Paul demonstrates two impossibilities, a person ascending to heaven by his own righteousness and bringing Messiah to earth or by our own righteousness descend into the earth and retrieve Messiah from the dead. Dr. Sproul discusses two elements for salvation—profession of faith and possession of that faith. Believing with your life in Christ alone.

We will continue with our study of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, and we are in the tenth chapter. Today, I will be reading Romans 10:5–15. I ask the congregation to stand for the reading of the Word of God:

For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on 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 they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

This is the Word of God for the people of God. Please be seated. Let us pray.

Again, O Lord, we look to You for the help of the Holy Spirit, indeed, the Spirit of truth, to condescend to our weakness and to the fragile way in which we hear those truths that come from Your lips. As we contemplate further the riches of the gospel that have been set forth in this epistle, we ask that You would pierce our souls with Thy Word. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

A Manifest Impossibility

Last week, we concluded with the beginning portion of chapter 10. There, Paul lamented the reality that his kinsmen according to the flesh, Israel, had a zeal for the things of God, but not according to knowledge. They failed to understand the primary doctrine of justification, which is not a novelty set forth in the New Testament but was set forth early in the pages of the Old Testament. Particularly in the life of the patriarch Abraham, we see that justification before a holy God is by faith and by faith alone.

We pick it up now at verse 5, where Paul says: “For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, ‘The man who does those things shall live by them.’ But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”’ (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, ‘“Who will descend into the abyss?”’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”

Paul’s reasoning here is a little obscure at first glance. His thoughts seem somewhat oblique to us, because he has already rejected the idea that we could be justified through the works of the law. Instead, we need to embrace the righteousness that is by faith. Then he asks this question: Who will ascend into heaven to bring Christ down? Or who will go into the depths of the abyss to bring Christ up from the dead? What does that have to do with the doctrine of justification?

Paul is setting forth here two ideas that represent manifest impossibilities. It is impossible for a person to be justified by the law or by their own works. It would be just as impossible for a human being to ascend into the highest heaven and drag the Messiah from heaven down to earth. The only way the Messiah can descend from heaven is if the Lord God omnipotent sends Him. That is exactly what God the Father did in sending the Son into the world to be our Mediator.

It is equally impossible for any human being, by strength of his own virtue or righteousness, to descend into the pit of hell, into the depths of the abyss of death, and bring Christ back from the dead. We recall that when Christ was executed, the disciples fled as sheep without a shepherd. They were in despair because they knew that it was totally beyond their power to bring Jesus back from the grave.

The Apostle is saying that it is just as impossible for a person to be saved through the works of the law as it would be for us to think that we could bring Jesus back from the dead or bring Him down from heaven in the first place.

Simple Truth

In stark contrast to that manifest impossibility and great difficulty, Paul says, “But what does the Word of God say?” Then he quotes the passage: “‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach).”

Paul says that the Word of God he is preaching, that Word about justification by faith, is near you and in your mouth. He is saying that the truth he is proclaiming in this epistle and throughout his Apostolic ministry is the gospel of justification by faith alone. That central truth is not so high, so abstract, or so deep and profound that it is beyond our understanding.

Paul is saying that it does not require a Ph.D. in theology to understand the gospel. We are not gnostics who believe that the gospel can only be understood by an intellectual, elite group of scholars. No, Paul says, the gospel is “near to you.” “Near to you” is a Hebrew idiom used to say that it is “within your grasp.” The gospel is right in front of you. It is not removed in the distance. It is not so difficult that you cannot understand it. The Word of faith that Paul is declaring is simple.

I have said to you throughout our study of Romans, on more than one occasion, that to understand the doctrine of justification by faith alone—which is at the very heart and soul of the gospel itself—is not a difficult thing. A child can understand it. Getting this right on a theology exam does not qualify you as a genius. It is simple.

But to get this doctrine in the bloodstream—to get it pumping through your veins to the point where you believe it with all of your soul­—takes time. This is something that takes a life of concentrated study of the Word of God, hearing the Word of God day in and day out so that you embrace that which God has put right in front of you for your salvation.

