Do you trust in Christ or trip over him? (Rom. 9:30-33)

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How a person is saved from sin and its consequences is surely one of the most important questions we can possibly think about. By being saved from sin, I mean being delivered from the wrath of God by receiving his forgiveness for your sins and the inheritance of eternal life in him.  That clearly is more important that winning the lottery of life in this world, even more important than doing something that enhances everyone’s temporal existence, more important than any famous discovery, or becoming unbelievably rich, or just having a general good time in your fourscore years on earth.  After all, as Jesus put it, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?  What if you discover a universal field theory for physics if you are yet unsaved?  What if you engineer some amazing technological breakthrough that revolutionizes life on earth if you are yet unsaved?  Life on this earth is a pinprick in time.  Eternity is never-ending.  Salvation is about where you will spend eternity.  That’s of ultimate importance. 

Romans 9, as is all of the book of Romans, is about how people are saved, how they get right with God, and so here we are dealing with issues of ultimate importance.  In verses 6-29 of Romans 9, we have seen that the ultimate explanation why anyone is saved is that God chose them.  This choice is not based on foreseen faith or works of any kind, but rather is rooted in the sovereign pleasure and mercy of God.  In other words, the reason behind all other reasons why a person is saved is God’s gracious choice to save rather than anything in us.  That is very humbling but also very good to know because it means that our salvation in the final analysis rests not on anything in us but in God alone.  It’s deep answer to a crucial question, and we’re thankful that Paul has let us in on it.

But that’s not all he has to say.  Now in verse 30, the apostle asks the question, “What shall we say then?”  This is a question he asks elsewhere in this epistle, but every time, it means that Paul is drawing an inference or conclusion from what he had just been talking about (4:1; 6:1; 7:7; 8:31; 9:14, 30).  What this means is that verses 30-33 are tied inevitably to this discussion of election as the reason why Gentiles and not Jews were being saved and put in the church.  But, strangely, when we come to the verses before us, there is not a word about election. Rather, it is all about faith.  Faith, according to Paul, is the reason why Gentiles and not Jews were being saved and put in the church. 

So which is it?  Are we saved because God chose us before the foundation of the world, or are we saved because we believe in Jesus?  Again, which is it?  This is not a trivial question because we are still dealing with issues of ultimate and eternal significance.  It demands our attention.

The answer is that both are genuine explanations as to why a person is saved.  It’s not one or the other, but both.  We’re saved because God chose us and we’re saved because we trust in Christ.  These are not contradictory but complementary explanations.  To illustrate what I mean by that, think about the rockets that SpaceX is putting into space.  You can ask the question, “Why does a rocket fly into space?  What makes it go?”  One explanation would be rocket science: the physics behind rocketry.  That would be a genuine explanation.  But another explanation would be the scientists and the engineers who designed and built the rocket.  That’s also an explanation, isn’t it?  The laws of physics don’t design and assemble rockets: you need people with the proper expertise to do that.  Both are explanations: the laws of physics that make rockets fly and the physicists who build the rockets that fly.  And though these are different explanations, they are not competing explanations, and you need both to have a complete picture.

In the same way, God’s election to salvation and faith in Christ for salvation are both explanations as to why a person gets saved.  They are different explanations, but they are not competing explanations, and both are needed to have a complete picture.  In fact, to deny one in favor of the other is to deny Biblical truth.  These verses and those that follow in the next chapter will help keep us from doing that.  Romans 9:1-29 are unmistakably clear that God choses whom he wills, and that he does so unconditionally.  But verses 30-33 are also unmistakably clear that a person is saved when he or she puts their faith in Jesus Christ.  Again, these are not completing, but complementary, explanations.  We know that because they’re both Biblical!

How do we put these two things together?  Some people will say that they go together like this: from eternity God saw who would believe in Jesus and on that basis he chose to save them.  But this makes God’s election to depend on human will, which is what Paul expressly denies in 9:16.  So it can’t be that!  Others say that they don’t go together.  They would say no one is saved by faith, but rather that faith is only an evidence of salvation.  Election is what saves us, not faith.

By the way, this is the thing that the doctrine of time salvation teaches.  It asserts that faith has nothing to do with eternal salvation.  But this is not what Paul is teaching here, and that is why I have such a problem with it.  The logical endpoint of that doctrine is that it doesn’t matter whether a person believes in Jesus or not.

