Radio Broadcast Monday 01/27/2025

Classic Christianity – Book of Romans P43 (01-27-25)

Jesus is Our Righteousness By Faith

~ For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by 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).”

There are people today that insist on living by Law, yet by their very actions they prove that they do not obey Law. They are so foolish in their thinking, they will argue up a storm pretending and being hypocrites that they are obeying all the law of God. Not only are they foolish, but they are also proud of this, and it is sickening to hear their self righteous behavior where they think they are better than everyone else based on what they do or don’t do. And when you have the mind of Christ living in you, you begin to see clearly this self righteous attitude in others. No wonder, it is Faith that is the only thing that pleases God. Because if we think we are righteous in the sight of God and in the sight of others based on the things we do or don’t do, we are all doomed, because no one can obey the Law, no NOT one.

So call on Jesus directly to save you, and to give you Life that is eternal at the very moment in time you place Faith in Him, and Him alone for everything. Jesus is my EVERYTHING!

And a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, having done what, will I inherit eternal life?”
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone.

~ “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:12

~ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one believing in Me, even if he should die, he will live. And everyone living and believing in Me shall never die, to the age. Do you believe this?” John 11:25,26
—

~ Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge. Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.

For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by 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; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.

It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Hebrew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

But not all of them welcomed the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

But I ask, did they not hear? Indeed they did:

“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.”

I ask instead, did Israel not understand? First, Moses says:

“I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation;

I will make you angry by a nation without understanding.”

And Isaiah boldly says:

“I was found by those who did not seek Me;

I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me.”

But as for Israel he says:

“All day long I have held out My hands

to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

Romans 10:1-21

Pray to God:

Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”

~ “So he said, a righteousness that comes from God, a righteousness that is by faith, gets you out of the picture. You’re not in the picture. God is the initiator. God came down to you. Christ came down to you. Christ was raised from the dead. You didn’t have anything to do with it. And if you’re going to have a righteousness that is by faith, the only thing that you can do with these truths is respond to them. And you got two responses, ignore it or accept it. And when you accept it by faith, you’re saved, you’re born again of the Spirit of God. Is that fair? Of course, it’s fair. You couldn’t obtain righteousness through your good works. You can’t obtain righteousness because we’re so good and holy. So he provided a way whereby we could experience righteousness in spite of ourselves, not because of ourselves. Do we understand that guys?” ~ Bob George

Bible Study Booklets

Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the letter to the Romans. Available for download the complete series on the Book of Romans. Romans has been described as the most dynamic, life changing document ever penned. It is a study in systematic theology, a defense of the Gospel, and a practical guide to Christian living all in one.

Announcer 0:12
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.

Bob George 0:29
As we have talked about over the last weeks. The Book of Romans is written exactly to who it’s addressed to. It’s written to the Roman Christians, people who live in Rome, where the gospel went into that area and began to spread through the Roman Empire in the city of Rome. It’s basically addressed to Gentiles and what you’re going to be teaching, and what we will be teaching, and are teaching over these chapters is Paul teaching the Gentiles of what their attitude should be, basically, not only in their own relationship with Christ, but to the Hebrew, to the Hebrew brothers, who also are in Christ, but where the where their home base was back in Jerusalem, and then the gospel spread. We have to understand that as the Gentiles came to Christ, there was, and we’ll read that as we go along, they start getting puffed up and cocky and thinking, well, we’ve got it. And these Hebrews were claiming to be God’s chosen people, but we’re God’s chosen people and and all. And Paul has to address those things. I mean, it’s, it’s really is kind of a form of prejudice that starts taking place between the Hebrew and the Gentile. And so that’s why he’s he’s saying here, are you saying that the Gentiles who did not pursue a law of righteousness have attained it, but the Hebrew who pursued righteousness has not attained it? Said, Yeah, that’s true. You’ve got that. And why didn’t the Hebrews get righteousness, is because they stumbled over the stumbling stone. They were trying to obtain a righteousness on their own, instead of accepting the righteousness that comes from God. And so those things had to be explained. And that’s all Paul is doing here in the book of Romans, is basically explaining to Gentile believers what their attitude should be toward the Hebrew believers and toward their own for their own salvation.

