____________________________________________________ THE GOSPEL OBSERVER "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20). ____________________________________________________ April 24, 1994 ____________________________________________________ Considering Faith In Romans 10 by Tom Edwards Recently, I had been reading in Romans, and ran across some more passages which indicate that salvation is based on more than merely ``faith only.'' Ironically, the chapter in which today's lesson is based is the same one from which many often cite verse 13. It states: ''...Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved''; or, verse 9, ``that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved'' (Romans 10). How is one to ``call'' upon the Lord? Paul proposes this same question in verse 14, and here he points out that one cannot ``call'' if he doesn't believe. And, furthermore, one cannot believe who has not heard the word (v. 14); and in order for them to hear, they must have someone preach or teach it to them. Clearly, the apostle shows that faith must be coupled with obedience in order for faith to be effective. In verse 16, he states, ``However, they did not all heed the glad tidings; for Isaiah says, `Lord, who has believed our report?''' Do you see the connection? If one doesn't take ``heed'' to the word of God--that is, obey it--it cannot be said that that individual truly ``believes'' in the gospel. To fully believe is to act upon that faith. We must each realize the necessity of this. As the Hebrew writer declares, Jesus is ``to all those who obey Him the source of eternal life'' (Heb. 5:9); and it is possible for a person's faith to become useless--not because the person stops believing in the reality of God, but because the person no longer lives a life of obedience in view of God's reality. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, expresses it this way: ``Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved IF YOU HOLD FAST THE WORD which I preached to you, UNLESS YOU BELIEVED IN VAIN'' (1 Cor. 15:1,2; emphasis mine). ```Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.' How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed?'' This quote that Paul gives is from Joel 2:32. It was also quoted by Peter in Acts 2:21. I want you to notice that even if we totally disagree in HOW one is to ``call'' on the Lord, it is still seen as being something more than merely having faith alone: one must believe first, before one can ``call.'' If, however, salvation were based on merely ``faith only,'' then there would be no need for one to ``call''--however that was to be done. The modern-day misconception about this ``call'' is that it means to merely pray a ``sinner's prayer,'' but nowhere in the Scriptures that pertain to the Gospel Age was any non-Christian ever told to do such in order to be saved. Read Acts 2, and you'll see in verses 36-38 how these people were to ``call'' (Acts 2:21): they were told to ``know for certain'' (believe with all your heart, TTE) that God has made Him both Lord and Christ---this Jesus whom you crucified'' (v. 36). They had been hearing the word, and now it was time for them to believe it fully. But in so doing, the gospel also demanded of them that they ``repent and be baptized...for the forgiveness of [their] sins'' (v. 38). This, therefore, was how they called--not by praying a ``sinner's prayer,'' but by submitting to the gospel by their faith and obedience. As it shows, one must believe, repent, acknowledge faith in Christ, and be baptized in water for the remission of sins in order to be forgiven and become a child of God. Paul, as well as every other penitent believer who wants to get right with God, also was baptized in water in order that his sins could be remitted--for by so doing, he was ``calling on His name'' (Acts 22:16). And as Peter shows in 1 Peter 3:21, ``Baptism...now saves you...as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ'' (RSV). ``Appeal'' has been defined as ``a call for help, support, mercy; to make an earnest request or entreaty.'' Peter shows that through baptism one is calling on the Lord for His mercy. What kind of faith does God require? As we saw in Romans 10:16, one that takes heed (obeys) the word of the Lord. Compare this to James 2:14-26, in which James clearly teaches that ``faith without works is dead.'' This kind of faith is not to be a one-time thing in the sense that we can believe one day and forget about God from there on out. It should be a ``one-time'' thing, however, in the sense that we will always believe--continually--by our thoughts and by our actions. True faith in this manner is to become a way of life for us. And as Paul warns in Romans 11:22, ``Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.'' From this passage, it is obvious that our salvation is conditional. Right now, we who are Christians have the promise and the hope of eternal life; but we must persevere until the end, as the apostle Paul who fought that good fight, kept the faith, and finished his course (2 Tim. 4:7). Paul's faith had become evident to others by the way that he lived. This, too, should be true of each one of us. Can we say, as James did in James 2:18, ''...I