10 March 2019 - the word is near us

Today's Readings

(Audio)

For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

We tend to have a whole list of things we try before calling on the LORD's name. The Jewish people thought that their covenant of circumcision was all they needed to worry about. We tend to think more of our health and our bank accounts. What is the problem that each of these approaches share? They cannot save us. Only in the people of the New Covenant of God, the people with no distinction between Jew and Greek, under the same LORD, only there can we find salvation. 

the same Lord is Lord of all,
enriching all who call upon him.

We can only approach God through the redemptive work of his Son Jesus. We come to him through faith. But we do not stop there. If we want to abide in him we must continue to walk in faith. We must begin not just once with him, not just once a day, but moment to moment we should make faith our foundation.

The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart
—that is, the word of faith that we preach—, 
for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord 
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, 
you will be saved.

This sounds, perhaps, like a one and done situation. Believe, confess, and then chill, because everything is settled. But this is not correct. Rather, the faith to which we are called is a faith that can shape each moment of our lives.

For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (see Romans 14:23).

To clarify, this doesn't mean we need a conscious thought of faith every time we act. But it does mean that we need a strong coherence between even the seemingly small aspects of our daily life and the faith which our lips profess. Only such faith can sustain us in the desert of temptation. The one and done, once saved always saved approach will fail us in the desert. It will be too distant of our word to keep our trust in God alive.

Jesus said to him in reply,
"It is written:
You shall worship the Lord, your God,
and him alone shall you serve."

The word of faith is meant to remain near us, not just in our hearts, but on our lips. We confess it for salvation not just once, but often, especially when we experience temptation. Just as the descendants of Moses stayed connected to their salvation history by faith so too do we. Just as that faith enabled them to generously offer themselves to God, so too for us this Lent.

Therefore, I have now brought you the firstfruits
of the products of the soil 
which you, O LORD, have given me.

The word of faith is not far from us unless we allow it to be so. Rather, let us pray with the psalmist, "Be with me Lord, when I am in trouble."