Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Romans 10:15

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Romans 10:15. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach — Dr. Taylor remarks on this quotation, which is taken from Isaiah 52:7, that "feet are variously used in Scripture, and sometimes have respect to things internal and spiritual. For as the life of man and the practice of piety are compared to walking, Psalms 1:1, so his feet may signify the principles on which he acts, and the dispositions of his mind. Ecclesiastes 5:1: Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God. Agreeably to this, the feet of the messengers in Isaiah and of the apostles in this verse, may signify the validity of their mission-the authority upon which they acted, and any character or qualifications with which they were invested."

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Israel responsible for its own loss (9:30-10:21)

Whatever God’s purposes may be, the Jews are still responsible for their own loss. They cannot say God has rejected them. They have rejected God. Gentiles, who have no law, are justified by faith, and Jews can be too, if they will believe instead of trying to win God’s favour through keeping the law. They will not accept that the way of salvation for them is the same as for the Gentiles - through faith in Christ (30-33). Paul wants the Jews to be saved, but they cannot be saved while trying to create their own righteousness through law-keeping. They must admit they are helpless sinners and accept the righteousness of God through Christ (10:1-4).
The language of law says, ‘Do all this and you will live’. The problem is that none is able to keep the law perfectly. All are condemned to death (5). The language of faith says, ‘Do nothing. Do not try to climb the heavens or search the depths, for Christ has already come down from heaven to earth, has been crucified, buried and raised from the dead. He can be yours through faith right where you are (6-8). Believe in him as your risen Saviour, declare him to be your Lord, and you will receive from God the righteousness that saves (9-10). This applies to all who cast themselves upon God in faith, Jews and Gentiles alike’ (11-13).
Before people can believe this message, they must hear it. Therefore, Christians must be sent to proclaim it (14-15). Not all will accept the message, but Christians must proclaim it nevertheless. And the message they proclaim is the good news concerning Jesus Christ (16-17). The Jews have indeed heard this message, so they have no excuse (18). Their problem is not that they have not heard or understood it, but that they have refused to believe it (see v. 16). They become angry and envious when they see their supposedly ignorant Gentile neighbours accepting the gospel, but they themselves will not listen to it (19-21).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? even as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things!

Two of the big words Paul had just used were "no distinction" (Romans 10:12) and "whosoever" (Romans 10:13), and these amply supported his position of extending the gospel to all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, on the same terms. We noted that this great leveling of all people before God and considering them as one race lost in sin was offensive and repugnant to Jews, causing a deep resentment against Paul. Paul vindicated his own conduct in these two verses.

Hodge has the following clear word on the construction of Paul’s defense here:

As invocation implies faith, as faith implies knowledge, knowledge instruction, and instruction an instructor, so it is plain that if God would have all men to call upon him, he designed preachers to be sent to all, whose proclamation of mercy being heard, might be believed, and being believed, might lead men to call on him and be saved. This is agreeable to the prediction of Isaiah, who foretold that the advent of the preachers of the gospel should be hailed with universal joy …. It is an argument founded on the principle that if God wills the end, he wills also the means; if he would have the Gentiles saved, according to the prediction of the prophets, he would have the gospel preached to them. Charles Hodge, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968), p. 346.

These verses are the enabling charter of every true missionary labor on earth. God’s answer to the wretchedness of earth’s sin and squalor is a messenger, yes a preacher, with the message of redemption authenticated by the Name,

For neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

How beautiful the feet … From heaven’s viewpoint, there is nothing more beautiful than the message-bearer of God’s merciful offer of salvation to people. Hope for lost and fallen humanity does not derive from anything that man can do for himself, nor from anything that he might either build on earth or hurl out into space. Nothing that man can send up into heaven can save him, for it is God’s message alone that can cleanse his sins, break the chains of his bondage, and endow his spirit with love and hope. How pitiful, ineffectual and utterly inadequate God’s plan appears to the dim eyes of mortal people. Save the world by preaching? Ridiculous. Paul himself acknowledged this when he wrote:

It was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe (1 Corinthians 1:21).

Therefore, people must look again at the method God has chosen; and, remembering the omnipotence of him who chose, the divinity of the message, and the power of the living word, they must dare to trust and use the means God elected as the instrument of his holy will. Churches should cease their striving after new methods, novel devices, and so-called "modern approaches" to saving people’s souls. There is only one way: preach the word!

The last sentence of these two verses is a quotation from Isaiah 52:7; and, as Moule noted:

The immediate reference of Isaiah 52:7 is to good news for Zion, rather than from her to the world. But the context is full not only of Messiah but of "many nations" (Romans 10:15). H. C. G. Moule, op. cit., p. 274.