will show you my faith by my works''? Though many today have cited Romans 10:9,10 to teach that salvation is on the basis of merely confessing faith in Christ and believing that God raised Him from the dead, this is just part of it. Furthermore, If one were to interpret Romans 10:13 to mean ``pray a sinner's prayer'' from the phrase ``call upon the name of the Lord,'' would not this be different from what is said in Romans 10:9,10? This latter passage--as well as Romans 10:13--mentions nothing at all about praying a ``sinner's prayer.'' Nor does Roman 10:13 specifically mention anything about having to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. And neither of these passages mention the word "repentance"--yet, who could be saved without it? Repentance is taught elsewhere (Acts 2:38; Acts 17:30), and so is baptism (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Rom. 6:3,4; 1 Pet. 3:21). It is obvious that the faith spoken of in Romans 10 is a faith that believes in God, in Jesus, in the Holy Spirit, and believes in and accepts the gospel plan of salvation by rendering obedience to it. In this way, one's faith won't become or be merely a ``vain thing''--but, rather, a faith that will make one's life spiritually productive and lead to the salvation of the soul. The Church That Died There was a man who lived during the 20th century. He had a new house, two cars, a shiny boat in his garage, a wide-screen TV and a digital VCR in his den. His family was healthy. His custom--when he was in town, when the fish weren't biting, when he was not at the golf course, when he had no company, when he had nothing else to do--was to go to church. When he went, he spent his time deploring the decaying state of the church. The Sunday school attendance was low, the congregation small, the offerings poor and the preacher discouraged. ``They ought to do better,'' he said, ``What do they think Christianity is all about anyway?'' According to the way of the world, this man's children soon grew up. They did not go to church. The reason, their father insisted, was that the church members had not kindled an interest in the children. Eventually, the man's health failed. One day he noticed that the people down at church hadn't visited him. He went to the hospital, and they still did not come to see him. And lo, he was very angry! ``Where is the church?'' he demanded. ``Oh,'' somebody said, ``didn't you know? That church went out of business several years ago!'' ``Oh,'' he cried, ``they should never have let it die!'' -- Selected (author unknown) ___________________________________________ "for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17). ___________________________________________ BIBLE QUIZ (Baptism) 1. What magician came to be baptized by Philip? 2. Who referred to the Israelites crossing of the Red Sea as a baptism? 3. How many people were baptized on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2)? 4. Who baptized Paul? 5. What Roman official did Peter baptize? 6. What foreign dignitary did Philip baptize? 7. What man that Paul and Silas had met was baptized around the midnight hour? 8. In what city did Crispus, the synagogue ruler, believe Paul's message and submit to baptism? 9. Where did Paul baptize the twelve men who had formerly known only about the baptism of John until Paul told them about Jesus' baptism? 10. Which epistle mentions ``one Lord, one faith, one baptism''? 11. Which epistle(s) likens baptism to a burial? 12. Which epistle says ``Baptism...now saves you''? 13. Who said, ``He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved''? 14. What is seen coupled with baptism in Acts 2:38 for the remission of sins? 15. What does baptism put one into, according to Galatians 3:26,27? 16. Were Paul's sins forgiven before or after his baptism? 17. Jesus told Nicodemus that a person must be born of ___________ and the _____________ in order to enter into the kingdom of God. 18. According to Romans 6:3,4, baptism is in order that we might walk in newness of life. True or False? 19. How many examples are given in the New Testament of those who--believing in God, repenting of their sins, and wanting to have their sins forgiven--took the time to eat or sleep before he or she was baptized? 20. Must we understand the purpose of baptism before being baptized or is this unnecessary? Answers: 1) Acts 8:12,13 2) 1 Cor. 10:1,2 3) Acts 2:41 4) Acts 9:18 5) Acts 10:23-48 6) Acts 8:38 7) Acts 16:26-33 8) Acts 18:8 9) Acts 19:1-7 10) Eph. 4:5 11) Rom. 6:3,4; Col. 2:12 12) 1 Pet. 3:21 13) Mark 16:16 14) repentance 15) Christ 16) after; Acts 22:16 17) John 3:5 18) True 19) none 20) cf. Acts 19:1-7. We must be baptized for the right reason--just as we must take of the Lord's supper for the right reason, lest we incur the wrath of God (1 Cor. 11:27-34). ________________________________________ Tri-State CHURCH OF CHRIST 1314 Montgomery Avenue, Ashland, Kentucky 41101 Sunday: 10:00 A.M. Bible class 10:50 A.M. Worship 6:30 P.M. Worship Wednesday: 7:30 P.M. Bible study evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (606) 325-9742 e-mail: tedwards@zoomnet.net Gospel Observer web site: http://www.zoomnet.net/~tedwards/go ________________________________________