Neither of these positions are Biblical: not the Arminian position which makes divine election depend on human faith, nor the Antinomian position that makes faith unnecessary for salvation.  Here is what the Bible teaches.  It teaches us that we must believe in Christ to be justified.  To be justified simply means to be acquitted by God of all your sins and accepted into his favor forever.  That happens when a person believes the gospel and puts their faith in Christ.  That is when they are saved.  It is at that moment that they are united to Christ and the redemption purchased by Christ is applied to them.  You certainly can’t be saved for eternity without being justified before God!

But wait a minute: why is one person a believer and another not?  Is it because one person is smarter than the other?  Is it because one person had an opportunity to believe and the other didn’t?  We know that’s not the reason.  We are all dead in sins.  We all by nature live in the grave of spiritual deadness and depravity.  No one comes to God in Christ on their own, any more than a corpse can get up out of the grave and respond to a physician on its own.  The reason, if we let the Bible guide our reasoning, is that a person believes because they have been made alive by God through the miracle of the new birth.  It is a gift of the surprising grace of God.  It is an act of Almighty power.  It is not just resuscitation; it is resurrection, a new creation.  

Only God can do that, but God does not do that with just everyone.  For whom does he do this?  He does this for those whom he chose in Christ.  He does this with the elect.  We are saved when we trust in Christ, yes; but that faith by which we trust in Christ is given to us because before the foundation of the world God chose to save us by grace through faith in Jesus.  In other words, there is a mighty and indestructible link between election by God and conversion to God.  You don’t have one without the other.  Isn’t this what Paul has already taught us?  In Rom. 8:29-30, he teaches us that those whom God foreknew (that’s election) he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Jesus), and those whom God predestined he called (to faith in Christ through the gospel, 2 Thess. 2:13-14), and those whom he called he justified (when they believe), and those whom he justified he glorified (so certain that it’s spoken of as if it had already happened).

So when Paul moves from election in verses 6-29 to faith in verses 30 and following as the explanation for why a person is saved, he is not contradicting himself.  He has not forgotten what he is writing about.  Paul understood that both explain why a person is saved, and here focuses on faith as the reason why Gentiles rather than Jews are being saved.  

Perhaps the reason why Paul did this is that election itself is invisible to us.  We can’t peer into eternity past or look into the book of life. How then can we know a person is elect?  We can only know based on how they respond to the gospel.  Those who respond in faith and repentance are elect; those who remain in unbelief are not.  Listen to the way Paul put it as he described the conversion of the Thessalonians to faith in Christ: “Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For [note that word “for”!] our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost” (1 Thess. 1:4-6; see also John 6:37-40; 10:27-29; Acts 13:48).

These verses, however, weren’t meant primarily to teach us about the connection between election and faith, though they do assume that.  They were meant to underline the necessity of faith and the tragic consequences that follow when people reject the gospel, as many of Paul’s kinsmen were doing in his day.  That is the point of the passage and the main thing we want to emphasize today: the necessity of faith in Christ for salvation.  And we need to pay attention to this text, not only because of the doctrinal implications that we’ve been looking at, but also because in it we have both a promised consolation and a fearful warning.

A promised consolation

What consolation do we see here in this text?  Paul writes, “What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith” (30).  First of all, we see something encouraging about those who “have attained to righteousness.”  To attain to righteousness is another way of talking about justification before God.  It means to be saved.  The apostle is talking here of Gentiles.  He’s not saying of course that all Gentiles are saved but that Gentiles were being saved.  And what is it about them that Paul brings to our attention?  It is that they “followed not after righteousness.”  

If you want to know what that means, read Ephesians 2:1-3: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”  Or, Ephesians 4:17-19: “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”  Or, Romans 1: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (28-32).  All this helps to fill out what Paul means by not following after righteousness.

In particular, these were people who were living in sin, but who nevertheless were completely satisfied with their lives as they were.  They wallowed in their sin, and they were happy to do so.  They didn’t feel any need for true religion.  They were pagans, if they were anything, and they were perfectly content with that.  These were not people who were “searching for the truth.”  They were not following after righteousness.  They may have been eager about many things, but they were utterly untroubled about their sins.  They had no fear of God before their eyes.

