Chapter 10:1-13
“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, ‘The man who does those things shall live by them.’ 6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, ‘Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) 7 or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
“8 But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.‘”
Once again, thanks for the lovely responses and the questions and observations that I get. Many of you make me think. Some have asked about our church, and we post weekly sermons on Facebook at Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church. Right now, we are doing a series looking at the New World Order from Genesis 11 and then the New World Order that God told us that He is going to set up in Daniel 9. We will be in that series for a couple more Sundays. We are just getting re-opened here in Southern Ontario, and we had an actual face-to-face church service last week.
This year I set about in January to read through the New Testament four times. I am on my third journey through right now, and I just finished the book of Galatians. In this epistle, Paul addresses ‘another gospel,’ one that adds works and keeping the Mosaic Law to faith, thus making salvation part by works and part by faith. Paul dismisses this heresy and calls it accursed.
Salvation is by works or it is by faith, BUT NEVER both ever. Paul goes on to explain the importance of the salvation we have in faith and not by the Law. You may say to yourself, man this seems ‘elementary, Watson,’ but I assure you that every day the purity of the Gospel that Paul preached, and the simplicity of the Gospel that Jesus died to offer, and the completeness of the Gospel for the needs of man are being challenged. Further, the totality of the Gospel to meet the sinful needs of men everywhere, in every place, in every language, and in every circumstance is being challenged.
- What is the Gospel?
Paul lays it out for us in very simple terms: “Jesus died to save sinners of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15). No one on this planet needs the Gospel more than I. I am the chief sinner, the head sinner, the CEO of sinners; and if there was one person for whom Jesus needed to die, it is me. I cannot save myself, no more than a drowning man can save himself. I was incapable of being perfect, and Jesus became my perfection for me. He took my sinfulness, He bore my shame, He took my transgression, and He took my iniquity and bore them on His bowed shoulders on the cross. He took my nails, my thorns, my beatings, my spittle, my spear on the side, and my pain for me so I can become a child of God, a joint heir with Jesus. This is the Gospel. I could not save myself, so I needed someone to save me.
Jesus is my Saviour. And if you find yourself in the same boat as me, that you are the chief of sinners and you understand that you cannot save yourself, then call on Jesus. He took your shame, your pain, your nails, your thorns and your spear as well. You too can be a child of God and joint-heir with Jesus. This is the Good News; Jesus came to save sinners of whom I am chief.
- Who is the Gospel for?
It is for all men. It is for Jew and Gentile alike. Everyone is saved the same way – by faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Paul lays it out here in verses 9-10,
“that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Every man, woman, boy and girl will have the same opportunity no matter where they are and no matter what circumstances they live in to hear that same Gospel. Jesus is the Way. God made it so that it is simple; we do not need to change the way for different ethnics, or heritages. I was saved in a little Caribbean island in 1981. I heard the same Gospel that Paul heard in Acts 9, the same Gospel my mom heard when she was a girl at a Billy Graham crusade, and the same Gospel that thousands of missionaries are teaching right now as we speak. Jesus is the only Way. There is no hope outside of Jesus.
This Gospel is offensive to many people. In Galatians 1:10, Paul says that if he were seeking the approval of men, he would not be a Gospel preacher. He would have kept to the Judaism that he was doing so well in. In Galatians 1:14, Paul says that he had advanced well beyond his years as far as age was concerned. He was zealous and had a cushy life ahead filled with money for sure. But, because he now knew the truth, he traded that cushy place, that fame among men and recognition of his Jewish peers for the truth of Jesus and His crucifixion and resurrection.
The true Gospel does not attract lots of crowds for long. Jesus at one time fed 5,000 men, not to mention women and children, but in Acts 1, there are just 120 persons left in the Upper Room where they waited for the Holy Spirit to come. The truth has a way of weeding out the hangers-on and the simply intrigued as opposed to the saved, redeemed and committed to the Way of Jesus. The Gospel is for everyone on earth; you have never met a person who did not need the Gospel of Jesus. Even saved people love to hear the reassuring Good News.
- Why we should be weary?
The closer we get to Jesus’ return, the more deception will begin to surface. In Matthew 24, the disciples asked Jesus ‘what will be the signs of the end,’ and three times in the following verses, Jesus warns them not to be deceived. Many preachers take the Gospel and add to it. This is what was happening in Galatia. They added the Law to the Gospel, and Paul called them out on it. In verses 6-9 of Galatians 1, he tells us that if someone comes with another Gospel other than the one we received from Paul, which Paul received from Jesus, then let that person be accursed.
In Galatians 1:8, Paul tells us that even if an angel from heaven were to give you a different Gospel, then let him be accursed. There are many religions that have tried to give us another Gospel given to them by an angel; let them be accursed. If anyone adds to the Gospel the keeping of the Law, let them be accursed. We have many religions that add the Law to Jesus. One must worship on the Sabbath, not eat pork, not eat shellfish, do this, do that, and on and on; but Paul says if they add to the Gospel, let them be accursed; they are heretics.
In Galatian 3:21, Paul tells us that if righteousness could have come by the Law, then God would have given one. Then Jesus would not have had to suffer, He would not have been beaten and spat upon, He would have not had to suffer for us. But Galatian 3:25 tells us that because we could not be justified by the law, Jesus came in order that we might be justified by faith.
There is One Salvation, One Way, One Plan, One Option, and that is faith in Jesus ALONE. No works added, no keeping of the Law. Jesus kept the Law for me, and I am clothed in His righteousness.
We need to be very, very protective of the Gospel. It, and it alone is the hope for all men. We should treat it reverently and with care as it is the only option a man, a sinner like me, has to be redeemed back to God and to be reconciled to Heaven. You, as a born-again Christian, have a responsibility to know the Gospel, to be able to share the Gospel accurately and concisely enough to offer some lost person the true Hope we have in Jesus. And you should know the Gospel to protect it and to be able to correct those that say it wrong, then be able to recognize those that add or take away from it and to be able to clarify it for the listener.
I leave you with Romans 1:16-17,
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.'”
God bless you,
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church
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