With The Heart Man Believes,Unto Righteousness...Romans 9-11 pt 11

https://billrandles.wordpress.com/2015/02/18/with-the-heart-man-believes-unto-righteousness-romans-9-11-pt-11/ ^ | 02-17-15 | Bill Randles

[pastorbillrandles]

But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.(Romans 10:8-11)

What does God require of any sinner, Gentile or Jew? Righteousness cannot be attained by any system of works, God cannot be indebted by bankrupt sinners in any way. What God requires is that we all believe in our heart, that God raised Jesus from the dead, and confess with our mouth that He (Jesus) is the LORD.

How is it that believing in the heart brings a man into Righteousness? Why does God require belief?

First of all, when the way of Righteousness is simple faith, there can be no personal glory allotted to any man. All of the glory goes to the God who has made salvation possible.

Faith has an object, God. In heaven the multitudes sing, “Salvation belongs to God, who sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb…”.

Secondly,the most important thing about any person, and the determining factor of anyone’s life for good or evil, is what He or She believes about God. A person’s moral, spiritual, ethical, intellectual and emotional destiny is determined by whether or not they hold the right view of God. All of our personal problems are in fact at the root, Theological problems.

Where did Adam and Eve go wrong? They fell when they entertained a malicious notion about their Creator, that He had been withholding something good from them out of a sense of petty jealousy. The lies people believe about God are the corrupting influence of their whole lives.

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.(Genesis 3:4)

The Serpent told all of us a series of lies about God, thus we are all estranged from Him, who is the source of our life, and the only true ground of our happiness.

The gospel sets the record straight about God, and in the process, puts our ruined lives back together again, restoring us to the extent that we ,”grow in grace Through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue”, as the apostle Peter tells us.

It is “Seeing Him, as He (truly) Is…”, that transforms us, breaking the power of sin and unbelief. Thus the highest duty of the believer is the worshipful beholding of Him, as in a glass.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.( 2 Cor 3:18)

The fall of man has further distorted our belief about God, rendering all of us unworthy, and unable to worship Him. We cannot ‘see’ him because we are estranged from him, and have become slaves to our own desires. Our fallen hearts have virtually become an “idol factory”, manufacturing ‘Gods’ in our own image and likeness, as projections of our own fallen lusts and desires.

Believing the serpent’s lie, we want to become ‘gods’ ourselves, making our own rules, and seeking our own ‘salvation’, which is self-realization of some form or other.

But in the Gospel, the invisible God presents himself to us again, for Christ is “the image of the invisible God”, he is none less than “God with us”,Immanuel.

Furthermore the gospel gives us something new to believe about God, for God has done something unprecedented in Christ. God became a man, He humbled himself and even became obedient, taking on himself the form of a servant.What does this do to the heart that accepts this revelation of God?

Faith in the gospel of the incarnation alone is what we need to ‘dethrone’ the haughty, false, SELF god we have been enslaved to in our hearts. We don’t want to be ‘god’ anymore, for we have seen a vision of the true God, who ‘humbled himself’, and ‘emptied himself’ of all of his Divine prerogatives, in order to Righteously save us from our sins.

Thus we sing with trembling lips,

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,

and was made in the likeness of men:

and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,

and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(Phillipians 2:5-11)

[boatbums]

First of all, when the way of Righteousness is simple faith, there can be no personal glory allotted to any man. All of the glory goes to the God who has made salvation possible.

Essential truth that MUST be realized before we can receive THE gift. Good article. Thanks.

[avenir]

I’d venture that most people, when drawn to the Lord in brokenness, have NO problem here. It is AFTER salvation that the Judaizers crawl out of the woodwork demanding....erm...”scalps”. There may be a multitude of instructors in Christ, but would to the Lord there were more fathers to guard the flock from the fruit inspectors and works crowd, and help them understand why they still sin, and how not to let Satan drive them down. Nothing energizes the flesh or gives it more traction than trying to keep law for approval (not that Judaizers keep it).

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law!

[boatbums]

I’d venture that most people, when drawn to the Lord in brokenness, have NO problem here. It is AFTER salvation that the Judaizers crawl out of the woodwork demanding....erm...”scalps”. There may be a multitude of instructors in Christ, but would to the Lord there were more fathers to guard the flock from the fruit inspectors and works crowd, and help them understand why they still sin, and how not to let Satan drive them down. Nothing energizes the flesh or gives it more traction than trying to keep law for approval (not that Judaizers keep it). The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law!

So true! I marvel how so many imagine the work that God BEGAN in us by grace through faith He would finish with our OWN works of righteousness. There is a sad misunderstanding of grace among many "Christian" denominations. If we are saved by grace - and we are - then that means all the way to the fulfillment of our eternal life.

[avenir]

Amen!

[metmom]

ping

[LearsFool]

help them understand why they still sin, and how not to let Satan drive them down.

Indeed! As Paul says, anyone who thinks he ought to still be sinning after becoming a disciple of Christ, must not know what happened to him in baptism.

"We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for he that hath died is justified from sin." - Romans 6:2-7

To speak of a baptized believer as still in bondage to sin, is to talk about a living dead man! It just doesn't fit the gospel picture of a disciple.