Confess and Believe

Paul is reminding us of the ease with which we can understand the message of faith. He boils it down to this in verse 9: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Notice that Paul conjoins two elements in this text. He does not just say, “If you confess with your lips, if you profess with your mouth, you will be saved.” Every Christian is called to profess their faith. But again, as I have labored tirelessly through these many months in Romans, no one has ever been justified by a profession of faith. We are to profess the faith. But the profession alone without the presence of authentic faith will justify no one.

I do not tire in repeating that, because one of the great dangers and perils of the church in our day is the way in which we do evangelism. We are so zealous to win people to Christ, to persuade them of the truth of the gospel, and to convince them to give their lives to Jesus, that we prime the pump. We are not satisfied with proclaiming the gospel and then allowing the Holy Spirit to take the truth of the gospel and pierce human hearts with it. We want to give our aid and assistance to make sure that our evangelistic statistics are good.

We have come up with all kinds of techniques in evangelism. Consider the technique often used at a general crusade, the altar call. You call people, if they are going to respond to the gospel, to come to the front of the church, the coliseum, or wherever the mission is being held. Or we ask people to raise their hands. “I see that hand,” we say to the person making a profession of faith. Or we tell people, “Pray this prayer after me,” or, “Sign this card.” All these different techniques are designed to urge people to take that step to finalize their commitment to Christ.

As I have said to you before on many occasions, there is nothing wrong with those techniques in and of themselves—unless you think that walking down an aisle, raising your hand, signing your card, or even saying the sinner’s prayer will get you into the kingdom of God. Then, you are in serious trouble. You have to understand that a profession of faith alone will never justify you.

It is the possession of faith, not the profession of it, that is the necessary condition for our justification. That is why Paul does not just say, “If you confess with your mouth, you will be saved.” He adds to that condition, “If you confess with your mouth and believe with your heart.” Why does he say that? Why does he not say, “Believe with your mind”?

One of my pet peeves that I got cantankerous about in the classroom with my seminary students is when I would ask for a student’s opinion on a particular question and they would answer me by saying, “Professor, I feel like such and such is the truth.” I would say: “Really? I didn’t ask you how you feel about it, whether the truth excites you or bores you or whatever it does. I’m asking you what you think.” Conviction of truth is not a sensual matter. It first has to do with the assent of the mind. We live in such a sensuous culture that people always say, “I feel,” when what they mean is, “I think*.*” But that is enough about my pet peeve.

The Necessary Ingredients of Faith

Paul understands that it is impossible for someone to have a persuasion mentally that never gets to their heart. Back in the days of the Reformation, when the Reformers were proclaiming the doctrine of justification by faith alone, a great objection was raised against that doctrine. The Reformers were accused of teaching a doctrine of cheap grace or easy believism. Anyone can say, “I believe in Jesus,” but that is no manifestation of true godliness.

The question becomes, What are the necessary ingredients of saving faith? Luther, for example, followed the teaching of James, where James says that faith without works is dead. The question that James raises is this: Can a dead faith justify anybody? He answers that question emphatically in the negative. So, Luther would say the only kind of faith that justifies is a fides viva—a living faith, a vital faith, a faith that manifests itself in a life of obedience to God.

In defining the necessary ingredients, the three basic elements of saving faith, the Reformers set forth three necessary elements. First of all, it has what is called the notae or notitia—that is, the data. For us to be justified, there has to be a content to the faith that we embrace. You have heard it said many times, “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere.” Let me suggest to you, cultural adage notwithstanding, that it matters eternally and profoundly what you believe. A person can put his trust and faith in the devil. He can be sincere about it. All that will do is sincerely send him to hell forever. There is no comfort in a faith that has an object that is false. Saving faith requires information, knowledge, and content that we believe.

In addition, we not only need information, but, as the Reformers said, there has to be assensus—an intellectual assent to the truth of the data. If I am telling you about the resurrection or the atonement of Jesus, I might say: “Do you understand this information? Do you understand what I’m describing when I talk to you about the death and resurrection of Jesus?” You say, “Yes, I understand what you’re talking about.” Then I say: “Let me try to persuade you that these things really happened in time and space. Jesus really did have an atoning death, and He really did come back from the grave. Are you persuaded of that?”

