Romans 10

Beautiful Feet on the Mountain

When I look at my feet, my first thought is not “wow they are so beautiful!” My feet are short, wide with small little toes. Not really the things of great beauty. But God says, beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. So, even though my feet would not be in a magazine showing off sandals, they can still be beautiful. When we bring the good news of Jesus to the world we have beautiful feet – even those of us with short stout ones! In this chapter, Paul continues his explanation of why the Jews in his day had not accepted Christ as Messiah. He continues to pray for them. It is his desire that God would use his feet to bring the gospel, not only to his own people, but the nations of the world as well.

Vs 1-3 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them is for their salvation! I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Because they disregarded the righteousness from God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to God’s righteousness. 

Paul, more than anyone, understood the zeal the Jewish people had for God. He understood where they were coming from. He knew, because he had had the same zeal and it caused him to persecute Christians throughout the region. He had pursued his own knowledge of scripture and believed, if he kept the law, he would be righteous. Then came that moment on the road to Damascus when He was confronted by God and given a choice – keep following the law or follow Christ. Seek after salvation through your own actions, or allow grace to show you the way. Now, Paul is zealous for Christ because of the grace and mercy he received and, it’s his greatest desire for his fellow Jews come to the same understanding.

Vs 4-13 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is from the law: The one who does these things will live by them. But the righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: Do not say in your heart, “Who will go up to heaven?” that is, to bring Christ down or, “Who will go down into the abyss?” that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. On the contrary, what does it say? The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is the message of faith that we proclaim: 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. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. Now the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on Him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Here is one of the most misunderstood scriptures: For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Many read this as Christ is the end of the law period. But, this isn’t what it says. The law didn’t go anywhere and is still just as valid now as when it was first given. I believe Spurgeon said it best: “Christ did not come to make the law milder, or to render it possible for our cracked and battered obedience to be accepted as a sort of compromise. The law is not compelled to lower its terms, as though it had originally asked too much; it is holy and just and good, and ought not to be altered in one jot or tittle, nor can it be. Our Lord gives the law all it requires, not a part, for that would be an admission that it might justly have been content with less at first.” The law isn’t made redundant or expunged. It is still the holy and just law of God and His standard for salvation. So what is Paul saying? He says Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Big difference! He has established in his letter to the Romans that the law cannot, and was never meant to, save us. The law is “not compelled to lower its terms”, so Christ came and fulfilled the law, therefore becoming the standard for righteousness and our salvation.

Paul also gives us the condition for this: for all who believe. And here is the simplicity of the gospel – This is the message of faith that we proclaim: 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. There is no distinction between Jew, Greek, woman, man, race, creed, nation… All who call on Jesus will be saved. We must understand that just believing in Jesus is not the answer – it is confessing with our mouth that He is Lord. The Greek word for Lord is kurios, which means, a person exercising absolute ownership rights. He becomes the master and we are the servants. He has full rights to us, meaning we allow Him to dictate the trajectory of our lives. We are giving up our right to go anywhere we want to, instead, we allow God to show us the path to follow. But it doesn’t end there. We don’t only call Him Lord, we must also believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead. This is not an intellectual understanding of the cross and resurrection. This is from the heart. The Greek word for heart is kardia, which means the affective center of our being. We must believe this with every fiber of our inmost being. Then salvation comes to us.

Vs 14-15 But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the gospel of good things! 

And here we get to those beautiful feet! How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the gospel! Paul recalls two wonderful Scripture passages here. First, Nahum 1:15: “Look to the mountains—the feet of one bringing good news and proclaiming peace! Celebrate your festivals, Judah; fulfill your vows. For the wicked one will never again march through you; he will be entirely wiped out.” Then the more popular Isaiah 52:7: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace, who brings news of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Interestingly, both give us a vision of the mountain of God. Look to the mountains, Nahum says. How beautiful on the mountains, says Isaiah. What is the meaning of the mountain? It is the place where we encounter God. Abraham, who took his son Isaiah up Mount Moriah to sacrifice him and encountered God’s provision. Later, Solomon would build the temple on that same mountain where God’s Shekinah glory rested. Moses went up Mount Sinai and encountered God when he received the 10 Commandments. Elijah encountered God when he went up Mount Carmel and fire reigned down from heaven. Jesus went up the Mount of Olives on several occasions to pray. Peter, James and John encountered God’s glory on the Mountain of Transfiguration. So, we are to look to the mountains, the place where we encounter God and when we do, we walk back down with beautiful feet bearing the gospel of peace to a world filled with conflict and distrust. From that mountain, God will send his servants into the fields ready for harvest.

