Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 · Deuteronomy 26:1-11 · Romans 10:8b-13 · Luke 4:1-13

Today is the first Sunday in Easter Preparation, a period of reflection and preparation for Easter celebration. For many people, this season is associated with a period of giving up something we enjoy for 40 days. This practice can create room within ourselves so that we might be transformed, resurrected by God. Since the Holy Spirit that raised Christ also dwells in us, it makes sense that creating room in our hearts makes it possible to consider new ways we can love each other better and live in harmony. After all, we must be transformed personally if we are to transform the social systems that we inhabit.

Our weekly theme is God our deliverer, and it encourages us to think about what we mean when we say “deliverer.” Do we mean that we will never face difficulty, pain, suffering, or death? This first week in Easter Prep is our opportunity to examine whether we unconsciously view our relationship with God as a “get out of jail free card” instead of a promise of close companionship as we navigate our lives. Psalm 91 is often a popular psalm, invoking God’s protection with words like “For he shall give His angels charge over you.” But what about those who aren’t protected or rescued from trouble, or those who aren’t given long lives? It’s important to read this psalm in the context of our other readings and in the context of the ancient people who wrote it. The same is true of the reading from Deuteronomy 26, which is full of promises of blessing as well as the requirement to offer the first fruits as part of the ancient sacrificial system. These Old Testament readings can be easily taken out of context and twisted to mean something different in our modern society. Our Gospel reading from Luke 4 recounts the story of Jesus’ temptation by the devil. The devil’s tactic was an example of taking scripture out of context and twisting it to suit one’s purposes. Our sermon text in Romans 10 helps us think about what we really expect from Jesus, from God, when we say we are “saved.”

More Than Magic Words

Romans 10:8b–13 NRSVUE

There’s a joke about an eight-year-old named Michael who needed to use the restroom at school. Here’s how that conversation went:

Michael: Can I go to the restroom?

Teacher: What’s the magic word?

Michael: Abracadabra.

In our world, the words we use matter, and as the joke about Michael shows, we’re usually taught from an early age to use courtesy words to make our requests. (The teacher wanted Michael to say, “Please.”) Words are also important to us as Christians, which can be either good or bad. The words we use to talk about God or talk to God can be misused or given more weight than is necessary. For example, some churches teach that you must end your prayer with “in Jesus’ name;” otherwise, your prayer won’t be heard by God. Other denominations say that you must “pray the sinner’s prayer” to be saved, and if you don’t do that before you die, then you’re destined for hell. Hopefully, we remember what we know about God’s character and love for all of humanity, recognizing that praying the sinner’s prayer and getting the words right to be saved or to have our prayers heard is a requirement made by human beings, not by God. Though it is good and fitting that we can express what is in our hearts through our words, our spoken words do not magically save us. Jesus saves us.

Our sermon text for today covers topics like salvation, confession, and justification, and we’ll learn that Paul is talking about more than mere words for us to repeat. Let’s read Romans 10:8b–13.

The context of Romans 10

Paul’s letter to the Romans is his longest letter, and he was writing to a group that he had not visited. In this sense, Paul is introducing himself and how he views justification by faith, not works. Theologians Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan believe the best interpretive practice for the letter to the Romans is to “get Paul and his letter to the Romans out of the sixteenth-century polemical [i.e., hostile and critical] Reformation world and back into the first-century imperial Roman world” (156–157). Often, modern readers think that Paul was criticizing Judaism. Instead, Borg and Crossan argue, Paul was “a Christian Jew within covenantal Judaism criticizing Roman imperialism” (157).

Our sermon text offers Paul’s summary of how salvation comes about. Salvation is a major theme of Romans, and by utilizing prophetic Old Testament texts, Paul explains how salvation is provided, not just for the Jews but also for non-Jews, through Israel’s Messiah. Paul tends to repeat this thought: even though Israel stumbled and mishandled the Law, God was working both through the Torah and through the Messiah to accomplish the redemption of the whole world. This is possible through the gift of the Holy Spirit, which isn’t expressly stated in Romans 10 but is referred to in other letters from Paul, such as 1 Corinthians 12:3. Transformation is Paul’s point, a faith-based covenant relationship. Paul contrasts the Law with reality of Christ, who reveals God’s righteousness and love.

Let’s consider how the righteousness of God and restoration are presented in Romans 10:8b–13.

