{"id":9195,"date":"2023-08-08T04:59:58","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T11:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=9195"},"modified":"2023-08-08T05:00:48","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T12:00:48","slug":"for-the-gifts-and-the-call-of-god-are-irrevocable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=9195","title":{"rendered":"
For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romans 9:1-5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sermon for the Season of Pentecost<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commentators on the Epistle to the Romans are divided in two ways, depending on how they deal with 1) Romans 9-11, and 2) Romans 10:4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1: Romans 9-11.<\/strong> Romans 9:1-5 points out that the Jewish people did not accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Savior. How is that possible? Paul was one of the Jews. The question then in the Epistle to the Romans is: Is this section 9-11 a case study, an example of how God works. (By far the majority of commentaries on Romans see 9-11 in this way, that is, as a case study.) For others the point of chapters 9-11 is to bring out how the Jews are included even though they did not accept Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul is on his way to go through Rome to Spain so he is writing to the people in the synagogues in Rome who are both Jewish and Christian in order to sort this out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not a new idea to say, as most scholars do, that chapters 9-11 are a case study. Scholars point out that Romans 9:1-5 states that the Jewish people have the covenants, they have the promises, they are chosen, and God doesn\u2019t change his mind. In fact, when we look at Romans 11:29, it says: \u201cFor the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.\u201d (See also Romans 9:15.) (The argument is made by some scholars that there are two ways of salvation, two covenants, but in Galatians 6:16 Paul refers to the church as \u201cthe Israel of God.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#2: Romans 10:4:<\/strong> Romans 10:4 states: \u201cChrist is the end of the law.\u201d Does \u201cend of the law\u201d mean \u201ctermination\u201d or \u201cgoal\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Romans 7:1-6 Paul has already answered this question using the example of marriage: When one spouse dies, the other spouse is no longer bound by the law of marriage. That is the same with the whole matter of the law. It really means \u201ctermination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Romans 11:32: \u201cFor God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all,\u201d Paul gives a definition of election. He has stated the same conclusion in Romans 5:18 where it says: \u201cAs one man\u2019s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man\u2019s act of righteousness leads to acquittal for all men.\u201d Paul\u2019s point in Romans 11:32 is not new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the middle of these three chapters, 9-11, Paul writes about salvation in 10:5-17, especially verses 9-10:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How God works salvation comes into focus in 10:17, where it says: \u201cFaith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the preaching of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We already know from Romans 3:24 that faith is a gift. Then Romans 5:1 states: \u201cTherefore, since we are justified by faith [It is all done.], we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We review there these questions about salvation because often in discussion or argument with others who teach that faith means we must make a decision for Christ, they will say to Lutherans: \u201cRemember it says in Romans 10:9-10 that if you confess with your lips and believe in your heart, you will be saved.\u201d Then in the next verse the same is stated in a different way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul is using material in Romans 10:6-10 from Deuteronomy 30:11-14. He is following the sequence set forth there. When it says: \u201cIf you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord,\u201d it is referring to something that happens in a public assembly, a worship service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This confession, \u201cJesus is Lord,\u201d is also found in 1 Cor 12:3 and Philippians 2:9-10. This is like confessing the Nicene Creed or Apostle\u2019s Creed. Then in parallel (In Hebrew thinking, \u201cparallel\u201d means stating the same thing in a different way.) it says that \u201cif you believe in your heart that he is risen from the dead,\u201d (the confession that he is risen from the dead is found in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4), and all of this is in the passive voice. It is being done to you; it is being done for you. The passage goes on to say that those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Again that is done in the public worship service. It is not individualistic. Paul is not saying that if you believe fervently and privately in your heart, then you are saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it mean to believe? There are all kinds of variations in the New Testament about this. In Matthew 14:31 Jesus chides Peter who tried to walk on the water but sank: \u201cO man of little faith.\u201d In Matthew 17:20 it says: \u201cIf you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, \u2018Move from here to there,\u2019 and it will move.\u201d In Luke 17:6: \u201cIf you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, \u2018Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,\u2019 and it would obey you.\u2019\u201d We don\u2019t know of people who have walked on water, moved mountains or sycamore trees this way, and we ask ourselves: What is this about? What does it mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes in the New Testament there are degrees of faith. We\u2019ve already seen in Matthew 14:31 that when Peter failed to walk on the water, Jesus says: \u201cO man of little faith.