Romans 10:5-15

We take a lot of things for granted. Sometimes we take our families for granted. Wives, do you ever feel like your husbands take you for granted? Husbands do you ever feel like our wives take you for granted? Sometimes children take for granted the support and protection of their parents until they are out on their own. Sometimes parents take their children for granted until they are out of the house.

Some things we just live with day in and day out. And after a while we just assume that they will always be there. We take them for granted. We stop seeing the beauty in them and miss the joy of them. Isn't that why people who have a near death experience often come out of it with a new appreciation for life. They had taken things for granted and when they came close to losing it all then began to see the beauty in life again.

Sometimes we Christians do that with our faith. This is especially true of people who were raised in the church. We have grown so accustomed to our faith we fail to appreciate its beauty. We simply take it for granted.

In the letter to the Romans Paul reminds the Christians in Rome about the basics of the Christian faith. These people were already Christians. Some of them had been Jews who grew up in homes of faith practicing the laws of Moses. Others had lived their whole lives worshipping the Greek and Roman gods. But they all knew the truth, yet Paul reminded them of it. So today, I want to remind us of a few things that we may be taking for granted.

One of the things we take for granted is our access to God. Paul wrote, "But the righteousness based on 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)."(Rom 10:6-7) Paul was trained as a Pharisee. And as a Pharisee he thought that righteousness before God was achieved by keeping all the commandments. And that was a full time job.

But Christianity teaches something completely different. Instead of us having to achieve righteousness, our faith is that it is given to us as a gift of grace. We do not have to climb to heaven to reach God. He came to us.

Most Christians take that for granted. They know that they can turn to God at any time. You don't have to go to a far away temple or make a sacrifice or go through an elaborate ritual to reach God. You can simply say a prayer. Because God came to us in Christ we have access to God. Most Christians take to for granted, to the point that they don't even bother to pray until they are in trouble.

We also take for granted the gift of salvation. Paul wrote, "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." (Romans 10:9) Salvation is so simple! God doesn't require that we pass any theology tests or perform any great tasks. All God asks of us is that confess and believe in Jesus.

We Christians take that simplicity for granted. We try to make is harder than it is. Sometimes we add rituals and try to make them requirements. Rituals like baptism and confirmation are wonderful ways to celebrate and express the new life we have in Christ. But they are not requirements.

Just consider the possibilities. God gave his only son to die for us. God could ask any price to receive the salvation Jesus paid for on the cross. But he gave it to us as a gift! Grace is truly amazing but we take it for granted!

We also take for granted the Joy of our faith. God came to us! And through faith in Christ we can know God. That is a joyful thing. Problem is that most Christians forget that Joy!

We Christians have something to shout about! "Every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved." That means you and me. We should be excited about that!

Well, ya'll don't look real exited. If you believe in Jesus say "A-men." If you have experienced the Amazing grace of God shout "Halleluiah." If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he rose from the dead yell "Praise the Lord!" Now that's more like it.

But what about those who don't know these things. We take them for granted. But there are some people in this world who don't know about it. They don't know that God came to them and they think that they have to climb up to God. They think they have to raise themselves out of the pits of life. They don't know that all they have to do is confess and believe in Jesus, so they have never done it.

And we think "well everybody knows that!" We take that knowledge for granted. How can they know if no one has told them? We have been told and believed. How can they believe in Jesus if they are not told about Jesus?

But that is not all. How can they be told if no one goes to them to tell them? Don't take for granted that someone else will tell them. Every single one of us has that responsibility. Don't take the Joy of salvation for granted. Share it with a world that has never heard of these things that you know by faith!

Romans 10:5-15

"Grace and Responsibility" "Grace:" It is God's unmerited favor. God loves us not because we earned that love, not because we deserve that love, but just because God gives it. We were lost, but God sent us a savior as an unmerited gift.

"Responsibility:" It is a moral or legal accountability. A responsibility is something that we are supposed to do. A responsible person does such things simply because they are supposed to and not because they are forced to. The accountability is internal not external. A little voice inside of them tells them, "Do the right thing." A responsible person's conscience holds them accountable. Responsibility is very much akin to obedience. It is obedience to that voice that tells us what is right. It is obedience to all that we have been taught a good person should do.

