The Error that Anyone Can Make - Part One (Romans 9:30–10

Welcome to The Bible Project Daily Podcast, where we journey together through Scripture, verse by verse, seeking wisdom, grace, and truth. 

Today we reach a turning point in Paul’s letter to the Romans—a passage that reveals one of the most important yet commonly made spiritual errors: mistaking religious effort for saving faith. If Romans 9 showed us God’s sovereign mercy, Romans 10 brings it home with a powerful reminder of human responsibility. Join us as we unpack why people stumble over the simplicity of grace and how salvation is as near as your own heart and mouth.

📘 Episode Summary:

In this episode, we explore Paul’s urgent appeal in Romans 9:30–10:13, where he shifts from the mystery of divine election to the reality of human unbelief. Why did Israel, with all its religious privilege, miss the Messiah? And why do some people even today still fall into the trap of trying to earn God’s favour instead of receiving it by faith?

Paul shows us that zeal without knowledge can be a deadly combination—and that the stumbling stone is not God’s judgment, but Christ Himself. We reflect on the distinction between justification and salvation, the three dimensions of being saved, and how the gospel confronts both legalism and unbelief with a message of grace: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

🔑 Key Themes:

• The error of works-based righteousness
• The stumbling stone of Christ
• The difference between justification and salvation
• God's sovereignty and human responsibility
• Salvation as near and available to all who believe

📖 Key Verse:

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
— Romans 10:9

Transcript

The Error that Anyone Can Make. (Romans 9:30–10:13)

Transcript for both Part One and Two:

Welcome to today’s episode. We’re continuing in our journey through Paul’s letter to the Romans, and we’ve arrived at a vital point in the discussion — one that tackles a thorny theological issue head-on: if God elects some to be saved, then why aren’t all people saved?

That question sits uneasily with many. And yet, it’s one Paul does not avoid. In Romans 9, he spoke in the strongest terms possible about God’s sovereignty in salvation. He quotes God saying, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy” and goes so far as to say, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

It’s no wonder this chapter stirs deep questions. If God chooses some for mercy, does that mean He chooses others for wrath? Paul even entertains this possibility in Romans 9:22, asking, “What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?”

It’s a sobering thought. But here’s something to notice: Paul asks the question — but he never definitively answers it. He draws back before embracing what some might call “double predestination, for both the saved and the unsaved.” Instead, he pivots.

And so must we.

Because as we turn to the closing verses of Romans 9 and the opening section of Romans 10, we see Paul change the angle. He shifts from looking at election from God’s perspective… to looking at it from ours. From the human side. From our experience and our responsibility.

And the question becomes not just “Why does God choose some?” but “Why are some people not saved?”

That’s a crucial point. The Gentiles — the outsiders, the ones without the law, the ones not even looking for righteousness — they found it. And how? By faith.

But Israel — the people of the covenant, the ones steeped in Scripture and in moral tradition — missed it. Why? Simply, he says, because they tried to earn it. 

They treated righteousness like a reward to be achieved through obedience, rather than a gift to be received through faith.

And Paul isn’t just making a theological point here — he’s making a deeply personal one.

This is not cold, abstract doctrine. Paul will be grieving here. He loves his people. He sees their passion for God — their zeal — but he says it’s a zeal that’s misdirected. They’re trying to build their own righteousness, rather than submitting to the righteousness that comes from God.

And then in the beautiful climax of this passage, Paul will make one of the clearest expressions of how salvation works in the whole Bible:

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved… For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

So, let’s step back and ask: what is this basic error that not only may jews of Jesus’ day can make, but that anyone today can make?

It’s the error of seeking salvation through effort rather than faith. Of trying to impress God rather than trust Him. Of turning the gift of grace into a project of self-righteousness.

And that’s not just a Jewish problem. It’s a human one….

Romans 9, which we looked at yesterday begins with a look at God’s sovereign mercy. And yes, it’s mysterious. But Romans 10 reminds us that human responsibility is never erased. People are not lost because they were not chosen. They are lost because they refuse to believe.

They stumble — not because of some cosmic decree — but because they trip over Christ Himself, the very cornerstone of grace, because they don’t want to see themselves as God does. They don’t in fact choose to see themselves as they really are.

