9That 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. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
14How, 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? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
16But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" 17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. 18But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:
"Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world." (Romans 10:9-18)
The Bible is far more than a record of human experience or a report of spiritual realities by long, dead, people. Through the Scriptures the incarnation, the cross, the resurrection and the ascension are as real
today in our lives as if they were happening today; the reality of a present day Savior and a present day salvation.
The Word of God is a living and active power, a timeless moment at which, in our own time and space, we can meet the living God. Christ died on a Roman cross at Jerusalem, and his death was effective then and is effective now to bring forgiveness to sinners. God expresses himself in his revealed Word and continues to act through it. The Word is both recorded truth and our moment of truth, both truth about God and the place where we meet God personally. It is content, giving shape and form to historical reality; and it is confrontation, that moment of meeting God that calls for our personal response of faith.
The biblical Word cannot be separated from God’s personal presence and power in believer’s lives. The word that Jesus spoke was the word of transforming power; by his word the sick were made whole and demons were driven out. The word that Jesus spoke was the word of salvation that brings life to the dead, and continues to transform lives, today, and in the future.
Peace and love,
Sue
"Then Jesus said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me". (Luke 9:23)
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