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.

With the songs of Dwight Yoakum incessantly holding court with the other voices in my head, I made my way through the streets of Bakersfield. Rising above the Ozymandian concrete wreckage of the idols of human strength like Abraham's altar in the midst of Canaan was the edifice of Grace Reformed Church. Here amid the barred liquor stores, street walkers, and graffitied vacant lots, a witness to the continuing grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ has been proclaiming the peace of God for decades.