The Door
(No. 2752)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1901.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE
15, 1879.
"I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go
in and out, and find pasture." John 10:9.
How very condescendingly the Lord Jesus Christ sets Himself forth! The
noblest figures of speech are not too lofty to describe His merits. If
we could speak with the tongues of poets and of angels, we could not
adequately represent His loveliness and though the writers of the
Scriptures, Inspired by the Holy Spirit, have used language which
exceeds all other in majesty and beauty, even theyare not able to tell
all the excellence of the Glory of Christ Jesus our Lord.
Yet, beloved Friends, when He speaks of Himself, He is pleased to use
no lofty imagery, no far-fetched metaphors– He talks of Himself one
day as water, and another day as bread–and here He deigns to call
Himself a door. The illustration is exceedingly simple! Who is there
that will not understand it? He means that as by passing through a door
we enter into a house, so by passing through Christ Jesus, by faith, we
enter into eternal life, enter into the true Church and ultimately
shall enter into Heaven!
"I am the door." This metaphor is not only simple, but it is
wonderfully commonplace. The dealers in profundities will not like this
expression. The gentlemen who must have something new–something very
striking–will hardly admire this kind of talk but then, our Lord does
not court their admiration. His objective is not to win the applause of
the wise and the poetical, but to win the souls of the poor and the
needy, to bring them to eternal life–so He uses what many call a
child's figure, a commonplace figure, "I am the door."
He has selected this emblem, I should think, partly that it may often
come before our notice. You will not go out of this place without
seeing a door! You will not get into your own house without seeing a
door and when you are inside, you will not get into your parlor without
seeing a door. And when you go up to bed, you must pass through a door.
When you rise, tomorrow morning, and start to go out to work, you will
have to open a door– probably two doors– and when you reach your
work, there is pretty sure to be another door to be entered. Doors meet
your gaze almost everywhere, so our Lord Jesus Christ seems to say to
you, "I will meet you wherever you are. Anywhere and everywhere, I will
speak with you and plead with you. I will make the door of every room
in your house and the door of every cupboard, too, preach a little
sermon to you, as you shall be reminded by it that 'I am the door.'" I
am sure our Lord Jesus Christ does not want His ministers to deliver
magnificent orations, spread-eagle sermons, with long and elaborate
sentences in them. He wants them to just come and talk as He talked, in
all simplicity, so that the very poorest and most illiterate of their
hearers may understand their meaning, embrace the Truths of God they
proclaim and find everlasting life in Him of whom they speak. So I
shall try to do at this time, keeping the style of my discourse
congruous with the text.
We will begin by noticing first, the door Secondly, the users of it "By
Me if any man enters in." And, thirdly, the privileges of each of these
users. ' 'He shall be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture."
I. First, then, concerning THE DOOR.
"I am the door," says Jesus, and the first thought that strikes us is,
the necessity of it Here is the house of mercy and, inside, there is
washing for the filthy, healing for the sick, food for the hungry,
clothing for the naked. But suppose there had been no door to the
house–what use would it have been to us? Suppose there had been only
windows, through which we could look in and see the provision prepared
there? And suppose that we could hear the songs of those who
were permitted to partake of it, but there was no door by which we
could enter in? All the mercy of God would have only been a tantalizing
of our hunger in such a case as that. The house of mercy, without a
door, would have been a house of misery to us! Look at this picture, if
your eyes can perceive it–the city that lies foursquare, that mighty
city, whose pinnacles tower on high so loftily that the height is as
great as the breadth, and the breadth is the same as the length. Her
very foundations are of precious stones and her twelve 12 gates are
priceless pearls! Can your eyes gaze, even for a moment, on that
brilliance that outshines the sun? And can you hear the sound of
harpers harping with their harps within that city whose streets are of
pure gold?