Of course, as already noted twice in this chapter, Paul’s meaning was often extended beyond the context of his Old Testament quotations.

How shall they believe him whom they have not heard … has the significant implication of making Christ the one heard in his preachers and also the one believed. By the same sacred logic, Christ was said to have baptized more disciples than John, although the disciples, not the Lord, administered the ordinance; but still it was Christ who did it "through them." (See John 4:1-2.)

In this remarkable clause is also the compelling inference that the preacher must preach the word of the Lord, for in no other way may his hearers hear Christ. The preacher who preaches the opinions of himself and his fellow mortals to the near exclusion of the scriptures fails in a double category: (1) his audience does not "hear Christ," and (2) he forfeits the dignity that belongs to the faithful messenger.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

And how shall they preach - In what way shall there be preachers, unless they are commissioned by God? The word “how” does not refer to the manner of preaching, but to the fact that there would be no preachers at all unless they were sent forth. To preach means to proclaim in a public manner, as a crier does. In the Scriptures it means to proclaim the gospel to people.

Except they be sent - That is, except they are divinely commissioned, and sent forth by God. This was an admitted doctrine among the Jews, that a proclamation of a divine message must be made by one who was commissioned by God for that purpose; Jeremiah 23:21; Jeremiah 1:7; Jeremiah 14:14-15; Jeremiah 7:25. He who sends a message to people can alone designate the proper persons to bear it. The point of the objection, therefore, was this: People could not believe unless the message was sent to them; yet God had not actually sent it to all people: it could not, therefore, be just to make eternal life depend on so impracticable a thing as faith, since people had not the means of believing.

As it is written - In Isaiah 52:7.

How beautiful ... - The reason why this passage is introduced here is, that it confirms what had just been advanced in the objection - the “importance and necessity” of there being messengers of salvation. That importance is seen in the high encomium which is passed on them in the Sacred Scriptures. They are regarded as objects especially attractive; their necessity is fully recognised; and a distinguished rank is given to them in the oracles of God - How beautiful. How attractive, how lovely. This is taken from the Hebrew, with a slight variation. In the Hebrew, the words “upon the mountains” occur, which makes the passage more picturesque, though the sense is retained by Paul. The image in Isaiah is that of a herald seen at first leaping or running on a distant hill, when he first comes in sight, with tidings of joy from a field of battle, or from a distant land. Thus, the appearance of such a man to those who were in captivity, would be an image full of gladness and joy.

Are the feet - Many have supposed that the meaning of this expression is this: The feet of a herald, naked and dusty from traveling, would be naturally objects of disgust. But what would be naturally disagreeable is thus made pleasant by the joy of the message. But this explanation is far fetched, and wants parallel instances. Besides, it is a violation of the image which the apostle had used. That was a distant object - a herald running on the distant hills; and it supposes a picture too remote to observe distinctly the feet, whether attractive or not. The meaning of it is clearly this: “how beautiful is the coming or the running of such a herald.” The feet are emblematic of his coming. Their rapid motion would be seen; and their rapidity would be beautiful from the desire to hear the message which he brought. The whole meaning of the passage, then, as applied to ministers of the gospel, is, that their coming is an attractive object, regarded with deep interest, and productive of joy - an honored and a delightful employment.

That preach ... - Literally, “that evangelize peace. That proclaim the good news of peace; or bring the glad message of peace.

And bring glad tidings ... - Literally, “and evangelize good things;” or that bring the glad message of good things. Peace here is put for good of any kind; and as the apostle uses it, for the news of reconciliation with God by the gospel. Peace, at the end of the conflicts, distresses, and woes of war, is an image of all blessings. Thus, it is put to denote the blessings when a sinner ceases to be the enemy of God, obtains pardon, and is admitted to the joys of those who are his children and friends. The coming of those messengers who proclaim it is joyful to the world. It fills the bosom of the anxious sinner with peace; and they and their message will be regarded with deep interest, as sent by God, and producing joy in an agitated bosom, and peace to the world. This is an illustration of the proper feeling with which we should regard the ministers of religion. This passage in Isaiah is referred by the Jews themselves to the times of the gospel (Rosenmuller).

Living By Faith: Commentary on Romans & 1st Corinthians

10:14-15: How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 and how shall they preach, except they be sent? even as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things!

The preceding material establishes that God is willing to save everyone who wants to be saved. It is possible for all people to become “rich” (spiritually speaking, Ephesians 1:3) in Christ. Here the question is: How are people going to learn about the Lord?

In this section of the book, Paul asked and answered some common sense questions. The first question was: How can people call upon the Lord if they have not heard about Him? The second question was: How can people believe in the Lord if they don’t know about Him? The third: How shall people hear without a preacher (teacher)? The final question: How can preachers preach unless they are sent? The answer to each of these questions is obvious: No one will call upon the Lord unless he hears about Him. Neither will someone believe in Jesus if he is never told about Him. Preachers and teachers will not be able to go and teach unless they are “sent.”

