The Gospel: A Thing of Beauty
by Jim Lincoln on Sunday, July 30, 2006
Rom 10:11-18
"As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile-the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. (from New International Version)
An Age of Distorted Beauty
You've heard the proverb, "Beauty is only skin deep." What does that mean? Doesn't it mean that things can have a beautiful appearance? However, on deeper apprehension, the reality of a thing may not match its external beauty. When Debby and I were in Croatia a street vendor was selling fake Nike watches for $5. They were beautiful watches (on the outside). However, on the inside, they were as cheap as any other $6 watch. Aspiring to become beautiful, I've read, 60% of teenage girls in Beverly Hills California have had some kind of plastic surgery. Did you know that before every photograph on the covers of celebrity magazines ever gets printed, they're sent to a photo lab somewhere in the Midwest that air brushes out every possible flaw? If the model is sitting down and her legs flatten out, they just air brush it away. Every minor blemish is removed and enhancements are added as well. Those photos of the "beautiful people" are fake! Yet, I wonder how many millions of women are aspiring to make themselves look beautiful like those fake pictures.
By contrast, I recently led a memorial service for a ninety-two year old woman in Canby. I knew Vi Vincenci over twenty years. I think she was one of the most beautiful women I've ever met. Physically, she wouldn't make it on a magazine cover. Yet, her beauty was undeniable. Her sacrificial and glad love for God and for others and her faith in the Lord in the presence of adverse conditions revealed a beauty that was something to behold. Her beauty was more than skin deep.
In Romans 10, Paul is struck here by the beauty of the gospel and those who bring it. He quotes Isaiah (52:7) who speaks of the gospel this way, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring or announce good news." Of course it's a metaphor. He's not referring to the literal beauty of perfectly proportioned toes, tanned feet, and well manicured toenails. What's he referring to?
Well, the message of the gospel itself is beautiful isn't it? In ancient times when there was news of victory in battle, a messenger would run to the city of the king and announce the good news. Martin Luther pointed out that the beauty was not necessarily in the attractiveness of the messenger. It was in the gladness of the message. Paul quotes Isaiah in v.11, "Whoever believes in Him will not be ashamed. Unfortunately The NASB says will not be disappointed but that doesn't exactly communicate its beauty. Literally it reads, "...he will not be ashamed." It's a beautiful thing to live without shame. It's a beautiful thing to live before God, knowing that Jesus has taken all our shame, our sin and guilt from us and put all that on Himself. When we carry around guilt, shame, and are forever feeling the need to cover it up or make up for it, there's no beauty in that.
Also, when we are treated with grace instead of shame it's a beautiful thing. When someone says, "I forgive you; there's no offence between us." That's a beautiful thing. When we hear God say it to us, it's an unspeakable joy. John says that love casts away or banishes fear. Love also banishes shame. That's something that makes relationships beautiful. Let me ask you this. Do you banish or drive out shame in the lives of others? Or, do you expose the shame of others? If you don't know, or lay hold of the grace of Jesus, you may find yourself exposing the shame of others to make you feel better about yourself. Will people say of you, "You know that person had the opportunity to expose my sin, but instead she banished it; she just cast it away? She treated me with grace."
Jesus cast our sins as far as the east is from the west. Do you do the same with those you love? If you do, that's a thing of beautiful. To hold on and harbor the offenses or as Paul said in 1Corinthians 13, to keep a list of wrongs isn't a beautiful thing.
The message of the gospel is beautiful because of its tender mercies. Isaiah said, "Whoever believes whoever." The gospel is beautiful because of how far God's grace extends. His mercies are held out to the whole world. It doesn't matter if your rich, poor, male or female, young, old, Jew, Gentile, black or white. It doesn't matter. In v. 12, he says that there is not distinction between Jew and Greek. He says, "The Lord abounds in riches to all who call on Him." His plan has always been to save people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Look at v. 10. "I was found by those who sought me not. I became manifest to those who did not ask for me." Again, notice the grace of it all. This is the gospel in the Old Testament. He's quoting the Hosea. Did the Gentiles seek God? No. Did the Gentiles ask for God? What's Hosea's answer? No! By nature, none of us seek God as He is Jew or Gentile (Rom.3:11 or Ps. 14). Instead, the beauty of God's mercy breaks through our stubborn and hard hearts and He seeks us out and saves us by His grace. Do you know that you would never have sought for God outside of the miracle of His grace? God says I was found by people who didn't seek me nor ask for me.
The beauty of the gospel is that it is grace extended and held out to the whole world. No matter what you have done or what you have become; if you believe in the Lord Jesus and call on Him, you can be gloriously saved from the guilt and penalty of sin and know His peace. God saves sinners by His grace. The gospel is a message of mercy and a great mercy that will reach every tribe, tongue, and nation.
Now, Israel Rejected This Beauty. And that rejection broke Paul's heart. He wept and agonized over it (cf. 9:1). He wasn't able to shrug off their rejection. He couldn't just say, "Hey, they knew; they had the opportunity; they rejected, therefore it serves them right." All that would have been true. Instead, his heart was moved by the love of God in the gospel. So He did everything in his power to persuade Israel of this gospel their Scriptures promised. But, they rejected it.