But suppose there was no door there and that our spirits had to go
flying with awful beating of weary wing, round, and round, and round
that solid wall, but never finding a gate where we could enter? What
hope would there be for a soul shut out from the city of the perfect,
the home of the blessed, because there was no door of entrance? Yet
there would not have been any door if it had not been for Christ! Our
sins had, as it were, walled up God and shut Him in–and walled us up
and shut us out! There would have been for us no going in to God, nor
any coming out from God to us, had it not been for Christ, the Mediator
through whom we draw near to God because, in Him, God has drawn near to
us! See, then, the necessity for this door and, blessed be His holy
name, see how Christ meets this necessity. We needed a door by which we
can get to God–and Jesus says, "I am the door."
Next, observe the singularity of it. "I am the door." Is there no other
entrance, then, into the Divine Mercy? Is there no other entrance into
the true Church? Is there no other entrance into the eternal
blessedness of Heaven except by Him? No, there is no other, for He
says, "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he shall be saved." But
suppose a man will not enter by this door–may he not climb up some
other way? If he should attempt to do so, he would be a thief and a
rob-ber–and God would know how to deal with him! He may think himself
a bold and cunning man, and a man to be praised, for he has tried to
enter into eternal life and glory by a way of his own, but God calls
him a thief and a robber, and out he must go to the prison where such
evildoers abound!
No, there is only one door. You may search the whole realm of Nature
and you shall never discover another. Not by self-sufficiency, nor
self-righteousness, nor priests, nor rites and ceremonies–not by
anything of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, can you
obtain admission there–
"Could our zeal no respite know, Could our tears forever flow"– "there
is no other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved." Believe in Jesus! Put your trust in Him and you are saved! But,
unless you come to Him in that way, there is only one sentence for
you–"He that believes not shall be damned." There is no hope of
salvation by any other means. Our Lord Jesus Christ has Himself said,
"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believes
not shall be damned." So that there is singularity in the way by which
God has supplied our necessity and, therefore, Christ said, "I am the
door."
But, to my mind, the chief point in my text is personality. If we come
to the Lord Jesus and say to Him, "O Lord, You can teach us how to get
to Heaven; will You be pleased to tell us how we can enter the house of
mercy, and the Church of God, and the Kingdom of Glory at the last?" He
answers, "I am the way. I am the door." What do You mean, great Master?
Tell us, what is the door? "I am the door." But, surely, Lord, You mean
that by copying and imitating You, we shall enter in, right? He shakes
His head and says, "Not so. I am the door." But surely, You mean that
by attending to certain rites which You have ordained, we shall enter,
right? My Brothers and Sisters, He did not say that! He simply said, "I
am the door." "But does not Christ mean that by being orthodox and
believing certain doctrines which He has taught us, and which are
identified with Himself, we shall thereby enter into life and be
saved?" He does not say that! He says, "I am the door." "But is not
Baptism the door?" No, for He says, "I am the door." "But is not the
Lord's Supper the door?" No, for He says, "I am the door." "But,
surely, holy living must be the way into the Kingdom of Heaven!" No, it
is not, for Jesus says, "I am the door." Jesus Himself, personally, is
the way into His Kingdom. There is no door into His sheepfold except
Himself–His own Person. So we must just come and believe in Him, and
trust in Him, for He is the door!
Would not some of the so-called "priests" lock us out of the fold if
they had the keys? Thank God they have neither the key nor the charge
of the door, for whoever believes in Jesus, to whatever church he
belongs outwardly, or if he belongs to no visible church at all, if he
does but come to God by Christ, he is saved, for Christ is the
door–and nothing
else is the way of entrance–neither this opinion, nor that external
doing, nor such-and-such works, nor such-and-such feelings, but Christ
Himself, and Christ alone. The incarnate God–our substitutionary
Sacrifice who rose again from the dead for our justification, who
ascended up to the Majesty on high, whose, prevalent plea is always
being presented on His people's behalf and who is coming back again,
by-and-by–He it is who is the door–and only by Him can we enter the
true Church on earth, and the "Church of the first-born, which are
written in Heaven."
