How can somebody, with sincerity, call on Jesus?

[Leonardo Von]

How can somebody, with sincerity, call on Jesus?

•    Rom 10:14,15 -> “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” ”.

For many years, led by the religious system, I misunderstood this excerpt. 

For the correct interpretation, we need to take into account the context. There was a dispute between Jews and non-Jews because the Jews insisted on believing that only them could be saved by Christ (see, for instance, Acts 11:1-18 and Acts 15). In order to clarify this to the believer Jews and to show that the faith of the non-Jews was sincere, he explained that:

1    – somebody only can call on Jesus if they really believe in Him.
2    – this one only could believe because they heard Christ speaking in their heart.
3    – this one only could hear Jesus’ voice because someone preached the gospel to them.
4    – Finally, this one only could receive the visit of an evangelist because Jesus sent them.

In other words, Paul was showing that, someone only can believe in the gospel through the work of Jesus Christ moving the heart of the evangelist and opening the eyes and ears of the hearer. After all:

•    Rom 10:17 -> “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”.

In other words: the faith come for hearing Jesus’ voice and the capacity of hearing comes through the word which comes out of the mouth of Christ.

See, this, in the case of Lydia: 

•    Act 16:14 -> “One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”.

In the end, if we yearn for seeing lives being transformed by the power of Jesus and His words, we can’t do this without staying in the counsel of the Creator:

•    Jer 23:18 -> “For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened?”;
•    Jer 23:22 -> “But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.”.

So, have a good day drawing near with confidence to the throne of grace, that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb 4:16). After all, you need, personally, to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation (Mark 16:15), and this with outright fidelity:

•    Jer 23:28 -> “Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the LORD. Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”.

[luigi]

On 12/24/2021 at 10:09 PM, Leonardo Von said:

How can somebody, with sincerity, call on Jesus?

 

1    – somebody only can call on Jesus if they really believe in Him.

 

•    Jer 23:28 -> “Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the LORD. Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”.

Somebody can only call on Jesus in the sincerity of their heart if they truly believe in the words that Jesus preached, such as to do justly, and to love your neighbor as you do yourself. They who believe in these and the other principles the Lord instructed are the wheat, while they who don't believe these principles in their heart are the straw whose words are empty without sincerity.