In Romans 10:8b-13, in a segment that begins in verse 5, Paul discusses the righteousness from the Law and the righteousness from faith.
Even in our secular age, we may have a deep and disturbing sense that something is terribly wrong with our lives. We have an infinite desire that has no path toward fulfillment. Many of us want to lead healthy lives, and have a vague sense that we are breaking an unwritten code every day. We follow the safe road of quite respectability, suspicious that we need to take a risk so that we might have the happiness of reaching our fullest potential. Even when we consciously affirm moral relativity, we feel the guilt of abandoning honored moral codes. Writers as diverse as Kafka, Dostoyevsky, T.S. Eliot and Maupassant express lucidly the anguish and despair of the modern conscience when it lacks the contours and context to define its incipient guilt. Even without a divine realm, guilt lingers and begins to take a new shape.[1] In essence, we cannot avoid the experience of law and the attending guilt when we do not adhere to it. No form of the law will give us the peace for which we long. The saying of Mary Pickford may seem appealing: If at first you do not succeed, relax; you are just like the rest of us.”
The point Paul will make is that the new way of rightness with God is not through Law. Rather, the path is open to all, easy and near at hand, as Scripture shows. Paul discusses the meaning of faith, as he explains this new mode of acquiring peace with God. Paul contrasts the ease of this mode with the arduous task of observing the deeds of the law. Thus, we could approach this passage with the theme of salvation by faith. After all, the passage contains the well-known “Romans Road” plan for witnessing. While that is an important part of the message, it will miss the important part this passage plays in the way Paul is laying out the plan of God for incorporating the Gentiles into the people of God. An event has occurred that has ended the salvific importance of the Torah. Of course, Christ is the content of that event. At this point in the argument, Paul is pondering how the Jewish people have largely rejected the way of faith. We find that even though the Torah had its time in the plan of God, the way of faith makes the Lord God of Moses available to all. While law and faith represents differing events in the history of salvation, the character of God has remained the same.[2]
Verse 8b concludes a segment beginning in verse 6, where Paul refers to Deuteronomy 30:11-14 as he offers his midrash upon these portions of the Torah in verses 6-7. In making this appeal, Paul is affirming that God has not changed. Thus, in its Old Testament context, Israel cannot complain that it did not have access to Torah. Yet, Paul applies the passage to the word of faith, which truly is as close as the heart and mouth. His claim is that Gentiles have access to rightly relating to God through faith rather than a law no one can obey fully. Paul is trying to move the people of God from the burden of a religious life based upon Law to the joy of the life of offering personal assent to what God has done in Christ. 8b(That is, Paul identifying this statement with the preaching of the word (ῥῆμά) of faith. While rhma and logos are used interchangeably throughout the New Testament for “word,” the meaning in this case relates initially to Deuteronomy 30:11-14, which 10:6-8 rephrases. Here, “word” is that which can be immediately recalled and carried out. There is also the context of Paul’s clarification at the close of 10:8. The word of faith is not the goal of some impossible far-off quest, but as close as our hearts and mouths, through which we remember and make known the righteousness that comes from faith. He then identifies the word of faith with the word that we proclaim. He puts them in opposition, when they both refer to the doing of the law. In making this appeal, Paul is affirming that God has not changed. The gospel which “we proclaim” now makes clear that the “word” said to be so near to everyone in Deuteronomy, was always, in Paul’s view, “the word of faith” and not some law demanding perfect obedience. The Lord God of Moses is the same God who is the Father of Jesus Christ and the one Christians call upon as “Abba, Father.” However, Paul shows little regard for the original meaning of the Old Testament passage, which praised the Torah as a word from the Lord that has come close to us in Torah rather than be far away in heaven or the abyss. Thus, in its Old Testament context, Israel cannot complain that it did not have access to Torah. Yet, Paul applies the passage to the word of faith, which truly is as close as the heart and mouth. His claim is that Gentiles have access to rightly relating to God through faith rather than a law no one can obey fully. Paul is trying to move the people of God from the burden of a religious life based upon Law to the joy of the life of offering personal assent to what God has done in Christ. The difficulty is that Paul has it refer to Christ, while the text refers to the Mosaic Law. The original context of the verse in Deuteronomy makes exactly the opposite point Paul is attempting to make here. The law is intimately a part of their identity - neither far up in heaven nor far away on the earth - the Israelites cannot use the remoteness or inaccessibility of the law as an excuse for not obeying it. Paul, by contrast, wishes to emphasize to the Romans that the "word" of the law in Deuteronomy is, in fact, the word "of faith" that Paul and his disciples proclaim to them, that is, the gospel of justification by faith rather than works. For Paul, as for many in the subsequent Christian tradition, the burden of religious life is shifted from physical action to intellectual assent: The hard part of being a Christian is not as much doing what God wants as believing what God did. Paul might find some sympathy with the view of Thomas Aquinas that three things are necessary for the salvation of human beings: to know what they ought to believe, to know what they ought to desire, and to know what they ought to do. The righteousness of faith is an alternative to the legal righteousness of the people. Here is the starting point of the entire criticism of the Law by Paul. In what way has Christ become the end of the Law?