Notice, dear Friends, in the fourth place, over this door the word
suitability. Jesus says, "I am the door." You know that every door has
two sides to it and so has Christ. Our side of this door is His
Humanity. Oh, how freely and how gladly we may come to Christ! I think
that if any of us had seen Christ when He was here on earth, we would
have felt no desire to get away from Him, but we would have been
delighted to draw near to Him. If, in this place, just now, a little
child could see Jesus Christ as He was in the days of His flesh, I am
sure that the boy or girl would soon have his or her hand in Jesus
Christ's hand, for He was so sweet and loving, and tender, that the
children gladly ran to Him. So that is our side of the door–Christ's
gentle Manhood. But what is God's side of the door? It is the full
splendor of Christ's Godhead, "for in Him dwells all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily." So, our side of the door is Christ's gentle loving
Manhood, but what is God's side of the door? It is the full splendor of
Christ's Godhead and we can only come to the Father through Him whose
name is Emmanuel, "God With Us."
And what do I see over that door but His own sprinkled blood, so that
we may be quite sure of being accepted with God, for has not the Lord
said to us, as He did to Israel in Egypt, "when I see the blood, I will
pass over you"? Therefore, the door is Christ Jesus, so let me put the
Truth very plainly and say that if any of you wish to be saved, it must
be by coming to God through Christ Jesus! You cannot be saved in any
other fashion or way. But you will certainly be saved if you come to
God by Christ Jesus. He is the door and He is an open door and a door
available for you if you will but enter in by Him! May His blessed
Spirit sweetly incline you to do so! Then all the rich promises of this
text shall be yours–you shall be saved, and you shall go in and out
and find pasture.
II. Now, in the second place, I am to speak of THE USERS OF THIS DOOR.
"By Me if any man enters in."
What is the main purpose of a door? It is to give admission to the
house. There are some persons who stand and look at the door or perhaps
praise it, saying, "What a fine door that is!" Yet they do not go in
through it. And I have known people who liked to hear Christ extolled,
yet they did not yield themselves to Him. They said, "That was a rich
Gospel sermon," but they did not trust the Christ who was preached!
They looked at the door–that was all.
There are others who occasionally knock at the door. They tell me that
they have often prayed to God, but that they have never been heard.
Well, it is wise to knock at this door, but is not enough to knock, for
the text does not say, "By Me if any man knocks, he will be saved,"
but, "by Me if any man enters in, he will be saved."
I have known some persons who have sat down on the step of this
door–some of you have been sitting there a long time. You have been
hearing the Gospel and you have listened to it with some degree of
attention. So far, so good. But if you do nothing more, you are simply
sitting down on the doorstep. Doors were not made for us to sit on the
doorstep. Little children frequently do that at your houses, do they
not? You often wish they did not, yet there they will sit and play. But
that is not the purpose for which the door was intended. A door is made
for us to pass through it, not for us to sit down in front of it. If a
man stands and admires your door, or if he knocks at your door and yet
still sits on your doorstep, he is not making the right use of the
door. According to our text, the proper way to use a door is to enter
in by it– and that is the right way to use Christ–to enter in by Him!
There are some who do not do that, but they very jealously guard the
door. They stand like sentinels outside the door. They are true
Protestants and their blood is on fire at the very thought of the Pope.
They like to read books that bully everybody who does not agree with
them. Only let a heretic come near–they are orthodox enough to knock
him down, directly. They are protecting the door, but they do not go
through it. I have marveled to find some men downright bigots in
defense of the Gospel which they have never received themselves! They
would not allow anybody to say a word against it on any account
whatever. They are righteously indignant at error, yet they have never
been saved by the Truth! I would not like to be a hungry man set to
guard a loaf of bread, to have to walk up and down like a soldier with
bayonet fixed, and all the while to be dying of starvation, my bones
sticking out through my skin, yet never eating a crumb. Taking care
that no Zulu ever came near the bread, shooting anybody who approached
it, but never getting a morsel to eat myself! There are numbers of
people who are doing just that–they are simply sentinels at the door,
re-
maining outside all the while. But the proper use of the door of
salvation is to enter in by it, so our Lord Jesus says in our text.
