"Salvation For All"   Romans 10:8-12                          03/26/16

⁸ The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;⁹ That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.¹⁰ For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.¹¹ For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.¹² For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

This reading starts out with the Apostle Paul telling the Roman church that the Word is nigh thee, which means it is near them. When you receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, Jesus is always near you because he is inside you through the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Word is nigh thee or near you because Jesus is the Word as written in the Gospel of John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." This reading continues on saying that this Word, meaning Jesus is even in thy mouth and in thy heart. Paul says this Word of Faith is what he preaches. The next verse explains the ease of being saved and how to receive God's free gift of salvation through Jesus. He explains that you must confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is your personal Lord and Savior and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and you are saved. Your salvation is a free gift from God as written in the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" The next verse of our reading says that anyone that believes in Jesus as their Lord and Savior will not be ashamed, this means that they will not be put to shame or disappointed. Now the last verse of our reading tells us that there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek and that the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. This verse is referring to a time when there was a difference between the Jews and Greeks. They were considered opposites because the Jewish people were God's chosen people and Greeks refers to everyone else that wasn't part of God's chosen people. Paul ends these statements saying that the same Lord over all, is rich unto all that call upon him. This means that anyone can call upon the name of Jesus and be saved. This may be shocking to some Jewish people that do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah but if they understood the Word of God, they would know that Paul in this reading was quoting Moses that the Word is very nigh unto thee which was also written in Deuteronomy 30:14, "But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." Moses wrote that you must do what the Word says but the Apostle Paul changed this quote to say that you must have Faith in Jesus instead of trying to do it yourself.  The Apostle Paul was saying the Old testament law was no longer valid because Jesus fulfilled the law as written in Romans 10:4, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."  This verse says that the law has ended for anyone that believes in Jesus because He fulfilled it for everyone that believes in Him.  In the Old testament there are thousands of laws that were given to the Jewish people. If anyone thinks it is possible to keep all those laws and commandments, you are deceived because you can't do it. No one can and that is why we needed a Savior Jesus. If you don't think you need a Savior, try to keep all the old testament laws as they were written.  Many of them don't even apply to today because we are much more advanced in technology with things like bathrooms which the Old testament law had very specific instructions on how to dispose of your bodily waste.  But give the law a try anyway if you think you can do it. When you fail and you will fail- I am speaking from experience here- You can change your perspective and receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior and accept the awesome Gift that God has given you. The complete understanding of this gift of Salvation through Jesus can only be understood through the Word of God. Salvation includes, Forgiveness of Sins, Everlasting life in Heaven, deliverance from all evil, prosperity, health and much, much more but it takes Faith in your Savior Jesus to receive it. When you receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, there are only two Commandments that you need to follow and you will accidentally adhere to more of the Old testament laws than you ever did with your own efforts. These two commandments were told to us by Jesus Himself when He was asked by the scribes of His day, what is the greatest commandment. Jesus' response to this question was quoted in the Gospel According to Mark 12:30-31, "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." Jesus said that there is no other commandment greater than these.  The most important thing for anyone to do in life is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. To do this, you have to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior because John 14:6 tells you that, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." If you do not go through Jesus it is as if you are despising God. Jesus made this very clear in the Gospel of Luke 10:16, "He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me." This again was a quote right from Jesus telling everyone that if you despise Him, you despise God. This is contrary to Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Add to this commandment, what Jesus called the second commandment to love your neighbor as yourself and you will never intentionally sin against anyone. If you treat your neighbor which is referring to anyone you come across, the way you treat yourself, you will never hurt anyone. The best part of these two commandments is that when you do receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you receive the Holy Spirit which will guide you to keep these two commandments. John 16:13 says, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth" With Jesus you do not have to do it alone, you have the Holy Spirit to guide you. Receive this salvation today and allow Jesus to work in your life through the Holy Spirit. Remember from our reading that this salvation is available to all men as written again in Paul's Letter to Titus 2:11, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men," In closing, if you still do not believe this is for all men, here is one final confirmation from the First Letter of John 2:2, "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Thank You Jesus!

