Faith Comes by Hearing the Word of Christ
10For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.” 12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him. 13For, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? 15And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” 16But they didn’t all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 17So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 18But I say, didn’t they hear? Yes, most certainly, “Their sound went out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” 19But I ask, didn’t Israel know? First Moses says, “I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation, with a nation void of understanding I will make you angry.” 20Isaiah is very bold, and says, “I was found by those who didn’t seek me. I was revealed to those who didn’t ask for me.” 21But as to Israel he says, “All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
We need to ask ourselves whether we truly understand that Jesus gave himself as a sacrifice to atone for sin and rose again in victory over death, and whether we are certain of it. When Jesus set out for Jerusalem to bear the cross, every step he took was for the salvation of each one of us. Behind the salvation of humankind stood God’s work of creation and his purpose, and the obedience of Jesus, who knew the Father’s will and plan. And because the love of the Holy Spirit was there as well, still at work today so that God’s plan may be completed, we are able to be saved. Now we who know that love are to preach the gospel, proclaiming the word of truth so that God’s plan and love may bear still more fruit. It is the grace of God, who has worked unchanging through all these years, that lets us come before him today in worship and thanksgiving. Since the work of salvation was accomplished through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can say that the resurrection is an event of the deepest worth to the church. The cross Jesus bore was a love too great for us to bear; but because he also conquered death and rose again, sinners shut up in death have received the gift of escaping the second death.
As the Old Testament shows, it was because God desired to save all peoples that he gave his chosen Israel the calling to make him known. God called Israel as his chosen people and entrusted them with the weighty task of carrying the good news to others, yet they could not let go of the pride that told them they alone were God’s people. So remember Israel’s failure, and take up the work of preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth, as God has commanded.
The grace of God is a love greater than any sinner can imagine. Because the Creator gave himself without condition for his creatures, it is a grace we would not presume even to guess at. Because Adam sinned and met spiritual death, all people everywhere fell short of the glory of God. The sin of betraying God locked humanity under the power of Satan, and no one had any way at all to escape death and Satan. Yet the God of love, to forgive such sinners, appointed priests from among the people so that sin could be forgiven, and made the people hear his will through the prophets. Again and again God labored to give people another chance.
1 John 3:8
8He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil.
John is saying that whoever does not believe in Jesus Christ is of the devil, and will therefore perish with him when Christ destroys the devil. The mighty power by which Jesus destroys Satan is the resurrection. To block out the light of Jesus Christ, Satan tempted people and shut them up in death; but he could not stop Christ from rising, because by the power of God the door of the tomb was thrown wide open. To serve a Jesus Christ this great is something close to a miracle. Then we must ask ourselves whether it is truly right for us, who have been saved, to turn a blind eye to people trapped in darkness.
Jesus said that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him; his disciples were therefore to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that he had commanded, and he would be with them always, even to the end of the age. What Jesus Christ desires is for us who believe to go out into the world and bring the gospel to every nation. We must not rest content that we ourselves are saved; we are called to make the triune God known so that others, too, may live as his people. And to proclaim the truth in this way, we first need to know the word ourselves. This matters because, however loudly we urge people to believe in Jesus, if what we cry out is not the truth, it can become a tool in Satan’s hands.
Romans 10:13-14
13For, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher?
Almighty God has the power to make every creature in the world hear his word and believe as surely as if they had seen it. Yet people turn away from him and look only at the world, and so they fail to meet Jesus Christ, who is the way of life. Only when people look past the world, far beyond it, do they see hope, wisdom and understanding, and the way of life; but because they see nothing except the world, they cannot break free of anxiety and greed.
In the film Snowpiercer, when the world was suffering under extreme global warming, people sprayed vast quantities of an artificial coolant called CW-7 to bring the earth’s temperature down, but the side effect was a catastrophic ice age. Everyone died of the cold, except those who barely managed to board a train, and for seventeen long years they had to live aboard it as it ran on and on. The train Wilford had built now became the whole world for the survivors. It crossed the globe without stopping, and since everyone would die if it ever stopped, whoever controlled the engine held absolute power. As in the world outside, the front cars were fitted out as luxurious compartments where the rich lived, the middle held the crew who ran the train, and the last cars carried the poor, who had to work themselves to death for those in power. The tyranny of the powerful grew worse by the day, and the rage of the poor swelled until they rose in revolt. Even on a train far too small to be called a world, there was betrayal, despair, jealousy, violence, the craving for wealth, and absolute power. Watching people in that confined space treat life cheaply to keep water and food in balance, and others help the powerful do evil in order to escape their poverty, I could see that wherever there are people, there is sin. Because they feared they would die if the train stopped, they came to regard the engine as sacred. But sins of every kind sent the train off the rails, and the film ends with two children, who had always longed for the world outside, walking across the snowfield.