Note, particularly, the description given of those who use the door '
'By Me if any man enters in." Christ does not say, "By Me if any king
or prince should enter in." No, thank God, He says, "If any man enters
in"–any man from the slums, any man from the abode of poverty or
vice–"He will be saved." Christ does not say, "If any highly
intelligent person is able to understand the plan of salvation, He will
be saved." It is not difficult to understand, for it is only like going
through a door–and everybody knows how to do that. You coal-heavers,
who have strayed in here, and you squires from the country who have
your pockets well lined, and you poor people who have your pockets
empty. You who have good characters and you who would do better if you
were to lose your present characters, for they are no good to you, my
text is so broad in its comprehension that it shuts none of you out!
"By Me if any man enters in he will be saved."
I want to call your special attention to this point, for, evidently,
this entering in is irrespective of character because a man can go
through a door whether he is the biggest thief that lives, or the most
honest man in the world! He does not need to be a good fellow to go
through a door. And when Christ says, "any man," He means the sinner
who deserves the deepest Hell. It means me. It means you, my Friends,
who are in the same condition as I was in when I came to Jesus! "By Me
if any man enters in, he will be saved." Perhaps someone says, "Do you
mean to tell me that men are to go to Heaven without being holy?" I
tell you no such thing! But I say that they are to come to Christ
without being holy. They trust in Christ and then He makes them fit to
go to Heaven, but, at their first coming to Him, there is no fitness
required. You are to come just as you are–downright bad, through and
through–just pass through this door!
Going through a door is a very simple action. It may be performed by an
idiot, or by a baby who can but just toddle. That is faith–passing
from this side of Christ to the other side–passing from where I am, in
myself, to be reconciled with God by trusting in Jesus Christ. Passing
through a door is not a long operation. It can be done in the twinkling
of an eye, and so can a man be saved in the twinkling of an eye.
Passing through a door is not a difficult operation if the door is
open–and coming to Christ is not a difficult operation. I will tell
you when it is difficult–when a man has an enormous load of what he
calls, "good works," upon his back! I have seen people in that
condition. They could not get through the door at all! They had such a
mountain of good works that they could not get through the doorway! A
wag-onload of hay was nothing to the load they carried–they could not
pass through the strait gate. The man who gets to Christ most quickly
is the one who is utterly stripped of everything of his own.
Some people cannot get through this door because they carry their heads
too high. I believe that he who is bowed down to the dust, on his hands
and kneels, is the man who gets in most easily. He who is nothing, he
who is nobody, he who is undeserving, ill-deserving, Hell-deserving, he
who has no hope apart from Christ is the man who most quickly finds
hope in Christ! Righteous self is very hard to get rid of, and that is
the great difficulty of passing through this door.
You see, then, that character is not set down as a fitness for Christ.
Neither is feeling to be set down as a preparation for coming to
Christ. Christ needs nothing to prepare a sinner for Him. That poor man
who was wounded and left half-dead on the road to Jericho would have
been in a still worse plight if the Samaritan had said to him, "Now, my
good man, I am willing to help you, but you are hardly fit to be
helped. I am afraid you do not feel your wounds sufficiently. I am
afraid you are not sensible enough of the bruises you have received. I
am afraid that at the present moment you are scarcely awakened to your
danger. You seem to me to be half stupefied by that crack you had on
your head, so I must leave you, I am afraid, until you are able to feel
a little more and to be better prepared for me to help you." He did
nothing of the sort, but he just brought out his oil and wine and he
tore his coat, took a piece of rag to bind up the wounds and lifted the
poor fellow up and set him on his own beast and took him to the inn.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ is far better than that good Samaritan, but
He acts on the same principle. He comes to the sinner just where he is
and He does not need him to feel this or feel that, or be this or be
that, or do this or do that– just to trust Him, to rest in Him and in
Him alone, and He will pour in the oil and the wine, and heal the
sin-sick soul! Feeling or no feeling, if you will pass through that
door, you shall be saved! If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you
are not condemned and, therefore, you are saved!