When someone goes to teach the gospel, he has “beautiful feet.” Both the teachers who go and those who send them are commended. There is no greater work in the world than directly and indirectly teaching the lost about Jesus Christ. Aside from here, beautiful (horaios) occurs only in Matthew 23:27; Acts 3:2; Acts 3:10. Those who use the KJV will notice the word “peace.” Since this word is in some Greek manuscripts but not in others, it does not appear in all English translations. Whether included or not, it like the other small variations in the Scriptures does not alter the thought or the reliability of God’s word. When Paul described the preaching at the end of verse 15, he used the present tense. It is God’s will that heaven’s gospel continually be taken into the world. All who teach the lost should have, as a minimum, three qualities: the truth (John 8:32), the ability to teach effectively (2 Timothy 2:24-25), and a compulsive desire to go (1 Corinthians 9:16). Can we list other qualities that help Christians evangelize the world? What things hinder evangelism?

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

15.How shall they preach except they be sent? etc. He intimates that it is a proof and a pledge of divine love when any nation is favored with the preaching of the gospel; and that no one is a preacher of it, but he whom God has raised up in his special providence, and that hence there is no doubt but that he visits that nation to whom the gospel is proclaimed. But as Paul does not treat here of the lawful call of any one, it would be superfluous to speak at large on the subject. It is enough for us to bear this only in mind, that the gospel does not fall like rain from the clouds, but is brought by the hands of men wherever it is sent from above.

As it is written, How beautiful, etc. We are to apply this testimony to our present subject in this manner, The Lord, when he gave hope of deliverance to his people, commended the advent of those who brought the glad tidings of peace, by a remarkable eulogy; by this very circumstance he has made it evident that the apostolic ministry was to be held in no less esteem, by which the message of eternal life is brought to us. And it hence follows, that it is from God, since there is nothing in the world that is an object of desire and worthy of praise, which does not proceed from his hand. ⁽³³¹⁾

But hence we also learn how much ought all good men to desire, and how much they ought to value the preaching of the gospel, which is thus commended to us by the mouth of the Lord himself. Nor is there indeed a doubt, but that God has thus highly spoken of the incomparable value of this treasure, for the purpose of awakening the minds of all, so that they may anxiously desire it. Takefeet, by metonymy, for coming. ⁽³³²⁾

(331) “This prophecy,” say [Gomarus ], “has not two meanings — the proper and the allegorical, as the Papists foolishly assert, but two fulfillments; the first when heralds announced the return of the people from Babylon to their own country; and the second, (shadowed forth by the first as its destined type,) when the heralds of the gospel announced and proclaimed its tidings to the world.” — Ed.

(332) This passage is taken from Isaiah 52:7. This is a striking instance that the Apostle quotes not from the Septuagint, when that version materially departs from the Hebrew, as is the case here. Though it appears to be a version of his own, he yet gives not the original literally, but accommodates it to his own purpose: he leaves out “on the mountains,” and adopts the plural number instead of the singular, both as to the participle “announcing” or evangelizing, and as to the word “good.” The words peace, good, and salvation, in Hebrew, seem to refer to the same thing, according to the usual style of the Prophets.

The words of Paul, as rendered by [Calvin ], coincide more with the Hebrew, than as they are rendered in our common version. The verbεὐαγγελίζω, is often used simply in the sense of announcing, publishing, declaring or preaching, as in Luke 3:18; Acts 5:42, etc.; and in this sense it exactly corresponds with בשר, which means the same, though the other idea of the Greek verb, that of evangelizing, has been wrongly given to it; for it is applied to the announcing of bad as well as of good news. — Ed.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 10

Now Paul again reaffirms his love and desire for his brethren after the flesh.

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge ( Romans 10:1-2 ).

They are zealous for God, yes. Some of those zealous ones beat up the mayor in Jerusalem just a day or so ago because of some of his rulings that they felt did not coincide with their desires. They wanted Jerusalem to be shut down completely on the Sabbath day, and he just let their sections be shut down but allowed cars to be driven in other sections. They beat up on him the other day. They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness are going about to establish their own righteousness, and they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes ( Romans 10:3-4 ).

Now, what Paul declared of the Jew then is still true today. They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. And so you will see them at the wailing wall, you will see them as they tie to them a little box, the phylacteries as they bind them to their foreheads and as they put on their prayer shawl and they go up to the wall and they begin to bob up and down and they go through their prayers and all, a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. For they're ignorant of God's righteousness and they are going about to establish their own righteousness.

