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NASB | Matthew 10:32 ¶ "Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 10:32 ¶ "Therefore, the one who confesses and acknowledges Me before men [as Lord and Savior, affirming a state of oneness with Me], that one I will also confess and acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven. |
Subject: Are you a follower of Jesus or a church? |
Bible Note: CDBJ, Good evangelical post. As you know, that verse from Romans 3:10, "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:" comes from Psalm 14:1-3, which in the context of Romans could mean "no one" as in "everyone is unrighteous", but is this really what Paul meant to say? The verses that follow (Psalm 14:4-5) indicate otherwise: "Do all the workers of wickedness not know, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call upon the Lord? There they are in great dread, For God is with the righteous generation." (Psalm 14:4-5). The psalm says that indeed there is a righteous generation whom God is with. The psalm does not say that one was righteous, and Paul can’t be ignorant of this. This ever-presence of righteousness accords with God's answer to Elijah's lament in 1 Kings 19:14: (“…even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”): “Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him." (1Ki 19:18), and also with Paul’s deliberate citation of Isaiah in Romans 9:27: “Isaiah also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:” (Rom 9:27) Who are the unrighteous of David’s age? Most likely the enemies of David, comprised of those who want his head (Saul), and many of David's northern brethren, the Iraelites. So, in context of Psalm 14, some Israelites were clearly righteous. How did they get that way? Probably by loving God and following the Ten Commandments as best they could (an interesting question, actually). This may not have gone down well with their Baal-breathing brethren, but it certainly went down well with God. In view of this, I don't think Paul meant to say that all of humankind has been historically and universally unrighteous, rather he meant to illustrate God’s fealty to the lost and scattered Israelites, a righteous remnant of whom He intends yet to save. Colin |