Ironically, the terror of dying outside the train gave great power to the one who held the engine; yet when the engine stopped, it was the two weakest people of all who went on to live in freedom in the world outside. Even on a train racing toward the end, there was a ruler whose character was far from whole, there were people enjoying vast wealth, and there were the good and the wicked. When I saw that those in power felt no guilt as they controlled the number of people on board, it struck me that the little train was a miniature of the world we live in now. And just as we who believe share this harsh world with everyone else, I found myself wondering what a Christian would have done if they had been riding that train toward the end.
In a world racing toward its end, people fight for more power and more wealth; on the train, too, people were frantic to win a place in the front cars. A Christian on board would have found it hard to judge whether the gospel could even be preached to such people. Unlike those who thought the train was the whole world, the Christian would know that one day this train would stop and that an eternal world exists; yet riding with everyone else in that cramped, speeding train, they probably wrestled with many questions. Even so, what choice would a Christian make who knew that only by getting off this train could anyone live in a free and eternal world? Perhaps, with the end drawing near, they would have wanted to shout to the others that time was running out and they must get off. To people convinced that leaving the train means death, a gospel that says you must leave it to live sounds so absurd that whoever preaches it may well be persecuted. But because we know they will otherwise fall into eternal death, we must persuade them. Whether the train is passing through a tunnel or along a treacherous gorge, whatever the time and whatever the place, let us preach with all our strength to save even one more person.
As we go through life, we learn that some live in ease and others in hardship, that everyone has their share of happiness, sorrow, and worry, and that problems keep coming for as long as we live. Only the people change; the same things come round again and again, like the wheels of the train. Sent as ambassadors from the Kingdom of God, believers have a duty to rescue people from this world that turns like a treadmill. Your own lives matter too; when I nevertheless press the call to preach the gospel, I am speaking of priorities. If we who know the secret of heaven know that the end is coming soon and still keep silent, people will never even have the chance to hear the gospel. When Christians work hard at their daily tasks, they are laboring to gain the time and opportunity to share the gospel. You cannot change the world by your own strength, so do what is yours to do as a Christian.
The apostle Paul, who until then had labored for the salvation of the Jews, widened the reach of his preaching to all people, because every life is precious. God, who wants not only the Jews but anyone at all to be saved, told his people to go out and become those who proclaim it.
Joel 2:32
32It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.
Through the work of the Holy Spirit, who came down on the upper room in Mark’s house on the day of Pentecost, this verse shows us that those who call on the name of the Lord are those who believe in Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul said that people can believe in Christ only if they hear the gospel, and that for them to hear it, there must be someone to preach. If God’s people cry out the gospel and the coming judgment and others still refuse to listen, nothing more can be done. We who believe in Christ were ourselves saved through someone’s witness, which is what makes evangelism so vital to salvation. Because evangelism is the way God’s work of creation, Christ’s work of atonement, and the Christ who is coming again are made known, it is a work entrusted to us.
God gave us the Bible so that we would not be deceived by Satan, and he gave wisdom so that anyone who simply opens it and reads can meet Jesus Christ. Yet people neither read the Bible nor seek to know the truth. God has given Jew and Greek alike, without distinction, the grace of calling on the name of the Lord, and still we see the sad reality of people deceived by those who teach falsehood. Faith that strays from the truth is false, and we must keep firmly in mind that it has no part in the promise, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Jesus came into the world and walked the road of suffering for the salvation of sinners, so it falls to us to share the truth without holding anything back. If we know grace and keep it to ourselves, people who long for the word will have no way to hear it, and they will find it hard to receive Christ. God will carry on his work of salvation, as he always has, with Jesus Christ at its center, and he will keep the covenant he made with his chosen people. Let God’s people, then, proclaim the truth without fear.
Romans 10:15
15And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”
Paul says that preachers can proclaim the gospel because there is one who sent them. The authority of the message a preacher proclaims is entrusted to them by Christ. Those sent by Christ are not some special class of people; they are all the saints who tell others that the world will come to an end and that Christ will come again. Because you hold the truth and the life, if God has told you to preach in the last car, where the poor ride, preach there; if he has given you the front cars, where the rich live, preach there, and do it with all your heart. Do not think of evangelism as something hard. Open your mouth and speak to people, and God will take responsibility for the outcome of their salvation.
