CCC Livestream - It's All About The Gospel - Romans 10:5-13
Live Worship Gathering: 9/14/2025
Preaching: Jason Purdy
Everyone Who Calls On The Name Of The Lord
Jason Purdy
It’s All About The Gospel / Romans 10:5–13
I invite you to take your copy of God’s word and turn with me to Romans 10.
We will be looking at verses 5-13 today.
For the most astute among you, you will remember that I skipped us ahead to this very passage on Easter Sunday back in April of this year.
And because of that, I prayed about whether I would skip this passage now because I had preached it then.
But I came to the conclusion that these verses are so foundational to the book of Romans and so foundational to our understanding of salvation by grace alone through faith alone,
And so hope filled and life giving in the midst of so much death through violence we have seen in the news recently,
That the Spirit of God through the word of God that is living and active will give us what we need today through this passage.
So, I just decided not to look at one note from that April sermon, and study and pray and prepare a brand new sermon from this passage for today.
Last week, the passage answered a question about how in the world so many Jewish people who had grown up learning the law of God could fail to attain the righteousness of God,
which is another way of saying they failed to be saved from the wrath of God,
when so many Gentiles who did not grow up learning about God at all have now attained the righteousness of God for salvation without having that great religious background.
And we saw that the answer was: God never intended for anyone to attain righteousness and salvation through following the works of the law.
One of the main goals of the law was to convince all mankind that no one can possibly perfectly obey the law, because of our sin.
The law was not giving for us to establish our own righteousness with God.
The law was giving to convince us that we are not right with God, leading us to place our faith in Jesus Christ, who was the God man who did perfectly fulfill God’s law and then took our punishment in our place, the righteous dying for the unrighteous, so that by placing faith in Jesus, you will be saved and gifted the righteousness of God.
And we ended off last week with these words from verse 4: For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
And now, our passage today is going to flesh out more what it means for Christ to be the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes and what exactly it looks like to attain God’s righteousness by faith, which is the most important thing you can know and cling to in the midst of a dark and sinful world where so many stumble in darkness refusing to bow the knee to our Lord Jesus Christ:
Romans 10:5–13 ESV
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
1. The Message Of Faith For Salvation Is Accessible To All Who Hear
I showed us last week from Leviticus how the idea of God’s law is very simple, and this is what verse 5 is saying:
Here is how attaining the righteousness of God based on the law works: the person who does the commandments shall live by them.
That’s it.
Do you want to be right with God, saved from the wrath of God, and have the hope of eternal life with God instead of eternal torment?
Then do the commandments of the law, and you will live have all these things!
Yet, I showed you last week: we have all failed miserably to do the commandments of God, even the most zealous among us.
Just consider for a moment what Jesus said is the greatest commandment in the law:
Matthew 22:37–40 ESV
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Have you ever once for one split second loved anything else more than you loved God? Of course, we all have.
Have you ever for one split second loved and wanted more good for yourself than someone else? Of course, we all have.
So seeking to attain the righteousness of God through works and earning is a fools errand.
But, the greatest news in the world is that God has offered his righteousness to us not based on works and earning, but based on faith.
And Paul demonstrates this to us by showing it to us from the Old Testament, which is so helpful because he is showing us time and time again that salvation into the righteousness of God has always been offered by faith, even to the earliest Jews.
So, if righteousness based on the law says you must perfectly do all the law.
Verse 6 - But righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is to bring Christ down)
“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 that we proclaim);
Listen to:
Deuteronomy 30:11–14 ESV
11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
You see, even the Old Testament law was not some kind of cryptic mysterious thing.
It was actually quite simple:
Do not murder
Do not steal.
Do not commit adultery.
Yet, because we are all sinners, we have not obeyed.
So, what Paul does here is because Jesus Christ is now the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes, he applies the same truths about the law to Jesus and how we attain righteousness by faith.
It is so natural for us to believe when we look around at the darkness and evil of the world, and when we see the darkness and sin in our own hearts, that the only way to obtain salvation from God’s wrath and the righteousness of God must be by solving some great mystery or some attaining some great feat!
Our hearts naturally say: surely I must ascend to the heavens or go beyond the sea or descend to the lowest places in order to obtain this righteousness of God.
That’s why every other religion in the world teaches this.
You must scale great heights of spirituality and good deeds, or you must go to the uttermost parts of the earth to do good, or you must descend into the worst pits of suffering in order to have your sins cleansed and forgiven.
In other words, salvation is so far from you, you must do and do, and go and go, and suffer and suffer to possibly attain salvation.
But God says, no no no.
The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart: its the word of faith that we proclaim and you attain it by believing in faith.
How can that be?
The answer was already in verses 6 and 7.
We cannot ascend to the heights and bring salvation down.
We cannot descend into the abyss and bring a Savior back from the dead.
That’s what trying to attain righteousness by works is like.