I had a Jewish fellow one night as we were talking say to me, "Well, Chuck, my father is a very religious man. He says his prayers every day. He observes Sabbath; he loves God. Do you mean to tell me that because my father does not believe that Jesus is the Messiah that he is lost?" And I answered him, "That is a very difficult question for me, because I do believe that your father does love God, has a zeal for God, but what is he doing about his sin? When God established His covenant with Israel, God established the various offerings that they must bring to Him for their sins. God established that they had to bring an animal and kill the animal in their stead, that their sins must be transferred onto the animal and the animal slain. Your father is not offering sacrifices. He is not coming according to the covenant that God established by Moses for sins to be forgiven. Thus, how can your father have the forgiveness of sins which is essential for fellowship with God?" He told me how that they now feel that their good works will make them acceptable to God. Thus, their good works must outweigh their bad works. Thus, they are seeking for a righteousness from works, their good works, and they have rejected that righteousness that God has established for them. They are really rebelling against God's path of righteousness, having established now their own righteousness by works, as Paul here declares. But they are not even doing the works that God requires in the offering of a sacrifice. And thus, I have great difficulty with their present and current status before God. For the Jew stumbling at Jesus Christ going about by works trying to establish a righteousness before God.

Paul declares they just haven't made it and can't make it for they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God and Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. The law cannot make a person righteous before God, nor can it give a person a righteous standing before God. For if the law could give a man a righteous standing before God, then it was not necessary for Christ to die. Jesus in the garden prayed, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me." If what is possible? If salvation for man is possible by any other means, if man can be saved by the law, if man can be saved by his own efforts, by his good works, if a man can be saved by sincerity, then, God, let this cup pass from Me. Let the cross pass.

Now the fact that Jesus went to the cross is God's witness before the world that there is only one way that a man can come to God, and that is by the cross of Jesus Christ. For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. For He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man can come to the Father but by me" ( John 14:6 ). You say, "Chuck, that is too narrow. I can't accept it." I'm sorry you can't accept it, but that is the way it is. Jesus said, "Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads to eternal life and few there be that find it, but broad is the way and broad is the gate that leads to destruction" ( Matthew 7:13-14 ). Beware of those endeavors of men today to broaden the gate. And we hear it on all sides. "Oh, God surely loves all mankind, and God loves the Buddhist and God loves the Mohammed, and God loves everybody." And they are broadening the gate so that you breathe, "Oh, God loves you," you will be saved because you are breathing.

But God has established the way through Jesus Christ. And the cross offends people, because the cross tells you there is only one way to God. If it were possible that man could be saved any other way, the cross would not be necessary.

For Moses described the righteousness which is of the law, [he said,] That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks like this, Don't say in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring Christ again from the dead.) But what does it say? ( Romans 10:5-8 )

The righteousness which is of faith, what does it say to us? It say's this,

The word is close to you, it is even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord, and will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved ( Romans 10:8-9 ).

You see how simple God has made it? Man seeks to complicate it. Man goes back to the righteousness of works. If you will go around and knock on a hundred doors a day and peddle the magazines and wake people up, continue this faithfully, and you will be saved. If you crawl on your knees for five miles to kiss the statue you can be spared several days of purgatory. Man complicates the issues. Now, our flesh likes the complications, because I would like to take some credit and receive some glory for salvation. I would like to boast about what I have done, the dangers that I have braved for God, the sacrifices that I have made, the dedication that took me through those dark, smelly, dangerous swamps.

"But there is no place for boasting neither now or eternally when we get to heaven and when before the throne I stand in Him complete. Jesus died my soul to save, my lips shall still repeat, for Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left its crimson stain, but He washed me white as snow." Where then is boasting? Paul said, "It is eliminated." By keeping the law? No, if by keeping the law, then that encourages boasting, but it is eliminated because I am saved just through simple faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation is so close to every one of you tonight. If you will just confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord. Just say it, "Jesus is my Lord," and believe in your heart that God did raise Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. It is close to you. It is even as close as your mouth. Salvation isn't something far off, difficult to obtain. Oh, let's all get our climbing ropes and let's all climb into heaven and let's bring the Messiah down. Or let's put on our asbestos suits and descend into hell and bring the Messiah back from the grave. Do some great brave wonderful marvelous thing. No. Salvation isn't way off in heaven some place. It is close to you; it is as close as your mouth. Confess Jesus Christ as Lord.

For the scripture says, Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek ( Romans 10:11-12 ):

Quite a statement for Paul a Hebrew of the Hebrews to make--no difference between the Jew and the Greek, that is, as far as salvation is concerned. It is as equally simple to the Jew as it is to the Greek.

for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved ( Romans 10:12-13 ).