Vs 16-21 But all did not obey the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ. But I ask, “Did they not hear?” Yes, they did: Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the inhabited world. But I ask, “Did Israel not understand?” First, Moses said: I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding. And Isaiah says boldly: I was found by those who were not looking for Me; I revealed Myself to those who were not asking for Me. But to Israel he says: All day long I have spread out My hands to a disobedient and defiant people.

But not all who heard the message responded. Paul says, faith comes from what is heard. What we hear will either produce faith or be ignored. What we hear comes through the message about Christ. His message is clear and His message has been heard. The Jews who follow the law had the message in many forms: through the prophets, the festivals, and even the law itself. But they choose to ignore it devoting themselves instead to trying to work it out. So the message was given to those who did not ask for God and those who weren’t looking – the Gentiles.

It’s really easy for us to say shake our heads at their lack of understanding. It’s easy for us to wonder at their blindness. But, before we point fingers, maybe we should look at the church today with open eyes and hearts. Do we have beautiful feet? Have we allowed God to be Lord over all, or, do we ignore His Word, choosing instead to walk our own path? I believe there are times when we, like the Jews Paul describes, are blind and lack understanding. We choose a mission that has nothing to do with beautiful feet. So, Paul gives us three scripture to contemplate. First, Psalm 19 – “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge. There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard. Their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4) There are no excuses – coming to Christ, nor following His path. God’s message is clear and can’t be mis-interpreted. His very creation declares him. Second, Paul recalls Moses’ song in Deuteronomy 32, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding.” When we disregard the Word of God and choose not to follow Him, God will use another to take His message to the world. And third, Isaiah 65:1-2. These words are God’s response to Isaiah’s prayer begging for God to forgive and have mercy on the people of Israel once again. God responds by saying, while there will always be a remnant, those who reject Him and call on other gods will suffer the consequences. So then, those who did not seek or look will find God – that is the Gentiles. But God did not give up on His people – He stretched out His hands all day long to them. His desire was for them to have those beautiful feet and spread His Word to the nations.

And, God does the same today. He is still stretching out His hands to His church right now. While the church is doing a lot of good in the world, there are still things we will be accountable for. In Revelation 2-3, John, has written letters to seven churches. In each letter he gives them an accounting of what God sees. For five, there are things God knows about them (the work they are doing for His kingdom), and warnings (“but I have this against you”). For one, the church at Philadelphia, there is only praise as they seem to have gotten it right. And finally one, Laodicea, who gets the ultimate warning – you are neither hot nor cold but lukewarm so I will spit you out of my mouth. These praises and warnings are there for us to read and heed. God has called His church to have beautiful feet – to be bearers of the good news. Some churches have become distracted by what is going on in the world and have forgotten their calling. They focus on issues that have no bearing to the kingdom of God. These churches are not developing their beautiful feet at all. Then, some churches have developed programs and techniques for sharing the gospel and they have gone throughout the world to teach and preach. While this isn’t a bad thing, sometimes, they focus too much attention on the programs and techniques and not enough on this most important thing: where those beautiful feet come from in the first place. And where is that? Beautiful feet come from the mountain – the place where we encounter God. When we go up to the mountain to encounter God, we will be blessed with His Word, we will find His provision, we will see His fire reign down, we will encounter His Shekinah glory, and we will be impowered to take the gospel out with our beautiful feet. May God give us those beautiful feet as we truly encounter Him.