[3] The people of God can no longer look upon this Torah as the expression of the eternal will and purpose of God. The way of Torah must give way to faith in the new saving event of God in Jesus Christ. This act of God opens the door for good news to the world.[4] The reason for this is 9 that if you confess (ὁμολογήσῃς, to commit an act of honest-to-God speech, publicly coming clean about what the truth is) with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe (πιστεύσῃς) in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (σωθήσῃ). The fundamental divine act, in Paul's theology, was God's elevation of Jesus to divine sovereignty and God's raising Jesus from the dead. Despite the vast attempts to demythologize the New Testament, including Paul, there is little evidence to support the notion that Paul believed in anything other than a historical, physical, somatic resurrection of Jesus after his crucifixion, a belief which Paul himself acknowledged as "a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" (1 Corinthians 1:23). The prima facie absurdity of the claim is testimony to its truth content, and it is this truth that Paul is not ashamed to proclaim (Romans 1:16). 10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified (δικαιοσύνην). Paul's doctrine of justification through faith, of which Luther and the Reformed tradition have made much, is expounded most fully in Romans. The word for "justified" occurs nearly a dozen times, far more than in any other book in the New Testament (see, for example, 2:13; 3:4, 20, 24, 28; 4:2; 5:1, 9; 8:30; 10:10; and two-thirds of the occurrences of "justification" also appear in Romans). Although the term has a complex theological history, the basic meaning in the Pauline writings is "to be made righteous," as the recipient of God's transforming grace.
I greatly longed to understand Paul’s epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, “the justice of God,” because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant.
Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that “the just shall live by his faith.” Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which, through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the “justice of God” had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven.[5]
And one confesses with the mouth and so is saved (σωτηρίαν). The first basic confession or profession of faith in the early church was simple: Jesus is Lord. It was an affirmation developed before Paul began his public ministry. The confession of Jesus as Lord was a fundamental article of belief in the early church.[6] The Holy Spirit causes people to say that Jesus is Lord (I Corinthians 12:3). Paul and his team proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord (II Corinthians 4:5). A day is coming when every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father (Philippians 2:11). Since they have received Christ Jesus the Lord, they are to continue to live their lives in Christ (Colossians 2:6). It was one of the earliest and most widespread Christian confessions of faith in most Greek-speaking areas of Christianity.[7] The confession of Jesus as Lord was likely required, perhaps in creedal formulation, for admission to baptism, membership in the church and access to the Eucharist. Today, Christology must provide the basis for this confession.[8] The cause of this public profession is the prior internal event of believing that God raised Jesus from the dead. Such conviction resides authentically in the heart and issues faithfully from the mouth. Inner faith forthrightly receives voice. We see this pattern in Romans 1:1, 3-4 as well, which affirms the resurrection of Jesus from the dead first, and then affirms that Jesus is Lord. Philippians 2 stresses that Jesus humbled himself to the point of death before God exalted him. Hebrews 2:9 has a similar emphasis. I Corinthians 15 reveals the basis of the gospel he preached in Corinth, including the death and resurrection of Jesus that he finds especially affirmed in the appearances to the disciples and to a larger group soon after the death of Jesus. He admits that the event of faith is empty if God did not raise Jesus from the dead. Yet, this internal belief was more than intellectual assent. It was the sign of sharing in the life of the new community of the people of God. The logic of this pattern of spiritual awakening is that one first believes in the heart, thereby receiving a right relationship with God through the pardon we have received in the event of the death of Jesus for our failure to live in a way that honors God. One can understand the joy many have found in recognizing that their standing with God did not rest upon their ability to do everything some perceived law might require.