uphold religious disciplines and establish spiritual cleanliness through works of law. To the religious elites, pious deeds secured the heritage of predestined selection as God’s blessed people; and, this teaching, despite plenty of Old Testament examples contradicting such a belief, specifically excluded all those outside the “proper” lineage. But, Paul, vulnerably ministering to the brethren with heartfelt sincerity and specificity, draws the attention of his Jewish audience to the promises of the prophet Joel:
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” (Joel 2:28-32a, emphasis added)
This is not a reference that would have been glossed over by the original audience; Paul’s intent to center his argument for the power and expanse of the Gospel on the prophetic word of Joel is to boldly declare that the day of the LORD has arrived—“the great and awesome day” that the people of God have been desperately awaiting is at hand! Many, even within the church today, interpreted Joel as being an apocalyptic prophecy regarding the end times; but, in Romans, Paul radically declared the end of an age, the apocalyptic ending once and for all of the reign and power of Sin creating distance between the Father and His children. The life, death, and resurrection of Christ stands as a destruction of the former Temple in which the pious sought through sacrifice and ritual to obtain a righteousness of law; Paul, despite already having crushed such notions as being the result of Sin’s corruption of the intention of the law, now seals the fate of such Pharisaic teachings by connecting it to the apocalyptic doom of the end times.
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” (Romans 10:4)
The old is gone. The corrupted sinful teachings of righteousness through piety is shattered at the foot of the Cross. According to Paul, all who are in Christ should shout to the eagerly waiting world that the very notion of performance-obtained right standing has met its end by the blood of the Lamb and the roar of the Lion.
“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.” (Romans 10:9)
Throughout Romans, the emphasis of the words believe, faith, and everyone should shout at us like the Hebraic praises around the walls of Jericho; in the truth and power of the Gospel, all the works of our hands, all that uplifts and glorifies self over grace, comes tumbling down. And, yet, such miraculous simplicity is often avoided from pulpits. Instead, many introduce teachings on devotion being the required sign of having obtained true salvation as well as introducing discussions on the necessity of ritualistically confessing sin, proclaiming Christ, being baptized, and having displayed evidence of the indwelling of the Spirit confirmed by the congregation as all being a part of salvation. Paul’s teaching was much simpler: cry out to Him, and you will be saved. This is the Good News, the message of hope for the downcast who have been alienated and ignored by the religious elites, the announcement that the Kingdom of God is here, the proclamation that the Father is close and that He secures all who look to Him.
In light of this Good News, the attention, then, was brought back to the congregation. Paul shared almost as a desperate plea the calling of evangelism for all in Christ to spread this simplistic message. And, based on the context of the letter as a whole, this evangelic anointing should be considered equally as important for unbelievers as much as it should be for brothers and sisters in the faith drowning in the slavery of legalism.
“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” (Romans 10:14-15)
Next, Paul shifted the conversation on the availability of the Gospel to the history and tendencies of God’s people. Ultimately, Paul continued the warning from the previous chapter by adding specificity; in citing Isaiah, Paul presented before the church in Rome the reality that it has always been the religious—those who ought to have been closest with God and those who should have known and lived into the Truth of the Gospel—who have been most keen to reject grace. He reminded the brethren that Israel has been often accused of being disobedient, contrary, and (in other passages) stiff-necked by refusing to see the grace lavished all around them.
“But of Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.’” (Romans 10:21)
Paul even used an interesting phrase that should cause pause for any claiming to be in Christ. Paul introduced to the congregation that the Gospel is not simply something to be accepted—it is also to be obeyed.
“But they have not all obeyed the gospel.” (Romans 10:16a)
To obey the Gospel of Christ implies that there is more to the discussion than recognition and understanding; the Gospel includes action. There are many who have rightfully made the argument of the Biblical correlation between the proclamation of the Gospel and the ushering of the Kingdom of God on earth. But, here, in the context of Romans, it may be best to understand and interpret obedience to the Gospel as living into the grace of Christ and not falling into the snare (the stumbling stone) of legalism that demands that one present an acceptable performance. Those obeying the Gospel allow it to permeate through every fiber of their being. And, as has been made abundantly clear through Paul’s writings throughout Romans, the Church should be alert of and resistant to the sinful temptations toward religious legalism.
Christianity, Biblically understood, should be defined as those who submit to the Gospel.