The sinner is killed and buried in baptism, and the disciple of Christ is a new man, a free man. As the preacher said, "Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty, free at last!"

[CynicalBear]

Thanks for the ping. The carnal mind has such a hard time with the concept of “righteousness”. The spiritual and physical just can’t be separated for them.

[Dutchboy88]

"How is it that believing in the heart brings a man into Righteousness? Why does God require belief?"

With all due respect, the premise of the Gospel is that we are unable to provide even "belief". If God "requires" it, and by this you mean "we must provide this result", then we have crafted yet another "work" that would demand the wages paid (Rom. 4). The concept of grace is "unmerited favor poured upon undeserving men/women" and thus is entirely the work of God. And, if, "...it does not depend on the man who chooses or the man who works, but upon God who has mercy...and He will have mercy upon whom he chooses and He will harden whom He chooses." then all of this, even believing, is His operation in us not Synergism.

[pastorbillrandles]

True Dutchboy, Even faith is the gift of God, but God does require what he provides...”Without faith it is impossible to please Him for he that comes to God must believe that He is and he is the rewarder of those who seek Him...

[Elsie]

"How is it that believing in the heart brings a man into Righteousness? Why does God require belief?"

 

 

 

 

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Micah 6:8

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

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John 6:28-29
Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?

 Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

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1 John 3:21-23
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

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James 1:27

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

 

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Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him

[Elsie]

I shudda read ahead!

[LearsFool]

Ananias said to Paul: "And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on his name."

And what was Paul's reply? "What?! No, calling on the name of the Lord is a work! And so is baptism! What's wrong with you, Ananias? You have crafted yet more 'works' that would demand wages!"

No, of course he didn't say that. Because Paul understood that the only "works" that can demand the "wages" of justification are works that make one guiltless, works that obviate the need for forgiveness, works that don't need mercy because no guilt can be found. In other words, the only works that can demand wages are perfect law-keeping. The one who has never sinned has no need of grace.

Everyone else does, however, and must meet God's conditions for receiving such grace. Are His requirements "works"? Well yes. Do they "earn" salvation? Well no.

So you see, there's "works"...and then there's "works". :-)

[Dutchboy88]

"...but God does require what he provides...”"

Your phraseology raises an unusual concern. It sounds suspiciously like that which Pelagian used when he said that God would never command what we could not perform. The beginning of seeking God occurs AFTER we are granted faith...not in order to gain faith. Paul is clear, no one, no one, no one seeks God...before He seeks them. Eph. 2, Rom. 3, Rom 9. Are you a synergist or a monergist?

[pastorbillrandles]

I am not a Pelagian. I believe that God is the author of Salvation, and that even the faith that is required to receive salvation comes from him. John 1:12-13 .In no way can
I take credit for any part of salvation,”Boasting is excluded.By What Law? Not of Works but of faith”.

[Dutchboy88]

Nice “proof-texting”, my FRiend. When you have read the entire letter for each of these and can characterize the running argument in each, let me know. Otherwise, the “verse” gimmick provided by the 14th cent. monk doesn’t actually support what you are contending.

[Dutchboy88]

I did not ask if you were Pelagian. I asked if you were a Monergist or a Synergist.

[pastorbillrandles]

you suggested I sound like a Pelagian. I do not wish to be fit into one or another category. I believe that Salvation is entirely of God, there is no work required of me. But I believe that responding in faith to God’s offer of salvation is not a work, in the sense of me “Helping” God save me. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless my Father draw them”, but he also said “whoever comes to me shall in no wise be cast out...”

[Dutchboy88]

I suggested that the words you used were close to Pelagian's. Then I asked if you were a Monergist or a Synergist...which you have yet to answer.

And, frankly, the words, "...but he also said,..." give to readers a sense that there is something for them to "do", a work that your words imply. There is just this trace element, this tinge, this smell of, "Well, of course, God is doing something in you, BUT don't get too cocky there buddy, you have a part in all of this, too. So get off your keister and get to work."

It may not sound like this to you...but it does to me. I am surprised more folks who claim to lay all of the "activity" of salvation at Jesus' feet don't say something like, "If you notice an awareness of God's requirements and your abject failure to meet those requirements, if you recognize that the only hope you have is found in Jesus blood shed for you to pay the price you cannot even pay, if you recognize that He is the Messiah, the Rescuer of Israel, then it is likely you are among the elect and are being drawn to Christ. You are being adopted by God, being brought into the family of believers whose citizenship is in the New Jerusalem above. You are safe, granted forgiveness of sin, covered in a righteousness that does not belong to you but is that which Jesus Himself owns. In response to all of this care, this regeneration, this initial redemption of your spirit, go ahead and respond to Him, your Heavenly Father. Lay hold of Him, cling to Him and realize that none of this is being done by you."

If Paul is correct and even the "choosing" is "...God at work in you both to WILL and to ACCOMPLISH His good will.", shouldn't we be speaking more clearly about this? Shouldn't our presentations be more about Him and less about what is "required"? Why is it that most all folks who claim to be "evangelists" are really just Judaizers?

[Elsie]

A mighty strange bird; the Pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belly can!
I really don’t see how the hellican!!