[9] The mouth affirms what the heart confirms. The result is that God saves a person who believes in the heart and publicly testifies to the truth discerned in the heart. Such salvation primarily refers to the eschatological fulfillment of the plan of God for the redemption of humanity. We can see this emphasis in Romans 5:9-10, where salvation involves freedom from receiving the anger and judgment of God upon sin. In I Thessalonians 2:16, those who resist bringing this saving message to Gentiles will be at the receiving end of the anger of God. In I Thessalonians 5:8-9, to receive salvation is to avoid the anger of God. In I Corinthians 3:15, everyone will be at the receiving end of the fire of judgment, but the fire is a cleansing fire. What remains will receive the benefit of the saving action of God. In I Corinthians 5:5, he even hopes that as a matter of church discipline handing someone over to Satan now will lead to his or her salvation on the Day of the Lord. This notion of salvation shows the theological indebtedness of early Christian teaching to Israel and to Jewish apocalyptic writings. 11 The scripture in Isaiah 28:16 says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” He has already used this passage in 9:33. The one who believes in the heart and confesses with the lips will have nothing about which to worry in the final judgment. Such a person will receive honor rather than shame. Romans 1:16 stresses says that Paul has no shame now, in this life, in preaching the gospel, because he has seen the effect of the saving message of the gospel spreading among the Gentile world. 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. In Romans 3:26-29, there is neither Jew nor Greek, a point he makes in I Corinthians 12:12-13 and Colossians 3:11 as well, and if they belong to Christ, they are the offspring of Abraham and heirs according to the promise. there are not two ways of salvation, one for the Jew and one for the Gentile. Paul introduces the second characteristic of obtaining righteousness by faith, that it is universal. Paul’s concern here the inclusion of Jews within the new covenant that God establishes with all humanity in Christ. God is now relating to “Jews” and all others in the light of what has been done in Christ. 13 For, as it also says in Joel 2:32, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” He has stressed that the same Lord of Moses, the prophets, and Jesus is Lord of all and is generous to all who call upon the Lord. The Lord is so generous that the Lord will save such persons. Paul stresses that this path of rightly relating to God through faith fulfills the universalist thrust of the message of the Israelite prophets. The purpose of God through the covenant with Israel finds its fulfillment in the divine saving purpose revealed in the event of Christ. What Paul has done is explain how Israel is accountable for its rejection of the word of faith. It already had the word of faith contained in the Law! It already had the universalizing thrust of the prophets! He uses the words of Joel and Isaiah to say that Israel has heard the call of God and failed to respond with faith. Paul seems to argue that the election of Israel by God finds its confirmation in the election of the church. The reason for this is that the mission of Israel finds its fulfillment in the church. The honor of God dwells among the people of God. The community serves the divine promise that awaits a humanity that will hear and respond with faith. The community lives as a witness to the saving action of God in Christ. It hears the call of God and serves that call. A church that would cut itself off from this connection to Israel will lose its mission. Israel will always have a special place of service within the people of God and the church must do all it can to make sure nothing interrupts that service. Israel reminds us all that God chooses to make humanity hear the word, follow the leadership God provides, subject itself to God, and listen to God. This will always be the privilege of humanity. As we find revealed in the Jewish Messiah, the people of God are servants above all. Israel reaches its goal in its church form! All of this would be clearer if Israel had received the word of faith. It fails to hear properly its destiny in Jesus Christ. It jeopardizes its existence by rejecting the one community in the world that cannot do without this relation to Israel and Judaism. Its rigid rejection does not remove it from the people of God. It continues to serve its purpose within the people of God.[10]
The confidence of Paul rests in the purpose of God to show mercy through election and rejection and to extend the call of God to Gentiles, both of which the Old Testament has prophesied. He has explained it as a failure to understand the Law as the word of faith pointing to the eschatological significance of Christ and has refused to excuse Israel on grounds that they had never heard the word of faith or had insufficiently clear indication of how God would achieve the divine purpose in the final days. In these verses, Paul deals directly with the failure of Israel to believe the gospel, a theme that has been in the background. Presumably, the interlocking of these two elements in his thought, the way his understanding of the Law in terms of faith meshed into these prophecies of Jewish unbelief and Gentile belief, provided Paul the Jew with one of the central supports for his faith in the Christ. He could use Isaiah 52:7, 53:1, 65:1-2 as support.
