Pastor David Jang
If we are saved by faith, what meaning do our worship and service hold? When we treat our religious efforts as qualifications for salvation, we find ourselves striving to prove our worth. When we separate grace from daily life, however, our confession of faith can easily become detached from how we actually live. Pastor David Jang’s sermon on Romans 10 approaches this question through the salvation Christ has accomplished. Faith is our response of receiving that grace, while worship and obedience are expressions of a life shaped by the love we have received.
Why Zeal Cannot Be the Basis of Salvation
Paul prays to God for the salvation of his own people (Romans 10:1). When he addresses Israel’s unbelief, he speaks out of a deep longing for the people he loves to be saved. He identifies where they have gone astray so that they might receive God’s grace. Read in that spirit, the passage moves us beyond judging the faith of others and invites us to examine our own.
Romans 10:2–3 identifies the problem: their zeal for God was not guided by true knowledge. Without knowing God’s righteousness, they sought to establish their own. Relying on our own righteousness means claiming to be right before God on the basis of the rules we have kept and the efforts we have accumulated. However great our zeal may be, if we seek to secure our salvation through it, receiving the grace God offers becomes difficult.
Before his conversion, Paul himself was so zealous for his religion that he persecuted those who believed in Christ. Yet in Philippians 3:8–9, he treasures the knowledge of Christ and seeks the righteousness that comes through faith. He had come to recognize that the things he once boasted about could never be the basis of his salvation. True knowledge is not measured solely by how much of the Bible we can explain. As we come to know Christ more deeply, that knowledge should also be evident in the way we entrust ourselves to His grace.
Pastor David Jang applies this passage to long years of religious commitment and dedicated service within the church. Worship and service are precious, but our efforts do not give us the right to demand salvation from God. Having done much does not lessen our need for repentance or make us more righteous than other people. As we reflect on our faithfulness, we must also consider what we are relying on and what our efforts are directed toward.
Christ, the Fulfillment of the Law, and the Nearness of Grace
What role, then, does the law play? The law teaches God’s holy will and helps those who stand before it recognize their sin and limitations. To live by the righteousness based on the law described in Romans 10:5, we must fulfill its requirements. Yet human beings cannot fulfill them perfectly. Simply adding a few good deeds cannot provide a fundamental answer to our sin and shortcomings.
Paul finds the answer in Christ: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4). This sermon understands “the end of the law” to mean that the purpose toward which the law pointed has been fulfilled in Jesus. In the face of the human sin and weakness exposed by the law, God has given us salvation accomplished through Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection.
This makes the basis of salvation clear. What matters is whether we rely on what Christ has accomplished, rather than how confidently we regard the merits we have accumulated. Those who once searched within themselves for a basis on which to stand before God can now look to Jesus. To be saved by faith is to rely on the salvation Christ has accomplished and receive the righteousness God gives.
Romans 10:6–8 tells us that the word is near us—in our mouths and in our hearts. We do not have to ascend to heaven or descend into the depths to obtain God’s word. The gospel is God’s gift, already proclaimed to us. To anyone who thinks they must first become sufficiently worthy before approaching God, this passage offers an invitation to respond in faith to the gospel they are hearing now.
When Faith in the Heart and Confession with the Mouth Shape Our Lives
That response has a definite content. Romans 10:9–10 speaks of confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead. We receive the truth of the cross and resurrection as the basis of our salvation and confess Jesus as our Lord. Believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth are closely connected within this response to the gospel.
Pastor David Jang emphasizes that faith received in the heart should find expression in confession with the mouth. Merely repeating familiar expressions of faith does not necessarily mean that we have embraced their meaning. To call Jesus our Lord is to express our willingness to entrust our lives to Him and obey His word. Examining the confession on our lips therefore means asking whose word actually serves as the standard for our lives.
