CRITICAL NOTES
Romans 10:6. Say not in thine heart.—Unbelief originates from self-confidence. Who shall ascend?—Indicating unbelief in a risen Saviour. Salvation is a completed work; do not trouble about its vastness or its difficulty.
Romans 10:7.—ἄβυσσος, the place of departed spirits, supposed by the Jews to be far below the surface of the earth. The Jerusalem Targum renders the words thus: “Oh that there were one like Jonas the prophet who would descend into the depths of the great sea! “Now we know that Jonas descending into the deep was a type of Christ; “being brought again,” say the LXX., “from the abyss of the earth.” Philo asks, “What need is there to take long journeys or go to sea in search of virtue, we having the root of it within us?” or, as Moses saith, “In our mouth, in our heart, and in our hand.”
Romans 10:8.—A holy and sweet play of the Spirit on His own inspired word.
Romans 10:9. The Lord Jesus.—Jesus as Jehovah. Paul is referring to Jeremiah 23:6. Mouth confession important towards men, heart belief towards God. The law is works; the gospel is faith, and works following. The resurrection of Christ is a foundation fact; receive that, and we shall include all it implies.
Romans 10:10.—In the heart faith is seated; with the tongue confession is made. Between these two salvation is completed.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH— Romans 10:5-11
Life on divine conditions.—God is not a Pharaoh demanding bricks without straw; God does not require a Samson’s strength from an infant’s weakness, a Solomon’s wisdom from the unfortunate possessor of imbecility. If God’s plan of salvation seem difficult, it is not because of divine conditions, but because of human perversity. Humble souls, receptive natures, find God’s method of salvation an easy, unencumbered plan. Life on divine conditions is in striking contrast to life on human conditions.
I. Notice life on human conditions.—Sometimes we rail against the hardness and perversity of nature. Man battling for life is often worsted in the encounter. The struggle for life ends, with too many, in death. But life would not be so hard if selfishness were eliminated from humanity. Natural life is hard on human conditions. It is not God but man that makes moral life hard. The human conditions are:
1. Life by doing. The law done, the life secured. Grace was there in Old Testament times, but men too often ignored the grace and went about to establish their own righteousness. God had then a blessing for contrite souls.
2. Life by fruitless search. Who can ascend to heaven? Who can fathom the abyss? In these modern days men can explore and investigate to marvellous heights and depths; they can almost travel along the pathway which the vulture’s eye hath not seen; but they do not discover the treasure of moral life. The eye of the scientist has not seen it in the depths; the far-reaching knowledge of the philosopher has not discovered it in the heights of his sublime soaring. Spiritual life eludes the search of the wise and prudent of this world, but is revealed unto babes.
II. Notice life on divine conditions.—Natural life on divine conditions is pleasant. The life of unfallen man was life on divine conditions—life in a garden where birds sang, brooks musically rippled, flowers bloomed, fruits ripened, and where there was not the offensiveness of decay and of death. If flowers decayed, they presented no unsightly aspect, they gave forth no offensive odour. If death visited, it came in comely form. Man had no monotony, no feeling of unrest. The conditions of life are changed; but even now if we got nearer to divine conditions we should live more pleasantly. One image this of spiritual life. Pleasantly flows the stream of spiritual life to those who exercise faith. Spiritual life is in:
1. A word of nearness. God’s words are near. Day unto day uttereth divine speech. Nature is divinely vocal. Time expresses the divine thought. Providence utters the purposes of the infinite Spirit. God’s words are round about us everywhere. The atmosphere is thick with the thoughts of the Eternal. But God’s words are carried by a still, small voice, and our souls are not hushed so as to catch the message. “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart”; but time words stifle the heaven word. Let us be still, and then we shall hear the near word of God.
2. A word of faith. A little word, and yet very large. It carries a whole heaven in its embrace. It conquers the world, the flesh, and the devil—triumphs over death, and opens the gates of paradise. The word of faith is great, and yet its greatness is not inherent, but derived. Faith must have an object, and that object is a divine Person. Faith embraces a living Saviour; faith concerns itself with a perfect life, an atoning death, an evidencing resurrection, a victorious ascension, and an intercessory existence; faith is emotional, its seat is in the heart; faith works by love. God is emotional, and so are His true children. The intellectualist may despise the emotional; and yet to stifle emotion is to do violence to the perfection of human nature. Emotions play a large part in human doings. Emotion is a strong motive force. God would have perfect men in His kingdom, and such are those who let emotion have fair play. Faith of the head will not save. Faith which accepts the axioms of mathematics, the deductions of logic the recorded experiments of science, or the statements of history will not save. There is a faith which accepts a perfect creed, and yet is not saving. Our want is heart faith. To-day we are developing heads and minimising hearts; our brains are weighed and measured, while our hearts are dying for want of nutriment. The light of moral knowledge may play about the head while the heart is untouched; and where hearts are unaffected there can be no true moral reformation. A heart faith clinging to a loving Christ climbs the rugged steeps of time, and gains the height of moral perfectness and spiritual beauty. Heart faith resting in Christ is the greatest motive power in the universe.