So we’ll pick up in chapter 10, verse one, brothers, my heart, he’s talking to the Gentiles, basically now, brothers, my heart and desire and prayer to God is for the Israelites, is that they may be saved. Paul is saying, I’m a Hebrew myself. My heart’s desire is that my people of Israel will be saved. That’s my desire, and I can testify about them that they’re zealous for God, but their zeal is not based upon knowledge. They do not have the knowledge of imputed righteousness. Their knowledge of righteousness is something that I do to get God to receive or to accept me. In other words, I’m going to initiate my good deeds, and God’s going to respond to me by making me righteous. And so he said, they got a zeal for God, but it’s not in accordance with truth, with knowledge, and since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God, they sought to establish their own righteousness. And what did they use to establish their own righteousness? Obedience to the law. And here’s the law, and we’ve got the law. And then they added to the law some 600 and some additional laws, and to the things that we’ve talked about, where you can’t spit on the ground, that would be work. And if you go to Israel today, you’ve got a Shabbat elevator because you can’t push a button to get up to your floor, that would be work. And all of these laws on top of laws, and they established those things in order to try establish their own righteousness. They didn’t submit to God’s righteousness. They didn’t accept that God said, I will give you righteousness to all who come to me by faith and faith alone.

Christ we talked about last week is the end of the law. Now, folks, you don’t have to be a Greek scholar to interpret the meaning of this. Christ is the end of the law. What word don’t we understand? He’s the end of the law. How come? So that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Because under the law, no one will be declared righteous in the sight of God through obedience to the law. So in as much as no one will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God through their obedience or through their works. He came in with a New Covenant of grace that we’ve talked about before, whereby you come to Christ and you receive His righteousness by faith and not by works. No man could work hard enough or diligent enough to make themselves righteous in the sight of God. Now we make ourselves righteous in our sights, and if we can just keep our lives hidden from people long enough when people might think we’re righteous, but when you know each other and you know what’s going on under the skin, down where we live, you only can come to one conclusion, folks, if you’re honest, and that is, thank you, Lord Jesus for your mercy. Am I right or wrong?

So Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law. So he says, Here’s how Moses describes righteousness that is by the law. The man who does these things will live by them. Remember, he said, and Paul later on says, If you’re going to put on a law of circumstance or circumcision, you’re obligated to obey all of them. James said, if you’ve kept the whole law and just violated one point, you violated all of them. So he said, you don’t put yourself under any of them, because you’re not led any longer by the law that kills. You’re led by the Spirit of God, who lives in you, who leads you into the paths of righteousness. So the man who does these things, you’re obligated to live by them. If you want to be under the law, then be under all of it. Don’t cherry pick the law. We do that, don’t we? We cherry pick the law, and we don’t pay any attention to things like coveting. Don’t mention that to me. I just don’t commit adultery, I don’t steal, not too often, and all these kind of things. And then we come up with the thing. Well, most of the time I’m okay, or I try harder. I’ve tried hard. I’ve really given a good try. And he says, I’m sorry, folks, that’s not going to do it. You’re only one way that you’re ever going to obtain righteousness, and that is a righteousness that comes from God, not righteousness that you create on your own. So he says, the righteousness that is by faith, says, Don’t say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down so that what’s he saying here? You’re not the initiator a righteousness that is by faith. Says, I’m not going to go up to heaven to get God to come down. Here. I’m not going to go up into heaven, descend into heaven to get God to come down here, neither am I going to descend into the deep. That is to bring Christ up from the dead. I’m not going to go down and raise Jesus from the dead. I didn’t go up to heaven and convince him to come down to me. God initiated all of those things, did he not? And he says, righteousness that is by faith gets you out of the picture. You didn’t initiate any of this. If God didn’t consult with you, would it be okay if I came down died for you? He didn’t consult with you with salvation. He didn’t consult with you with creation. He just did it. So he said, a righteousness that comes from God, a righteousness that is by faith, gets you out of the picture. You’re not in the picture. God is the initiator. God came down to you. Christ came down to you. Christ was raised from the dead. You didn’t have anything to do with it. And if you’re going to have a righteousness that is by faith, the only thing that you can do with these truths is respond to them. And you got two responses, ignore it or accept it. And when you accept it by faith, you’re saved, you’re born again of the Spirit of God. Is that fair? Of course, it’s fair. You couldn’t obtain righteousness through your good works. You can’t obtain righteousness because we’re so good and holy. So he provided a way whereby we could experience righteousness in spite of ourselves, not because of ourselves. Do we understand that guys?

