FOR THERE IS NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN JEW AND GREEK: ou gar estin (3SPAI) diastole Ioudaiou te kai Hellenos: (3:22,29,30; 4:11,12; 9:24; Acts 10:34,35; 15:8,9; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 2:18-22; Ephesians 3:6; Colossians 3:11)

Although in (Ro10) Paul is addressing primarily Jews, he again stresses that the gospel applies equally to Greeks and, indeed, to all who call on the Lord Jesus.

FOR THE SAME LORD IS LORD OF ALL: o gar autos kurios panton: (14:9; 15:12; Acts 10:36; 1 Corinthians 15:47; Philippians 2:11; 1 Timothy 2:5; Revelation 17:14; 19:16)

There is not one God to the Jews, more kind, and another to the Gentiles, Who is less kind. The promise is the same to all, who call on the name of the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, as God manifest in the flesh. All believers thus call upon the Lord Jesus, and none else will do so humbly or sincerely.

In Our Daily Bread we read the following devotional entitled "Different--Yet Alike"

God, whose creative imagination is inexhaustible, delights in diversity. Billions upon billions of snowflakes fall every year, yet no two are exactly alike.

Wilson Bentley was so fascinated by this infinite variety that with the help of a photomicrograph he devoted himself to taking pictures of these exquisite crystals. They show that each snowflake is usually a hexagon with six tips or dendrites forming a perfectly symmetrical design. Yet there are no duplicates! What awe-inspiring evidence that God delights in diversity!

That same sense of wonder fills our hearts as we think about the diversity of human beings with all their ethnic and cultural differences. Yet men and women everywhere, whether dark-skinned Pygmies or tall, blond Scandinavians, are basically the same. All have the same anatomical structure, the same emotions, the same needs, and the same sin-stained nature.

We are also the same in our need of salvation. And there is just one way. Anyone, anywhere, anytime, who calls on Jesus Christ in faith experiences the destiny-changing wonder of God's redemptive love (Rom. 10:13). The one and only Savior has been provided for all of us. --VCG

There's no difference--all are sinners,
God has made it plain;
Yet we all can have salvation--
Christ for us was slain. --Hess

No one's so good that he can save himself; no one's so bad that God can't save him.

Paul quotes verbatim from the Septuagint (LXX) of Joel 2:32 to prove this salvation is open to everyone. It is interesting that in the original Hebrew the verse is translated as follows by the NAS...

"And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the LORD has said, even among the survivors whom the LORD calls. (note the last phrase speaks to God's sovereignty in salvation - He calls).

The prayer promises of Scripture are restricted to the people of God, with one notable exception, the "whoevers" who call out for salvation.

Paul had already proved that “there is no distinction” in condemnation (Ro3:22) now affirms “there is no difference” in salvation. Instead of the Jew having a special righteousness of his own through the Law, he was declared to be as much a sinner as the Gentile he condemned.

Read the following devotional from Our Daily Bread entitled "Call On His Name"...

Bible teacher Gary Burge stood at one end of a long, empty Gaza street. He was in Israel to do research for a book about Palestinian believers, and he wanted to talk to a Dr. Hassan at the Ali Arab hospital. The hospital was at the other end of the street, so he started walking. He soon discovered why the street was empty. On one side was the Israeli militia; on the other were Palestinian youths.

Halfway up the street, the calm was shattered by angry shouts, the chaotic clatter of rocks bouncing off plastic military shields, and the pop of rifles firing rubber bullets. Burge broke into a run. As he reached the hospital, he shouted desperately, "Dr. Hassan! I have come to see Dr. Hassan!" The door opened slightly, and a hand pulled him inside. Burge had called the name of the one who could save his life.

For sinners, "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Jesus is that name, "the name which is above every name" (Phil. 2:9). We are all born in sin. We have no hope of ever saving ourselves (Eph. 2:8-9). Our situation is desperate. The only way of escape is to call on Jesus, who promises to save us from all our sin. But we must ask Him.

How about you? Have you called on His name? --DCE

No other name can save me,
No other name beside,
But Jesus Christ the risen Lord,
The One they crucified. --Brandt

To get into heaven, it's who you know that counts.

This entire section emphasizes the difference between “Law righteousness” and “faith righteousness.” The contrasts are seen in the following summary.
 

This section of Romans 10 brings before us the answer to the most frequently asked questions we hear, especially from non-Christians. That question is, "What happens to all the people who never hear about Jesus?" That question in phrased in a variety of forms, but basically it is the expressed concern of many -- especially when they hear Christians talking about the uniqueness of Jesus. When we say, as Paul so strongly says in this passage, that Jesus is Lord and it is only through him that men come to God, immediately it raises the question, "Well, what about those who never hear of Jesus?"

AND HOW SHALL THEY BELIEVE IN HIM WHOM THEY HAVE NOT HEARD: pos de pisteusosin (3PAAS) ou ouk ekousan (3PAAI): (1:5; 16:25,26; Mark 16:15,16; Luke 24:46,47; John 20:31; Acts 19:2; Acts 26:17,18; 2 Timothy 4:17; Titus 1:3)

Years ago there was a great evangelist named Gypsy Smith. He was born a gypsy in England and came to Christ as a boy. Gypsy Smith used to preach up and down this country. I remember Dr. H. A. Ironside saying that Gypsy Smith came to Moody Church on one occasion and held meetings and told about his conversion and about his gypsy life. The people would sit, entranced with these wonderful stories he told. At the end of the meeting he would give an altar call, and people would surge forward in great numbers. Dr. Ironside said he used to wonder what they were coming for. Did they want to be gypsies, or what? They had really been given nothing in which to believe.

