This is a sermon that I preached on Sunday, 08/9/26, at Berkeley Friends Church. The scripture reading for this sermon was: Romans 10:5-15.
It looks like I couldn’t help myself again. Last time I preached to you, it was from Romans 8:12-25, where Paul was writing about life in the spirit, contrasting it with life in sarx (flesh). Paul was writing to us about the adoption that we are experiencing when we live in the Spirit, the Spirit that bears witness within us and allows us to call God “Dad.” In spite of all the challenges that we face in this life, we have the joy of becoming children of God. He really loves us and will not let us go. This is what gives us endurance and joy in the midst of suffering.
This morning, we’ve skipped ahead a bit, to chapter 10. In between our last reading and this morning’s, Paul spends chapter nine grappling with the fact that many of his fellow Jews did not accept the gospel of Jesus, but continued in their adherence to the law of Moses. Paul is clearly anguished about this fact, saying that “I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood.”
Despite his grief at the lack of faith among many of his own people, he praises God for having chosen to share the good news of the kingdom with the whole world, including non-Jewish Gentiles. He marvels at the fact that, “Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it – that is, righteousness through faith – but Israel, who did strive for the law of righteousness, did not attain that law. Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works.”
So Paul is witnessing, in his own time and place, a great reversal: The people who were supposed to be the ones who “got it” – the religious people, the people of God, the Jews – are in many cases missing the whole point. Meanwhile, the pagan world – Greeks, Romans, Ethiopians, and so many others – are receiving the gospel and being transformed. A new Israel is emerging, and it’s not bound by biological descent from Abraham, but through faith. The kingdom of God that is emerging is one in which the children of Abraham are the ones who are born of the same faith that Abraham had.
This is where we are at in Paul’s argument when we arrive at our reading this morning – chapter 10, verses 5-15. Paul has just gotten done expressing his hope that all of his fellow Jews would come to accept the gospel, just as some Gentiles already have. But for that to happen, it will be a matter of faith – receiving God’s grace and love in each moment – not the human righteousness that comes from following the religious rules that have become a stumbling block to them.
It’s in this context that Paul writes:
Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim)
This is a continuation of Paul’s earlier argument. On the one hand, there is the law of Moses, which establishes righteousness on following rules, regulations, and rituals. But the righteousness that Paul proclaims is different. It is based entirely on God’s grace, power, and love. This is what Paul is getting at with his apparently mysterious language about bringing Christ down and descending into the abyss: The righteousness of faith doesn’t require us to do anything. It’s a free gift.
The righteousness that comes from faith doesn’t demand that we bring Jesus down from heaven. God already did that in the incarnation! It doesn’t ask us to descend to the abyss to bring Jesus up. God has already done this through the resurrection!
So where does this righteousness come from? If it doesn’t require us to be the first mover, if it doesn’t demand that we take certain actions in order to receive it, what is the origin of this faith-righteousness? Paul’s answer is: The word is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart.
This is the word of faith that Paul proclaims: The universal, ever-present, uniquely powerful presence of the Word of God within and among us. Near to us. Within us. Alive and active.
Paul continues:
Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart, leading to righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, leading to salvation. The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”
Paul has been very clear that God’s grace in our lives is not dependent on our own strength or good actions. And yet, our actions are crucial in manifesting and expressing the righteousness of God that comes from faith. When faith takes root, we don’t hide it; we confess it openly. We tell others. We share the word and life and healing that God is giving us.
This outward confession is an expression of an inward change that has taken place within us. When we come to trust that Jesus is Lord and that God has raised him from the dead, our lives change. Believing with the heart leads to righteousness. Confessing with the mouth leads to salvation. This isn’t a threat; it’s a promise. God is with us. He will never forsake us.
The kingdom of God doesn’t depend on us. We don’t have to “build” it. He has already accomplished it in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We’re not being asked to throw the wedding banquet – we’re invited.
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. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
This invitation is universal. No one is left out. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek. If we take Paul’s claim seriously, there is no distinction between Christian and non-Christian when it comes to God’s invitation. God’s invitation is not restricted by religious pedigree or ritual form. What matters is placing our trust in Jesus, receiving him as Lord, and following him. No more outward rules. Just come to the wedding banquet.
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? And 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!”
We’ve heard that the gospel is universal, available to everyone. The word is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart. So what is this about proclamation? If the word is in every heart, present in all times and places, why does it need to be proclaimed? Why say anything at all, since God’s glory and presence permeates all of creation?
Do these verses imply that the gospel relies on our efforts to proclaim it? That can’t be, after everything that Paul has said. But if you take these two verses on their own, it kind of sounds that way.
Paul is making a more subtle point. The proclamation of the gospel is not something we have to invent or accomplish on our own. God is the one who sends the messengers, God is the one who gives them the message, and God is the one who acts through their proclamation. The whole thing is already part of God’s work.
This isn’t abstract for Paul, obviously. He himself is a sent-one (an apostle). This is his story and journey. He revels in the proclamation. This is the work that God has given him to do. When Paul quotes Isaiah, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news,” I hear him giving thanks for the way God has chosen to work through the people God sends.
Paul’s experience is not so different from what happens when Jesus becomes present and active in our own lives: We receive, we are changed, we are sent.
As followers of Jesus, we are hearing the inward word, the word that is in our hearts, in our midst, on our lips. The word that comes from Jesus. The guidance that is real. The peace that passes understanding. The conviction that shines in our darkness and transforms our lives. We didn’t do anything to earn God’s presence. He chose to be here with us. Within us. Among us.
Just like for Paul, Jesus has shown up in our lives, and he demands a response. Just like George Fox and the early Quakers, the presence of Christ is transforming us into sent-ones, carrying the good news, bringing the lived and spoken proclamation out into a world where God is universally at work but not yet universally perceived.
We are commissioned, sent to embody the righteousness of God, which we are receiving as a free gift, by faith. Or, to use the words of the early Quaker leader George Fox, we are invited to “be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one.”