Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Jesus Christ completed salvation on the Cross and does not have to come down from Heaven again to provide salvation.
Thursday, December 18, 2003
DEU 30:12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?”
AMO 9:2 Though they dig into Sheol, From there shall My hand take them; And though they ascend to heaven, From there will I bring them down.
DEU 30:14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.
Iesous sou kurios – Jesus as your Lord or Jesus as your Yahweh.
The Jews in Paul’s day were saying that Christ was not the Savior; and His work on the cross was not efficacious.
So they were returning to the Mosaic Law.
DEU 30:12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?”
In verse 8, Paul quotes – DEU 30:14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.
DEU 30:13 Nor is it [salvation] beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?”
He has to eliminate crossing the sea, DEU 30:13; but he has to pick up the concept that Moses communicated which is the concept of unavailability.
The first concept in verse 6 was unattainability which is going to heaven to get the gospel.
The second concept is unavailability – instead of saying “Who will cross the sea?” DEU 30:13, instead Paul has to go to AMO 9:2, because at the time that Moses wrote, crossing the sea was unavailable.
AMO 9:2 Though they dig into Sheol, From there shall My hand take them; And though they ascend to heaven, From there will I bring them down.
In other words, you cannot go to Sheol, [Hebrew] or Hades [Greek] to get the gospel.
Paul makes the unavailability of the Gospel through human works keep up with the first century impossibilities.
By replacing “across the sea,” DEU 30:13, with the Sheol phrase of AMO 9:2, Paul makes reference to our Lord’s physical death on the cross.
Just as Moses had indicated, Paul taught that salvation is closer to the Jew than heaven or Hades.
Paul combines the heaven of DEU 30:12 and the Hades of AMO 9:2 to indicate the impossibility of attaining salvation with human ability.
Salvation is nearer to the Jew than heaven, and closer to the Jew than Sheol or Hades.
ROM 10:6 quoting
DEU 30:12, “you do not have to go to heaven to get the gospel, it is on the earth.”
ROM 10:7 quoting
Amos 9:2, “you do not have to die and go to Hades to get the gospel, it is on the earth.”
ROM 10:8 quoting
DEU 30:14, “the word is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart.”
Faith only exists in one place, faith comes from the heart.
In your heart is where faith originates.
In your mouth is where faith is expressed to God.
Faith saves you but you confess it, and homologeo means to admit it.
You admit to God or acknowledge to God that you are believing in Christ.
In the Old Testament, Christ was revealed as Jehovah Elohim.
Jehovah Elohim = Kurios.
The moment that you believed you entered into union with Christ, and Jesus Christ is Kurios in the Greek, and He is also Yahweh, Jehovah, Adonay, and Elohim in the Hebrew.
They were unbelievers who would say “adonay elohanu adonai echad.”
He is not going to approach it so that some individual will come along and say, “If Christ is not Lord of all He is not Lord at all.”
The failure of the Jews in Paul’s day was to ignore or reject the implications of the dispensation of the great power demonstration of the hypostatic union.
Their Messiah had come, and was officially rejected by Israel as the son of David.
In the past, the Jews had rejected or accepted Moses’ message. Now they had the chance to accept or reject Paul’s message, which is essentially the same message: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
ROM 10:9 is the acknowledgement of “the Lord our God” [adonai elohenu].
Confession is acknowledgment to God the Father that you believe in Christ.
Salvation is on earth, closer to you than the Law or anything else, because salvation is in your soul, the heart, and salvation is in your mouth, the acknowledgement of faith in Christ.
Salvation is a transaction between you and God the Father, and therefore, must be expressed to Him.