Now it is interesting that this follows Paul's declaration about how God will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy and harden those whom He will harden. He speaks of the sovereignty of God having elected that it might stand by election. But now he turns around and says, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Now, when you call upon the name of the Lord, God doesn't go down the list and say, "Let's see. Is he one of those that we elected? Well, I am sorry. Your name is not on the list." No, you see, this opens the door to every man no matter who you are, predestined or not, elected or not, chosen or not. Whoever you are, God's promise is to you that if you call upon the name of the Lord you will be saved. You say, "Well, I can't reconcile that with God's divine election." Anybody being able to . . . Well, I can't either, but God didn't call me to reconcile it, He just called me to believe it.

I tried to reconcile it for years until I was in such mental gymnastics I was worn out. One day I was in my office studying Romans, and I was just so upset I put my Bible down and I said, "God, I can't reconcile it," and I walked out of the room. And I was mad because I had been trying so long to do it and tie ends together. As I was walking out of the room God said, "I didn't ask you to reconcile it; I only asked you to believe it." So I believe it. I believe that whoever you are, chosen or not, predestined or not, if you will call upon the name of the Lord you will be saved. That is God's promise.

So we have the divine sovereignty of God, but we also have the human responsibility of man, and you will not be saved unless you do call upon the name of the Lord. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. There is the balance. Never lose the balance. If you get out on the extreme and, unfortunately, some people do. They get so extreme in the election predestination and all, they get so extreme that there are some churches that will not put a scripture on the board out in front, lest some sinner who has not been elected might walk by and believe in Jesus Christ and get saved when he wasn't predestined to do so.

Don't get extreme. If you get extreme on the Calvinistic side and into election and predestination and all, then you have lost the center of truth. Truth lies in the center between extremes. Yes, God is sovereign. Yes, God has chosen and elected and predestined. Yes, whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. They are both true, so you can't reconcile. They're both true. Tonight whoever you might be salvation is so close to you, all you have to do is call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved. But interesting question, how can they call upon the name of the Lord?

How can they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how can they believe in him in whom they have not heard? and how can they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach unless they be sent? ( Romans 10:14-15 )

Here now we have the basis for missionary activity by the church. Having received, having heard, having known the grace of God through Jesus Christ, we are now obligated to let the world know of that same grace.

I have a very good friend, Keith Erickson, whom I love in the Lord. He and his wife, Adrian, are beautiful people. I have had Bible studies in their home in Santa Monica, and Keith was by here the other day. And I heard Keith giving his testimony on television the other night and he said that living here in southern California, going to UCLA and all, he was twenty-four years old before he ever heard about Jesus Christ. No one had ever witnessed to him. Now there is a tremendous failure some place of getting the message out.

For how can they call on Him who they don't believe in? And how can they believe in Him unless they hear about Him? How can they hear about Him unless someone preach to them? Or to proclaim to them the truth. And how can they proclaim it unless they be sent?

So the basis for missions: having heard, having believed, having known, we are now responsible to send those to tell others of this glorious salvation and righteousness that God has offered to all men, Jew and Greek, who will just simply believe on His son Jesus Christ.

as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! ( Romans 10:15 )

Oh, how I love that phrase.

That is why I love the ministry so much, because I have the privilege to bring to men glad tidings of good things. Now you won't get that on television, nor will you get that in your evening newspaper, watching the news or reading Time Magazine. You won't get glad tidings of good things. You will get the foreboding of this world with all of its problems. But oh, thank God we have a message to tell to the nations. A message of peace and of life, glad tidings of good things. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but can know the eternal life of God and the glory of God's eternal kingdom and can share as children of God, heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, kings and priests in that glorious age that is coming. Glad tidings of good things, but not all who hear obey.

They have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord, who has believed our report? So then faith must come by hearing, and hearing by the word of God ( Romans 10:16-17 ).

A person cannot believe unless they hear. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. It is through the Word of God that we come to know God. Knowing God we come to believe and trust in God. The Word of God is essential for the development of faith within my heart. Many times people say, "Oh, I wish I had more faith," and I think that oftentimes we almost insult God by our lack of faith.

I have heard people pray, "Oh, Lord, help me to believe. Just help me to believe." I wonder what my response would be if I came home in the evening and said, "Honey, I have decided to take you out for dinner tonight, thought we would go out and get prime rib." She would say, "Oh, help me to believe you, Chuck, just help me to believe you." This would make me wonder what kind of a character am I that she is having such a hard time believing me. Yet, how many times we take the promises of God and say, "Oh, God, just help me to believe. Help me to believe, Lord." Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.