\u201d In Matthew 28:17 when the Eleven are gathered with Jesus after the resurrection, it says: \u201cWhen they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted.\u201d There is faith and doubt, and of course there is Doubting Thomas. There is the faith that fails. Paul writes about this in 1 Corinthians 10:12. And there is weak faith in Romans 14:2. How does it all work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also those passages that talk about \u201cin the heart\u201d or \u201cin your heart.\u201d We read our way of thinking into this. We think that \u201cthe heart\u201d means that you are really serious, really earnest about it. But both in the Old and New Testaments, \u201cthe heart\u201d means \u201cthe whole person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is the idea that faith means making a decision, as it says in Mark 6:16: \u201cBelieve and be baptized,\u201d (There is a textual problem.) so we are supposed to make a decision. The same with Thomas in John 20:25 where Thomas says: \u201cIf I can touch him, then I\u2019ll decide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another variation is found in Hebrews 11:1: \u201cFaith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over against all of these variations stands the key verse in Romans 10, Romans 10:17: \u201cFaith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the preaching of Christ.\u201d It is the Word of God that comes to you and creates hearing. There is a parallel in 1 Peter 1:23 where it says: \u201cYou have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.\u201d (See also 1 Thessalonians 2:9, 13.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the Word that does it. We mistakenly think we have to have faith in faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also the problem that words mean different things in different contexts. For example, think of the word \u201cbox.\u201d It means a kind of fighting. It also means a container. If you look in the dictionary, it also means \u201csquaring the compass.\u201d There are three other meanings used less often. Words mean various things, and they don\u2019t fall into neat patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each Christian tradition has its own way of sorting things out. In the Lutheran-Orthodox dialogue one of the Eastern Orthodox scholars said to the Lutherans: \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you? Don\u2019t you know your Greek? It says in James 2:26: \u2018Faith without works is dead.\u2019\u201d Then he waved his Greek New Testament. Of course, the Lutherans knew that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or in the International Lutheran-Baptist Dialogue, the Baptist scholars were discussing the issue of making a decision for Christ, and they were very confident in saying that many five-year-olds were capable of making a decision for Christ, even some three-year-olds. Of course this raises the question of what kind of understanding of \u201csin\u201d and \u201cdecision\u201d is meant here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same Dialogue one of the Baptist scholars acknowledged to the Lutherans: \u201cWe see these places, such as John 6:44 and 6:65, where it says: \u201cNo one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,\u201d and one Baptist scholar said: \u201cWe see \u2018election\u2019 is there, but we kind of read past those passages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answers to these questions are basic to the very nature of what salvation is about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first answer: What about the cross? Is this a cross that you can make it mean whatever you want it to mean so that you diminish what it is? No, because it is the finality and importance of God dying on the cross and rising again for you and me. Are we going to take that at less than what it is so that we can bring in other things?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second answer: What about sin? Is sin something that we figure out and we can handle? Or is sin so enormous that only the cross tells you and me what it is about and how the Lord has handled it. Have you done enough? Have you done it right? Have you believed the right way and sincerely and fervently? Or if you think you have, you find yourself caught in spiritual pride, and then you end up in spiritual despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our certainty does not lie in anything we feel or experience or in any person or any church. It lies in him. Then we have certainty that is truly certain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why Romans 10:17 focuses on what God has done: \u201cFaith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the preaching of Christ.\u201d He\u2019s done it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have confidence because Christ has done it and is doing it. As Luther states in the Small Catechism in the first sentence of the explanation to the Third Article of the Creed: \u201cI believe that I cannot by own reason or understanding believe, but the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Paul writes: \u201cFor the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable\u201d (Romans 11:29). Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 9:1-5<\/p>\n

A Sermon for the Season of Pentecost <\/p>\n

Commentators on the Epistle to the Romans are divided in two ways, depending on how they deal with 1) Romans 9-11, and 2) Romans 10:4.<\/p>\n

#1: Romans 9-11.<\/strong> Romans 9:1-5 points out that the Jewish people did not accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Savior. How is that possible? Paul was one of the Jews. The question then in the Epistle to the Romans is: Is this section 9-11 a case study, an example of how God works. (By far the majority of commentaries on Romans see 9-11 in this way, that is, as a case study.) For others the point of chapters 9-11 is to bring out how the Jews are included even though they did not accept Christ. <\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9195"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9204,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9195\/revisions\/9204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}