Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Thoughts on Romans 10:9-15

Rom 10:9 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.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Rom 10:11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Rom 10:12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Rom 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!


The qualification for salvation is the same confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. The second question here is how God wants this saving work spread and that is though us the believers. There are two groups here in the evangelism process those that are sending, and those that are sent. People who hold the line at home financially and prayerfully, and those who are sent out to actually preach the gospel in a foreign field. We have to remember the vision of Paul the Apostle when he is describing beautiful feet he could almost be speaking of himself. This might seem arrogant but if you think about the impact that Paul’s labors had you can almost see the love in the eyes of those he had had an impact in saving. While Paul was driven on by the gospel constantly going on to places that had never been reached before he was fully aware that the work of evangelizing the world was not up to a few men like him; the true growth of the Body of Christ was a team effort. Interestingly when Hudson Taylor went deputizing he didn’t ask for money he begged for people. It is one thing for a believer to through a few dollars at missions it is another for them to lay down their lives in the effort. While not all of us can be the missionary we can all lay down our lives in the work of building Christ’s church. Maybe we could spend hours in prayer for missionaries or donate more than just money by taking a short term trip to visit an do all you can do to bless a missionary. We live in a much smaller world than Paul did. Travel to a foreign country has never been so inexpensive. Maybe you can have an impact for the gospel in foreign lands, but lets not just think small but bigger than humanly possible. Because as the words of William Carey: “Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God”.