Well, what does it say? It says the word is near you. It’s in your mouth and in your heart, and that’s the word of faith that we’re proclaiming. I remember on the day that I came to Christ, I was driving home thinking, why didn’t I know this sooner? Why did it take me so long? Everything that I’ve ever looked for in my life was as close as a prayer. That was literally the words that I said to Amy was as close as a prayer. I felt like I’d been scrubbed. I didn’t know anything about being cleansed of unrighteousness. I didn’t know anything. Never had my Bible open. It cracked when I opened it. 36 years of age, set in church all my life, never had a Bible open, never was told to. I don’t think the pastors I had would have had it open either, either, unless it made a good impression. But the issue is, that’s where I was. And he said, If the word of God is near you, it’s in your mouth, it’s in your heart. So Jesus. Jesus has already come. You don’t have to go get him. He came. You don’t have to go get him out of the grave. He was raised. He did all of this for you. And so he says, If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you’ll be saved. That’s what it takes for salvation. Is to believe in your heart, confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.

Now, folks, I don’t want to camp on this, but I cannot over emphasize this enough. You will notice that he did not say if you’ll confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that He died on a cross. You’ll be saved. You will note it did not say that. Will you note that? It did not say that. It said that you believe that God raised Him from the dead. Paul said, without the resurrection, we’re to be pitied, of all people and are still in our sins, knowing full well that a cross occurred, and knowing full well the meaning of the cross, it’s where he took away the sins of the world. It’s where he cleared the deck for the divine action of now bringing life to the dead, the resurrection is the key, the centrality of the Christian message. Now, when you have the movie like we’re hopefully all going to go see of the passion. You will probably see the greatest depiction of what took place at the cross that has ever been recorded in human history on film. It’s accurate. He was beaten. The Bible says, as no man, he wasn’t hanging on the cross looking like a Braille cream at with these nice, long blonde hair. Surprisingly enough, he was a Hebrew. You’re going to see that everything that Jesus did. He said, No man took my life from me. I laid it down for you. A person cries out at the cross. Okay, big guy, you saved others. Why don’t you save yourself? And it’s like him saying, If I save myself, I can’t save you. The only way in the world that I can save you is to take away the cause of your spiritual death, and that’s sin and all the beating and torment that I’m going to go through. It’s all worth it for the glory of the salvation that’s going to come to you through my resurrection. But folks, we can’t negate the resurrection. We must understand the truth that that’s where life comes from. The cross, forgave sin, took dealt with the cause of spiritual death, so that we could come to life in Christ Jesus.

So he said, Whoever believes that Jesus raised Him from the dead, you’ll be saved, for it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it’s with your mouth that you can you confess and you’re saved. It’s an open proclamation. People will sometimes say, Well, why do you have people pray? Because what are you doing speaking with your mouth, you’re speaking what is going on in your heart? A prayer doesn’t save you. A prayer is an indicator that you already put your faith in Jesus, and you’re going to express it to him. No big deal on that. Nothing to criticize of saying a prayer. It’s wonderful to say a prayer if you can say it out loud, say it out loud. If you say it in your heart, say it in your heart. But the issue is it’s a reflection of your heart. A prayer doesn’t save anybody. Faith saves you. Faith in Jesus saves you. You’re just expressing that faith when you pray.

Click to Donate to Bob George Ministries

If you’re enjoying the Book of Galatians, check out our website, Shop.BobGeorge.net. There, you’ll find a whole collection of messages from the book of Galatians, as well as other DVDs, CDs and Bible studies available for purchase. That’s Shop.BobGeorge.net. Let’s join Bob. Now as he continues the radio program.

