2-23-16
Dear Friend,
I don’t know if you have had a chance to read over my posts on the website. I think maybe I can now better explain my position. For a long time now I have believed that the secret of salvation could be found in Romans 10, specifically Romans 10:10, which states: “For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Paul clearly believed in a two-part experience. The first part was a belief in Jesus whereby we are made righteous, but in order to be saved, we have to confess Jesus as Lord (Rom.10:9).
I have been involved in evangelism on and off throughout my life as a Christian and in leading sinners to the Lord always tried to get them to believe in Jesus by quoting and teaching the scriptures. Once they accepted that Jesus was God and died in their place the next step was for them to say, “Jesus is Lord of my life.” According to my understanding of the scriptures, at that point they were saved. I have led many souls to the Lord over my lifetime by this method. I worked with those close to death to give them an opportunity to confess Jesus as Lord to confirm their salvation.
However, Jesus’ words of Matthew 8:21 troubled me. If the confession of Jesus’ Lordship is what saves us, why did Jesus say, “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven?” I was missing something somewhere. The confession that Jesus was Lord was supposed to save according to Romans 10;10, but according to Matthew 8:21, not everyone who cried Lord would be.
I went back to Romans 10 over and over again, studying and restudying to find the truth. In Romans 10:1 Paul states that his heart’s desire and prayer to God is for Israel’s salvation. Why? Because Israel is not saved. And why are they not saved? Because Israel, in their zeal to please God and lack of understanding about God, exchanged the righteousness of God for a righteousness they better understood (Rom.10:3). But, why is Paul expressing this thought in his letter to the Roman Church.
Paul was having a problem. He had gone out preaching the gospel Jesus had given to him after catching him up to heaven, but, after he had established a church in each of the cities of the Mediterranean area, others came along behind him preaching another gospel. We learn this in Galatians 1:6-13. Paul wrote the Church of Rome in an effort to get ahead of this other gospel. I still believed Romans 10 was the Bible’s clearest description of salvation, I just needed a better understanding of what Paul was saying. In Romans 10:5-6, Paul described how the church was exchanging the righteousness that saved for a righteousness that did not save.
Remember, in Romans 10:1-3, Paul pleads his heart’s desire and prayer to God is for Israel’s salvation. He then stands up for them saying, “they truly have a zeal for God, they are very passionate, but not according to knowledge. For failing to understand God’s righteousness, they instituted a righteousness of their own making, missing God’s righteousness thereby and thus God’s salvation.” There is an obvious warning here. Then, in Romans 10:5-6, Paul writes these words: “Moses describes the righteousness of the law but the righteousness of faith speaks.” The word “righteousness,” speaks of behavior, it means “to do the right thing.” The right behavior under the old covenant was to keep the Law of Moses but the right behavior under the new covenant is different because “Christ is the end of the law to all those who believe” (Rom.10:4). The righteousness of the old covenant will not save under the new covenant and those who trust in the righteousness of the old covenant to save them, regardless of how much zeal and passion they express, will not gain salvation.
Now, let us remember that “Jesus was born under the law to redeem those under the law” (Gal, 4:4-5). Being born under the law or better stated, under the authority of the law, Jesus first had to fulfill the demands of the law. Having accomplished this, the righteousness of the law can be imputed to any and all who believe in Jesus. Gentiles are not born under the authority of the law. In order for Gentiles to be redeemed from the law they must first insert themselves under the law. They do this by believing that Jesus died for their sins. Thus, they are inserted under the authority of the law and free from the laws demands simultaneously; they are clothed with the righteousness of the old covenant by faith. Remember, the word “righteousness” means “right behavior.” Jesus’ perfect keeping of the law is imputed to those who accept His death as payment for their sins. It is not necessary for the believer in Jesus to concern themselves with right behavior before God because through faith in Jesus, Jesus’ perfect keeping of the law is imputed to them. They can be no more righteous according to the demands of the law than they are by faith. Now, they can receive the adoption of sons. “Moses describes the righteousness of the law, but the righteousness of faith speaks” (Rom.10:5-6). Once we have received the righteousness of the law, we must perform the righteousness of the new covenant. It is the righteousness of the new covenant that saves.
Those who came along after Paul preached a gospel of belief in Jesus to wash away sins and stopped. This new gospel left off the righteousness of faith and focused in on the righteousness of the law. Thus, Christians, for the last two thousand years have been trusting in a righteousness that does not save. The righteousness of faith speaks. It is a confession of Jesus’ Lordship that flows out of our mouth that saves (Rom 10:9).
I had to ask myself, what is the will of the Father (Matt.8:21)? In 1Timothy 6, Paul calls Jesus the blessed only potentate and in Philippians 2:9 Paul points out that God (the Father) highly exalted Jesus, giving Him a name that is above every other name. This means that the name of Lord of Lords and King of Kings is greater than the name of the Father. In order for Jesus to be the blessed only potentate, the Father and the Holy Spirit would have to strip themselves of their Godhood and Jesus, in Matthew 28:18 stated, “all power (authority) has been given to me in heaven and in earth.” Again, in order for Jesus to have all authority, the Father had to strip Himself of His authority; the Holy Spirit did the same. This means that Jesus, in the new covenant, wields all the authority of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He is literally the three in one God.