Let’s say I get you to the place where you say: “Yes, I believe that. I believe it happened.” So far, all that does is qualify you to be a demon. Every demon from hell knows that information, and he knows that the information is true. That is why Luther and the Reformers say that the data, and even the intellectual assent to the data, is not enough. That intellectual affirmation of the gospel’s truth claims must be embraced with a personal trust and affection, which no demon will ever give to the gospel. That is why Paul says that it is not enough to believe it only in your head; you have to believe it in your heart.

Believe in Your Heart

I have mentioned earlier in another context that the Old Testament teaches that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. It is not because the Old Testament prophets confused organs of thinking with organs of feeling. They knew that the organ for thought in the human person is the brain, not the heart. So why did they say, “As a man thinketh in his heart?” They understood that you can agree with something intellectually, but it may never get from the mind to the soul, to the core of your being.

There is something that greatly frightens about preaching, and I know those of you who are preachers will relate to what I am about to say. My job is to prepare the message each week for the morning and the evening service. My job is to study the text of Scripture and to be a delivery man—to take the text from the Bible and communicate it to you. But every time I prepare a sermon for you, I have to prepare it for me.

At the end of the day, I have to look in the mirror and say, “R.C., do you believe what you proclaimed today?” Sometimes I worry about that because I say, “I believe it in my head.” Then I say to myself: “But do you really believe it? Do you believe it with your life? Or is it just an exercise in theology?” That is an extremely dangerous pattern for ministers and for teachers—we may never get past our minds and get truth down into the bloodstream and into our hearts.

Paul says: “I am talking about the heart. If you believe in your heart, in the core of your being, in Christ, and that God has raised Him from the dead”—confess with your mouth, believe in your heart. Then, Paul can say with absolute categorical assurance that if those two things are true about you, the third thing necessarily follows with resistless logic—just as any syllogism yields its conclusion—“You shall be saved.”

I talked to someone recently who was asking: “I’ve been struggling with Romans and with the doctrine of election. How can I know that I’m saved if I’m elect?” I answered: “That’s what you’re elected to. You’re elected to salvation.” Instead of worrying about all the intricacies and difficulties that attend the doctrine of election, that we have looked at over these many months, let us get to the most simple principle: If you confess with your mouth and believe with your heart, you shall be saved.

You will not do that unless you are elect, and we have already labored that. But I can cut the Gordian knot here and bring it down to this question: Do you believe in your heart? Are you trusting in Christ and in Christ alone? If you are, then I can give you the full assurance of your salvation.

In verse 10, Paul says: “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’” If you put your trust in Christ truly from the heart, you have no need of any future embarrassment. You will not be put to shame for having held to a false hope and having devoted your life to a myth. If you have trusted Christ in your heart, your future will be without embarrassment and without shame.

Call Upon the Lord

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” Now, be careful. Paul makes that statement within a broader context. Even within the immediate context, he is not saying that anyone who calls out to Jesus in their moment of trial will be saved.

The Lord warns us that when He appears and His wrath is manifest, people who have not repented of their sins will be screaming for the mountains and hills to fall upon them and cover them. People will also say in that moment of crisis: “Jesus, Jesus, help me! Save me!” But it will be too late.

Paul is making a statement about whoever calls upon the name of the Lord in the terms of which he has just explained it. The call comes from the heart. The call is genuine. It is an authentic reaching of the heart for the Savior. That person will not be denied.

That is why I try to put people at rest who say to me, “I don’t know if I’m numbered among the elect.” I tell them this: “You may be elect. You may not be elect. But you cannot know for sure that you are not elect until you die. You may be one, like the thief on the cross, who in your fleeting breath, on your deathbed, is brought to the Lord through the mysterious work of God the Holy Spirit. We do not have to work through those intricacies of doctrine if we understand that if you sincerely call upon the name of the Lord, you will be saved. If A, B will follow. We can talk forever about what it takes for you to do A, and what would have to happen before you would call upon the Lord earnestly and honestly. But I can cut it down, use Occam’s razor, slice it to its core, and say the simple thing: If you call upon the Lord sincerely, you will be saved. Right now, please do not be worried about the intricacies of the other doctrine.”

