“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9,10)
TEXT — Romans 10:5-11
Message
After Charles H. Spurgeon had finished preaching a sermon on justification by grace, a man came and said, ‘Oh sir, I have been praying, and I do not think God will forgive me unless I do something to deserve it.’ Spurgeon replied, ‘I tell you, sir, if you bring any of your deservings, you shall never have it. God gives away His justification freely; and if you bring anything to pay for it, He will throw it in your face and will not give His justification to you.’
Corroborating this, we may wonder why there is such a high price for damnation when salvation is free. It is all due to the default attitude, set in the unrealistic mindsets of many, that except we improve ourselves sufficiently, we will not be good enough for salvation. The focus of the passage under review is simple: faith in the vicarious sacrifice of Christ provides the unmatched panacea for man’s depravity and fall. His shed blood is the proviso, a covering for all sins, and delivers from eternal judgment, for all who come in humility, forsaking all self-righteousness and trusting in Him.
Following the unrehearsed preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost, the mammoth crowd that heard him was pricked in their heart and asked, “what shall we do?” to be saved. The Philippian jailer, astounded by the miraculous manifestations in and around the prison where Paul and Silas were incarcerated, exclaimed, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The answer is simple. Salvation comes by grace through faith and not of works, leaving no room for boasting. Like the Pharisees, the religious man measures himself by outward personal moral standards, then proudly belittles others he feels have not attained his holier-than-thou attitude. Thus, he becomes fanatical yet lives in perpetual defeat, guilt, and condemnation. Often, he cries secretly, “Who shall deliver me from this body of sin? Sin keeps man in bondage, and only genuine repentance and faith in Christ will give full and free salvation. We do not need to pay for this gift. We need to simply stretch our hands of faith and receive it freely.
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Thought for the day
Christ’s atonement is vast enough to cover every sinner who truly believes.
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
