Deuteronomy 30:11-14 (NIV) 11 Now what I am commanding you today is
not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you
have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we
may obey it?” 13 Nor is it
beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and
proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No,
the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may
obey it.
Romans 10:2-4, 8-10 (NIV) 2 For I can testify
about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on
knowledge. 3 Since they did not know the righteousness
of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s
righteousness. 4 Christ is the
culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who
believes. 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your
mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we
proclaim: 9 If you declare
with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him
from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For
it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your
mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
The Hebrew people had a very
clear understanding of law-righteousness. They were living under the oppression
of Rome, and it was God’s punishment upon them for disobedience. Therefore, if
they would obey the law of Moses, God would deliver them from their oppressors.
If they would do what was right, God would make life right for them again. After
all, what could be more fair? We do our part and God does His.
This kind of thinking still gets
into our mind and heart, and this is the sin that Jesus confronted again and
again in the lives of the Pharisees. Outwardly, they were determined to obey
every word of the law of Moses. Inwardly, they were determined to have their own
way. This kind of life does not work. No matter how hard or how long we work,
the promise is never fulfilled. Somehow we never get what we need. There is
always something else. We stay in constant turmoil by the continual drive to
make ourselves happy. We are held captive by the belief that we deserve, and by
the feeling that we are deprived. We experience the “hole in the soul.” And,
ultimately, we have not dealt with the secret agenda of our soul - the rebellious
spirit of self-will.
Paul says we need to be saved
from law righteousness to a righteousness that comes by faith and requires the
defeat of our self-will. We will gladly accept God’s help to give us what we
think we need to make us happy. But we struggle to accept what Jesus offers
when He says to us that we can trust Him. It is a struggle for us to turn our
will and our lives over to Him with no certainty of what He is going to ask of
us or give us. But when we do, Jesus saves us from a life of trying that we
might learn a life of trusting. We are saved, Paul says, when we believe in our
heart and confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord.
From a sermon preached by Henry
Dobbs Pope March 27, 1994
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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