Now why is that encouraging?  It’s encouraging for at least a couple of reasons.  It’s encouraging because it means that God can save anyone!  It means that you don’t have to be a particular type of person in order to be saved.  Of course an understanding of who the true God is, is necessary for saving faith.  Conviction of sin is essential.  You will not come to Christ to be saved if you don’t think you’re a sinner in need of saving!  There needs to be an unsettledness in our hearts and an abiding discontent with our ways.  We need to see the unsavoriness of sin and the beauty of holiness.  But all these were things that these people lacked!  They weren’t pursuing righteousness; they weren’t interested in it at all!  

And as we look around at our culture, doesn’t that describe so many people around us?  Unconcerned and uninterested in the gospel, and unable to see the relevance of it to themselves at all. And it can be depressing to the Christian and to the church as a whole.  We wonder, how in the world can these people come to faith?  It’s impossible, we think.

Well, it is!  This is what Jesus said about salvation, when the disciples asked him, “Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Mt. 19:25-26).  Listen, nothing is impossible with God.  He can take people who right now seem utterly hopeless from a human point of view.  Of course, in a real sense doesn’t that describe every one of us?  Isn’t it pure hubris to imagine that somehow it was inevitable for us to become a Christian?  No, because unless God had arrested your heart, you would have never come.  The fact of the matter is that even if someone is completely unconcerned right now, God is able to in a moment turn their entire life upside down and make them go from not pursuing righteousness to making it the only thing they are interested in.  One moment Paul is a persecutor of Christians and the next moment he is on his knees calling Jesus his Lord.  One moment a thief who is hanging on a cross next to Jesus is cursing and mocking him, and the next moment he is praying to him and confessing him as his Lord.  That’s the grace and power of God who will certainly save all those whom he chose in Christ.

So this is encouraging to me, living in a culture that seems to hard and resistant to the gospel.  God can take people who are not following after righteousness and change their hearts and turn them to Christ.

But it should also be encouraging to anyone who is not a yet Christian who, looking back over their life, and seeing that they have wasted it by following after everything except righteousness, may think that they are not candidates for salvation.  My friend, however bad your past is, it is not so bad as to become a barrier that keeps God from saving you.  Jesus said that he did not come to save the righteous but sinners.  There is hope and consolation for you in Christ.  

Second, we find consolation here in the way that is opened for us to Christ.  It is not the way of works but the way of faith.  Many Gentiles who had lived for so long in paganism and sin did attain to righteousness and were saved.  How?  By faith.  They obtained “the righteousness which is of faith.”  

What is the way of faith?  It means that we look to Christ and his righteousness as the basis of our hope for salvation.  It means that we stop trusting in ourselves and stop imagining that we can merit our way into heaven and place all our hope in Jesus and who he is and what he has done for us.  It means that we see Jesus as Lord and Savior.  It means that we really believe that Jesus did for us what we cannot do: he perfectly obeyed the law of God from the beginning to the end of his life, and then for the sake of sinners laid down his life willingly as an offering for sin.  It means believing that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin.  It means believing that God raised him from the dead because Jesus conquered sin and death.  It means believing that Jesus is exalted to the Father’s right hand as Lord and King of all the earth.  And it means living our lives in light of these realities.

It means believing that the righteousness that pleases the righteous God is not our righteousness but his own righteousness which is given to us as a gift in Christ.  It means that even the faith by which we receive the righteousness of God does not add even an ounce of merit to us, but is just the hand that receives the gift.  It is not the quality of your faith or the measure of your faith that justifies you; it is God who justifies you because of your union with Christ.  

And therefore the way of salvation is open to all, even the worst of sinners.  In fact, did not our Lord say this, that he will never turn anyone away who comes to him?  Anyone!  That means you, my friend.  And is that not a comforting thought?  Is it not hope-giving to know that God justifies, not the worthy, but the wicked and the ungodly (Rom. 4:5)?

Of course that doesn’t mean that we go on living in sin.  We’ve seen that grace takes sinners like us and changes us.  Union with Christ means union not only with his righteousness that justifies but also with his Spirit that sanctifies. It means that we die to sin and sin shall not have dominion over us.  It means that we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body and live.  And praise God for that!  The chains that once bound us to sin are freed by the grace and power of God through Jesus.  We have every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.