Paul puts it plainly: “They did not seek it by faith.” That’s the answer. It’s simple. It’s sobering. And it calls all of us to respond.

But remember, no one will be put to shame who believes in Him. The door is open. The word is near — in your mouth and in your heart.

Faith is not far off. It is here. It is now. And it is for you.

The Stumbling Stone and the Choice Not to Believe.

30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written:

Paul now quotes Isaiah 28:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble

    and a rock that makes them fall,

    and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.

So, here’s the situation: the Jewish people had the Scriptures. They had the Law. And those Scriptures taught them that righteousness comes by faith. Genesis 15:6 says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 

So, the Law, the Torah, the writings of Moses, taught that they needed to trust God in order to be declared righteous.

But what Paul is saying here is that they did not believe. In fact, Paul references Isaiah 28 to show that they stumbled over the very thing meant to save them. The “stumbling stone” he mentions is a reference to the Messiah—Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 28, God says that he will,  lay this stone in Zion. 

The Messiah was meant to be a cornerstone, a foundation. But instead of standing on it, they stumbled over it. Rather than using it as a stepping stone into grace it became a stumbling stone. But the promise is still there: “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

But here is where it gets really interesting. If you read the whole of Romans chapter 9, the first part seems to be teaching that some are justified because they were elected—selected by God. But by the end of the chapter, what is Paul also clearly saying that God not choosing some people is not the cause of their damnation.

Why do some get saved? Romans 9 teaches, because God chose them.

Why do others not get saved? Is it because God didn’t choose them?

No—it’s because they didn’t believe, and because they didn’t believe, God didn’t choose them. That’s what this passage teaches.

If someone ever asks, “Do you believe in God’s sovereign choice in all things?”—if you believe the Bible, you have to say yes. But if they follow up with, “So, does that mean people go to hell because they weren’t chosen?”—your answer should be a firm no. People are lost because they chose not to trust Jesus Christ.

And the verses for that? Romans 9:31-2:

“But the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone

That’s the key. They stumbled over Christ instead of believing in Him.

According to Romans 9:32, the reason people are lost is because they chose in freewill not to believe.

Now remember there’s no chapter break here in the original text—Paul just keeps going. And now he makes a second point: If they’re lost because they didn’t believe, why didn’t they believe? That’s the natural next question isn’t it.

And for that, we turn to Romans chapter 10.

Paul starts this section tenderly: 

“Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.”

(Romans 10:1)

He calls them brothers and sisters. He’s not writing as some cold theologian making calculated arguments—this is personal. These are his kinsmen, his fellow Israelites. He wants them to be saved just like everyone else.

And notice something else interesting in. Up to this point, Paul’s been talking about righteousness—about being declared righteous by faith. But now he shifts and says, “My heart’s desire is that they might be saved.”

It seems to me, particularly in the Western church today, we use the terms saved and justified almost interchangeably. But in the New Testament—especially in Romans—those words have different meanings. 

If you want to handle the Word of God accurately, you’ve got to understand how a particular word is used in its context. Even the same author, Paul, may use the same word differently in a different letter—or even in a different chapter.

In the Book of Romans, the word saved doesn’t mean what we typically think it does. We tend to say, “We are saved,” and by that, we really  mean “We are justified—I believed in Jesus, and now I’m declared righteous.” But in Romans, justification and salvation are not identical.

Let me illustrate this for you.

Look at Romans 5:9:

“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”

See that? “Having now been Justified” is past tense. “We shall be saved” is future tense.

That verse makes the distinction plain. We are justified now, and we shall be saved later—specifically, saved from wrath.

What wrath? Well, go back to Romans 1:18:

“The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”

The whole human problem, according to Romans, is this: we’re under the wrath of God. So how do we get rescued from it?

Step one is justification. When you trust Christ, you’re declared righteous. But Romans 5:9 says there is more to come more: “Having been justified, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” 

Paul continues in verse 10:

“For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

And then in chapters 6 through 8, Paul unpacks what that new life in Christ looks like. I think it’s clear: if you’ve been justified and are now living in Christ, you’re on the path to being saved—being delivered from the wrath of God.

So, in Romans, salvation doesn’t just mean I got saved. It also means I am being saved….

Let me unpack this further. In the New Testament, salvation unfolds in three dimensions—past, present, and future.

·         In the past, we say: “I have been saved”—this refers to our deliverance from the penalty of sin.