³⁹  And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. ⁴⁰ But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? ⁴¹ And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. ⁴² And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.⁴³ And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

This reading from the Gospel of Luke is talking about Jesus' crucifixion. When Jesus was crucified, there were two criminals that were hung on crosses with Him at the same time. One on each side of Him. The reading says that one malefactor or criminal was railing Jesus which means He was verbally abusing Him for not doing anything to save Himself. The other criminal rebuked him immediately telling him to shut up because, what he did was deserving of this brutal death. He went on to say that Jesus did nothing amiss which means He did nothing wrong at all to deserve crucifixion. This same criminal that rebuked the other criminal, turned to Jesus and accepted Jesus into his heart by asking Jesus to remember him when He comes into His kingdom. Without hesitation, Jesus responded with love to a criminal who was hanging on a cross next to Him deserving his punishment for his wrongful deeds by saying, "Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." This speaks volumes about the love and forgiveness of Jesus. In this instance we have what appears to be a professional criminal who got caught and was sentenced to die for his crimes. He just so happened to be hanging on a cross next to Jesus our Lord and Savior when it was time for him to die. He realized who Jesus was and accepted him in to his heart and was forgiven by Jesus and given everlasting life. This is how much God loves us and it is written in the Gospel According to John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God's love is infinite for us and He showed us this by giving us Jesus as a savior to eliminate all our sins. For anyone that has read the old testament law, not just the ten commandments, you know that the laws and regulations that were placed upon Moses and the People of Israel were impossible to achieve. This is why we needed a savior, Jesus to take away all our sins when trying to keep all the laws of the old testament. The definition of sin as written in James 4:17, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." and also from the first letter of John 5:17, "All unrighteousness is sin:" Therefore is you do anything wrong and this means anything, it is a sin. These definitions make it very clear that no one can live up to a sin free life and be good enough themselves to be saved. That is why we need to have faith in a savior Jesus.   God gave us Jesus because He knew we couldn't and wouldn't be good enough to save ourselves that is why we have to believe what Jesus did for us to be saved. The only way you can be saved and go to heaven is through the free gift from God, Jesus, as written in Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" This says through grace which is a gift from God and faith are you saved. The Apostle Paul further confirms this in his Letter to the Romans 10:9, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." This is a very simple concept to understand, confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior and believe it is true in your heart and you are saved. This applies to everyone including the criminal from our reading, he showed his faith by asking Jesus to remember Him and Jesus acknowledged His faith by telling him, "To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." All he had to do was believe and he was saved even though he was sentenced to death for being a criminal. This is not saying that it is okay to sin or to be a criminal because Jesus died for  forgiveness of all your sins. This is saying that God loves you no matter what you do wrong. When you realize this awesome love God has for you, you will sin less by accident than you did before because you realize His love for you. You will want more than anything in your life to please your Father in Heaven. Consider this question for a moment. When you die, you are standing in front of the gates of heaven and asked the question, why should you be allowed to enter into heaven? What will you say? Well, I am a good person. I know most people think it is because of how good of a person they were but that is not going to get you into heaven. It is not how good your performance was here on earth that gets you into heaven. There is only one answer that will get you in and that answer is "Jesus." Jesus gave you a free pass into heaven and all you have to do is confess him as your Lord and Savior and believe it in your heart.  To further amplify how important this is for you to understand, think about what you consider to be the worst sin someone can commit.  You are thinking murder or adultery or stealing. These are minor sins compared to the worst sin you can commit in your life. The worst sin you can commit in your lifetime is rejecting Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  Jesus told us this Himself in the Gospel According to John 14:6, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."   Jesus said without a doubt that no man comes to the Father but by Him. So remember that the only answer to the question, what gives you a right to go to heaven is Jesus. Thank You Jesus!