How is hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17)?

The apostles and evangelists were heralds of the gospel. They went everywhere preaching the Word; and wherever they went there were those who believed the report. As I have already pointed out, faith comes by report. It is so in natural things. If we cannot verify what we hear, we accept or reject it, according to the reliability, or otherwise, of the witness upon whose authority it comes to us. Without report of some nature faith could not exist. 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 referred to. The report is the Word of God.

The trouble is that all have not obeyed the Gospel, as Isaiah also indicated. Obedience is by faith. The word, "report," really occurs thrice in this passage; for verse 17 more literally rendered is, "So faith then is by a report, but the report by God's word." When the report reaches our ears, backed by the authority of God's word, we believe it. Then it is that we can say like the Queen of Sheba, "It was a true report that I heard."

Verse 17 states the Divine order in which saving faith is produced. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." The report may not perhaps be in all cases communicated audibly, but sometimes by other means; but the thing reported is Divine truth. It is by means of the word of God that the hearing or report comes. That oral testimony is the appointed mode of preaching is clear, though blessing might flow, and many times has flowed, from a written testimony to the same precious grace. The conclusion, whether it relate to the nation of Israel or to the world at large, is that the rejection of proffered grace is the sole reason of a sinner's ultimate perdition. Ruined already by sin, and that from the womb, the Gospel meets him thus as the report of perfect forgiveness and unqualified grace. To reject this is to perish. But Israel had rejected it, as we have seen. Israel, then, as a nation, is a lost and outcast nation. Not believing on the Son of God, they could not call upon Him; and not calling upon Him, they could not be saved: seeing that no other name is given under heaven whereby men may be saved (Acts 4:12).

How Faith Comes. — If these things be so, as the prophets Isaiah and Joel declare, of those who call, and those who believe, the question naturally arises, "How shall they call (as Joel had predicted) on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him (of which Isaiah had written) of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach, except they be sent?" (14, 15). The prophetic declarations above referred to suppose, and require a testimony first to go forth; for calling on* is not just the same as calling to. It means the open confession of Him as God, on whom they call, and who is to be worshipped. How can there be that without a revelation, a testimony first going forth? "As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things?" (15). That testimony was going forth by the Gospel, but all had not obeyed it. No wonder that the prophets had written in the language they had done, "Whosoever," etc., evidently implying that all might not believe; for in truth Israel's unbelief had been predicted centuries previous, as Isaiah had written, "Lord, who has believed our report" (16). How then does faith come? The answer is plain, "Faith comes by hearing (or, report) and hearing (or, report) by the Word of Christ" (17). For thus it would seem probable the apostle expressed himself, introducing directly the Lord Jesus Christ.

Faith is mentioned 37 times in Romans, 22 times in Galatians, and 31 times in Hebrews, besides about 150 times in the rest of the New Testament—so important is the subject. We read, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17).

Hearing is by the Word of God—the Word of God is the only Book that brings a positive revelation of God and His truth, and hearing comes by it, not merely the physical act of responding to sounds, to articulate speech, but the real hearing of the Word, the receiving of it into the soul. And if hearing is by the Word of God, faith comes by hearing—that mysterious something that gives a link of the soul with God, that sets the soul at a different angle and in different relation to everything it was formerly in relation to.

First then "hearing [comes] by the word of God." That is to say, the word of God finds its way into the heart and gives "hearing," or, in other words, the ability to hear.

Then this "hearing" is the channel for the formation and growth of faith.

Of course this has nothing to do with natural hearing. It applies as much to the naturally deaf as to those whose natural hearing is perfect. It is spiritual hearing, and who can spiritually hear that has no spiritual life? The links of the chain in their order are: the word of God; hearing; faith.

First of all you have a dead soul. The word of God enters the heart and imparts the spiritual hearing; and hearing the word gives rise to faith.

The thought must not be allowed that the word of God is at the first applied to a soul that can already hear; for as we have seen, "hearing comes by the word of God." His word is the living seed, which, entering into the heart, brings forth life in that which was before dead.

Now the word of God, though not received by the natural man, finds its way by God's grace into the heart, reveals Christ, and quickens. The new life is capable of receiving the things of the Spirit of God. Thus "hearing" is the channel for the formation and growth of faith.

Many seem to have the erroneous idea, that the natural heart, before the new birth takes place within it, has faith which it can exercise in hearing the word, the seed of life. In this case faith would not be by hearing, for it would exist before the hearing; which directly contradicts the truth. According to such a notion faith, at least at its commencement, would be an act of the old Adam nature. It could not well be strained to support the idea that after the new birth faith passes over from the old to the new nature. "The dead hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear live." Faith characterises those who are born of God, born of water and the Spirit. So it is at the first, and so it continues to the end.

It is interesting to note how the order we have been considering is kept up throughout scripture. It is not the Spirit's motive everywhere to bring before us every link; but we never find Him contradicting Himself by reversing the order. For example, "He that hears My word and believes (on) Him that sent Me has everlasting life etc." (John 5:24). Again, "In Whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth" (Eph. 1:13).

The word is the instrument as it is said, "faith comes by hearing [ ἀκοή, report], and hearing [ ἀκοή ] by the word of God." It is hard to say how the word merely works, save that it is God's method of the revelation of Christ, and where accompanied by the quickening power of the Spirit, it becomes thus the means of life: what is spoken as the word communicated to the soul by the Spirit becomes life. In Paul's case it was sight, yet revealing His Son in him: indeed the words of Christ too came to his ear. The Holy Ghost gave reality in his soul to that which his senses told him of. The written - or spoken word, if true, is a revelation of that which is true of Christ, and of Christ Himself, so that while it is the divine power of the Spirit by which we are quickened, it is the revelation of Christ to the soul [which] is objectively that which quickens me, what the Spirit brings to my soul; so that it is faith, faith in the report, which is the outward means, while it is the thing contained in the word which is life, Christ. The word in itself is merely the outward means or instrument, and by itself, though all truth be in it, produces nothing (unless to leave us without excuse).

Of course none can hear the word, but they who have God's word applied to their souls by the Holy Spirit. In the two verses just quoted the first link is not given, but the order is as elsewhere, hearing; believing, etc. Indeed we in scripture mostly find the life-giving (and consequently the power to hear) by the word spoken of as a very distinct thing, a passing from death to life; as John 5:21 says, He that hears and believes has passed from death to life. He could not hear otherwise.