GOOD NEWS
Romans 9 and 10
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
The Gospel is available to everyone because, ‘as Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” God does not make any distinction because the most important factor in the Gospel is the Lord and “the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.”
This is the God of the bible and the Gospel is a clear reflection of his goodness. He has designed it in such a way that we do not need to move heaven and earth to reap its reward. All the heavy lifting is done by him. Our past, our origins, our sins, our failures and our successes have no part in either qualifying or disqualifying us; all of us come to the Gospel on equal footing.
However, there are two other details about the Gospel that potentially limit the reach of the Gospel: firstly you have to place yourself under the Lordship of Jesus to benefit from it, and, secondly, Christians are responsible to preach the Gospel. While the Gospel is intended for everyone, these two details mean that not everyone will be saved.
Placing oneself under the Lordship of Jesus is as easy as a verbal confession but it implies a voluntary submission, a surrender of will, that strikes at the heart of our sinful nature. Preaching the Gospel, again, is as easy as a verbal testimony but yet again it requires a heart to love your fellow man to do so.
In response to our faith God gifts us the Holy Spirit, who takes our submission and our baby steps to love to bring about the true righteousness in our heart and soul.
Yet for all that God has done there are plenty of people who do not acknowledge his judgement and do not fear his wrath. In modern days many do not even acknowledge his existence. On the other hand, there are plenty of us who, although we know God and live in submission to his will, have yet to testify and help those who are plunging headlong into destruction and despair, to know God, his goodness and his Gospel.
Good intentions without faith are powerless because the power lies in God. Faith with no intent is false; it seeks God’s favour but rejects God’s righteousness. A person who has found God’s treasure but has no thought to share with their fellow man has yet to truly drink from the fountain of life and eat the bread that satisfies the hungry soul.
“Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”