According to the dictionary, the word “heart” has about 19 different definitions in the English language.
- Heart is most commonly used in the anatomic sense. It is a hollow four-chamber organ that pumps blood through the human body. This is what the band Bon Jovi meant when they sang: “Shot through the heart and you’re to blame; you give love a bad name.”
- A heart is also one of the four suits in a deck of playing cards. This is how Juice Newton used the word when she sang: “Playing with the queen of hearts, knowing it ain’t very smart; the joker ain’t the only foooool, who’ll do anything for you.”
- Heart can refer the emotional or moral nature as distinguished from the intellectual nature. This is what Billy Ray Cyrus had in mind when he sang: “But don’t tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, I just don’t think he’ll understand…”
- And heart can refer to the center, core, or essence something. This is what Don Henley meant when he sang: “I’ve been trying to get down to the heart of the matter…even if you don’t love me anymore.”
This fourth definition of heart is the one I want to apply to Paul’s description of the gospel in today’s sermon text from Romans 9:30-10:13. In this passage, Paul gets down to the heart of the gospel. At its core, the gospel is the good news that Jesus died and rose again to offer salvation to the human race. He has already established this truth throughout the book of Romans, but in this section, he refines what he means by the heart of the gospel; he explains why the Israelites rejected the heart of the gospel; and he tells his readers how they can receive the heart of the gospel. Therefore, today’s sermon will highlight the heart of the gospel with three R’s: refining, rejecting, and receiving the heart of the gospel.
Refining the Heat of the Gospel (9:30-33)
As we look at the end of Romans 9, we must remember that Paul was explaining to the Christians at Rome why the Gentiles were receiving the gospel while the Israelites were rejecting it. In these verses, Paul continues to defend himself against the false accusations that he had abandoned his own Jewish people and preferred to minister to the Gentiles. He dispels this misconception by pausing to reflect on the ironic twist in salvation history that he just described in Romans 9:6-29: Only a remnant of the Jews were being saved, while Gentiles, who were once not considered the people of God, are now being called “sons of the living God.” He uses the critical heart of the gospel—righteousness by faith—to explain this dramatic turn of events. (Moo 326)
In this section, Paul refines the heart of the gospel by insisting that righteousness comes through faith and not by works. The Gentiles did not pursue righteousness through their works; they received it as a gift from God through faith in Jesus Christ. The Israelites, on the other hand, tried to earn their own salvation by obeying God’s law, but they failed miserably. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. Paul draws the picture of a walker so intent on pursuing a certain goal that he or she stumbles over a rock lying right in their path. The Israelites had spiritual tunnel-vision. They were so determined to earn their own righteousness through obeying the law that they missed Christ, “the stone” that God placed in their path. The prophet Isaiah predicted that this unfortunate event hundreds of years before it happened. The Israelites missed Christ, but the Gentiles received God’s righteousness through faith in Christ.
Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever been so focused on reaching your destination that you stumbled over something right in front of you? I suspect we have all done this before. If we carefully watch where we are going, we won’t stumble!
The same is true spiritually speaking. If we watch where we are going spiritually, we will notice that God has placed his Son Jesus right in front of us. God sent his Son to earth to die for our sins on the cross and conquer death through the resurrection. Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to obtain God’s righteousness! We can’t earn it through our own efforts; we can only receive it as a gift from God. This is the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Unfortunately, there are so many people in our world today who are still stumbling over the stumbling stone. The majority of people in our world really do believe that they can get to heaven by “being good people” or by “doing enough good deeds” or “having good intentions.” But this belief is diametrically opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Whatever you do, don’t make the same mistake the Israelites made! Don’t stumble over the stumbling stone! Jesus is right there in front of you! Obtain God’s righteousness by putting your faith in Jesus Christ today!
Rejecting the Heart of the Gospel (10:1-4)
Unfortunately, the Israelites did not put their faith in Jesus Christ. Instead, they rejected the heart of the gospel. In Romans 10:1, Paul expresses his heart’s desire for his kinsmen, the Israelites, to be saved. He openly acknowledges that the Israelites were religiously zealous, but their zeal was misplaced; it was not based on knowledge. As Paul makes clear in verses 3-4, what the Jews did not understand was that God is offering a right relationship with himself through faith in Jesus Christ, the culmination of the law and salvation history. (Moo 329)
But instead of submitting to God’s righteousness, the Israelites sought to establish a righteousness of their own through their striving to obey the law. The result of this was not only a rejection of the heart of the gospel, but also feelings of animosity toward the Gentiles who were not seeking their own righteousness. At the end of verse 4, Paul explains that Christ’s righteousness is available to everyone who believes. Once again, we see that salvation is not based on anything a person does or doesn’t do; it is based on faith in Jesus Christ. But the Israelites rejected the heart of the gospel.