Our Sacred Vocation

Paul continues to give a series of related questions that are very important. Some of you may recall that when I preached recently at our mission conference, I preached from this text. It is a text that bears heavily on the mission outreach of the church. Paul is asking the “how” questions:

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 they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

This series of “how” questions is found in chapter 10 of Romans. If you have been following through the entire book, and even if you have not, it would be safe to make the assumption that chapter 10 comes after chapter 9. In fact, it comes right after chapter 9, which is filled with hard sayings about divine election. I think it is appropriate that chapter 10 follows chapter 9, because it addresses one of the most common objections raised about the biblical doctrine of election.

When I talked to you at the mission conference, I related a story of an experience I had in seminary, which I hope you will not forget, because I have not and never will. We were in class, and our professor had been teaching the doctrine of predestination. It was a seminar on Jonathan Edwards. We were seated in a semicircle, and there were eighteen of us in the room.

The professor said, “Gentlemen, if the doctrine of election is true, why should we be engaged in evangelism?” No one raised a hand to offer an answer, so he systematically, seriatim, began at one side of the semicircle, interrogating each student to give a response. I breathed a sigh of relief, because he started on the left side of the semicircle, and I was on the extreme right end. I had seventeen points of buffer between myself and the relentless interrogation of the professor.

The professor said to the first student in front, “If predestination is true, why should we be involved in evangelism?” The student said: “Beats me. I’ve always wondered about that.” He went to the second student, and he said, “What about it?” The second person said, “I have no earthly idea.” The next person said, “I would think evangelism would be a Herculean waste of time if it’s already settled in eternity by the divine decree.”

None of those answers satisfied the professor, so he kept going relentlessly around the semicircle, receiving “I don’t know” after “I don’t know.” Pretty soon my buffer was disintegrating, and he came to me. He said, “Well, Mr. Sproul, what do you think?” Sheepishly I said: “I know this isn’t what you’re looking for. I know the answer has to be far more profound than this. But after all, one of the reasons we should be engaged in evangelism is that Jesus commands us to do it.”

Here is why I will never forget it. The professor looked at me and said: “Yes, Mr. Sproul. What could possibly be a more insignificant reason to do evangelism than that Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, the Savior of your soul, and your personal Lord, commands you to do it?” I would have been much better off if I would have said, “Beats me, I don’t know.”

Then the professor went beyond that. He said that it is not enough to be engaged in evangelism, in light of election, merely out of a sense of duty. He said, “Do you not understand that evangelism is one of the greatest privileges God gives to the church?”

Then the professor went on to explain that God could have preached His Word from the clouds, in His own voice, without any human participation. But, the Bible says, not only did He have a plan of salvation that involved election, but He has chosen both the ends and the means for those ends.

God has chosen chiefly the foolishness of preaching as the means by which He will gather His elect to Himself. In choosing the foolishness of preaching, He gives us the unspeakable privilege of participating in this majestic program of redemption that He has conceived from the foundation of the world.

No preacher is indispensable. The cemeteries of our world are filled with indispensable people. Those of you who are preachers know as well as I do that God does not need you to accomplish His purposes of redemption. God certainly does not need me. He did not need Isaiah. He did not need Jeremiah. He did not need the Apostle Paul. But He has given us the most sacred vocation possible: to be those who carry this treasure in earthly vessels.

Believed, Heard, Preached, Sent

Paul proceeds with his reasoning: “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?” No one is going to put trust in a Savior whom they do not believe is capable of saving them.

When I have a plumbing problem, I do not call the grocer, because I have no reason to believe the grocer can fix my problem. Likewise, when I face the biggest, deepest problem of human existence—the problem of how I shall escape the wrath that is to come from the holy God—why would I put any trust or confidence in someone unless I first believe that person is able to redeem me? It is a precondition to call upon Him that I first believe in Him.

Then Paul says, “And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” It is not enough to say to someone, “What you have to do to be saved is believe in Jesus.” That person may turn around and say to you: “Who’s that? Never heard of Him.”