3. A word of confession. In these days Christ-confessing is too much confined. If the heart were full of Christ, would the mouth be full of the world? Have things changed? Are the great Teacher’s words untrue, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”? Are they untrue? or is it sadly true that Christ-abundance is not found in modern hearts? The head and the heart, the body and the soul, must move onwards to the accomplishment of a perfected salvation.
4. A word of divine encouragement. “Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” Here we have a divine universality, a divine invitation, and a divine declaration—the largeness of divine love, the regulating force of divine wisdom, the provisions of divine power. “Whosoever.” Jew or Gentile, rich or poor. “Whosoever.” If a word could measure the vastness of the infinite love, that word would be the word “whosoever.” Finite words, however, cannot gauge infinite realities. Enough for us to know that the love is vast, and that love invites whosoever believeth to the banqueting-house where the banner of divine love is displayed.
Romans 10:6-8. The Saviour near the soul.—By the phrase “the righteousness which is of faith” we are to understand Christianity. Therefore Christianity is the speaker. The apostle desires to answer the question of questions, How may I be saved from my sins for the service of my God? and assumes Christianity to be speaking in answer. Christianity does not say it is necessary to go to a distance for your religion, but “the word is nigh.” In answer to the question, How may I become a Christian indeed? the gospel reply is, Look not for the marvellous, leave the speculative; listen to the Saviour: “Behold, He stands at the door, and knocks.”
I. Christianity discourages a craving for the miraculous.—Do not occupy yourselves with any fond conceits of a manifestation of God more striking and convincing than that which you have already. Had miracles been the likeliest method of eliciting Christian faith, they would have been continued. But they did their work, and were laid aside. Though the need has passed, the craving remains. Hence the lying legends of the Church of Rome. The last thing men will acknowledge is that the blessing is already their own if they have faith to receive it. The last power they consent to trust is Christ, the power of God. Yet, needing Christ, it is the word of Christ we already have. “The word is nigh.”
II. Christianity discourages a passion for the speculative.—Do not consider it necessary that you should have adequate notions respecting those deep subjects before you can attain to the righteousness of faith and the blessings of salvation. Do but believe. You need not then despair of receiving heavenly teaching. The wisest of men are sent back by the gospel to the simple faith of children. This is the heavenly order: first trust, then knowledge. Theology is not religion. Theologies change, but Christ changes not.
III. Christianity recalls us, then, from the miraculous and the speculative to the evangelical and the spiritual.—The word of faith very familiar to those who heard Paul. And the word is nigh now. The letter of the word is nigh—a free, cheap Bible. More than that, you have Christian language already in your mouth. Mark the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the name of Christ. In a certain sense the word is in your heart already. Every troubled heart has a witness for Him who did what the law could not do for man. Christ speaks to the heart, and in a language which the heart comprehends. He has done this in many ways—by sorrows, by consolations, by memories. And the Saviour is near to the soul at all times. It is a familiar good. It is Christ, then, not this world, that can bless us.—J. Gage Rigg, D.D.
Romans 10:10. Outward observances.—Man, a being of two parts: outward, material; inward, immaterial. Therefore two facts must be brought into play in all relationships to God and to men.
For man’s religion to be thoroughgoing, heart must be in it, body must be in it. Meaning of “worship in spirit and in truth”—not spirit without body, but spirit along with body.
Examples:
1. Family prayer proves your belief in God in the eyes of your household. [Note.—No position more honourable than Christian man—like patriarchs, priest of his household, conducting family worship.]
2. Going to church, witness to belief in God in the eyes of the world. [Note.—A duty, therefore, even for the deaf or blind.]
3. Confirmation a similar ceremony, witness that when of age of discretion you put trust in God and decide for Him,
4. Kneeling in prayer, testimony of reverence before God. Story of heathen chief, who sees Charlemagne kneeling in church, and asks, Where is the greater King? I know one must have been there, for the king was kneeling.
5. Lord’s supper, testimony that you have support from someone beyond yourself.
Remember, inward, if real, must be expressed by something outward. Beware of outward without inward.—Dr. Springett.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Romans 10:5-11
The will of God made clearly known.—The obvious import of this passage is that the knowledge of the will of God had been made perfectly accessible; no one was required to do what was impossible, neither to ascend to heaven nor to pass the boundless sea in order to attain it; it was neither hidden nor afar off, but obvious and at hand. Without directly citing this passage, Paul uses nearly the same language to express the same idea. The expressions here used seem to have become proverbial among the Jews. To be “high” or “afar off” was to be “unattainable “; “to ascend to heaven” or “to go down to hell” was “to do what was impossible.” As the sea was to the ancients impassable, it is easy to understand how the question, “Who can pass over the sea?” was tantamount to, Who can ascend up into heaven? Among the later Jews the same mode of expression not infrequently occurs.—Hodge.