Bob George 14:06
As the Scripture says, Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Doesn’t say anyone who prays to him, but anyone who trusts in Him, there’s a time when you put your trust in something, and when you’ve put your trust in the finished work of Christ at the cross, and put your trust in the fact that Jesus, God raised Jesus from the dead, and He came to give you life, and you put your trust in that. He says, you’re born again. You’re saved. Now he’s saying there’s no difference between Hebrew and Gentile. He’s saying this to the Gentile groups guys, there’s no difference between Hebrew and Gentile. Just as you’re saved, they, too are saved. I reduce the entire world to salvation the same way, and that’s by faith in my Son, Jesus Christ. So there’s no difference between Hebrew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all, and richly blesses all who call upon Him, the Hebrew he blessed who call upon Him, the Gentile He blesses who calls upon him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be what? Saved, Hebrew, Gentile, slave, free, man, woman makes no difference. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

Now he’s going to say something ties into what we’re talking about. How then can they call on the one they have not believed? How are you going to call if you don’t believe that you’re a sinner, why would you call on the name of Jesus for forgiveness? Do you think Jesus died for some of your sins, or all of them? So if we come to Jesus with the idea, well, Lord, I’m, you know, I’m 80% okay, so I need a little dab of you just a brill cream thing. Little dab will do me that’s not Jesus. Jesus didn’t come to give you a little dab of something. He came to take away all your sins. So until we see our depravity, as Paul said, wretched man that I am, who will free me from this bondage of sin and death, until you see your wretchedness, you’re not prepared for Jesus. Until many times you’re flat on your face and the only way that you can look is up. You’re not prepared for Jesus until we come to grips with our own depravity, our own total inability to ever stand in the presence of God apart from Jesus, we’re not ready for Jesus. And so he says, How can you call on the one that you haven’t believed in? What does it say in the Scripture? In order to come to God, you must believe that He is and that he’s a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. So anyone who comes to God must believe that He is, must believe there’s a God and that he’ll be a rewarder if I diligently seek Him. How does what does he reward you with gifts, tilting cars? No, he rewards you with his son, that when you come to me and you want to know me, I will give you the gift of my Son. How can they hear without someone preaching to them? How are you going to hear the word they didn’t have the New Testament printed back then. They didn’t have printing press. Is going all over the place. The word spread verbally, man to man, people to people. That’s how it spread. People to People. Man to man, woman to woman, people to children. That’s how it’s spread. And what he’s saying? How are they going to hear unless there’s someone out there to preach to them? And how can someone preach unless they’re sent? So you’re going to have to send some preachers out there. And he’s saying to the Romans, to people, you know you’re sitting in your Bible studies, but how are your neighbors going to hear unless you send somebody to them? Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t have a problem with that. Do they? No, they’ll just bug the daylights right out of you, and they don’t know the Lord from a lamp post, but they sure know how to go door to door. And they’re trained in their heresy, better trained than most of us. That’s why training is important. You went into the service gym as a helicopter pilot. I’ll guarantee you they didn’t put you in a helicopter until you were trained to fly it. And we need to be trained to learn how to be available and to reach out and to be sensitive that we have neighbors that need Jesus and you need coworkers that need Jesus. You don’t have to go chase people up flag poles. You don’t have to go around and chase people around and make yourself obnoxious. It’s to be available, to be willing and able to give an account for that hope that’s within you. How do you find out somebody needs help? You ask questions, and you talk, and you talk long enough you’re going to hear somebody hurting, aren’t you? And when they’re hurting, you got a solution. You’re not telling people to come to Jesus so you can be wonderful like me, because we’re not wonderful. You’re telling people to come to Jesus so you can be what? Wonderful like him, that you can know the wonder of him. We won’t be wonderful until we die and see him face to face. That’s when we’ll be wonderful. In the meantime, our focus is not on me and what I’m doing never has been it’s on him and what he has done and what he is continually doing, as he has given us everything we need for life and for godliness.

