How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without one who preaches?
Paul has just said that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Here he traces that call back to its source: calling rests on believing, believing on hearing, hearing on a preacher, and the preacher on being sent by God.
Read the chain backwards, and you find where every conversion starts.
How important then is the Gospel, in which He is presented as Lord for the submission of faith. Verses 14 and 15 emphasise this. If men are to be saved they must hear the Gospel and God must send it. With Him it all begins. God sends the preacher. The preacher delivers the message. Men hear of Christ and they believe in Him. Then they call upon the Lord and are saved.
Read the same links forward, from the hearer's side, and they become an invitation. The last link is the one the listener supplies.
This is a beautiful circle. First God sends out the preacher. As the evangelist preaches, the sinner hears. As he hears, he believes. The gospel of peace first goes into his heart, and then comes out of his mouth, and he says, "Lord, I believe." It is like pressing the button of an electric bell: the circle is completed.
The first question assumes something about prayer: you cannot appeal to someone you do not trust. That is why the word must come first.
A person must believe before he prays. "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?" No one can believe without the Word of God. But when someone has received the Word of God — even if it only breaks up the conscience and draws the heart — that person prays.
The sailors on Jonah's ship show what happens when no one has heard. In the storm they prayed hard, but not to the true God.
These sailors did not know the Lord, and could not call on Him. Scripture rightly asks, "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?… And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" These men had not heard, so they could not believe in the true God. Instead of calling on Him, each one called on his own god.
It is tempting to think the messenger matters little. The verse cuts across that comfort.
Some have taken comfort in the thought that the evangelist was not so important, because God would be sure to do the work. But that is not how the apostle puts it. He says, "How are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?" There is nothing like going to the word of God. God can do anything He pleases, I have no doubt; still His ordinary way is by preaching.
Paul is defending a gospel that goes out to nations who never knew Israel's God. Preaching fits that new situation in a way the law never did.
The Gentiles did not call on the name of the Lord, so a new means begins to appear. Its aim is to wake them from the dust of death and to give them a testimony that would draw their hearts toward Him… They must be called by the gospel, so that they may call on the name of the Lord for salvation. Preaching, then, is the great mark of God's ways — not under law, but since redemption.
Read that way, the passage doubles as Paul's defence of his own work among the nations.
Here the apostle, pursuing the thread of the same passage of Joel, justifies his own ministry, and what God was doing thereby among the Gentiles. The word of faith was preached to them. God, by means of preaching, is making them acquainted with the name of the Lord, who must be called on in order that they should be saved.
So who does the sending? Men have often claimed that role for themselves.
It is degrading, and it has no ground, to push man in here as if he must be the sender. The whole aim is to make nothing of man and to glorify God in all things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Nowhere does Scripture say that man sends out the preacher. God keeps that right in His own hands.
That leaves the question of how wide "sent" reaches. One writer answers it in two layers.
But who are sent in this way? First, and in general, every Christian who has tasted that the Lord is gracious has both the freedom and the responsibility of holding out the word of life… Second, evangelists are sent. There are those whom the Spirit of God specially sets apart for this work.
- Sent — everything starts at God's end. He sends; the chain never begins with the sinner's search.
- Preached — God could work any way He pleases. He chose preaching, so the messenger is never optional.
- Heard — no one can believe in someone they have never heard of. Jonah's sailors prayed hard, but to gods who could not save.
- Believed — faith comes before prayer. The word ploughs up the conscience first, and then the person calls.
- Saved — the circle closes when the hearer says, "Lord, I believe." Then the same errand passes to him. Every Christian who has tasted His grace may hold out the word, and some He sets apart for it.
and how shall they preach unless they have been sent? according as it is written, How beautiful the feet of them that announce glad tidings of peace, of them that announce glad tidings of good things!
Paul's questions here run backwards: calling on the Lord needs faith, faith needs hearing, hearing needs a preacher, and a preacher needs a sender. This verse ends the chain at God, then turns to Isaiah for a picture of how God sees His messengers.
Many read the question about sending as proof that preachers need human appointment. One writer tests that against Paul's own case:
Is it then a clergy? Was it man who at that time sent out the apostle and others to preach the gospel? Was the apostle mistaken when he said, Not of man, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ? Was he not then one of those who were sent? What strange self-satisfaction it takes to add "by men" after sent, and so shut God out of this glorious privilege and the rights of His grace!
If not men, then who sends them out?
God's own delight in the gospel has appointed preachers of the gospel. The joy of God, the gospel of God, and the eternal purposes of God have sent them out. Can I doubt that "joy" sends forth the message, since, when it returns full-handed, there is "joy"? (See Luke 15:10.)
Some think God will save people anyway, so the messenger matters little:
Some have taken comfort in the thought that the evangelist was not so important, since God would be sure to do the work. But that is not how the apostle put it. He says, "And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?" There is nothing like going to the word of God. God can do anything He pleases in that way, I have no doubt; still His ordinary way is by preaching.
The verse praises feet — the part of a messenger that moves:
We may say, "The gospel is preached, let them come and hear it"; or, "God can save and bring them in without us." But what does Scripture say? "And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'" (Rom. 10:15.) ... Trace through the Scriptures wherever you like, and you find the settled principle: the evangelist goes to the people with the good news, so his feet are called beautiful.
Earlier in the same letter, human feet appear in a very different light:
In Romans 3, the feet of those who did not know the way of peace were marked by violence. Now, through the precious "gospel of peace," those same feet have such moral worth and dignity that God can use them for the "complete crushing" (the true meaning of the word) of the one who brought violence and murder into this world. The perfection of beauty is seen in Christ, who publishes peace (Isaiah 52:7; Nahum 1:15). The same beauty is seen in measure in believers who delight to preach the gospel of peace, sent by the Lord into a world disturbed by sin.
Paul quotes Isaiah 52:7, but stops before the prophet finishes. One writer explains why:
The apostle does not quote the last part of the verse, "who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns!'" In fact, prophecy shows the very opposite from that day to this. The days of vengeance were near for that generation which rejected Christ, not days of salvation for the holy city... But the joyful tidings will surely come, for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken it... No dust will make their feet anything other than beautiful, because of the good news they carry.
The quotation changes one more thing — the number of messengers:
Romans 10:15 speaks of "the feet of THEM." Isaiah 52:7, the verse Paul is quoting, speaks of "the feet of HIM": "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace... who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'"
Being sent brings no guarantee that people will listen:
And how can they preach, if no one sends them? God sees the feet of those who are sent as they cross the mountains, and how beautiful they are — glad messengers of peace! How beautiful to God! This cheers the preacher's heart, even though he has to learn that not everyone will obey the gospel (vv. 14, 15).
- Sent — the chain of questions ends in God, not in any human authority. Paul himself was sent "not of man, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ."
- Sent by joy — God's own delight in the gospel puts messengers on the road, and joy meets the message when it comes back full-handed.
- Sent to go — the praise falls on feet: the messenger goes to the people instead of waiting for them to come.
- Sent with half a promise — Paul stops before "Your God reigns." That part of Isaiah's word still waits for its day.
- Sent from One — Isaiah's one pair of beautiful feet becomes many in Romans. Every pair is beautiful to God, even when people refuse the message.