The world to be regenerated by doing our nearest duty.—My object has been and is, and I trust in God ever will be, to make people see that they need not, as St. Paul says, go up into heaven or go down to the deep to find Christ; because He the word whom we preach, is very near them—in their hearts and on their lips—if they would but believe it; and ready, not to set them afloat on new and untried oceans of schemes and projects, but ready to inspire them to do their duty humbly and simply where He has put them; and, believe me, the only way to regenerate the world is to do the duty which lies nearest us, and not to hunt after grand, far-fetched ones for ourselves.—Charles Kingsley.
The duty of confessing with the mouth.—As believing with the heart leads to righteousness, so confessing Christ with the mouth conduces “to salvation.” Confessing Christ with the mouth is at all times an important duty; but, at the first publication of the gospel, it was peculiarly indispensable, both for promoting the diffusion of the Christian religion and for the edification of individuals. For the open avowal of Christianity by all the disciples of Christ, accompanied with that moral purity which distinguished them and which was so striking in an age of great corruption, would naturally lead other men to examine a religion which produced such remarkable effects; and thus many might be induced to embrace the gospel who would not otherwise have given it any consideration. In like manner, by associating continually with the Church in all the services of religion, the Christian converts would gradually become better acquainted with the gospel and more strongly induced by the influence of general example to live as became the disciples of Christ. Hence our Saviour makes confessing Him before men an express condition of His confessing men before His Father who is in heaven; and adds, that whosoever shall deny Him before men, him will He deny before His Father which is in heaven.—Ritchie.
The true misery to be ashamed of oneself.—This is being confounded; this is shame itself; this is the intolerable, horrible, hellish shame and torment wherein is weeping and gnashing of teeth; this is the everlasting shame and contempt to which, as Daniel prophesied, too many should awake in that day, to be found guilty in that day before God and Christ, before our neighbours and our relations, and, worst of all, before ourselves. Worst of all, I say, before ourselves. It would be dreadful enough to have all the bad things we ever did or thought told openly against us to all our neighbours and friends, and to see them turn away from us—dreadful to find out at last (what we forget all day long) that God knows them already; but more dreadful to know them all ourselves and see our sins in all their shamefulness in the light of God, as God Himself sees them—more dreadful still to see the loving God and the loving Christ turn away from us; but most dreadful of all to turn away from ourselves—to be utterly discontented with ourselves, ashamed of ourselves—to see that all our misery is our own fault, that we have been our own enemies; to despise ourselves and hate ourselves for ever; to try for ever to get rid of ourselves, and escape from ourselves as from some ugly and foul place in which we are ashamed to be seen for a moment, and yet not to be able to get rid of ourselves. Yes, that will be the true misery of a lost soul—to be ashamed of itself and hate itself. Who shall deliver a man from the body of that death?—Charles Kingsley.
How will proud boasters answer?—”For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” What answer will be made to the above words of St. Paul by those proud boasters who glory in a certain imaginary faith, which is lodged, as they presume to say, in the inmost recesses of their hearts, and which is completely to supersede the confession of the mouth? Surely it is the veriest trifling to assert that fire exists where there is neither flame nor heat.—Calvin.
What is to confess Christ?—It is Jesus who is to be confessed. To confess Him is to accept Him as our Saviour, and to say so. It is to profess belief in Him as the Son of God, who died for us, in whom through believing we have eternal life; for all this He said of Himself. It is before men that we are to confess Him (Matthew 10:32),—before good men, that our mutual faith may be strengthened; before bad men, that their unbelief may be shaken. How confess Him? Publicly, with our lips. Men who are ever ready to say that they believe in Christ, and never ready to say it openly, in connecting themselves with some branch of His Church, would do well to question their own sincerity. Privately, with our lips. It is a shame for Christians to dwell together, or to often talk together, and never say a loving word about their Saviour. And “not only with our lips, but in our lives.” When? Now and always, in word and in deed. Why just now? Because no other moment belongs to us—because the confession must be made before men; and how soon may we cease from among men!—Robert Westly Peach.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 10
Romans 10:8. Healing at her own door.—A lady who was very ill went from place to place on the Continent, hoping to recover her health, but all in vain, for she daily grew worse. At last, in despair, she asked a physician what she must do. “Medicine,” replied he, “is useless. You have one chance, and that is to drink the waters of Pit Keathley.” “What?” exclaimed she; “why, those waters are in my own estate!” She went home and recovered her health. Thus salvation is near. The word is nigh thee. The Saviour stands at the door of the heart. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.”