AND HOW SHALL THEY HEAR WITHOUT A PREACHER: pos de akousosin (3PAAS) choris kerussontos (PAPMSG):

This passage is often used as the basis for the church’s missionary program, and rightly so, but its first application is to the nation of Israel. The only way unbelieving Jews can be saved is by calling on the Lord. But before they can call on Him, they must believe. For the Jew, this meant believing that Jesus Christ of Nazareth truly is the Son of God and the Messiah of Israel. It also meant believing in His death and resurrection (Ro 10:9-10). But in order to believe, they must hear the Word, for it is the Word that creates faith in the heart of the hearer (Ro 10:17). This meant that a herald of the Word must be sent, and it is the Lord who does the sending. At this point, Paul could well have been remembering his own call to preach the Word to the Gentiles (Ac 13:1-3).

God could have chosen any means by which the message of salvation might have come (angelic messengers, direct working without a human preacher), but God’s "normal" way of bringing people to Jesus Christ is through the preaching of the gospel.

Our Daily Bread has an interesting illustration of Paul's charge to all believers, entitled "The King's Message"...

On January 21, 1930, the name of Harold Vidian became synonymous with heroism. On that day, England's King George V was scheduled to give the opening address at the London Arms Conference. The king's message was to be sent by radio all around the world.

Donald McCullough, in his book The Trivialization of God (NavPress, 1995), tells us that a few minutes before the king was to speak, a member of the CBS staff tripped over an electrical wire and broke it, cutting off the whole American audience. With no hesitation, chief control operator Harold Vidian grasped one end of the broken wire in his right hand and the other in his left, thus restoring the circuit. Electricity surged through his body. Ignoring the pain, Vidian held on until the king had finished his address.

I see in this a challenge for Christians. The message of the King of kings must go to the whole world. But only as we allow God's power to pass through us can the Lord's saving gospel be transmitted. Paul wrote, "How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?" (Rom. 10:14). If we are willing to serve as conduits, regardless of the cost to us, the good news will be proclaimed around the world.

Will you be a conduit for the King's message? --VCG

When I gave my life to Jesus,
He became my Lord and Friend;
Now His power is flowing through me,
As His message I extend. --Hess

The good news of Christ is the best news in the world.

In another devotional from Our Daily Bread entitled "A Final Witness" we read the following story...

If you were in the midst of a disaster, would you think to witness to people around you? John Harper did.

Harper was a Scottish minister who was traveling by ship to preach for 3 months at Moody Church in Chicago. As the ship crossed the Atlantic, it struck an iceberg and began to sink. Some passengers were able to reach lifeboats, but many, Harper included, were flung into the cold Atlantic.

As the people frantically tried to stay afloat, Harper swam around asking individuals if they knew Jesus. At one point, Harper approached a passenger floating on a piece of debris and pleaded with him to trust Christ. Just before Harper slipped under the icy waters for the last time, he said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

Four years later, at a meeting of survivors of that ship, the Titanic, the man testified that he had been saved twice that night. First, he had trusted Christ because of Harper's witness, and second, he had been plucked from the frigid sea.

Harper's dying wish was that he could bring hope to hopeless people. Is that our living wish? In crisis or at ease, do we let people know about the One who can save for eternity? Harper's final witness reminds us to tell the good news to people who are drowning in their sin. —JDB

Help us, Lord, to be a lifeline
To a dying world today,
Bringing hope to hopeless people
As we share salvation's way. —Sper

We need to tell everyone about Someone who can save anyone. (What About Those Who Have Never Heard)

In Our Daily Bread we read about the "Undelivered Message"...

George Sweeting, in his book The No-Guilt Guide for Witnessing, tells of a man by the name of John Currier who in 1949 was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Later he was transferred and paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee.

In 1968, Currier's sentence was terminated, and a letter bearing the good news was sent to him. But John never saw the letter, nor was he told anything about it. Life on that farm was hard and without promise for the future. Yet John kept doing what he was told even after the farmer for whom he worked had died.

Ten years went by. Then a state parole officer learned about Currier's plight, found him, and told him that his sentence had been terminated. He was a free man.

Sweeting concluded that story by asking, "Would it matter to you if someone sent you an important message--the most important in your life--and year after year the urgent message was never delivered?"

We who have heard the good news and experienced freedom through Christ are responsible to proclaim it to others still enslaved by sin. Are we doing all we can to make sure that people get the message? --RWD

We who rejoice to know You
Renew before Your throne
The solemn pledge we owe You
To go and make You known. --Houghton

Keep the faith--but not to yourself.

Our Daily Bread tells the following story about "Brother John"...

It's only a humorous story, yet it makes a serious point. Brother John was a timid man who dreaded speaking in public. So he was terrified on the day it was his turn to give a devotional message. With his knees trembling, he faced his listeners and said, "Do you know what I'm going to say this morning?" "No," answered the audience. He then said, "Neither do I," and he ran from the room.

The next day he was told to try again. He said, "Do you know what I'm going to say?" This time they replied, "Yes." So he said, "Then you don't need me to tell you." Again he fled.

He tried a third morning, saying, "Do you know what I'm going to say?" Half his hearers shouted, "Yes!" and half shouted, "No!" "Ah," said Brother John, "then let those who know tell those who don't know," and again he fled.

At first, his hearers sat in silence. Then the words hit home: "Let those who know tell those who don't know."

For 3 years, Jesus' disciples absorbed His teaching and observed His mighty works. They had come to know Him as the way, the truth, and the life. He was God in the flesh, the One who is "eternal life" (1 John 1:2). In the years to come, they devoted their lives to telling others about Christ.

Today, let those who know tell those who don't. —DJD

Tell the sweet story of Christ and His love,
Tell of His power to forgive;
Others will trust Him if only you prove
True every moment you live. —Wilson
© Renewal 1952 Rodeheaver Co.