The fundamental point of the gospel in the Old Testament is that God saves sinners by his grace and not on the basis of our merit. As Paul said in Galatians, "God preached the gospel before hand to Abraham." In the Jewish Scriptures Moses wrote that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness." (Gen.15:6) For anyone to be called righteous on any other grounds is just as laughable as it was for barren Sarah to have a child in her ninety's. But Israel rejected this gift of righteousness received by faith. She sought instead to rely on her own record and pedigree to establish or merit her own. We see this in 10:3-4
3 For not knowing about God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." Rom 10:3-4 NAS
When Paul says that Christ is the "end" of the law, he's using the word "end" the way we use it when we ask, "What is the chief end of man?" He doesn't mean that Christ terminated the usefulness of the law (Mtt. 5:17). He means that Jesus is the chief purpose and chief object and culmination of the law. Jesus is the only one who has fulfilled its demands, hopes and conditions. I think he's also telling us here how to read Torah or the Old Testament. The goal, object and purpose of all its hopes and dreams, demands and stories is Jesus. Paul says in Galatians that the purpose of the law is to tutor us or lead us to Christ. It's not to give us a standard to justify or prove our own innate righteousness. Jesus is the One who would come and keep what we couldn't keep; Jesus (the Messiah) would renew the covenant that Israel so miserably failed to keep.
If they would only look to their Scriptures this is the gospel they would find. Did you notice all the quotations from the Old Testament in chapter 10? He cites Moses, Isaiah, Joel, David, Hosea and more. He's saying, "Look at your Scriptures!" Paul's preaching the gospel from the Old Testament Scriptures. In fact the word "gospel" or "good news" comes right out of Isa. 40 where Isaiah said, "Get yourself up on a mountain and bear good news, lift up your voice mightily bearer of good news. Don't be afraid. Say, 'Here is your God.' Or from Isa.52:7, "How beautiful are the feet of him who brings good news." Or Isa. 61, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news...to bind up the broken hearted and liberty to the captives and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." This is what Israel and all of us desperately need.
Moses predicted that Israel would fail to keep the covenant before they ever entered the Promised Land. Turn back to the covenant in Deut. 28:63. Remember Israel was standing at the top of the Dead Sea before they ever entered the Promised Land. The covenant went like this. If Israel kept the terms they would have a good tenure in the land. If she broke the terms of the covenant she would be removed from the land. The curses and blessings were shouted out on Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim as a reinforcement and ratification. However, in chapter 28 Moses prophesied that they would break the covenant in v. 63 he said
"...you shall be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. 64. Moreover the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other..and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone which you and your fathers have not known.. 65 And among the nations you will find no rest..."
However, in 30:1 Moses tells them about a new and gracious thing God would do. He would make a new covenant provision.
"So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you...in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul...then the Lord will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. Deut.30:1ff ...
How will they get hearts that will follow Him?
"Moreover (a day will come when) the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live."This is the gospel. But Israel rejected all of this. Paul argues that if they would simply pay attention to their Scriptures they would see the only hope of being considered righteous and keeping covenant with God was through faith in the Messiah who would come and cleans their hearts and circumcise their hearts with a power that would move them to obey Him. Jeremiah and Ezekiel announced the same thing in Ezek.36:36
Ezek 36:25-28,
"Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances." NAS
This was the hope God promised to Israel. It's a beautiful message full of grace and mercy but Israel rejected this good news. She rejected her own gospel. And she chose instead to establish her own righteousness and reject God's gift of righteousness in the Lord Jesus. How about you? Are you trying to establish your own record of righteousness to clear you before a holy God or will you submit to the righteousness that God provides and offers in Jesus Christ received by faith?
There's also a beauty in the simplicity of the gospel (Rom.10:13-15)
God provides a simple process for people to lay hold of His gospel. Rom 10:13-15
For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved." 14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!" NKJV
Now in one sense Paul is bearing witness to how faithful God has been to get Israel. These five rhetorical questions Paul raises don't why Israel didn't respond. Look at v. 18. God sent prophet after prophet and even His own son and they rejected them all. Israel did hear. God was faithful to get the message to Israel.
But Paul is also calling the church at Rome and all of us to get in step with the way God gets His good news out to people. This is the way God has always done it. He's done it through prophets like Elijah, Jeremiah, Hosea and Paul who risked life and limb to spread the hope and beauty of the gospel. He mentions four steps here in reverse order. Let's briefly consider the steps.
1. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.(13) I think he mentions calling on the Lord because believing in Jesus is not just a matter of intellectual assent. When you believe in Jesus you believe in such a way that your heart cries out for help, forgiveness and transformation. You can't believe in Jesus as He is without crying out to Him to forgive you and make your heart to yield to Him. God promises us in Ps. 91:15, "When he calls to me I will answer Him. I will be with him in trouble." David says in Ps. 145:18, "The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth." Could a promise be more beautiful to the soul?
