How many of you have resolved to lose weight at some point? I have attempted scores of diets in my lifetime. Usually I start with a sense of heroic purpose! But of course the diet never lasts, and my zealous self-discipline always falls by the wayside.
I mention diets because essentially the same issues are raised in the passage before us this morning. This type of wrong-focused zeal is as useless in spiritual things as in physical diets. The problem we face is not the absence of religion. There is plenty of the wrong kind of religion (just like there are plenty of the wrong kind of diets). The problem is the absence of the wrong kind of religion, a lack of religious depth.
In Romans 10, Paul is answering the question of why some people who have little knowledge are saved while some who have much knowledge are not saved. He gave part of his answer in Romans 9. All of us are born lost, and God in His mercy and grace chooses to call some people to him. Paul continues his answer into chapter 10.
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