There are millions of people in the world today who have never heard the name of Jesus. People who have never heard the name of Jesus are not going to put their trust in Jesus. They are not going to call upon Jesus. They cannot possibly believe in Jesus, because they do not know anything about Jesus.

Saving faith requires data and information. That is why the church is commanded to go to every corner of the world and make that message plain and known to all people: “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?”

Paul continues in the series, saying, “And how shall they hear without a preacher?” You know that answer to that question: They will not. They are not going to hear anything about Jesus unless someone tells them about Jesus. People are not going to believe a gospel they have never heard. Without a preacher, they will never hear it.

“And how shall they preach,” Paul goes on, “unless they are sent?” The Latin word for send is missio, from which we get the word mission. That is why we have missionaries. Missionaries do not just go on their own. They are sent. We see this throughout the pages of the Old Testament. God will anoint a prophet, put His word in the prophet’s mouth, and then send the prophet to the people.

Missionaries cannot go unless someone supports them and sends them. It is not everyone’s responsibility in the church to be a missionary, but every member of the church is responsible to make sure that missionary activity gets done. We all have a part to play in that endeavor.

The Beautiful Feet of Him Who Brings Good News

Paul then quotes from Isaiah these words:

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

The full quote from the Old Testament is:

“How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace” (Isa. 52:7).

Does the name Pheidippides mean anything to you? Have you heard of him? He lived in the fifth century BC, when the Greeks were at war with the Persians. There were three great historic battles: the Battle of Salamis, on the sea; the Battle of Thermopylae, at the pass, where a handful of men held off a whole army; and then the Battle of the Plain, the name of which plain was Marathon.

Pheidippides was the runner commissioned to take the message from the battlefield back to the city of Athens. He ran the entire distance, twenty-six miles, which is the distance of the modern race that we call the “marathon” in honor of that occasion. This man ran all the way from the plain into the city of Athens to bring the gospel, the good news of the Greek victory at Marathon.

The image Isaiah uses is taken from the watchtowers among the Jewish people. When the soldiers would go out into the field of battle, those back in the city would be concerned about the outcome of the battle. They waited breathlessly for word of what had taken place. They did not have news channels there live, broadcasting pictures back. The only way they would know the outcome was if a messenger came from the battlefield and let the people know whether the outcome was victory or defeat.

Those who were positioned in the watchtower, looking into the distance, could tell long before they could hear the messenger’s voice whether the message was good news or bad news. You know how they could tell? By the messenger’s feet.

In the distance, if they saw the feet of the messenger moving in the “survival shuffle,” where the feet were hardly lifted off the ground, they knew in advance that the man was overcome with despair and bringing bad news. But when they looked into the distance and saw the feet of the messenger making the dust fly from the floor of the earth, they knew the message was gospel—good news.

The watchmen could tell the good news when they saw the messenger’s feet flying on the mountain, so they said:

“How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace.”

I know that the person who led me to Christ, the person who brought me to faith, was the third person of the Trinity. It was God the Holy Spirit. No mortal has the ability to bring anyone to faith. Yet, God worked through a human instrument, a man who told me about Jesus on September 13, 1957. I will never forget it. I am eternally grateful to that person, not because he had the power to change my heart, but because God enlisted him for this sacred task. This man told me the gospel. As long as I live, in my eyes, his feet will be beautiful.

So, Paul answers the question: If election is true, why should we preach? It is not simply a matter of duty, but because God gives us this blessed privilege: to be those whose feet are beautiful in the eyes of those who hear and respond to the gospel. Let us pray.

Father, how we thank You for the sweetness of that gospel that we have heard again and again. We pray that you will seal it in our hearts. We pray that the simple conditions of confession with our mouths and believing in our hearts may be fully met within us, that our salvation would be sure. We thank You, Father, that it is impossible for us to ascend into heaven to bring Christ down or to descend into the abyss to bring Christ up. We thank You for that Word that is near to us, within our grasp, that You have given to us for our hearts. We ask You this, and we pray to You and thank You for this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.