But, the great news of the gospel is not because you are a sinner, you must now go do great things for God, the great news of the gospel is that while you were still a sinner, God scaled all the heights and suffered in all the depths by sending His son Jesus to become a man, live righteous, die in punishment for sin, and rise to defeat sin and death on your behalf,
If only you would honor his great work by believing it by faith.
When we were 10 trillion miles away from God, we did not run to God, God ran to us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.
The message of faith for salvation is accessible to all who hear.
2. Saving Faith Is Composed Of Belief and Confession
Now, why does it say in verse 8: the word of faith is near you, in your mouth and in your heart?
Verses 9-10: because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Notice, in verse 9, the order is confess with your mount and believe in your heart.
In verse 10, the order is believe in your heart and confess with your mouth.
The reason Paul changes up the order is because he is making clear that these are two sides of one coin.
You don’t have to believe first then confess, or confess then believe.
And you don’t have some people who confess and don’t believe
Or others who believe but don’t confess.
Just like water is composed of both hydrogen and oxygen, genuine saving faith is composed of belief and confession.
So, let’s break down both, genuine saving faith consists of the confession that Jesus is Lord.
The word Lord is the same word used in the Old Testament to refer to God.
The confession that Jesus is Lord is the confession that Jesus is the God of the Old Testament who created the heavens and the earth and reigns sovereignly over the earth with absolute power, might, and authority.
It is the confession that Jesus is the holy one of Israel who became flesh and now dwelt among us but who is now highly exalted and has the name bestowed on him that is above every name, and finally at the end of this age:
Philippians 2:10–11 ESV
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The confession that Jesus is Lord means that He is Lord of all your life.
You see, Jesus is either Lord of all or he is not Lord at all.
And when Paul wrote these words, it was dangerous in the midst of a dark and evil Roman empire to make the confession that Jesus is Lord.
Some even lost their lives for it.
That why Paul wrote back in chapter 8:
Romans 8:36–37 ESV
36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
And people all over the world still die today for confessing Jesus is Lord, and it could happen to any one of us, yet our Lord Jesus said:
Matthew 10:28 ESV
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
And if the confession “Jesus is Lord” is worth dying for, is it not worth living for?
The confession that Jesus is Lord means that He’s Lord of your heart, and of your mind, and of your eyes, and of your wallet, and of your schedule, and of your time, and of your marriage, and of your children, and Lord of your days, and Lord of your body, and Lord of your tongue.
There is not one minuscule detail of your life, of your existence, of your past, your present or your future, by which Jesus is not completely sovereign Lord of.
Listen, none of us can conceive of the magnitude of all it will mean for our life, our future, and our eternity to confess Jesus as Lord, but saving faith is convinced of it nonetheless.
And then we spend the rest of our lives in God’s word, in prayer, and in God’s church growing in how to live with Christ as Lord in every area of life by the power of the Spirit of God in us.
Genuine saving faith consists of the confession that Jesus is Lord.
Genuine saving faith also consists of the belief in the heart that God raised Jesus from the dead.
Remember last week, verse 2 said that those who pursue God’s righteousness by the law have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
It’s not enough to have good feelings toward the idea of God.
It’s not enough to say you believe in God.
It’s not enough to say you are a spiritual person.
It’s not enough to be active in religion.
You must have the knowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord and God, that He died in your place taking the punishment of God for your sin, and that God raised Jesus from the dead to conquer your sin and death in your place.
Inherent in what it means to believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the grave is that you stake your life and eternity on it.
You trust that what Jesus did in the cross and resurrection, He did to save you from the wrath to come, and to adopt you into His family - the church, in order that you might live in perfect righteousness with Him for eternity.
You trust God from your heart that if you died today, which is a possibility for everyone of us in this room, you trust that you would be fully saved from the wrath of God due your sin, and you would be welcomed immediately into God’s presence, not because of anything you have done or not done, but because of one reason and one reason only, Jesus died for me and God rose him from the dead to make me right with God.
Attaining salvation and the righteousness of God is not bound up in a spiritual experience, walking a certain path, following certain rules, suffering through certain hardships, having a long background in church, having a strong Christian family background, being sprinkled as a infant, being baptized in water as an adult, serving in the nursery at church, being a deacon, an elder, a pastor, a preacher, an evangelist, a servant, a martyr.
Some of those things are good and right, but please do not ever point to any of those things to answer the question: why do you believe you have been saved by God?
For a long time, Christians have used the language: if you died today, and God asked you why should I let you into my Heaven, what would be your answer?
Now, the Bible doesn’t say God will ask that, but I’m your pastor, so I’ve got to make this clear just in case:
Don’t you say you got baptized and served in the nursery.
The only saving faith answer that that question is: Jesus.
I confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart that God rose Him from the dead.
Verse 10: for with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
The heart is the seat of a man’s soul, his place of deepest conviction and will, that’s where one believes.
And Jesus taught us that out of the heart, the mouth speaks.