So Paul asks, "How can they call upon him whom they have not believed." It only stands to reason that people can't cry out to someone they don't believe in. However, James says that even the demons believe and shudder. Devils believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he lived a perfect life and that he died for sinners and rose again from the dead. The demons believe these facts. They just don't want to yield to them. They don't want to rest in them or lean on them. They don't find them sweet to the taste or satisfying to the soul. Saving faith isn't just believing the facts about Jesus it's about enjoying them, praising God for them, loving them, cherishing and prizing them, treasuring them up in your heart as the richest, most valuable and most beautiful things one could ever know. It's finding these facts to be your food and drink.
2. Then he asks, "How are they to believe in Him whom they have never heard?" Unless people hear they can't know about Jesus and believe in Him and call on him. The heart can't turn to what the mind doesn't know. This is Paul's point isn't it? The heart can't respond to what it has not heard.
3. Then he asks, "How are they to hear without someone preaching and how are they to preach unless they are sent?"
Paul implies that someone must preach or announce or teach the message. Verse 17 says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. "
This is why we send missionaries and why we tell others. Unless the gospel is communicated people can't hear about it. I know that we can lose confidence in this simple method and opt for more tantalizing ways. Isaiah became discouraged when people didn't listen. He complained, 'Who has believed our report' (Rom.10:16). Can you imagine someone coming up to Isaiah and saying, "Isaiah, you're just not adjusting well enough to your demographic."? I know that we can lose confidence in the word. But there's a beauty in its simplicity. God's sends his church out with a message with a word about Jesus. Jesus saves sinners like us.
Finally Paul asks, "How can they preach unless they are sent." Just as God sent Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Jesus and Paul so He also sends us to announce this good news of the beauty of God's grace. This is God's way to save people from every tribe and tongue and nation. Just as he sent Jesus to preach to a world that for the most part would reject His message, so God calls Isaiah, Hosea, Paul you and me to be like Jesus and become a messenger of God and the beauty of His gospel.
Stories of Beautiful Feet Let me close with two true stories. In 1866 a ship named the General Sherman set sail for Korea. It was a dangerous and foolish adventure in those days because Korea was closed to outsiders. Foreigners who entered the country were instantly put to death. But these guys were a bunch of adventurers who were willing to take the risks. Their plan was to sail up the Tychang River up to the city of Pongyang. One man fought hard to get on the ship. His name was named Robert J. Thomas. He was a Welsh missionary to China. He learned years earlier that most educated Koreans could read Chinese. So for years he prayed for an opportunity to take Bibles to Korea. Somehow he managed to get on that ship. When they arrived and as they were sailing up the river, the Koreans lined the banks on both sides and started shooting their flintlocks at the ship. Their small guns couldn't damage the ship. However, they eventually had to turn around because there was no safe place to land. Something they didn't considr happened. The tide had gone out and the river had become shallow. The ship got stuck in the low water.
The Koreans sent small boats and took torches out to the ship. Eventually, the General Sherman caught on fire and the crew had to abandon ship. So with their swords, guns and knives they jumped overboard and made their way to the shore. However, there were too many Koreans waiting for them. No one survived. But there was one guy running from that boat to the shore who was unlike the others. He didn't have a gun or a sword. All he had were boxes full of strange books. As he made his way to the shore, he started throwing the books at the Koreans. They continued firing, the boxes and books deflecting some of the bullets. Eventually, he made it to shore and started thrusting these books into the hands of the Koreans as they killed him. Of course those were Chinese Bibles. Thirty years later one of the first missionaries to Korea, a Presbyterian minister named Sam Moffet, began to preach and teach. During one of his very first classes a young man came to the class holding an old worn Chinese Bible. The man's father had picked it up on a bloody beach thirty years earlier, read it and found hope and beauty in the gospel. What would compel a man like Robert Thomas to take the gospel and give his life for people who hated him? Paul says that, "The love of Christ constrains us." Today in South Korea, the gospel is growing four-times the speed of the population. There are strong churches all along the Tychang River. There is one right there on that beach called the Robert Thomas Memorial Chapel, still spreading hope in Jesus Christ and the beauty of the gospel to the glory of God and the joy of His people.
Max Lucado tells a story of a young girl who grew up in poverty in the slums of Sau Paulo. She was young and attractive and ran away from home to find fortune in the city. Her mother knew there were few ways a young girl could survive in the city. So, she took all her money, went to the village and had photograph copies made of herself (as many as she could afford). Then she bought a bus ticket to the city. When she got to the city she pinned her picture on every bulletin board, every seedy hotel and every bar she could find. And then she got back on the bus and went home. One day her daughter saw her mother's photograph on a board in a cheap hotel. She took it down and on the back there was a message. It read, "No matter what you have done or what you have become, I love you! Come home!"
Our age is confused about beauty. But there is one thing that is most beautiful and that is the Lord Jesus and His gospel of grace and tender mercies. Isaiah said, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news." He's not talking about feet that have been, pampered, manicured and painted. He's talking about the dusty, calloused, cracked and bruised feet of those who have trekked -wherever- to get the beautiful message of the gospel to those who haven't heard it. If you are in search of beauty, look to Jesus. Turn to Jesus. Call on Jesus. Accept His grace. Yield to His authority. Trust Jesus today and discover the beauty of His grace.