Paul’s Desire
Robert Meredith
The Apostle Paul had the same wants and desires as most faithful Christians today. One of his greatest desires was that his Jewish brethren might be saved. He wrote in Romans 9:1-3, “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost. That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accused from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” The great apostle knew that he could not give his soul that they might be saved, but he would have if it were possible. How greatly he must have loved them. He was indeed like Christ in that regard. Paul went on to express in the next chapter of Romans, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Romans 10:1-4). Paul’s desire as he expressed in this section of scripture was that his friends and family be saved. Many of us have this same desire that Paul set forth in these two passages. Let us
notice some of what Paul says from the Romans 10 passage.
In verse one he declares that he desired that they might be saved. As one looks at the rest of Paul’s writings, and the rest of the New Testament for that matter, he will learn how it is that they might be saved. In Romans 1:16, the Apostle to the Gentiles said that the gospel was the power of God to save. My friends, Paul would not write that the gospel is God’s way of saving the lost, and then desire that God would save his relatives a different way! If you are a child of God, you are because you obeyed the gospel and were thus saved by God’s grace. No doubt you desire your family to be saved, but they are going to be saved in the same manner you were, by the gospel. It is God’s power to save. In Romans 11 Paul teaches that the Jews were going to be saved the same way the Gentiles were, by the gospel.
Too, Paul points out that some of his kinsmen had great religious zeal (v. 2). However, it was misguided zeal. The Jews who crucified Christ were zealous of their religion, but zeal only will not save. These zealous ones killed the Son of God. Many today are full of zeal in their faith. They go door knocking and try to convert others to their faith. A misguided zeal will only lead both into the ditch (Matthew 15:14); religious actions must be based in truth.
Next one can notice that Paul teaches that if one is going to be saved, he is going to be saved God’s way (v. 3). Paul declared that they were ignorant of God’s way of making them righteous, and were going about trying to establish their own righteousness. John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 show us that Christ is the only way of salvation. When one does not obey Christ, but does what some man teaches to be saved instead, he is ignorant of God’s way and is trying to establish his own way. Some today teach salvation by faith only, the idea of inviting Jesus into one’s heart. One cannot find a sinner’s prayer for the alien sinner in God’s Word, and the only place in the Bible where faith only is found is James 2:24. The Holy Spirit, in this text, says a person is not saved by faith only. Therefore, when one teaches salvation by faith only, he is not following God’s righteousness, but trying to establish his own.
In the next verse, Romans 10:4, Paul shows us that only by Christ can our friends and family be saved. He points out in this verse that Jesus was the purpose, or aim, of the Old Testament. In Galatians 3:24 Paul calls the Old Law a schoolmaster, serving to prepare a people for the Christ.
No doubt many have the same desire that Paul had. If our loved ones are going to be saved, they will be saved when they obey the Gospel, coming to Christ and His way of making one righteous. Some first century Gentiles were saved by the Gospel. The Gospel saved some Jews of Paul’s day. And the only way one can be saved today is by the Gospel (Romans 1:16). It is by obeying God’s Gospel, not a perverted one, that God’s grace is accessed (Galatians 1:6-9).