What is true in a man’s heart will be expressed through His mouth.
When one believes and confesses, they are justified and saved.
Both words are once again two sides of the same reality.
Justified means in that moment God judicially declares you right with God, having the very righteousness of God through faith.
And saved means saved from the great wrath of God that is soon coming to punish all sin, but they one who believes and confesses is saved from it, for Jesus took the wrath of God that they deserved on himself on the cross.
Saving faith is composed of belief and confession.
3. Everyone Who Calls On The Name Of The Lord Will Be Saved
Now remember, we are still in a section of Scripture that is asking and answering the question: how is it that many Jews who grew up with the law of God did not attain righteousness while so many Gentiles who did not grow up with the law of God and did not pursue God have now attained righteousness?
And the answer is: anyone and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved no matter who they are or what their background.
Verse 11: For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
It is a great shame that Jews who were zealous for God and spent all of their lives trying to establish their own righteousness through the law fail to attain it and spend eternity in Hell.
It is a great shame that some who grew up in church and attend church all their lives, believing that they have established righteousness with God will fail to attain it and spend eternity in Hell.
It is a great shame that so many religious teachers and churches teach a false gospel of universal tolerance, political activism, social justice, or health and wealth believing that we can separate Christ from the Scriptures and recreate him in our own image, and they fail to attain righteousness with God and spend eternity in hell.
It is a great shame that so many lives dedicated to the gods of self, fame, control, power, money, security, religion, worldly philosophies, career success, sports, and entertainment will fail to attain the righteousness of God and spend an eternity in hell.
But the Scriptures say, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
For those who believe, the shame that we deserved was placed on Christ when he was punched, spit upon, whipped, and hung naked on the cross.
This is why Hebrews says:
Hebrews 12:2 ESV
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
The only way your life ends in honor instead of shame is that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is why we as Christians are to be people of honor who seek to outdo one another in showing honor, because Jesus has taken away our shame and promised us a place of honor with Him for eternity.
Verse 12: For there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
Whether you grew up with the greatest of spiritual privileges, or whether this is your first time ever hearing words out of a Bible, there is no distinction with God, the same Lord is Lord of all, and will bestow the riches of salvation to all who call on him.
No matter your ethnic background or your socioeconomic level - there is no distinction.
The same Lord is Lord of all - that’s why, in the end, we read that all people will finally bow the knee to the glorious Lord Jesus even if they rejected him, and even if they are going to hell, because the same Lord is Lord of all and all who rejected him in life will confess Him as Lord to their shame, and all who called out to him in faith for salvation will confess Him as Lord to great honor and glory.
He bestows his riches to all who call upon him.
We’ve already read back in
Romans 9:23 ESV
23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
The Bible describes our salvation as receiving the riches of God by His mercy and grace.
Ephesians 1:7 ESV
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
Do you value the riches you have in salvation and a relationship with God more than you value anything else?
Like Jesus said, what would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?
This life is so short, and you can’t take anything of the world with you when you die.
Your true riches are those things of salvation which are eternal.
Verse 13: For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
It’s a direct quote from the Old Testament prophet Joel.
And in it, he is warning about the final day of the Lord when God will return to pour His wrath and judgment on the earth.
But, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
A lot of times, when we use the words saved or salvation, we are thinking about being born to new spiritual life and being forgiven of our sins, which is all gloriously true.
But, make no mistake, the reason God calls salvation what He does, the reason He calls us saved is because He is saving us from His own just wrath that He will rightly pour out on sinners.
Calling on the name of the Lord brings together all the ideas of belief and confession of Jesus as Lord and God.
It is not just some vague crying out of: God, if you exist, save me!”
No, it is a specific calling out on the name of the Lord, the God who made the heavens and the earth, the God who came and took on human form in the person of Jesus Christ, who lived, died, was raised and is now sitting at the right hand of the throne of God.
And may I remind us that once we are saved, we are called to live our entire lives to the glory of the name of Jesus.
I will close with a few passages in order to remind us that in all we do, we do in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1 Corinthians 1:2 ESV
2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
1 Corinthians 1:10 ESV
10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.
1 Corinthians 5:4 ESV
4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
Ephesians 5:20 ESV
20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Do you need to call on the name of the Lord Jesus for salvation today?
I’m not asking you if you’ve done religious things or been a good person.
I’m asking if you need to be saved from the wrath to come by confessing Jesus as Lord and believing that God raised him from the dead.
If you have never done that, none of the other stuff matters.
I implore you to call on the name of the Lord for salvation!
And to us the church, in the midst of what is a growing darkness in our land, would you hold fast to your confession?
Would you be unashamed in your confession of Jesus as Lord?
Would you speak the truth in love to those around you as a witness to the resurrected Jesus?
Would you not be anxious in these times, but instead pray in all circumstances to the Lord of heaven and earth and trust that He who raised Jesus will come again and make all things new?
Let’s pray.
(Invitation)