Michael Rydelnik, one of my past professors at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, was the son of Holocaust survivors. He once told us the story about how his Jewish father disowned him after he became a Christian. Even so, when Michael’s father died in 1996 in Israel, it caused him to question the theology he had learned that “apart from conscious in Jesus, all people, including my father, would be lost for eternity.
Rydelnik knew that if admission to heaven could be earned by suffering, his father should be there. He had lost his fist wife, five sons, and an adopted daughter to the ovens at Auschwitz. He had also suffered terribly in several concentration camps. He later would lose a second wife in childbirth, and a two-year-old daughter by his third marriage drowned in Berlin. Rydelnik’s father and his third wife moved to America; twenty years later, that wife and his son Michael and two daughters came to faith in Jesus Christ. The elder Rydelnik then disowned them and moved back to Israel.
Among the conclusions Dr. Rydelnik draws are these: “Jewish people, if fact all people, are lost without faith in Jesus as their Redeemer,” and “Jewish people and Gentiles must have conscious faith in Jesus to experience God’s forgiveness and receive the promise of life in the world to come.” (Pate 200)
Rydelnik’s father was zealous about his Jewish faith and heritage, but he wouldn’t accept Jesus as his Messiah. There are many people who zealously practice Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. These people often live more moral lives than Christians; but religious zeal, morality, or suffering cannot atone for our sins or offer us eternal life. Only Jesus Christ, who is God in human flesh, can do that!
Likewise, there are many people in our world who show their religious zeal by wearing a crucifix around their neck, getting a cross tattooed on their arm, living a moral life, or donating money to charity, but they have not truly put their faith in Jesus Christ. They might be willing to wear the cross of Christ; but they’re not willing to bear the cross of Christ! Religious zeal, no matter how fervent, does not lead to righteousness. The only way we can gain righteousness is to receive it as a gift from Christ!
Receiving the Heart of the Gospel (10:5-13)
In response to the Israelites rejecting the heart of the gospel, Paul concludes this passage by turning his attention toward receiving the heart of the gospel: the message of salvation to all. In verses 5-7, he contrasts the righteousness that is based on the law with the righteousness that comes by faith. He does this by citing a passage from Moses for obedience and performance of the will of God as contained in the law. Moses taught that the person who obeys the law perfectly will live—thus be righteous in God’s sight. The problem with this is that, as Paul taught back in Romans 3, all human beings are sinful and fall short of the glory of God. Because of our sinful human nature, no one is actually able to obey the law perfectly.
The only solution to this problem is a righteousness that comes by faith instead of the law. Jesus, who is God in human flesh, fulfilled the law perfectly and then gave up his life on the cross. He offers his righteousness to people who put their faith in him. Through Christ’s being brought down (his incarnation) and brought up from the dead (his resurrection), God has made righteousness available through faith. One does not have ascend into heaven or plumb the depths of the sea to discover it. All one needs to do to attain righteousness is to respond in faith to the heart of the gospel as it is preached. (Moo 332)
I have said it before but let me say it again here: There are only two ways to get to heaven. You can either earn righteousness by living a perfect sinless life on your own, or you can receive the righteousness of Christ by putting your faith in him!
Since none of us can live a sinless life, Paul goes on in verses 8-13 to describe how exactly how people can receive the heart of the gospel. Here he gives perhaps the clearest teaching in the whole Bible about what a person must do to be saved. “The word of faith” refers to the gospel message. When a person hears and understands the heart of the gospel, and they confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead, they will be saved. This salvation is not offered exclusively to Jews or Greeks (gentiles), but it is offered to all people. The Lord promises to bestow riches, that is eternal life and blessing, on everyone who calls on his name! What an incredible gospel!
Don’t miss what Paul is saying here! Our inward response to the gospel must be heart belief. This is not a simple intellectual assent—head knowledge. It is heart knowledge—a belief that demands commitment. There are many people in the world today who say they believe that Jesus lived, died, and rose again. There are far fewer people who believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus enough to commit their lives to him. This is the difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge! Do you have head knowledge or heart knowledge? Do you believe in Jesus with your whole heart?
Likewise, to receive the gospel, we must exhibit an outward response. If we are to be saved, a heart belief must be accompanied by a public confession with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. Jesus himself said in Matthew 10:32-33, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”
This outward confession conveys a surrendering of our lives to the lordship of Jesus Christ. We cannot receive Jesus as our savior without also submitting to him as our Lord. But submitting ourselves to anyone or anything goes against our American values of independence and self-determination. But if we are willing to humble ourselves before him by calling on his name, we will be saved!
Friends, this is the heart of the gospel! And it leaves us with some choices to make: Will you submit yourself to the lordship of Jesus Christ? Will you believe in the death and resurrection of Christ in your heart? Will you reject or receive the heart of the gospel? I hope you will make the right choice!