August 6 - Romans 10.5-15

Romans 10.5-15

Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that ‘the person who does these things will live by them.’ ⁶But the righteousness that comes from faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” ’ (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷‘or “Who will descend into the abyss?” ’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸But what does it say?
‘The word is near you,
   on your lips and in your heart’
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); ⁹because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. ¹¹The scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’ ¹²For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. ¹³For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? ¹⁵And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’

This is again a difficult reading.  I prefer the stories in Scripture to these theological statements that most of Paul’s letters hold.  Having said that, there are some statements here that just kind of stand out:

Verse 9:  If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Verse 13:  Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved

Verse 15:  "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

What I am most struck by here is verse 13:  Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 

My best friend in high school Rex – when he got to college, he “found” Christ.  While Rex was baptized as an infant, been faithful in going to Sunday school and worship throughout his youth, went to college at Illinois State University.  His junior year he did an internship in Boston, and during that time decided that he didn’t really belong to God. That he had never been part of God’s family.  And if he were to die, figured that he would be damned to hell.

He had several reasons for this.  One was that he didn’t know if he “really” believed in Jesus or not.  Some of his the people he got involved with on the East Coast convinced him that he must not, since he wasn’t fully obedient to everything that God asked of him.  He hadn’t followed what they saw as all the rules for what it means to be a Christian.  Beginning with baptism. 

Rex was baptized as an infant.  In his case the pastor poured water on his head.  What Rex came to believe though is that baptism isn’t about something that God does for us.  For Rex, baptism is something that we do for God.  And so because the word “baptismo” means to go under, he believed he needed to do that over again where he would literally “go under” the water.  Rex was convinced that unless he did that, he was not saved. 

A few years later Rex decided that just going under the water was not enough either.  But he decided that a person also needed to go under the water in the Jordan River in order to be saved. After all, that is where Jesus was baptized. 

I’m not sure what all Rex is doing now.  I know one of his ventures and life goals is to discover Noah’s Ark.  He is actively looking for it.  I also don’t know how he reads this verse.  “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

There is no mention here of baptism.  There is no mention of needing to be Lutheran.  We can even add in verse 9:  If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

What does it mean to do that?  I think it is more than simply thinking that something is true – like believing in the existence of the planet Mars; someplace I’ve never seen but accept as true and it has little if any impact on how I live. 

A belief is something on which I am willing to act.  If I believe in my heart that Jesus is raised from the dead, then I act as if death does not have the last word on life, as if God is a God of life, as if no matter how hard or rough the road, God will hear when I cry out. 

Belief in God doesn’t make us people who say the right words.  It makes us people like Abraham and Sarah who hope against hope in the face of life’s greatest challenges. 

Let us pray:  Surround me with your abiding presence O God, so that your word is always near me, on my lips and in my heart.  Amen.