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God’s Message is Near You

Lee A. Carter by Lee A. Carter
in Inspirational
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Lee A. Carter

God's Message is Near You

This is what the Scripture says: “God’s message is near you; it is on your lips and in your heart.” – Romans 10:8 ERV

Written between 55 and 58 CE, Paul’s letter to the Romans was written to the Roman churches who were struggling to unify two groups of people from vastly different historical, cultural, and religious backgrounds into one family of God. God was calling Jews and Gentles to faith in Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit was being poured out on both. Somehow, they had to become one diverse-but-united people who reflected the image of the Triune God, both in their worship and in their community-life, in the pluralistic world of first century Rome.

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Paul could not adequately deal with this issue in the Roman church without addressing what, for believing Jews, would have been a very perplexing question: if God has so liberally welcomed Gentiles into his community based on faith in Jesus alone, does that mean that God’s promises to the nation of Israel were cancelled? In Romans 9 – 11, Paul goes to great lengths to demonstrate from Leviticus and Deuteronomy that God’s intention from the beginning was that all nations would be blessed by the offspring of Abraham. Israel would be a light to the nations and that the incoming flood of believing Gentiles was the fulfillment, not the termination, of God’s promises (Rom. 10:4).

In Romans 10:6-8, Paul gives a creative retelling of Deuteronomy 30:12-14. He reinterprets this text for the new dawn of God’s people through Jesus Christ that includes the Gentiles. Paul hangs his reinterpretation using the concept of “being right” or “righteousness” (dikaiosynÄ“). Rather than signifying an individual’s perfect obedience to the letter of the law, “righteousness” means right action, behavior, and loyalty within one’s relational contexts. It is a way of life that honors the community one is a part, especially the head of that community, such as a parent or a king. The Old Testament Law crafted what faithful living meant for Israel as a covenant community. God’s people must live together in a community that demonstrates their love for God. The Old Testament prophets often bemoaned Israel for honoring God only with their lips and sacrifices while their hearts were far from him.

But in Jesus Christ, the relational context has changed! He inaugurated a new covenant sealed in his blood with a new community that is called his body. Righteousness in the “Jesus community” is learning, growing, and becoming a people who reflect King Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). Just as Paul was trying to make one community out of two formerly hostile groups of people, discipleship to Jesus excludes factionalism and division. Discipleship to Jesus welcomes and honors those who God has included through Christ’s death and resurrection, even if they are “other” than us in any way that the Evil One uses to divide us. It is washing one another’s feet in servantship and cruciform love.

How can we possibly do that? Paul, quoting from Deuteronomy, reminds us that its only possible through faith in Jesus. We don’t have to reach into the heavens or go across the ocean to achieve it. It is “near you; it is on your lips and in your heart” (Rom. 10:8). This is the beauty, wonder, mystery, and hidden reality of faith in Jesus. In discipleship to Jesus, He makes the law of His Spirit come alive in us, transforming us into His image who love and obey him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The seed that was planted all the way back to Abraham fully blossoms in us: all the nations experience the shalom of God because of our righteousness.

By Dr. Lee Carter, Bible League International staff, Illinois USA

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Lee A. Carter

Lee A. Carter

Dr. Lee Carter is the author of Leadership-in-Community: The Missiology, Community, & Ethics of Missional Leadership published by Kharis Publishing.  Carter currently serves as Executive Vice President of Scripture Engagement at Bible League International, overseeing field ministry programs, providing supervision and support, and driving long-term strategies for sustained growth for greater impact of the ministry. Carter began serving with Bible League International in 2004. He began his work at Bible League International serving as a Finance Manager for Africa Ministries but was eventually promoted to providing oversight and accountability as the International Finance Director covering all global field operations. Previously, Carter served as a campus staff ministry with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Montana where he mentored and coached student leaders. Carter was a student leader in his local InterVarsity chapter campus at the University of Montana. This was a spiritually and vocationally formative time in his life because InterVarsity challenged him to consider his life decisions through the frame of the Kingdom of God. When he graduated in 1997, he joined the InterVarsity Staff team in Montana where he served students at Montana State University – Bozeman, Montana State University – Billings, and Rocky Mountain College (Billings) for 5 years. In his last year on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Carter participated on the staff team of a global project that accompanied 40 students to Kenya during the summer of 2001. During this first cross-cultural missional and leadership experience, Carter discovered the breadth and beauty of God’s heart for the nations. He witnessed firsthand how God’s Spirit was moving, equipping, and sending faithful followers of Jesus from every nation, culture, and tradition to participate in His great mission to redeem the world. During this summer, Carter committed to spending his life in the service of sisters and brothers around the world who God calls to share their faith in Jesus with others and plant churches. Carter is gifted in cross-cultural leadership and collaboration and his passion is to equip missional leaders in the global Church with healthy leadership perspectives and effective models for serving their communities so that the goodness of Jesus is revealed through their leadership.  Carter received his Doctorate in Strategic Leadership from Regent University in May 2021. Also, he earned his Master of Arts in Nonprofit Administration from North Park University in Chicago, Illinois in 2009 and his Bachelor of Science in Business Management with an emphasis in accounting and a minor in communications studies from the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana in 1997. Carter is originally from Billings, Montana. He currently lives in the south suburbs of Chicago. He loves reading (mostly theology and Christian living, but occasionally a good story he can get lost in), writing, bike riding, walking, and traveling. He has served as a founding board member of Remember Me Global Initiatives, a global community development support initiative. He will also begin to volunteer with By the Hand Club for Kids, a Chicago-based after school tutoring and spiritual development program for at-risk youth.

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