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Contradiction
Romans 10:13, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” but in Matthew 19:16-17 Jesus said if u want to enter life, keep the commandments.” and one verse say that only one who does the will of the father will enter the kingdom of heaven
so who will enter the kingdom of heaven ??
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Grazer #E2H on
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Thinking about this, I guess it depends on whether you see heaven, the kingdom and eternal life as all being the same thing. I'm currently working my way through NT Wrights book "Surprised by Hope" and its raising some questions. God kingdom is here on earth and after the final judgement, heaven & earth will be joined together and renewed. We have eternal life at that point. What we commonly think of heaven being is actually just a state of rest, its also the paradise that Jesus made reference to on the cross. We may all end up in heaven, but I don't think we all won't end up in the Kingdom once everything has been renewed. Since NT Wright can put it so much better than me, I've put some of the videos where he puts it in his words;
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Permalink Reply by Deserey Velasquez on
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Dan,
The context must be understood in order to understand that there is no contradiction between those two verses. In Matthew 19 Jesus is talking to a Jewish rich young man who was very familiar with the law. Jesus knowing his heart condition does what he does best. That is to reveal our own heart to us. Hence, He tells this young man that he must keep the law because it is true. If anyone is able to keep the whole law they are able to go to Heaven but we know that no human being has ever kept the law. So Jesus is making that point obvious by showing that the young man loves his possessions more then God which makes him not fulfill the law and showing the idol of his heart.
In Romans 10 Christ has died and the verse is for the whole world. And we know that believing is much more then an intellectual understanding. It envelopes repentance and trusting in Christ to the point of practicing His commandments. So there is no contradiction between Matthew and Romans. You have two different scenarios. Hope this helps.
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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Deserey,
Amen. I posted my response and then saw yours. You said it much more concise :-)
Lord Bless,
LT
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Dan,
If you go through the rest of chapter 19 in Matthew you will find the answer that ties it together. Let's first establish that God expects perfection and only perfect people will enter into eternal life. Before we lose hope over that truth lets see what the rest of chapter 19 says.
17: In verse 17 Jesus makes it clear that the bar is high and that in reality there is only "One" who is good and that is God Himself and this of course can be and is applied to Jesus who is God in human flesh.
18-19: We see a few of the Ten Commandments mentioned and in this we recognize that Jesus says if you break any of these you are excluded from heaven. In the Book of James we know that if we break one we have broken them all. This man came to Jesus in self-righteousness.
20: That self-righteousness is seen in his response in verse 20.
21: Jesus goes to the heart of the issue by revealing this man's weakness, his area of failure. It is not that he had riches that made him wrong. It is that his riches had him. He wanted eternal life, but he wanted his riches more or he would have gladly given them up. Jesus gives several short parables of which the "Pearl of Great Worth" is one. In that parable the person sold all that they had to acquire the land where the pearl was located. The point of that parable is to give up all that we have (meaning what we own no longer owns us, but has been released unto God) in order to receive what God has freely offered us, but to do so we must be free of the ties, or entrapments, to this world.
22: The man could not give up his wealth. He valued his life (including wealth) as more important than eternal life.
23-24: A simple warning that those who possess things need to be careful to not let those things possess them.
25: The disciples saw this man as righteous and yet he walks away unsaved. The disciples knew they had failed in many ways and thought if this apparent righteous man could not (or would not) be saved, how could they or anyone else be saved.
26: Here is where we start to understand the true plan of God in this passage. With man it is impossible. We need to come to the point in life where we know without a shadow of doubt that we cannot earn our salvation. We cannot be good enough because good enough means perfect and that includes past, present, and future. Jesus goes on to say "but with God all things are possible." Are hope rest solely upon God and His work. Salvation requires perfection and that perfection comes to us by way of the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God (Jesus) who died on the cross shedding His blood as a substitutionary sacrifice on our behalf. All things are possible with God and God has chosen to take the repentant sinners sins and place them on Christ on the cross and at the same time God takes the holiness and righteousness (perfection of Christ) and from the cross imputes them in us at new birth (regeneration). At new birth we literally receive a new spirit where the old is removed and the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17). This process as seen in this passage requires surrender. This is illustrated in the rest of the chapter.
27: Peter rightly, not arrogantly, states that they have given up everything to follow Jesus. In their case it is a literal walking away, but for many today it is more of a letting go of what you have (not letting it control you) and giving it all over to the Lord as you seek to follow Him where He has planted you. This is not a call to poverty, but a call to transfer ownership (even though it all is His anyway) from us to Him.
28-30: Jesus substantiates that all who surrender all to Him will be rewarded both with eternal life and blessings to come. (Note: this surrender is in response to what God has and is doing in the person's life. Our surrender does not earn salvation, but reveals our heart and where we stand before Father God as repentant and regenerated people.)
A word of caution need to be added as I wrap this up. This surrendering unto God is both a moment by moment willful act and a lifelong process.
Now when we compare this to Romans 10:13 we understand that calling on the name of the Lord does not simply mean you pray a simple prayer. For to be able to truly call on the name of the Lord unto salvation one has gone through a great work at the hands of God for we know that no one comes to the Lord unless He is drawn and unless the Father is revealed to them and that the individual is experiencing the repentance process. One of the great errors today is that we often seek to get people to recite a prayer and then assume they are saved.
I hope this helps a little.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Permalink Reply by adam chung on
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Hey LT,
Great response, but I have a quick question. You brought up the point that no one comes to the Lord unless he is drawn and unless the father is revealed to them, which reminded me of something that my unsaved friend told me when we were talking about salvation. He grew up in the church and still serves in the church today, but calls himself an unbeliever. He told me that there are so many questions that he has asked dozens of people including pastors, but it comes down to just having faith. This is a big problem for him, and he also mentioned that God has to call people, and God has not called him yet or may never draw him to Himself so it is not his fault, nor is it the fault of every other non believer that God has not "called."
Also, Matthew 7:7 talks about asking, seeking, and knocking and it will be given to you. But does God have to call you to ask, seek, and knock?
Thanks,
-Adam
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Adam,
There is no simple answer from our finite minds to this because we know that John 3:16 says "Whoever" and other verse give us this understanding. The Bible is also clear that we do not simply go out and find God and that it is really a work of the Holy Spirit and the power of the gospel (John 16:11 and Rom. 1:26). The process of coming to God is repentance and literally means a change of mind that leads to a directional change, but the mind has to be changed first. I believe that the calling does coincide with the hearing of the gospel, because we know that the Word never returns void. The gospel when preached, even to the spiritually blind and deaf, must have some impact upon those who hear it.
Please inquire further, but I will stop at this point.
Lord Bless,
LT
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I have a slightly different take on it.
I used to be an atheist and had many questions (still do today). I came to Christ via a long and often painful process of getting these questions answered (I can send you a link to an overview of my story) I believe everyone has the same choice I did; accept Christ or reject him. I believe Christ died for everyone without exception but we can choose to reject that gift. If your friend has questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them as would many others here; getting answers is not always easy. But we all have a choice
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That is not really a different take, because you do not know how hard God was working in the background through others to reach you and working upon you to draw you.
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I think it is slightly different unless I've read you wrong,. Your view suggests the calling is something to be done, I'm suggesting its already been done.
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The offer from the cross is universal, but the enlightenment of that truth is dependent upon the work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Then the person confronted with this reality is able to choose light or darkness.
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nicely put
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Ok that makes more sense :)
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