So now I leave that point, only praying the Lord to make it very plain
to all who have heard it. It may seem, to some of you, to be the
plainest thing in the world, for you have heard it so often, but I tell
you, Beloved, that the poor trembling sinner needs to hear this over
and over and over again, for although it is put in the plainest Saxon
that can be dis-
covered, he will not understand it till the Holy Spirit opens his
understanding. They still think there is something to do, like that old
German Lutheran woman who said, "I do not understand this. My minister
asked me a hundred questions before he thought I was converted and, as
for me. I was groaning and crying for many years before I dared believe
in Jesus Christ." That is just the way with many–they will do anything
except trust Jesus then and there! Yet the Gospel–the true simple
Gospel is, "Christ is all. Trust Him and be saved." He is Alpha and
Omega, the Beginning and the End. "The Lord has laid on Him the
iniquity of us all," therefore, trust Him, trust Him, trust Him, trust
Him and, then and there, salvation is yours! "I am the door. If anyone
enters by Me"–that is all he has to do–"he will be saved."
III. Now, very briefly, I want to speak of THE PRIVILEGES OF THOSE WHO
USE THIS DOOR ARIGHT.
The first privilege of the right users of it is salvation. Those who
have entered in by Christ, the Door, are saved. He says, "By Me if any
man enters in, he shall be saved"–saved from the guilt of sin, saved
also from the power of sin. He shall be saved from being what he has
been in the past. He shall be so saved as to enter into holiness, and
so saved as to enter into Heaven. What a grand salvation that is!
"Oh," says one, "I could believe in Christ if I felt that I was saved."
Never put the cart before the horse! That is reversing the proper order
of things! Trust in Christ and then you are saved. Go through the door
of which I have been speaking to you. "Oh, but I wish I felt that I was
saved." Go through the door, Man, for our Lord Jesus says, "By Me if
any man enters in, he will be saved." There is no text that says, "If
any man shall wait outside the door, he will be saved." There is no
encouragement given to people to say, "We will sit and wait till the
angel troubles the pool." The command of Christ is, "Rise, take up your
bed, and walk." The message of the Gospel is, "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." A Gospel that tells sinners to
wait is not the Gospel that our Lord Jesus Christ blesses. His word is,
"Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of
salvation." "By Me if any man enters in, he will be saved."
And what follows this salvation? The next privilege is liberty–"He
shall go in and out." We do not come to Christ to be shut up in a
prison–we shall go in and out. There is no such liberty as you who
believe in Jesus have–liberty to go to your bed at night and to feel
that it does not matter whether you wake up here or not! Liberty to go
out into the world and feel that losses and crosses cannot happen to
you without your Father's permission and that you will have Grace to
bear them! Liberty to go wherever you please on the errands of God,
always protected by His almighty power! Do not imagine that walking
with God, as Enoch did, means a narrow and confined life. He only has
true largeness of heart who has God dwelling in his heart.
Then notice the further privilege that is included in this
liberty–that is, liberty of access.''He shall go in." He who goes
through the door–that is, believes in Christ–shall go in to God in
prayer to pour out his heart before the Lord. He shall go in to the
Church to have fellowship with all the saints. He shall go in to that
secret of the Lord which is with them that fear Him and, one day, he
shall go into the innermost Heaven, into that blessed circle where God
reveals His love in the highest degree. "He shall go in."
And he shall have liberty of egress, as well as liberty of access, for,
after he has been with God in private, he shall go out and–
"Tell to sinners round
What a dear Savior he has found."
He shall go out to bear his cross with joy and to lift up his Captain's
banner with confidence. He shall go out farther and farther afield,
learning more of the things of Christ, discovering more and more how
great are the estates of God which cannot be enclosed within a fence,
but which exceed all space and can only be compared with eternity and
infinity!
Then there is added the privilege of nourishment–"and shall find
pasture." Whatever his heart needs to live upon, to fill it, to sustain
it, to comfort it, to make it grow, to develop it, to perfect it, he
shall find it all in Christ Jesus his Lord and Savior! When a soul
comes to Christ and receives life, it does not receive a life that will
ever die, for Jesus, who is our Life, is also the Bread of Life and we
live upon Him, and feed upon Him, and so our life endures until, in its
full expansion, we enter into our eternal inheritance before the Throne
of God!