Jesus spent three years teaching the truth with only twelve disciples. Had the Creator made himself known by performing great miracles before the whole world and its rulers, people would have believed easily. Why, then, did he teach only twelve? Because true faith, unlike a faith that chases blessings, transforms a person slowly. To bring people to believe in Christ, we must not set them chasing after miracles or speak in exaggerations, and we must not pressure or brainwash them either. These are the methods cults use; ignorant of the truth, their followers seem zealous in their religion, but without Christ they cannot enter into a relationship with God. Because the words of Christ are food for the spirit, Jesus kept his disciples with him and led them to conviction through many experiences in the midst of daily life. Just as we must eat physical food at every meal, the food of the spirit cannot be taken in all at once, so spiritual maturity always takes time. The truth does not brainwash people; it causes them to be born again. If we lead people with false words, they will lose the ability to judge rightly and will never fully see the boundless love and majesty of God.
In verse 15, the words “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News” quote Isaiah, who called beautiful the feet of the messenger bringing the glad news that the Jews held captive in Babylon would return home. Because the Jews knew what a miracle Israel’s release had been, Paul taught them that the gospel is good news just like that event. Anyone running to announce that seventy years of bitter captivity were over must have wanted to deliver the news as fast as they could. Paul is saying that when believers bring the gospel to people imprisoned under the power of Satan, their hearts should beat with the same eager joy as that runner’s. If we rest easy in the thought that we ourselves are saved while there are people who do not know that the end of the world is close at hand, Christ will rebuke us.
Romans 10:16-17
16But they didn’t all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 17So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
We must be sure to proclaim the truth, so that others may hear and believe. What people choose once they have heard is their own responsibility; ours is to recognize that making known the greatness of Jesus Christ is our mission, and to fulfill it. God called his people and caused them to believe, so that his great name would be made known. The gospel must go out to the whole world, and through your witness the Kingdom of God must be filled with saved souls. The apostle Paul preached the truth, but because the Jews rejected Christ, he quoted what Isaiah said to God: “Lord, who has believed our report?”
Jesus himself preached the gospel to the hard-hearted and was persecuted for it, and the apostle Paul, though he preached it with his whole life, was persecuted as well. Even if you share the gospel because you want to help people, you may meet persecution and humiliation, as if you were being thrown off the train. Yet the gospel is that only by getting off the train can anyone live, which means that being persecuted for it is itself a martyrdom.
We who have truly met Christ, who rescued us from sin and death, must give our utmost to share the gospel and the love of God. If the saints, who know from the Bible that the world will end, do not evangelize, who will ever hear the gospel? We too could not escape death. May you never forget that someone brought that gospel to you, and may you take up the task given to you. Paul, who once persecuted Christians, confessed that he was a debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish. I pray that you will ask yourselves whether you truly acknowledge that you are sinners. If you believe that faith comes by hearing, then just as you heard the truth and were saved, you must give others the chance to be saved as well.
Romans 10:18
18But I say, didn’t they hear? Yes, most certainly, “Their sound went out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
Paul declares outright that everyone in the world has heard the gospel. The word of God has spread over all the earth and reached its very ends, he says, so no one who pleads that they never heard will be forgiven. This shows that when God’s people fail to evangelize, it is not because they do not know how, but because they have no aim of bringing anyone to salvation. Some excuse themselves by saying that life was too hard, or that someone else kept them from it. But such talk probably comes from a weakness of spirit, or from a wish to shift the blame for their own shortcomings onto others. God declared in the Bible that salvation comes by faith, and he showed it in practice by saving Abraham through faith. Israel became a special nation by receiving the law and experienced God’s presence firsthand through the tabernacle, but they made the mistake of taking works for faith. As a result, the Gentiles they had hated and mocked came to salvation first, yet to the very end the Jews never grasped why God had saved the Gentiles.
Romans 10:21
21But as to Israel he says, “All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
Because God loved Israel to the very end, all day long he stretched out his hands to embrace them, but they refused him. They took his love lightly and turned salvation away. Even as Israel rejected God and set about establishing their own righteousness, God kept his promise: he sent Jesus into the world, made him bear the cross, and caused him to conquer death and rise again. Whatever people choose, God has done his own work. Just as God called Israel, he has a clear reason for calling you. Just as he gave Israel a charge, he has certainly entrusted one to you; know that, and take it up.
Proclaim Jesus Christ who rose again, Jesus Christ who will come again, Jesus Christ our high priest, Jesus Christ the King of kings, and give your utmost so that many souls may be saved. If you preach the gospel in faith, God will bless your life so that you can carry it to still more people.