This is also where submission to God’s righteousness takes practical form. When God’s word exposes something wrong in us, we can repent and change our ways instead of defending ourselves by pointing to our past service. Because we trust in the salvation God gives, we have less reason to maintain an appearance of righteousness. Obedience grows as a response to the love we have already received. Whenever we begin treating that obedience as another form of merit to accumulate, we must look again to Christ, the basis of our salvation.
Understanding this relationship helps us answer the question with which we began. Worship becomes a time to thank the God who has shown us grace and to offer ourselves to Him. Service becomes a way of sharing the love we have received with our neighbors. The meaning of our service is no longer determined entirely by whether someone recognizes it. On days when we discover our shortcomings, we can repent and ask for help. On days when we fulfill our responsibilities well, we can remember grace and give thanks. In this way, faith changes the reasons behind our efforts.
This invitation is open to people of every ancestry and religious background. Romans 10:11–13 declares that salvation is open to all who call on the Lord’s name, without distinction between Jew and Greek. The Christ on whom we depend for salvation is the same for those who have believed for many years and those who are hearing the gospel for the first time. Even those who feel they have nothing to commend themselves can trust His grace and call on His name.
Hearing of Grace Leads to Sharing the Gospel
If anyone may call on the Lord’s name, then those who do not yet know Him need to hear the gospel. In Romans 10:14–15, Paul explains that people must hear in order to believe, that someone must proclaim the message in order for them to hear, and that those who proclaim it must be sent. The church’s evangelism and mission belong within this relationship. Proclaiming the gospel and sending others so that people may hear it are concrete expressions of love that longs for their salvation.
The church is therefore called to teach and proclaim the love of God revealed in Christ’s cross and resurrection. This means helping believers engage deeply with God’s word, praying alongside those who share the gospel, and working to bring the good news of salvation to people whose cultures and languages differ from our own. Listening when a neighbor asks questions about faith and explaining the gospel are also part of this calling. In each of our lives, opportunities arise for someone to hear God’s word.
Those who proclaim the message must also continue to listen to it. Paul teaches that faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). If we dismiss the message as something we already know, we may miss what it is calling us to hear and do. As we hear afresh the meaning of the cross and resurrection through worship and Scripture meditation, and remember the grace we have received, the words we share can carry that same love.
Yet not everyone who heard the gospel obeyed it (Romans 10:16). Even so, Romans 10 closes with the image of God holding out His hands all day long to a disobedient people (Romans 10:21). This patient love echoes Paul’s concern at the beginning of the chapter as he prays for his own people. Instead of trying to make others respond as we wish, we can pray that they will receive God’s word and cherish each opportunity to share the gospel with them.
The journey home after worship now leads into an everyday life of responding to grace. Moving beyond the habit of counting our own efforts, we can remember one person who needs the gospel and pray for them. Our confession of gratitude to the God who has saved us can grow into care and service for another person. Who has yet to hear of that love, and how is the faith I confess leading me toward them today?
Dr. David Jang has proclaimed the gospel in various regions of the world through field missions and digital media ministry, and as the fruit of that ministry, many people devoted to the Great Commission have been raised up. Based on this missionary vision, Olivet first began as a small church school for missionary training. Later, in order to provide more systematic theological education and cultivate missionary leaders, Olivet Theological College and Seminary was established in Los Angeles and Seoul in 2000.
As the school grew, Dr. Jang officially founded Olivet University in San Francisco in 2004. In the diverse and dynamic environment of San Francisco, Olivet expanded its educational fields beyond theology to include music, journalism, art and design, and technology. The university also strengthened its educational capacity by recruiting faculty members, including Dr. William Wagner, and in 2005 moved to the former UC Berkeley Downtown Extension campus, further solidifying its foundation as a university.
In 2006, Dr. Jang transferred the presidency to Dr. David James Randolph in order to focus more fully on missionary work, while continuing to lead global missions as International President. Olivet University later received institutional accreditation in 2009, added a language education college and a business college, and continued to grow as a Christian educational institution for world missions by expanding its degree programs and international partnerships.
David Jang Official Website: www.davidjang.org
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