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.
But they have not all obeyed the glad tidings. For Esaias says, Lord, who has believed our report?
Paul has just said that anyone who calls on the Lord will be saved, and that God sends preachers so people can hear. Now he faces a hard fact. Hearing is not the same as believing. He proves it from Isaiah, who made the same complaint centuries earlier.
A note on wording: the ESV reads, "who has believed what he has heard from us?" Older translations say, "who has believed our report?" The writers below work from that word "report."
Paul does not say they have not all accepted the good news. He says they have not obeyed it. That word choice changes how we present the message, and how people refuse it.
Notice that the Gospel is a message from God which we are to OBEY. We are too apt to think of it as a kind invitation for us to accept, and we present it to others that way only. As a result, they think of it only as an invitation they may decline, or at least put off with no set date, and with no serious consequences. For them that is a fatal mistake. Everyone who hears the Gospel is responsible to respond to it with the obedience of faith.
This obedience is not a life of good conduct that follows later. It is the first movement of the heart when God speaks.
Take the case of the soul's submission to the righteousness of God. The Epistle to the Romans calls this the "obedience of faith." It does not mean the practical obedience that faith produces in daily life. It means the first act of believing God's word. This is really the heart's obedience. It is the person obeying the truth, the soul's acceptance of God's testimony to His Son. The man who was ungodly until now truly acknowledges it, bows to the word of God, accepts the truth of Christ's person and work, and is justified.
The quotation from Isaiah is not an aside. Paul uses it to back his charge against Israel, and to justify the good news going out to the nations.
If we believe the prophet, Israel too was to be at least in part unbelieving. The apostle piles up testimonies from the Old Testament. With them he makes good his solemn charge against the rebellious people of God, and so justifies the good news going out to the Gentiles. It was not only Paul but their most famous prophet long ago who gave this appalling picture of Jewish unbelief. But this was a testimony sent out to be heard and believed. So the way was open to reach the Gentiles, who did not have the law.
Isaiah's cry comes at the hinge of his prophecy: he had described a Messiah lifted high, then described one wounded and despised. The second picture is what people could not stomach.
Isaiah spoke of the glory of Christ. He said, "he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted." But then he has to say, "Who has believed our report?" The Jews rejected the report of the glory because of the suffering. The humiliation of Christ was a stumbling block to them. But the report had spoken of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow. One day they will learn that both the sufferings of Christ and His glory were on their behalf.
So what is this "report"? The answer decides what faith rests on.
The Spirit of God tells us (Rom. 10:17) "faith comes by hearing," or report; it is not the act of hearing, but the thing heard that is meant. The report is the Word of God.
If most refuse, has the message failed? The answer is no, and there is a principle here for anyone who spreads the news.
No matter how widely the message goes out, this does not guarantee that all will receive the blessed news. So the rejection of multitudes of Gentiles does not in the least prove the message worthless. Even of Israel, Scripture had foretold this same general unbelief of the glad tidings — "Lord, who has believed our report?" Scripture holds out no hope to the messengers that the world itself will believe their report. But that is no discouragement. The report is true and full of blessedness, and the gospel works by what it brings, not by the conditions it finds.
- Report — the word means the thing heard, not the act of hearing; what reaches the ear is the Word of God itself.
- Obedience — the report is not an invitation you may decline. It comes as a message from God to be obeyed.
- Faith — that obedience is the heart bowing to God's testimony about His Son. It comes before any question of daily conduct.
- Refusal — Israel stumbled at a Messiah who had to suffer before His glory. Isaiah had already written their unbelief down.
- Result — Israel refused the testimony, but it went out to be heard and believed, so the road lay open to the nations. A true report loses none of its worth when people turn it down.
So faith then [is] by a report, but the report by God's word.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.