·         In the present, we declare: “I am being saved”—this is the ongoing work of being freed from the power of sin.

·         In the future, we hope: “I will be saved”—this speaks of the day we shall be rescued from the presence of sin entirely.

We tend to use the word “saved” only in reference to that first stage. But the New Testament speaks of salvation as encompassing all three.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, these stages are outlined clearly. 

Chapters 3 and 4—and the beginning of chapter 5—speak of our justification by faith: God declares us righteous through Jesus Christ. 

But in chapters 6, 7, and 8, Paul shifts to our present salvation—what it means to be saved from sin’s power—which includes being rescued from God’s wrath. And let us be clear: God's wrath is not arbitrary. Read the Old Testament and you will see—God gets angry when His children live in sin. His anger is not in opposition to His love; it is the expression of His holiness against our rebellion.

Which is why we see here in the opening of chapter 10 Paul say

“Brothers and Sister, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.”

Paul is not content merely with his fellow Israelites being justified. He longs for them to experience the full scope of their salvation. 

He then tells us in verse 2:

“For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.”

Paul acknowledges the commitment of his people. They are passionate for God—but misdirected. Their zeal is not guided by truth. Even today, many Jewish people show great devotion to the God of Scripture. They desire to honour Him, especially through obedience to His Law.

A Jewish friend of mine who attends a philosophy discussion group I attend described his view of his Jewish religion, thus.

“The fundamental goal of our religion is to elevate humanity and draw it closer to God. We believe that God revealed His will through the Torah, teaching us how to live in harmony with His divine purpose. Our calling is to obey God’s laws, to love and serve Him, and to choose what is good.”

Paul was entirely ready to admit that the Jews were zealous for God; but he also saw that their zeal was a misdirected thing. Jewish religion had become based on meticulous obedience to the law.

The whole Jewish approach was that by this kind of obedience to the law a person could earn credit with God. 

Nothing shows better the Jewish attitude than the three classes into which they divided mankind. 

·         There were those who were good, whose balance was on the right side;.

·         There were those who were bad, whose balance was on the debit side; 

·         There were those who were in between, who, by doing one more good work, could become good. 

It was all a matter of law and achievement. 

To this Paul answers: "Christ is the end of the law." What he meant was: "Christ is the end of legalism." The relationship between God and man is no longer the relationship between a creditor and a debtor, between an earner and an assessor, between a judge and a man standing at the bar of judgment. 

Because of Jesus Christ, he now says we are no longer faced with the task of satisfying God's justice; he need only accept his love. 

We no longer to win God's favour; he need simply take the grace and love and mercy which he freely offers.

This Jews has a sincere and devout vision, he acknowledges—but Paul says it is tragically incomplete. It is commitment without the personal knowledge of Christ, the personal knowledge of God in Christ.  Which is the same issue that Paul dealt with in his day which is why in verse 3, Paul explains the root issue:

“Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”

(Romans 10:3)

This is the tragedy. People can be sincere—but sincerely wrong. 

In their desire to live righteously, they miss the righteousness that God offers by grace. They try to build their own staircase to heaven and refuse to climb the one, or walk the path that God has already laid before them in Christ.

In verse 4, Paul reaches the heart of the matter:

“Christ is the end/culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

This verse is hotly debated, especially the little word “end” (KJV). What does it mean?

Some say “end” means termination—that Christ abolished the law.

Others say it means fulfilment—that Christ satisfied the law’s demands.

I personally believe Paul here, means the end goal—that Christ is the aim, the purpose, the intended destination of the Law. Everything the Law pointed toward finds its fulfilment in Him. Rightly translated by some as, “culmination.”

These Jews of Jesus’ day missed this. They read the Old Testament but failed to see that even Abraham—long before the law—was justified by faith. They clung to the law as an end in itself, rather than as a signpost leading to Christ.

From verse 5 onward, Paul explains that there are two kinds of righteousness.

“Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” He isQuoting Leviticus 18:5)

This is law-based righteousness: keep the law and you will live. 

Theoretically, it’s true. If someone could perfectly obey God’s commands, they would be righteous. The problem? No one can do it. That path is closed to us by our own sinfulness.

But there’s a second kind of righteousness.

