Text: Romans 10:8b-13
Facebook live: Confession and belief are God’s gifts to you!
9 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. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
March 9th is a special date in my memory.
In 1981 it happened to fall on a Monday. It was also the day that I began my job with Evola Music, a job that would last and that I would continue to hold on to until December 29, 2012 when I retired. I was recommended to Evola Music by Bob Brucker who was a rep for Midco corporation and he knew and sold small goods to many of the music stores in the area. I interviewed for the job but I didn’t hear anything for almost two weeks. I called Jim Evola back and asked if they had made a decision for the job and he told me that they had not. “Well,” I said, “I need to get a job so if you are still considering me you might want to act before I receive an offer from another company.” Jim called me back the next day with an offer.
It may sound like I was the active agent, or it might have been Bob Brucker, or Jim Evola who talked to his dad about my call and interest in the job. All were important but ultimately it was God. Certainly, my initiative was important but if God had other plans, I would be telling you a different story.
As I searched for work and filled out applications, I was exercising my free will to look for work and to make a decision on what might be the best company for me. God as well has a sovereign will that guides and directs according to his good pleasure. Both are always at work in our day to day lives.
As we think about freedom, most of you know what it is. Some of you here and many in our church fought for the freedom that we in the United States today enjoy. Most, I believe, would say that freedom isn’t free but came at a great cost. So, it is with salvation and our coming to faith, some believe that the cost of Christ’s death didn’t procure it but that the decision we make does.
8 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;
Paul Asks this question to those who will read his letter and it is also applies to you and me as well.
“Faith and confession are here mentioned as the two requisites for salvation. So near is the redemption of Jesus to every person in the world, in the Word of the Gospel-message, that it is necessary only to believe with the heart and to confess with the mouth in order to become a partaker of all its blessings.
If any person believes in his heart and confesses with his mouth that Jesus is the Lord and that God has raised Him from the dead, then he has the faith which will give him salvation.”
Kretzmann NT Vol. II Pg 55
For you and me we must ask ourselves this question:
Is Jesus the savior of the word or did he just make a path that we must choose?
9 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. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
March 9th is a special date in my memory.
In 1981 it happened to fall on a Monday. It was also the day that I began my job with Evola Music, a job that would last and that I would continue to hold on to until December 29, 2012 when I retired. I was recommended to Evola Music by Bob Brucker who was a rep for Midco corporation and he knew and sold small goods to many of the music stores in the area. I interviewed for the job but I didn’t hear anything for almost two weeks. I called Jim Evola back and asked if they had made a decision for the job and he told me that they had not. “Well,” I said, “I need to get a job so if you are still considering me you might want to act before I receive an offer from another company.” Jim called me back the next day with an offer.
It may sound like I was the active agent, or it might have been Bob Brucker, or Jim Evola who talked to his dad about my call and interest in the job. All were important but ultimately it was God. Certainly, my initiative was important but if God had other plans, I would be telling you a different story.
As I searched for work and filled out applications, I was exercising my free will to look for work and to make a decision on what might be the best company for me. God as well has a sovereign will that guides and directs according to his good pleasure. Both are always at work in our day to day lives.
As we think about freedom, most of you know what it is. Some of you here and many in our church fought for the freedom that we in the United States today enjoy. Most, I believe, would say that freedom isn’t free but came at a great cost. So, it is with salvation and our coming to faith, some believe that the cost of Christ’s death didn’t procure it but that the decision we make does.
8 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;
Paul Asks this question to those who will read his letter and it is also applies to you and me as well.
“Faith and confession are here mentioned as the two requisites for salvation. So near is the redemption of Jesus to every person in the world, in the Word of the Gospel-message, that it is necessary only to believe with the heart and to confess with the mouth in order to become a partaker of all its blessings.
If any person believes in his heart and confesses with his mouth that Jesus is the Lord and that God has raised Him from the dead, then he has the faith which will give him salvation.”
Kretzmann NT Vol. II Pg 55
For you and me we must ask ourselves this question:
Is Jesus the savior of the word or did he just make a path that we must choose?
Is Christ’s work sufficient?
Martin Luther in his book, The Bondage of the will, speaks of man’s free will and his ability to choose when he says:
—"It would be ridiculous to say to a man standing in a place where two ways met, [You see] two roads, go by which [ever road you choose], when one only way was open."—
http://www.truecovenanter.com/truelutheran/luther_bow.html (99 of 283) [12/12/2002 11:41:13 PM
The path to faith is closed except through the working of the Holy Spirit.
As the Spirit works through the Gospel faith emerges in those who are apart from Chris - and they believe. To paraphrase Luther, the road that had been closed has now been opened by God’s Spirit and by Christ’s work and the gift of faith you now believe and are receive the way to everlasting life that God has ordained in Christ from before the foundation of the world.
St. Augustine had this to say:
God's mercy ... goes before the unwilling to make him willing; it follows the willing to make his will effectual.
Augustine of Hippo, Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love.
For some God’s mercy remains hidden in their life even up to the point of death when faith is brought to life by the Spirit’s work and they believe. Other times we may not know for sure but we trust God’s mercy given in baptism that one who has been marked by Christ God will continue to keep in the faith through the Spirit’s work.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:27-28
I proclaim this good news to those at funerals.
It is the blessed hope and sufficient working of our loving God that by his Spirit, through his means of word and sacrament that he keeps us in our baptismal grace which he bestowed on us as one redeemed by Christ the crucified.
Earlier in Romans 9 Paul made this gift clear:
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
God who in mercy has called you will now bring about the means for your belief.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Eph. 2:8-9
This grace and faith that God gives is effectual. It works what God intends.
God is both the cause and the means by which belief is secured.
9 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. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
God has brought about your conversion and has secured your salvation by the power of his Holy Spirit.
That is really good news!
11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
No shame for you or me.
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
It is all God’s free gift!
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
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