Third, we find consolation in the promise that all who find refuge in Christ will not be ashamed.  Note how the apostle puts it in verse 33: “As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”  Jesus is the stumbling stone and rock of offense for many (1 Pet. 2:7-8), but all who trust in him “shall not be ashamed.”  What does he mean by that?  He means that our hope in him will never be disappointed.  It means that we will find his promises to us to be true.  Has he promised to never leave us or forsake us?  Then he never will.  Has he promised to hear our prayers?  Then he will.  Has he promised to raise our bodies from the grave?  Then we can bank on that.  Has he promised to give us all needed grace?  Then we can expect it.  And it means that when we stand before him on the day of Judgment that we will not be ashamed but will be welcomed by him into his eternal kingdom.

A fearful warning

This is not all that this text gives us though.  Not only is there a promised consolation, but there is also a fearful warning.  This is primarily aimed at the Jews in Paul’s day, but there are principles here that apply more broadly: “But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, [he’s quoting from Isaiah 28:16 here] Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed” (31-33).

The warning is the danger of not attaining to the law of righteousness.  That is, it is the danger of remaining under the condemnation due to our sins.  It is the danger of remaining under the wrath of God.  It is the danger of future judgment.  That’s the warning implicit here. It is fearful because, unlike earthly discomforts, those who die in this condition, those who die in their sins, enter into an estate from which there is no escape.  There is no road from hell to heaven.  Here is how the author of Hebrews describes it: “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Heb. 10:26-27).

Who is it against?  It is against Israel in Paul’s day (Rom. 9:31).  Now this is instructive.  What characterized Israel in Paul’s day?  Well, for one thing, they were pursuing, following after, the law of righteousness.  The law here is God’s law.  It is contained in God’s word.  These were Bible people.  These were religious people.  These were sincere people.  These were zealous people (cf. 10:1-2).  But they did not attain the law of righteousness.  They remained unjustified.  They remained unsaved (10:1).  They were yet “anathema” (9:3), accursed.  

We have to be careful that we don’t think that a person is born again and on their way to heaven just because they believe in God and are sincere in their faith.  You can have all of that and go to hell.  This is not what I’m saying, this is what the apostle is saying.  Religion is a good thing, but apart from Christ it can’t save you.  So what were they missing?  They were missing faith in Christ.  Why?

First of all, they failed to trust in Christ because they were so satisfied with themselves.  This is what is true of those who were following after the law of righteousness.  They really did think they could attain it.  They really did believe that they were good enough.  They really did believe that they could please God and merit heaven.  So the gospel offended them.  They didn’t see their need for a righteousness outside of themselves.  Does that describe you?  My friend, as long as you think you can make it to heaven on the basis of your own good works, then you are in the same category as the Jews of whom Paul speaks here.  The warning is aimed at you.  Think about that.

Second, they failed to trust in Christ because they were offended at Christ.  “For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence” (32-33).  Jesus was an offense to them.  Why?  Because he didn’t rise to their expectations.  He wasn’t their style!  He didn’t come from the halls of academia; he wasn’t properly credentialed.  But more offensive than that, he failed to give them the kind of salvation that they wanted.  They didn’t want salvation from sins because, as we have seen, they already thought they had heaven sewed up.  Rather, they wanted salvation from their earthly oppressors.  They wanted a Messiah to defeat Rome.  They wanted to have their enemies run off their land. And they wanted a Savior who would essentially pat them on the back and affirm them in the choices that they had made for themselves.

Now doesn’t that sound familiar?  People don’t want a Savior who tells them they are sinner and who offers them a way of salvation by grace through faith.  They want a Jesus who will tell them that they’re okay just the way they are and maybe even give them a better life now.  But that is not the Jesus of the Bible, and so they’re offended at him.  He’s a rock of offense and a stone of stumbling.  Is that you?  Do you stumble at Jesus?  Have you submitted to the righteousness of God in him?  My friend, there is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

“What shall we say then?”  How will you come away from this?  Uninterested?  Uncommitted? Don’t walk away from this without answering the questions implicit in this text!  Are you trusting in Christ?  Or are you stumbling at the stumbling stone?  Embrace the promise and avoid the warning through faith in Christ.