A righteousness not grounded in the law but in faith. In verse 6, he introduces it plainly: “But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way…” And then he quotes from Deuteronomy 30:11–14, not merely to repeat it, but to apply it—to reinterpret the old covenant text through the lens of Christ.

Paul writes: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) That’s Deuteronomy through the eyes of a Christian apostle. You don’t need to ascend to heaven to find salvation—because God has already come down in Christ. The incarnation has already happened.

Then: “‘Who will descend into the deep?’ Paul again applies this, saying: “(that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” In Deuteronomy, the word is “sea,” but Paul shifts it to “deep”, bteer in some translations, “abyss,” drawing from Jewish apocalyptic language to reference the realm of the dead. 

And his point is just as clear: you don’t need to resurrect the Messiah—because God has already done that too. Christ is risen.

So, what do you need to do? Paul continues:

“The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,.”

The accessibility of this faith-righteousness is what Paul wants us to see. You don’t need to go on a pilgrimage, or perform heroic deeds, or climb a mountain of law-keeping. The word—the gospel—is near you. It’s right here.

And then Paul defines it:

“That is the word of faith which we preach: that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

This is not a formula—it’s a gospel reality. Salvation is not about religious performance; it’s about faith in the risen Christ, a faith that is internal (heart) and expressed (through the mouth).

Now, I fell I need to pause here and correct a few common misunderstandings. This passage has often been used to suggest that unless you publicly make Jesus Lord of your life, or verbally confess him in front of others, you cannot be saved. But Paul isn’t exactly saying that. Theres nothing wrong with that, but I don’t believe that is the point he is trying to make.

First, notice what he doesn’t say: He doesn’t say, “If you confess Jesus as Lord.” The word “as” isn’t in the Greek text. The phrase is simply, “confess the Lord Jesus.” And “Lord” here means God. This is about making a declaration of Christ’s divine identity.

In the Old Testament, the name of God—YHWH—was too sacred to pronounce. Jews later substituted the word “Adonai,” which means “Lord.” And in the New Testament, “Lord” became a title of divinity applied to Jesus. When Paul says, “confess the Lord Jesus,” he’s saying: declare with your mouth the truth of Jesus’ divine identity and with your heart believe in his resurrection. That is the path to salvation.

We see this clearly in verse 13:

“For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

That’s a direct quote from Joel 2:32, where “Lord” clearly refers to God, not to a human master. So, Paul is saying that confessing Jesus as God and believing in his resurrection is the essence of saving faith.

But does that mean a public verbal confession is required for salvation? Not quite. In verse 10, Paul clarifies: “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” He’s showing the two aspects of faith—internal and external.

The heart believes, and that belief leads to righteousness. The mouth confesses, and that confession brings salvation to expression.

The two go together, not as separate requirements, but as united movements of faith.

In other words, Paul is not laying down a two-step formula is much more intuitive than that it’s describing the natural outflow of genuine faith. A faith that believes in the heart will speak with the mouth. And a mouth that speaks without a believing heart is just noise.

Paul is making two major points here. 

·         First, that there is a righteousness by faith, and it’s grounded not in law but in God’s promise—just as with Abraham, who “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). 

·         Second, that this righteousness is accessible. Unlike the law, which was heavy, distant, and often misunderstood, this righteousness is near. It is available to anyone who trusts Christ.

So why didn’t Israel embrace it? Paul says they were ignorant. They didn’t understand the righteousness of God—the one that comes through faith. They stumbled over Christ because they clung to the law. But all along, the law and the prophets had been pointing to him.

And now, Paul is saying to his readers—But for us—this righteousness is here. You don’t need to strive to bring Christ down. You don’t need to search for him among the dead. He is risen. He is near. The word is in your mouth and in your heart.

Believe. Confess. Live….

In verse 9, he said, “confess with your mouth and believe in your heart,” but now he clarifies that belief comes first, then confession. Why the shift? Because in verse 9, Paul was quoting Deuteronomy 30, where the order of mouth before heart was fitting to the Old Testament context. 

But in verse 10, he moves from application to explanation—and he makes the order precise.

Here’s why this matters. Verse 10 reads:

“With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Something different is going on here, don’t miss this.

To be justified—declared righteous before God—you believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, that He died and rose again. That’s it. Faith alone in Christ alone. But to be saved, you confess. You call upon the name of the Lord. Paul will spell this out in a more detail in a moment.