Grace and responsibility may seem to be at odds with each other in their basic nature. One is a free unearned gift. Grace is food brought to a bad child who has been told to go to bed without supper. It is a pardon give to a criminal for the sake of mere mercy. The other is duty. Responsibility is a couple working hard to care for their children and striving to teach them right despite all the personal sacrifice. It is a police office risking her life to keep the peace. Many times grace and responsibility are at odds especially in religion. But Paul's letter to the Romans helps us see how they work together for those who are in Christ.

Paul starts referring to Moses' teachings. You see he was speaking primarily to Jews. The letter was addressed to the Romans but there were probably some Jewish believes there, who like Paul, had accepted that Jesus was their long awaited Messiah. Now the Jews were basically responsible people. They worked very hard to keep God's laws and to honor God in every facet of their lives. And that responsibility is good until it becomes idolatry. Unfortunately, many began to believe that they had earned their salvation through their obedience.

So Paul begins by explaining grace to them. According to their Jewish upbringing if you kept the laws you would live and prosper. You would be righteous by your actions. But the righteousness of Christ says that if you merely believe you are made righteous. According to popular Judaism an individual would have to literally raise themselves from the dead. But Christianity proclaimed that if you merely "confess with your lips that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."(10:9)

This must have been wonderful news. A person who works for their righteousness never really knows if they are saved. They always doubt that maybe they did something wrong or they didn't do it right enough, or they didn't do it cheerfully enough. They are always finding new shortcomings and trying to work harder. But Paul was saying that they could know for sure that they were redeemed. Grace says that our salvation is not dependent upon our righteousness. It is a gift from God given to all who accept it.

But doesn't this grace breed irresponsibility? Consider the natural consequences of grace. What would happen if one child continually hit another child and we continually let them off by saying, "sorry." And what would happen if our judicial system just let people go free regardless of the offense because they said they knew what they did was wrong.

Paul doesn't beat us over the head with our responsibilities. And neither does Jesus. They simply lead us to our responsibilities. Paul tells the Romans that if they only call on Jesus they will be saved. But how can they call on someone they have never heard of? And how can they hear of him without someone to tell them? And how can someone proclaim him without being sent?

This is the responsibility that we who have called on Christ have. It is the responsibility to tell others. We are morally and ethically driven to do it. Jesus has saved us from certain death. It would be the hight of irresponsibility to not proclaim it to everyone we meet. To let them know they can be saved, all expenses paid, just as we are.

I feel I can sum all this up in a story. Once upon a time there were two brothers. They owned plots of land next to each other. The two married and had children. Their farms and families grew.

Then one year there was a disaster. Locusts devastated their farms. They both lost everything. They didn't know how they would feed their families.

Then one day a government man came by one of the brother's houses. He said that the government was giving out relief to the farmers. They would bail them out so that they could get started again. Should the man tell his brother? Yes! He should run to his brother and share with him the good news. If he didn't you would consider it criminal.

You have been given a precious gift. Each of us was a spiritual disaster area. God could have easily foreclosed on the whole human race and burned us all. Instead he sent his Son to bail us out. Jesus paid the price for our sins. And all we have to do is believe in him.

I hope you have done that already. If not, I am here to tell you that you can. You don't have to earn it, just accept it. There is no fine print, or catch clauses. Just say and believe that Jesus is Lord and you are saved.

But if you have done that, then you have a responsibility. You are called to go and tell others of this gift so that they can receive it also. Oh, you don't have to be a preacher to proclaim the good news. Simply tell others and show others that God loves them.

After all how will they ever know to call on Jesus if they don't know about him. And how will they ever learn about him unless someone tells them. And who will tell them if no one is sent to tell them. God is sending you to tell them. Not the church down the street. Not the person at the end of the pew. God is sending you. Don't wait for someone else to tell them about Jesus you do it.

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