We are told in Jude that one of the ways by which we keep ourselves in that place of blessing, the blessings of God's love, is building up ourselves in the most holy faith. And, of course, the way we build up ourselves in the most holy faith is through the Word. It is hard to trust somebody you don't know. When a person comes up to me and says, "Oh, I have the hardest time trusting God," what they are really saying is, "I really don't know God very well." Because if you know God well you will have no problem trusting in Him at all.

How can you know God? Through His Word. Because for He has revealed Himself to us. So faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. If you want your faith increased, study the Word of God.

But I say, [Paul said,] Have they not heard? Oh yes very true, for their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world ( Romans 10:18 ).

Yes, they did hear. The story of Jesus Christ passed through all of the Jewish communities around the world.

But I say, did not Israel know? First Moses said, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation and I will anger you ( Romans 10:19 ).

God sought by His work among the Gentiles the pouring out of His grace and love and blessings, to provoke the jealousy of the Jew, so that the Jew will seek after God through Jesus Christ. When they see the way God has blessed the Christian believer and their love for God and for the Lord Jesus Christ, that they'll be provoked to jealousy, when they see the Gentiles receive the covenant and the grace and the blessings and the glory of God.

As we were studying the book of Romans recently I sought to illustrate this by this beautiful, sharp, darling, little granddaughter of mine, who I love so greatly, as I do all my grandchildren. But this one is a special little angel. And she gives me the worst time because she knows how totally she has me wrapped around her little finger. And she takes advantage of it and gives me a bad time, because she is totally independent when it comes to Grandpa.

She loves to play her little independent games. So I have found by my making over my other grandchildren she'll come elbowing her way in to get close to Grandpa. So when the other grandkids come over, I make a big to do over them, exaggerated. "Oh, come over here and sit on Grandpa's lap. Oh, how nice you look today. Let me hold you." And boy, she comes elbowing her way in and she is going to get right there next to Grandpa. And I love it. I am crazy about this little doll, but it is necessary for me to get her close to me to provoke her to jealousy.

Now that is exactly what God is seeking to do to the Jews. He still loves the Jews, independent as far as God's way of righteousness and all, but God still loves them, and thus, He blesses you, and says, "Oh, come and receive the kingdom and into the joys and the blessings and all." All the while God is wanting the Jews to come elbowing, which is a trait for them anyhow, to come on in and get close.

Moses said, "I will provoke you to jealousy by them that were not my people. And by the foolish nation I will anger you."

Isaiah was very bold, and he said, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that ask not after me. But unto Israel he said, All day long I have stretched forth my hand unto a disobedient and gainsaying people ( Romans 10:20-21 ).

So God's grace and mercy extended towards the Gentiles. But still, all day long His hand stretched out to the Jew who refused to come God's way through Jesus Christ. Does that mean then that God is through with the Jew forever? No, we will find out next week as we move into Romans 11:0 that God still has a plan whereby He is going to bring salvation to the Jew.

May the Lord be with you and may the blessings of the Lord surround your life as you walk with Him. May you experience the joys of His power, of His presence, of His glory, as God day by day showers you with His goodness and with His love. May you begin to experience greater victory in your walk with Jesus Christ as you yield yourself to that touch of God and as He molds and shapes you into that person He wants you to be, and as He conforms you into the image of Jesus Christ. May God bless you and may God work in your life this week in a very special way. May faith be increased as you study His Word. "

Contending for the Faith

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

These verses introduce a new argument, but it is somewhat obscure to modern readers. Paul has established that salvation is not difficult for any—even a Jew—to obtain. All that is required is that he place his trust in Jesus and sincerely, genuinely, and wholeheartedly call on the Lord for salvation. Several things must occur, however, in order for a man to become a believer. Paul anticipates that these prerequisites for calling on the Lord might not have occurred. He pauses to answer this oversight because if it could be levied legitimately, the Jews might justifiably excuse themselves for their unbelief or blame God for their lost condition. This argument is essential to establish the point toward which Paul drives, namely, that the Jews have no one but themselves to blame for their exclusion from God’s kingdom. They stand rejected not because God has reneged on His word and cast away His people contrary to His promise but because they have not yielded themselves to God’s way.

Sanday and Headlam summarize the whole section (verses 14-21) as a series of questions and answers:

This section seems to be arranged on the plan of suggesting a series of difficulties and giving short decisive answers to each: (1) "But how can man believe the gospel unless it has been fully preached?" (verse 14). Answer. "It has been preached as Isaiah foretold" (verse 15). (2) "Yet all have not accepted it" (verse 16). Answer. "That does not prove it was not preached. Isaiah foretold also this neglect of the message" (verses 16-17). (3) "But perhaps the Jews did not hear" (verse 18). Answer. "Impossible. The gospel has been preached everywhere." (4) "But perhaps they did not understand" (verse 19). Answer. "That again is impossible. The Gentiles, a people without any real knowledge, have understood. The real fact is that they were a disobedient, self-willed people." The object is to fix the guilt of the Jews by removing every defense which might be made on the ground of want of opportunities (293).