I invite you to reflect upon the redeeming moments of your life. Some of us may have fond memories. For some, such redeeming moments may have pain attached to them. The process of coming to a point in life when we are willing to turn to Jesus and affirm him as our Lord is not an easy one. The apparent journey of French philosopher Albert Camus is a case in point. He lived most of his life as an atheist and absurdist, although his reflections intersect with existentialism as well. Yet, in the last few years of his life, he became involved in conversations with the pastor of the American church in Paris, Howard Mumma. Mumma reacts carefully to Camus, and near the end of their conversations, cut short by Mumma's return to the States, and Camus accidental death months later, Camus is inquiring about a private baptism. Mumma refuses because Camus had already received baptism as a Catholic, and because baptism is a public affair.[11]
I am confident that some persons will resist Paul when he says that we must believe God raised Jesus from the dead. Yet, while faith is far more than intellectual assent, it does involve what we believe. The assumption here is that to which we give our intellectual assent will affect the way we live. We do not believe in an experience or ourselves. We have heard because others responded to the summons of God to witness to what God has done in Jesus Christ.
Pope John Paul II weighed in on matters of faith and salvation in a document published in September 2000 by the Vatican's Congregation on Faith and Doctrine. In Dominus Jesus, the pope argues against the relativist notion that all religions are equally good and are simply different paths leading to the same God. Non-Christian religions are "gravely deficient," he said. The full quote is as follows: "If it is true that the followers of other religions can receive divine grace, it is also certain that objectively speaking they are in a gravely deficient situation in comparison with those who, in the church, have the fullness of the means of salvation. However, all the children of the church should nevertheless remember that their exalted condition results, not from their own merits, but from the grace of Christ." As for Protestants, the pope recognized them not as "sister" churches, but as ecclesial communities. They "have by no means been deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation." For the pope, content, objective truth, clearly matters and cannot be sacrificed at the altar of ecumenism.
[1] --Publishers Weekly, Cahners Business Information, Inc., posted on amazon.com. Retrieved January 19, 2002.
[2] (Stanley K. Stowers, A Rereading of Romans [Yale University Press, 1994], 310).
[3] Pannenberg Systematic Theology, Volume III, 64.
[4] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume III, 58-96.
[5] —Martin Luther, quoted in Roland Bainton’s Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983), 49-50.]
[6] I Corinthians 12:3
no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit.
II Corinthians 4:5
For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake.
Philippians 2:11
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Colossians 2:6
As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him …
[7] see Wayne A. Meeks, ed., The Writings of St. Paul [New York: Norton, 1972], 85 n. 7.
[8] Pannenberg, Jesus God and Man, 29; Systematic Theology, Volume III, 111-12, 232.
[9] Martin Luther, quoted in Roland Bainton’s Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983), 49-50.
[10] Barth, Church Dogmatics 34.3.
[11] For more see: Howard Mumma, Albert Camus and the Minister (Paraclete, 2000). For a review, see: James Sire, "Camus the Christian?" in Christianity Today, October 23, 2000, 121.
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