After Jesus had fulfilled the standard for righteousness under the old covenant, He was free to establish a new standard for righteousness under the new covenant with the authority he had just received from the other two members of the Godhood. He did this just like His Father did under the old covenant, by issuing a commandment. The will of the Father is that we honor the Son who now embodies the complete Godhood. The right behavior under the new covenant is to wait for the saturation (baptism) of the Holy Spirit every day. The righteousness of faith speaks.
This is why Paul told the Philippians to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil.2:12). Under the authority of the new covenant, we have a much different God to deal with than at any other time in history. Jesus, quite literally, embodies the complete Godhood, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and we must work out our salvation because salvation is gained by obedience to the Lord’s commandment. With fear and trembling because of the enormity of the authority Jesus wields in this age. Faith on Jesus as Lord produces a stream of language that flows over the tongue.
From this perspective it is easy to see why Peter stated that the Church was being naïve. His argument is that Jesus is returning as Judge. So many are looking for Jesus to return as Saviour , not as judge. While the Saviour died on the cross, the Jesus that was raised from the dead is Lord, King of All and therefore Almighty Judge. He will return in this capacity. Those who perform the righteousness of faith can look forward to His return but those trusting in a false righteousness have something to fear. That fear should drive us to faith and obedience. This is the warning of 1Peter. The righteousness of the law will not save you under the new covenant. It is naïve to believe you can be saved while ignoring the Lord’s commandment under the new covenant. After all, it is the Lord who is the author of the new covenant.
It was when I saw the phrase at the heart of Romans 10:5-8, “Moses describes the righteousness of the law but the righteousness of faith speaks,” that I knew I had the next piece of the puzzle. The word but is a contrasting word. Paul is contrasting the righteousness of the law with the righteousness of faith in order to make a point; the point being that there are two standards for righteousness. The larger point being that the Church is making the same mistake the Jews before them made. By focusing on the belief in Jesus and the receiving of the righteousness of the law, the church is missing the salvation provided by Jesus. The new covenant has a separate and distinctly different standard of righteousness than the old covenant; one based on the commandment of the Lord because Jesus is the end of the law to all who believe in Him (Rom.10:4). Obedience to this commandment causes a confession of His Lordship to flow over your tongue.
This is the reason those who cry Lord, Lord will not enter the kingdom of heaven but those who do the will of the Father will (Matt.8:21). It is not enough to merely confess that Jesus is Lord of your Life. I had it wrong all those years of leading lost souls to the Lord. The confession that saves was defined by Jesus through commandment. It is not enough for us to devise a righteousness of our own making; we must keep the Lord’s definition of righteousness.
The importance of keeping the Lord’s commandment would be self evident if the commandment had not been so thoroughly interpreted by the early Church fathers. Just consider the importance of the old covenant commandments. Abraham would not have been saved if he had not kept the commandment of God to go out in the desert seeking a city whose builder and maker was God (Heb 11:8-10). Israel missed God’s salvation due to their interpretation of the Law of Moses (Rom.10:3, Mk.7:7-8,13). The commandment Jesus issued in Acts 1:4 was given with more authority, and higher authority, than all of these commandments. Yet we are instructed to ignore it, that it has nothing to do with salvation under the new covenant. We are told that the baptism with the Spirit is a one-time occurrence but Abraham had to look for the city whose builder and maker was God each day of his life. The Jews had to keep the laws of the old covenant daily. There is no precedent in the scripture for a one-time obedience. Moreover, it was only in a daily obedience that salvation was gained. Why should we think that a one-time faith will save to the uttermost when Adam had to keep the commandment not to eat of the tree in the middle of the garden daily and the day he failed was the day he died and all of mankind with him!
Jesus died on the cross as the son of man, the Saviour of the world but He was raised from the dead as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He issues one commandment with this new authority to His Church and ascends back to heaven and we are supposed to believe that this commandment is irrelevant to Christians? There is no wisdom known to man that would support such lunacy.
I hope this helps explain my position. I realize it is different than what everyone else is saying. For me, as I have said before, I have had many questions over the years and no satisfactory answers. I have heard teachers claim that those in Matthew 8:21 weren’t seriously calling Jesus Lord and that is the reason their confession did not save them. That answer is not satisfactory for me. The context of this verse is the judgment seat of Christ and these people are pleading their case for salvation before Jesus. Is it reasonable to think that people will lie to Jesus in that scenario? Isn’t it more reasonable to believe they were told all they had to do was to confess that He was Lord and that obedience to God’s will, in other words, obedience to the Lord’s commandment was not necessary?
Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1Tim1:15). In Matthew 8:21, Jesus is trying to instruct people how to be saved. If saying Jesus is Lord does not save (Matt.8:21), but doing the will of the Father does (Matt.8:21), and a confession of Jesus as Lord is what does save (Rom.10:9); then the confession is an action of obedience. That describes the gift of tongues.