Romans 10:9-13 reveals that Christ is the Lord.
Verse 12 says, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him.” Christ is the same Lord of all (Acts 10:36; 1 Cor. 8:6). Here all refers to all persons including the Jews and the Gentiles. Christ is the Lord of all peoples, that is, He is the Lord of all races, tribes, and nationalities (Rev. 5:9).
Acts 13:1 confirms that Christ is the same Lord of all: “Now there were in Antioch, in the local church, prophets and teachers: Barnabas and Simeon, who was called Niger, and Lucius the Cyrenian, and Manaen, the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.” In this verse we see that different peoples had become one church. The prophets and teachers in the church in Antioch were from a number of different sources. Barnabas was a Levite, a Cyprian by birth (4:36). Niger, whose name means black and should denote a Negro, was probably of African origin. Lucius the Cyrenian was from Cyrene in North Africa. He may have been a Jew if he was the Lucius in Romans 16:21, who was Paul’s kinsman. Manaen was the foster brother of Herod and was governmentally related to the Romans. Hence, Manaen must have been Europeanized. Finally, Acts 13:1 mentions Saul, a Jew born in Tarsus and taught by Gamaliel according to the law of Moses (22:3). The five prophets and teachers recorded here were composed of Jewish and Gentile peoples with different backgrounds, education, and status. This indicates that the church is composed of all races and classes of believers regardless of their background. The church is not the church of any particular race; rather, it is the church of the believers from different races who have been redeemed and regenerated and are being transformed to be glorified (1 Thes. 1:1). Although every race considers itself to be superior to other races and thus looks down on others, Christ is the same Lord of all and the church is composed of all races and classes of people.
Christ is rich to all who call upon Him (Rom. 10:12b), irrespective of nationality, wealth, behavior, culture, or education. Moreover, that Christ is rich to those who call upon Him reveals that God selects us, redeems us, justifies us, sanctifies us, conforms us, and glorifies us in Christ in order that we may enjoy His unsearchable riches in Christ (Eph. 3:8). The secret to this enjoyment is to call on His name. If we open our mouth wide and call on the Lord, the riches of His divinity will be our portion (Psa. 81:10).
Christ needs our participation in Him. Since we have been made vessels to contain Him, we need to believe with our heart to receive Him and to call on Him continually with our mouth to take Him in, thus allowing His riches to fill our empty vessel (Rom. 9:21-23).
The Bible reveals that calling on the Lord is the way to partake of and enjoy the Lord. Deuteronomy 4:7 says that the Lord is near “whenever we call upon Him.” Psalm 145:18 says that the Lord is “near to all who call upon Him.” Psalm 18:6 and 118:5 say that David called upon the Lord in his distress. In Psalm 50:15 the Lord asks us to call upon Him in the day of trouble, and in Psalm 86:7 David did it accordingly. Psalm 81:7 says that the children of Israel did the same thing (Exo. 2:23) and that the Lord told them, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psa. 81:10). Psalm 86:5 says that the Lord is good, ready to forgive, and is abundant in lovingkindness to all that call upon Him. Psalm 116:3-4 says, “The bonds of death encompassed me, / And the distresses of Sheol fell upon me; / I fell upon trouble and sorrow. / But I called upon the name of Jehovah.” Verse 13 of the same psalm says, “I will take up the cup of salvation / And call upon the name of Jehovah.” In order to take the cup of salvation, that is, to participate in and enjoy the Lord’s salvation, we need to call upon the name of the Lord.
Lamentations 3:55-57 makes it clear that when we call upon the Lord He draws near to us and that our calling upon Him is our breathing, our cry. By this we can realize that to call upon the Lord is not only to cry to Him but also to experience spiritual breathing (Exo. 2:23) in which we breathe out all that is within us, whether it be agony, pain, pressure, etc. Jeremiah did this when he called upon the Lord out of a low dungeon, that is, out of the lowest pit. Whenever we are in a spiritual dungeon or pit, under a certain suppression, we can call on the Lord, breathing out the heaviness within us, and thus be delivered from the lowest pit. This kind of calling on the Lord not only enables us to breathe out the negative things from within us but also to breathe in the Lord Himself with all His riches as our strength, enjoyment, comfort, and rest. In this way we partake of the riches of the Lord. Hence, in Romans 10:12 Paul tells us that the Lord is “rich to all who call upon Him.” Today in resurrection the Lord is ready and available for our participation in Him, and He is rich for our enjoyment of Him. We simply need to call on Him all the time. Calling on Him, we partake of and enjoy all His riches.
Calling on the Lord is different from merely praying to Him. The Greek word for call on or call upon means to invoke a person, to call a person by name. Although it is possible to pray to the Lord silently, calling on the Lord requires that we cry out to Him or address Him audibly. The Hebrew word for call in Genesis 4:26 means to “call out to” or “cry unto.” Isaiah 12:4 and 6 show that to call upon the Lord’s name is to “cry out and give a ringing shout.” Lamentations 3:55 and 56 reveal the same thing—to call upon the Lord’s name is to “cry” to the Lord. To call upon the Lord is to cry to Him.
According to the Scriptures, this matter of calling on the name of the Lord began with the third generation of mankind. From the time of Enosh, “men began to call upon the name of Jehovah” (Gen. 4:26). Then Abraham (12:8), Isaac (26:25), Job (Job 12:4), Moses (Deut. 4:7), Jabez (1 Chron. 4:10), Samson (Judg. 16:28), Samuel (1 Sam. 12:18), David (2 Sam. 22:4; 1 Chron. 21:26), Jonah (Jonah 1:6), Elijah (1 Kings 18:24), Elisha (2 Kings 5:11), and Jeremiah (Lam. 3:55) all practiced this matter of calling on the name of the Lord. Moreover, in Joel 2:32, Zephaniah 3:9, and Zechariah 13:9 it is prophesied that people will call on the name of the Lord.
On the day of Pentecost the New Testament believers also called on the name of the Lord to receive the outpoured Spirit as the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy (Acts 2:17-21). God poured out His Spirit, and the believers opened their mouths to receive the Spirit by calling on the name of the Lord. The Spirit has been poured out by God, but we need to receive Him. The way to receive Him is to open our mouths and call on the Lord. Hence, the New Testament believers, like Stephen (7:59), practiced this. By calling on the Lord they made it known that they were followers of the Lord (9:14). When Paul was Saul, the persecutor of the church, he intended to arrest the believers, recognizing them by their calling on the name of the Lord. After he was converted, he was advised to wash away his sins, mainly referring to his persecution of those who called on the Lord, by calling on the name of the Lord himself (22:16). Undoubtedly, this practice was common among the early saints.
In addressing his first Epistle to the church at Corinth, Paul said, “All those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place” (1 Cor. 1:2). This indicates that all the early believers practiced this matter of calling. In his second Epistle to Timothy, Paul charged him to pursue spiritual things “with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2:22). Therefore, we must also practice it. The Old Testament saints called on the Lord daily (Psa. 88:9) and throughout their entire life (116:2). We should practice calling on the Lord “out of a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:22) and with “a pure language” (Zeph. 3:9). If we practice this, we will certainly partake of the Lord’s riches and enjoy them. To call on the Lord is not only for salvation but also for the enjoyment of the Lord with all His riches.