So, justification and salvation, while deeply connected, they are not identical. Justification saves you from the penalty of sin. But salvation, in Paul’s language here, is deliverance—often from the power of sin.

Want an illustration? Think of the Book of Judges. The people sin. They fall into slavery. Then they cry out—they confess with their mouths—and God saves them. 

Then, they fall again, confess again, and God saves again. That’s the pattern. That’s salvation in this passage: not just eternal life, but ongoing rescue, sanctification, transformation.

So, to get to heaven? Yes, believe in your heart and you’re declared righteous.

To be changed? To be rescued again and again in this life? Keep calling on the Lord. Keep acknowledging with your mouth you everyday failings.

Paul’s argument is deep and tightly woven. It’s easy to get lost in it. But the thread we’re following here in Romans 10 is that there are two kinds of righteousness: legal righteousness and righteousness by faith. 

One is unreachable. The other is right here. It’s as close as your heart.

That’s what faith righteousness is like. Not far off. Not hidden. Just… there. You don’t have to ascend to heaven or descend into the abyss to access it. 

That’s Paul’s point: you don’t need to go on a quest. Just step into it. Just believe. Just confess.

And finally, Paul emphasizes this is for everyone.

Verse 11: “Whoever believes…” (literally, all who).

Verse 12: “No distinction between Jew and Greek… the same Lord is rich to all who call…”

Verse 13: “All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Justification by faith is as close as your heart. And salvation by confession is as available as forming the words in your mind and expressing them on your lips.

Both are available to all. No distinction. No boundaries. No exclusions.

Faith righteousness is accessible.

Salvation is universal.

And it’s for you.

Righteousness is as close as your heart, salvation is as near as your mouth. 

And yet Israel missed it because they did not believe. Or, to put it another way: Israel failed to receive righteousness because they did not seek it by faith. They did not obtain salvation because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness.

So, let’s return to that initial question: Are people not saved because they are not elect?

The answer is no.

They are lost not because God did not choose them, but because they did not choose God.

Let me say that again. It is the key to understanding this whole section: 

People are not lost because God didn’t elect them. They are lost because they did not choose Him.

A Jew at this time would find it hard to believe that the way to God was not through the law; this way of trust and of acceptance was shatteringly and incredibly new to him. 

Further, he would have real difficulty in believing that the way to God was open to everybody. The Gentiles did not seem to him to be in the same position as the Jews at all. 

So Paul concludes his argument by citing these two Old Testament texts to prove his case. First, he cites Isaiah 28:16 : "Every one who believes in him will not be put to shame." There is nothing about law there; it is all based on faith. Second, he cites Joel 2:32 : "All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." There is no limitation there; the promise is to everyone; therefore, there is no difference between Jew and Greek.

In essence this passage is an appeal to the Jews to abandon the way of legalism and accept the way of grace. It is a heartfelt  appeal to them to see that their zeal is misplaced. It is an appeal to listen to the prophets who long ago declared that faith is the only way to God, and that that way is open to every man.

Now, two applications come out of this:

First, if you’ve never trusted Jesus Christ—do it. That’s your responsibility. And you can do it, easily because sSalvation is as close as your heart. If you realize you are a sinner in need of a Savior, and you trust in Christ alone—believing that He died and rose again—then God will declare you righteous by faith. Nothing more is needed.

Second, for believers: keep calling on the Lord. Not just once for salvation, but daily, for deliverance from the power of sin. The penalty is dealt with, but the power must be fought with. And as we call on Him, again and again, He delivers us—again and again—by His grace.

Friends, election says we are all imprisoned by sin. And God elects to say, “I’ll pardon anyone who trusts in my Son.” But no one naturally moves toward Him. We like our sin. We prefer the prison.

So, God sends His Spirit. He personally convicts, persuades, and draws. And some respond—they believe—and they are saved, and some don’t respond

So why are some saved? Because God chose them, convicted them, drew them, and saved them.

Why are others lost? Not because God didn’t choose them, but because they chose not to believe.

They tried to establish their own righteousness instead of receiving the righteousness of faith.

Don’t be in that group. Don’t miss it.

Trust Christ. His righteousness because it’s as close as your heart and  His salvation is as near as your mouth.

Amen.