How can they preach unless they’re sent? And he says something, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? You know, there’s a beauty to people who bring good news to you. We need good news, don’t we? We don’t need positive thinking. We need good news. We need the Good News of the Gospel, and how beautiful are the feet of those that bring that good news to us. But he said, in spite of this, not all Israelites accepted the good news, the good news, he’s now saying, again, to the Romans, the good news went to our brothers in Israel. The good news was there. Jesus was there. The apostles were there, but not everybody accepted it. Remember what it says John, Jesus came into his own. That’s the Hebrews and his own received him not. That’s the Hebrews received him not. But to all who did receive him, he gave the right to become what? A child of God, so they didn’t all accept it, for Isaiah says, Lord who has believed our message. Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. Now, some people think that faith comes because God gives it to you, or gives it to the elect and the rest of you didn’t get it. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing. In other words, if you hear the good news, everyone has been given the capacity to exercise faith in the good news. Everybody on the face of the earth, God didn’t elect you and not elect somebody else. It was God’s will that none should perish, all should come to repentance. And God has enabled every person on the face of this earth to have enough faith to receive the good news. So faith comes by hearing the good news and then and the message of the word of Christ. But I ask, did they not all hear all the Hebrews? Did they not all hear folks? I don’t think there was anyone who didn’t hear in Israel when Jesus was there. I think what he did was spread all over the place. When he raised Lazarus, it was spread all over the place. People came to the the ceremony. They came to Passover many times to see this Jesus. Everybody had heard about him. He said, did they did? They did. Did they not? All hear? He said, Bible says, Yeah, they did. All of them. Their voices gone out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world. And again, I ask, Did Israel not understand first, Moses says? And the answer that is no, they didn’t understand first Moses says, I will make you envious by those who are not a nation. Who’s he talking about? The gentile nations? I’m going to make you Hebrews, through whom the Messiah came, through whom the prophets were, through whom you were given the Word of God, through whom you were given everything that you needed. And yet you turned your back on the Messiah. On your own, you knew about him, but you wouldn’t accept him. So he said, Because of that, I’m going to make you envious to those who are not a nation that’s the Gentiles, I’ll make you angry by a nation that has no understanding, that’s us, dumb as mules. Isaiah boldly says, I was found by those who did not seek Me. Who was that? Who didn’t seek Him? Gentiles said, I was found they found me. They found me. I appeared to them. They found me. I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me. Were the Gentiles seeking God? No, they were seeking pleasure. Were the Hebrews seeking God? They said they were. But he says, No, you’re not. You’re seeking your own traditions. You’ll worship at the foot of your tradition and miss God. But concerning Israel, says, listen to this, folks. All day long, I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.

Now I ask you a question. Was that all Hebrews who were obstinate and disobedient, was that all Hebrews no how many people came to Christ on the day of Pentecost? 1000s. Who were they Hebrews, but the leadership, the people in positions who job security, was more important than truth. Why did they kill Jesus? Job security. If we let this man continue on teaching what he’s teaching, before long, they said the whole world’s going to follow Him, and we’re going to lose our place. We’re going to lose our jobs. We’ll get kicked out of the convention. Job security, you have people today who will not stand up for truth, knowing it because of job security, because it doesn’t fit in with the theology of my denomination. Well, folks, Jesus didn’t come to form theology, he came to form a relationship. He didn’t theology. It’s truth, and it’s not hard to interpret, if you’ll let God do the interpreting. Have you found that to be true? It’s not hard to understand, if you’ll let God be your Understander.

So he’s saying to us that not all people are disobedient and obstinate. There’s many, many Hebrews who are going to come to Christ by faith, but the leadership, and who was it that were the instigators to get the crowd, the same crowds that were shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna. Blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord, and three days later, we’re crying, Crucify Him, stirred up by a crowd. You see this? You see we get a phenomenal observation today, guys that we didn’t get to use to see as to what goes on that part of the country. When these riots take place, these people are angry and mad, demonic looking, are they not? That’s what you saw with Jesus, adamant toward him. They stirred him up. He’s an enemy. They lied about him. He became an enemy, and the crowd stirred up against him. So he said, Did God well? I asked then, Did God reject His people, these people that are obstinate, disobedient? No, he said, by no means, have you ever been disobedient or obstinate? Did he reject you or me? By no means now Paul is saying again to the Gentiles about the Hebrews. She said, Look, I’m an Israelite myself. I’m a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject His people whom He foreknew, who did he foreknow? What’s His foreknowledge the Hebrews Foreknowledge of the Hebrews, just like the foreknowledge of the Gentiles. He didn’t reject them. Don’t you know what the scripture says in the passage about Elijah. Now, folks, he wouldn’t be writing this unless the Gentiles were all messed up in their heads about the Hebrews. That’s why he’s saying, Don’t you know what the scripture says? He’s trying to get back to the Gentiles saying, Guys, here’s what the scripture says in this regard, how he appeared to God against Israel. Lord, they’ve killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I’m the only one left. They’re trying to kill me. Have you ever felt that way? Lord, no one knows this, except me. I’m the only Christian in my community.

Announcer 27:11
Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord find more information online at BobGeorge.net. There you will also find available CDs, DVDs and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.