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed: Having explained the new system of salvation, which is called the "righteousness of faith," the question naturally arises as to the conditions necessary to its acceptance. Paul’s question is not the objection of an adversary nor is it merely rhetorical. Instead it is deliberative. If it is essential (and it is) for men to call on God to save them, then it is impossible for them to do so if they have not been persuaded to believe in Him enough to trust Him and to call on His name. Or, as Lard says:

The answer to the question is, They can not; that is, they can not call on him in whom they do not believe; and if they can not be saved without calling, then the necessity for belief becomes overwhelming, (337).

and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard: The reply is obvious. Men cannot believe in Jesus if they have not heard of Him. Hearing the gospel is absolutely essential to believing in Jesus Christ (verse 17; Acts 18:8). All of the examples of conversion in the book of Acts are demonstrative of this fact. Cottrell is correct in his observation:

Hearing does not always produce faith; indeed, the main point of this paragraph is that the Jews have heard (v. 18) but have not believed. But on the other hand, there can be no faith without hearing (see v. 17). In other words hearing is a necessary condition for faith but not a sufficient one (Vol. 2 189).

To hear in this verse means more than simple perception that a noise has been made. It carries with it the notion of not only perceiving but also of listening or heeding. It involves understanding one’s current lost condition and the remedy, which is offered in the gospel. It involves recognizing the need to place one’s faith in Jesus Christ and the gospel. Numerous times in His ministry, Jesus points out the responsibility of the listener to pay attention to the message, to study it, to search out its meaning diligently, and to respond obediently to the message’s call. Jesus says, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (NKJV) (Matthew 11:15; Matthew 13:9; Matthew 13:43; Mark 4:23; Luke 14:35; Revelation 2:7; Revelation 2:11; Revelation 2:17; Revelation 2:29; Revelation 3:6; Revelation 3:13; Revelation 3:22).

and how shall they hear without a preacher: God chose to declare His will through men who are preachers (1 Corinthians 1:21). The duty of these men is to proclaim the gospel publicly. "Someone preaching" (khru/ssonto$) is a participle that derives from the verb (khru/ssw) "to preach." It means "to publish, proclaim as a herald, 1 Corinthians 9:27; to announce openly and publicly, Mark 1:4; Luke 4:18; to noise abroad, Mark 1:45; Mark 7:36; to announce as a matter of doctrine, inculcate, preach, Matthew 24:14; Mark 1:38; Mark 13:10; Acts 15:21; Romans 2:21" (AGLP 238).

This question reminds us of the importance of the work of evangelists (Ephesians 4:11; 2 Timothy 4:1-5) and the enterprise of evangelism. This work is not merely one that is needed but is one that is essential to spreading the gospel. It is not enough for men simply to read the Bible. But, in God’s system of faith- righteousness, He calls for men to preach the gospel, making a human messenger essential to the plan. Preachers must go out and reveal the word God has given us. They must explain it to the listeners, and they must persuade men to accept the message. Therefore, it is obvious that preachers need to be trained in the methods of sound exegetical and doctrinal expositions of God’s word as Paul trained Timothy, Titus, Luke, Aristarchus, Tychicus, Trophimus, Sopater, Secundus, Gauis, and others (Acts 16:1-3; Acts 20:4 et al.).

And how shall they preach, except they be sent: With this question, Paul has traced the prerequisites to becoming a Christian back to their source. Sanday and Headlam observe:

By means of this series of questions St. Paul works out the conditions necessary for salvation back to their starting-point. Salvation is gained by calling on the Lord; this implies faith. Faith is only possible with knowledge. Knowledge implies an instructor or preacher. A preacher implies a commission. If therefore salvation is to be possible for everyone, there must have been men sent out with a commission to preach it (296).

First, God sends out men. He initiates His plan by sending His Son (John 3:16) who comes declaring the approaching of the Kingdom of God and the necessity of repentance (Mark 1:15). Jesus then gathers round Himself a group of faithful disciples from whom He chooses twelve men He calls apostles to sound forth the gospel call. He trains these men for some three years; then after His death upon the cross, His burial in Joseph’s new tomb, and His resurrection from the dead, He finishes their training and commissions them to preach the gospel to all men beginning from Jerusalem (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:21-23; Acts 1:4-8). He then sends them to wait in Jerusalem for the Divine sign that they are to begin. When they receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, they begin their ministry as apostles of the way (Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:1-4). Jesus tells them, "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you" (John 20:21). Later Paul, too, receives his commission directly from Jesus (Galatians 1:15-16).

