Romans 10:5-15
Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that comes from 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,
on your lips and in your heart”
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
God is nearer to us than we are to ourselves. The Word, who in the beginning was with God, and is God, is “near you, on your lips and in your heart.”
We can go through great times of distress where this might feel like an impossible claim. We feel far from God. We can even feel as if we are in danger. Paul says, “confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead; you will be saved.” How on earth can this speak to us in our condition when we are in danger? This is when we would most like to escape into heaven, or have an angel descend into the abyss in which we’re languishing to snatch us out of it.
The secret of Paul’s saying here about the confession of the lips and the faith of the heart, which is so often reduced to an evangelical formula for initiation, is what Christian tradition calls “redemptive suffering.” This refers to our union with the suffering of Christ throughout the whole of our lives, our long walk of faith. His suffering is ours; our suffering is his.
We suffer because we are made in the image of the Suffering Servant of God.
Though he suffered to death, and his death was the goal of those who inflicted such violet suffering upon him, death had no hold on Jesus. The mockery that death was intended to make of him was turned upside-down by the resurrection: the Risen Lord made a mockery of death by means of his suffering. Jesus’ suffering is, in fact, the conditional means by which he entered into his exalted glory. “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then to enter His glory?” (Lk. 24:26). Indeed it was. “He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names.” (Php. 2:8-9).
The Lord’s Passion reveals that suffering is not a mark of shame — it is the very halo of glory.
This is true for all of us: “Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Ro. 8:17).
When we confess that the Suffering Jesus is Lord, then, we acknowledge that our suffering is the path to glorification with Jesus. When we believe that God raised him from the dead, we believe that we too will be raised with Jesus. We need not doubt the certainty of our resurrection hope. Paul says that, in fact, Christ’s resurrection was contingent on that of all mankind: “For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised.” (1 Cor. 15:16). This is why he died for our sins: to that ensure we will all rise with him. “I, when I am lifted from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” (Jn. 12:32). The Risen Lord is the living proof of what is in store for all of us beyond this life in the “valley of tears”.
The things which would seem to diminish us magnify us; the things which seem to destroy us fortify us. Nothing that we suffer is in vain: we may rejoice that it is all our share in Christ’s glory, filling up in our own flesh what was lacking in his afflictions (Col. 1:24).
In all our suffering and trials, we are far from far from Christ — we are as near to him as can be.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Ro. 8:35-39).
For the Word of God, Jesus Christ our Crucified and Risen Lord, is always near us.
Amen.
Caravaggio, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas
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No Way Up But Down, by Seán McMahon Seán McMahon from the album All Hail King Jesus Christ |
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