These, then, are the privileges of those who enter in by Christ the
Door–salvation, liberty, access, egress and nourishment for the soul.
Who will have all these things by entering the door? Sometimes, when I
have preached the Gospel with all my might, I go home and think to
myself, "Oh, I am grieved for those people who will not lay hold upon
Christ! I could cry my heart out over them." But, at other times, I
feel that I must take God's side of the matter and say, "Well, if
they will not have salvation–if His Son has been torn from His own
bosom and put to death to save men, and yet they despise Him–if God
writes His message of love in letters of blood, the blood of His own
well-beloved Son, and still men refuse to accept it–then their blood
be upon their own head!" If Jehovah stoops right down from Heaven and
says, "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your
sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are
red like crimson, they shall be as wool"–if He goes out of His way, as
it were, to plead with sinners, by His mighty love and by the precious
blood of Christ, His Son, I sometimes think that if they will not come
to Him then, I am more inclined to blame them than to pity them! If
they will not see what God sets before them and they are then struck
blind, who can blame the justice of God? Surely, they deserve the
deepest Hell who refuse and reject the Christ of
God!
Suppose that a man was standing at your door and that he said he was
starving–and that you pointed to the door and bade him enter? But he
says, "Yes, I see the door." "Well, then, enter it and you shall have
food." "No," he says, "I am very hungry, but I am afraid I do not feel
my hunger enough to entitle me to go in." You say, "My dear Fellow,
enter in." "But–but–but–I–I–I–" he keeps on saying and you reply,
"My dear Fellow, do you see the door?" "Yes," he says. "Well, then,
enter in!" He says that he is ready to faint, that he feels so sick, he
needs medicine. You answer, "Everything is inside that door and the
only condition is, 'Enter in.'" "Oh, dear," he cries, "I am worse than
I thought I was! I am covered all over with a foul disease. I dare not
go in." Still you say to him, "Enter in. Everything is ready, come
along with you–do not wait outside any longer." "But I cannot climb
over the top of the roof." "I did not ask you to do so! I said, 'Come
in by the door.'" "But I cannot dig through the cellar and come up that
way." "I did not ask you to do anything of the kind! Come in by the
door."
Is not that what the Apostle meant in the chapter we read? [Exposition
at end of sermon.] "Say not in yours heart, Who shall ascend into
Heaven? (That is, to bring Christ down from above) or, Who shall
descend into the deep? (That is, to bring up Christ again from the
dead). But what does it say? The Word is near you, even in your mouth,
and in your heart: that is, the Word of faith which we preach, that if
you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in
yours heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved."
"But I thought–I thought"–the man still says, "that to get such great
mercy as to be fed, and to be clothed, and to be healed–I thought that
there would be something for me, to do, some performance for me to go
through." You say to him, "My dear Man, I have told you over and over
and over again that everything depends upon your just entering in by
that door. Will you do it?" He comes right up to the door. He looks
through the doorway, it is wide enough for him to pass through, and
there is all that he needs just on the other side of the door. He says,
"I am almost persuaded to enter, I am very near the Kingdom." "But,"
you exclaim, "my dear Fellow, you will perish, near as you are, if you
do not take one step more, over the threshold, into the house! Receive
what is provided and all will be well with you! But if you will not
enter, you must perish."
I think I hear somebody say, "Then, I will do it! I will trust Christ,
whether I may or may not." You are a saved man if you only did it while
I was speaking the word, for there was never a soul that said, "Christ
shall be All-in-All to me," but Christ really was All-in-All to that
soul! May the Holy Spirit bring many of you to that blessed decision!
And God shall be glorified, and you shall share His joy forever and
ever! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS 10.
Verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire andprayer to God for Israelis that
they might be saved. No curse falls from his lips, though they had
persecuted him without mercy, hunted him from city to city and gnashed
their teeth at the very mention of his name. Yet Paul has no desire for
them but their salvation! He utters no malediction against them, but
the prayer goes up from his very heart, "that they might be saved." Let
that be your worst wish for any living man. Whatever he may do to you,
let this be your heart's desire and prayer for him–that he may be
saved!
2, 3. For Ibear them record that they have a zeal ofGod, but not
according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. There are
many, in these days, also, who are exactly in this condition. They are
very zealous. They
are full of piety of a certain kind, but it is with the view of setting
up a righteousness of their own. Oh, that God would save them from this
false way! For there is no acceptable righteousness but the
righteousness which is of God in Christ Jesus–and the more intensely
they labor after the false righteousness, the more bitter will be their
disappointment at the last. Man can only be truly righteous in God's
way–he will never be so in his own.
4. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone that
believes. He has put the Law away so far as His own people are
concerned and, by that act, He has removed the possibility of
self-righteousness, since we are no longer under the Law. Though there
can come no condemnation to us by it, there certainly can come no
righteousness by it. Even Christ's own people can never have any
righteousness which comes by the Law–they must look to Christ and find
in Him alone all that can be demanded by the Law, "for Christ is the
end of the Law for righteousness to everyone that believes."
5. For Moses. The Holy Spirit wisely directed the Apostle to quote from
Moses, for he was the lawgiver and was looked upon by the Jews as the
great representative of the Law of God.
5-8. Describes the righteousness which is of the Law, That the man
which does those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which
is of faith speaks on this wise, Say not in yours heart, Who shall
ascend into Heaven? (That is, to bring Christ down from above) or, Who
shall descend into the deep? (That is, to bring up Christ again from
the dead). But what did it say? The Word is near you. Not up yonder,
nor down there, neither in the heights nor in the abyss. "The Word is
near you."
8-10. Even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of
faith, which we preach; that if you shall confess with your mouth the
Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him
from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. To
trust the risen Savior, to put your soul into His hands and then to
confess your faith by publicly declaring that you are on His
side–these are the things which He demands of us in order to our
salvation–and these He enables us to render. Are there any Believers
here who have never confessed Christ? Let them question themselves how
far they can be said to be true disciples of Him who demands that where
there is faith, confession of it should be made! If you believe in
Jesus, look at this Scripture and feel ashamed of yourself if you have
been ashamed to acknowledge Him as your Savior, for is not the promise
this–that "if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you
shall be saved"?
11. For the Scripture says, Whoever believes on Him shall not be
ashamed. Shall not be ashamed of having done so, and shall not be
ashamed of having missed the blessing which was promised, for he shall
surely receive what God says shall follow his faith and confession.
12. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. In this
matter of salvation there is no difference between them.
12. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him.
Jews or Gentiles, they must come to Christ and come to Him by the same
simple way of trusting Him. And if they do, they shall be saved.
13-15. For whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall theypreach, except they are
sent? As it is written, How beautifulare the feet of them that preach
the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! See, then,
what an honor God has put upon the testimony of His Word! And be not
slow, my dear Friends, to tell of His glorious Gospel. The Apostle does
not merely mean preaching from the pulpit, but preaching anywhere and
anyway–making known the Gospel by any means! It is in that way that
hearing comes and from hearing comes faith and from faith comes
salvation. Who, then, would not tell out the glad news which God uses
to the salvation of immortal souls?
16-18. But they have not all obeyed the Gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord,
who has believed our report? So then faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. But I say, Have they not heard?'s that the
reason why many do not believe–because they have not heard the Gospel?
Well, it is not the reason in the case of anybody here present, for I
suppose all of you have heard the Gospel–probably have often heard it!
18, 19. Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth and their words
unto the end of the world. But I say, Did not Israel know? Ah, that
they did! The Gospel was sounded in their ears in a hundred ways, yet
they rejected it.
19-21. First Moses said, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that
are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Isaiah is
very bold and said, I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made
manifest unto them that asked not after Me. But to Israel he said, All
day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and
gainsaying people. God grant that we may not be like they were! Amen.