The righteousness of God

Our sermon text clarifies what is meant by the righteousness of God found earlier in Romans 10:

Not knowing the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they [Israel] have not submitted to God’s righteousness. Romans 10:3 NRSVUE

The word translated “righteousness” is dikaiosynē, and it can be interpreted as the “righteous status which humans receive from God,” according to theologian N.T. Wright (1168). Wright further fleshes out what this means, practically speaking, when he writes that it “denotes not so much the abstract idea of justice or virtue as right standing and consequent right behavior within a community.” In Romans 10, Paul is clarifying that he, too, once sought to establish his own righteousness, and his narrative about righteousness was turned upside down by his mystical encounter with the risen Christ (Acts 9:1–9).

Much of the discussion of righteousness in the passage pertains to “who’s in and who’s out.” In other words, Israel thought they were “in” and everyone else was “out.” Paul uses their Old Testament scriptures to prove that righteousness is defined differently than strict law-keeping. Wright suggests that since “God’s people are to reflect God’s own character, it is not illegitimate to extrapolate from them to the justice God desires and designs for his world.” God intends righteousness to be a communal blessing, not just an individual blessing.

Restoration

Just before our passage, in verses 6-8, Paul uses evidence from the Old Testament, specifically quoting Deuteronomy 30, where the Greek term rhema is translated “word.” According to Wright, Paul rarely uses the word in other writings, but in Romans 10, he uses it several times to convey “the idea of the divine initiative which, in the form of the spoken word, brings new life and new possibilities” (1173). God is offering readers of Romans a “new way” of keeping the law, one that will be in our mouths and hearts, while enabling us to live it fully. It is this restoration that Paul is praying for in the first verse of the chapter.

Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them [Israel] is that they may be saved. Romans 10:1 NRSVUE

Paul quotes Joel 2:32 in Romans 10:13 to support the restoration of all people to God:

Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls. Joel 2:32 NRSVUE

The evidence from Deuteronomy and Joel is used to address Israel’s struggles with continued oppression despite the covenant with Abraham. Paul points out that their question (why are we still oppressed?) has been answered differently than they had expected through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Wright says that “in God’s plan, Christ offers covenant membership to all who believe the gospel.”

It’s also interesting to note that Paul repeats certain words in the passage: mouth/lips and heart. To Paul, the heart represented the center of one’s intellectual, physical, and spiritual lives, while the mouth was used to express what was in the heart. We can see parallels with the way living in integrity connects heart and speech in this week’s gospel reading found in Luke 4:1–13, recounting Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. While the devil twisted Scripture to suit his purposes, Jesus spoke with integrity from the heart. Similarly, our restoration includes right speech that is congruent with our hearts that are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Romans 10:8b–13 can be misread to imply that our salvation is ensured or sealed by saying the “sinner’s prayer” or by speaking aloud the name of Jesus. We must guard against believing that we ourselves are making it true simply by our special words — that’s superstition. That’s making this passage about the “form” rather than the “substance.” Confess and believe is not a formula. The substance is “everyone.” It’s as if Paul is saying to the Jews, “Look. Before it was birthright that saved you. But the Greeks believe the gospel is true (their confession proves it), and they’re saved too! Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.”

A transactional interpretation of what it means to simply confess and believe in Jesus in exchange for salvation is similar to Israel’s belief that their righteousness came from their law-keeping. Paul challenges us to see the connections between Old Testament promises and their surprising fulfillment in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as well as the righteousness and restoration we’re to be a part of in this world. We’re also challenged to live in integrity with what we say we believe and the way it is expressed through our speech and our behavior. Our faith in Christ must be more than knowing the magic words.

Call to Action: Consider how you communicate your faith through your words and actions. How does your faith inform your behavior? Does your faith inform your treatment of those who disagree or are different from you? Contemplate if your actions convey the generosity God shows all human beings.

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For Reference:

Borg, Marcus J., and John Dominic Crossan. The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon. HarperOne, 2009.

Wright, N.T. Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Fortress Press, 2013.

https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/first-sunday-in-lent-3/commentary-on-romans-108b-13

https://ntwrightpage.com/2016/07/12/righteousness/#:~:text=The%20basic%20meaning%20of%20’righteousness,right%20behaviour%2C%20within%20a%20community

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Small Group Discussion Questions