Heidelberg Theological Seminary Convocation

The idea of convocation is to mark the beginning of the school year. In our case, it is perhaps more to mark the beginning of a new direction. It is a reminder to faculty and students as well as supporting constituents of what we are about. We seek to train men for the gospel ministry. This responsibility involves a significant and high level of academic activity.

We need to also keep in mind that we are intimately involved in the training of ministers, which is a function of the Church. We are training men to proclaim the Word of God. Our Lord gave the Commission to the Church to call the lost and teach them His word so they might know and serve Him. Thus, our academic activity is based on the word of God.

Romans 10:1-13

Man's heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). We have a lie deep in our hearts. We believe that basically we are pretty good people. We still hold on to the lie that if God has distinguished us from the unbeliever, it must be because there was something in us that He found lovable.

Paul demolishes this illusion in Romans 9. But the lie is not so easily dismissed. We say in our hearts, "If the whole of humanity has come far short of the commandments of God then it must be because God's standards are too high, or too difficult to understand. If God's standards are too strict for anyone to keep, then isn't He unjust for condemning someone for not keeping them? If we really try hard and do our best, then surely that would make us acceptable to God." This is the question that Romans 10 deals with.