Do you love Jesus?

Romans 10 opens in a seemingly underwhelming fashion: Paul has been praying for the Israelites, asking God earnestly that they be saved (Romans 10:1). Typical Paul, right?

But then, this heartfelt prayer of Paul’s actually begs an important question: why aren’t the Israelites saved? They have access to the law, which was given to them by God, and seem to have true passion for it. Paul also says in verse 2 that the Israelites “have a zeal for God,” ‘zeal’ here being deep desire and enthusiasm for God. These sound like all the right things. So what are they missing?

The issue, which Paul addresses throughout Romans 10, is that it is possible to have zeal for God, and not be saved. The full second and third verses of Romans 10 are as follows:

“For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”

So knowledge AND zeal are both crucial to the life of a follower of Jesus. Without knowledge, we are ignorant of God’s righteousness and Lordship over our lives, and without zeal, we lack true relationship with Him. So though the Israelites had a zeal for God (which they lived out as a preoccupation with His law and attempting to justify themselves before others through it), they acted in ignorance by denying Christ as Lord over their lives and that his appearance as the true Messiah marked the fulfillment of God’s promise to them. Instead, they clung to the law, and crucified Christ while offering up their praises to God (Isaiah 66:5). In his commentary on Romans 10, Matthew Henry calls the Israelites’ love for the law a “blind zeal,” because they “did not know and would not own [Christ], but shut their eyes against the clear light.”

It is important to note though, that Paul is not saying that zeal, deep passion for God and his precepts, is unimportant. In fact, John Piper references a few verses on the defense of zeal as a necessity of the Christian faith (namely Revelation 3:16 and Romans 12:11). The point is that knowledge, like zeal, isn’t enough on its own either. The Pharisees are an excellent example; they knew everything there was to know about God, but they didn’t love God, and therefore did not receive salvation.

What about you? Do you love Jesus? This is the question John Piper (and Paul) urges us to ask one another, instead of questions like “Do you believe things about him?” and “Do you just show up on Sunday mornings?” These things aren’t enough. Do you love Jesus? Because the truth is, someone who knows God but does not love Him perishes just like the one who has a zeal for a God they know nothing about.

Paul goes on to say that the gift of righteousness based on faith is not about making Christ more available to us, or more “reachable”. We need not bring Christ down from heaven or up from the grave to receive salvation, because Christ already is accessible to us; “the Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (Romans 10:8). So instead or “climbing” or “diving” for Christ (as Matthew Henry puts it), all you need to do, as Jew or Gentile, to receive salvation is “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead” (Romans 10:9). Why? “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:10).

It’s that simple. He is made, so graciously, accessible to us.

Jesus, who is not out of our reach, takes knowledge and zeal and creates worship in us. It's a deep passion, fueled by the knowledge of who God is and how he loves us, that erupts in us and compels us to joyfully submit to Him, to join Him in all that he invites us into. So what exactly is He inviting us into?

The truth is, not everyone knows that Jesus is accessible to us, let alone that Jesus is our savior (Remember the Israelites?). In fact, there are billions of people in the world who are considered “unreached” by the Gospel. So in verses 14 and 15 Paul asks a few important questions: “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?”

Who else will tell them, if not those who have been transformed by the gospel and therefore can offer their lives up willingly, joyfully, out of worship for God? It makes sense, right? If knowledge is so important, people need to know the good news to be saved, which is why it is written in Romans 10:15: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” What joy that we are invited into!

But, you might be wondering, how can people be held accountable, how can they perish, because of something they don’t even know? The truth is, all are without excuse to have both knowledge and zeal for the Lord, because of Psalm 19 and Habbakuk 2:14; the knowledge of the glory of the Lord is evident in His creation. In Romans 1, too, Paul tells us clearly that “what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.” Because He makes himself known to us, none of us can plead ignorance to His glory!

Here lies the call to action for every follower of Jesus: that our delight in Jesus (zeal) fuels our desire for His Word (knowledge), which fuels our satisfaction, which compels us to magnify Jesus and make his name great among every nation. 

We should care about all people who don’t know and don’t love Jesus (in our church and across the world) because it is our joy to know God, and because knowing and loving Him is an interactive experience. By engaging with Him in our minds and in our hearts, our lives are re-oriented around Jesus, and around growing in knowledge and zeal for the things that He cares for. 

So for the believer who knows much about God, I urge you to ask yourself regularly, “do I love Jesus?”

And for the unbeliever who feels that Jesus is too out of reach, I encourage you to consider that he is holding out his hands, even to you.

Caitlin is a Covenant Member at Redeemer and leader in the college ministry. Originally from Flower Mound, Caitlin is a senior at Texas Tech University, studying English Creative Writing. She is planning on staying in Lubbock after graduation to pursue next steps in being sent to the nations.