These men then instruct those they convert to preach the message, just as Jesus instructed them (Matthew 28:20). Thus, when the early church is driven out of Jerusalem by persecution, believers "went everywhere preaching the word" (Acts 8:4). All Christians are commissioned to take the word of God to the world.

In addition to this responsibility of individual Christians to preach the word as time, opportunity, ability, and permission of God’s word allows (1 Corinthians 14:34-35; 1 Timothy 2:11-12; 2 Timothy 2:2), the church has the responsibility to recognize the talents of men to preach, to provide for their training by older preachers, to support them financially and otherwise, to ordain them, and to send them out as evangelists or preachers (Acts 13:1-3; 1 Corinthians 9:1-16). As Cottrell observes:

The key word is accountability. Via ordination an individual accepts his accountability to the ordaining body, and the ordaining body declares its accountability to the brotherhood for that individual’s faithfulness in ministry. The goal and end result should be to see that the work of the ministry—in particular the preaching of the gospel—is imbued with the respect and importance warranted for it by its inclusion in this list of salvation prerequisites (Vol. 2 192).

as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things: This reference comes from Isaiah 52:7. Paul implies that the commissioned messengers have been sent; therefore, the conditions necessary for the salvation of mankind have been met. The message has been and continues to be preached. Consequently, men can hear, heed, and listen to the declaration of God’s will, place their faith in Jesus Christ, and call upon God to save them in their obedience to the gospel (Acts 22:16). Sanday and Headlam explain:

The quotation is taken from Isaiah 52:7 and resembles the Hebrew more closely than our present LXX text. In the original it describes the messengers who carry abroad the glad tidings of the restoration from captivity. But the whole of this section of Isaiah was felt by the Christians to be full of Messianic import, and this verse was used by the Rabbis of the coming of the Messiah…St. Paul quotes it because he wishes to describe in O.T. language the fact which will be recognized as true when stated and to show that these facts are in accordance with the Divine method. "St. Paul applies the exclamation to the appearance of the Apostles of Christ upon the scene of history" (296).

Since in its context, this passage in Isaiah is a prophecy relating to the end of Babylonian captivity, which occurred in 536 B.C., it seems probable that the release from that captivity was a historical type of the Messiah’s work of delivering His people from the bonds of sin. Therefore, Paul correctly applies it to the work of preaching the gospel of Christ.

It is appropriate that the prophet selected the feet of the messenger for his figure of deliverance. The apostles traveled long dusty miles on dirt roads in sandals. Consequently, their feet became scarred and toughened by their labors. They were also grimy with the dust and sweat of travel. The writer describes those feet, thus disfigured in order to bring to men the glad message of peace offered in the gospel, as beautiful indeed. Their feet might not look attractive to the casual observer; but to the one who hears the gospel and believes on Jesus enough to call on God in penitent humble obedience, they were beautiful feet.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

2. The remedy for rejection 10:8-15

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Paul turned from the responsibility to believe to the responsibility of the believer. "They" refers to the lost, particularly Israelites. Paul presented the logical sequence in a lost person’s coming to faith in Jesus Christ in reverse order here. Faith depends on knowledge of facts. Someone has to proclaim these facts for others to know about them. "A preacher" (NASB) unfortunately implies an ordained minister, but Paul meant "someone preaching" (NIV), someone proclaiming.

Being sent (Romans 10:15) suggests that those heralding the gospel operate under orders from a higher authority. This description also implies that that authority has given them their message. God has sent every Christian to proclaim the gospel to the lost (Matthew 28:19-20; John 20:21). Unfortunately many Christians are waiting for some special calling from God to go. They do not realize that God has already sent them. Where we go and to what segments of humanity we proclaim the gospel are secondary issues. If we get active proclaiming the gospel, God will direct us where He wants to use us (Psalms 37:23).

As is clear from Paul’s quotation of Isaiah 52:7, the message is one of good news that brings joy to those who accept it. "How beautiful are the feet" is a figurative way of expressing gratitude for the obedience of the messengers who have brought good news. The context of Isaiah’s words was the announcement of God’s favor in restoring Jerusalem following the Babylonian captivity.

Barclay's Daily Study Bible

Chapter 10

THE MISTAKEN ZEAL ( Romans 10:1-13 )

10:1-13 Brothers, the desire of my heart for the Jews and my prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I do say this for them--that they do have a zeal for God, but it is not a zeal which is based on a real knowledge. For they do not realize that a man can only achieve the status of righteousness by God's gift, and they seek to establish their own status, and so they have not submitted themselves to that power of God which alone can make them righteous in his sight. For Christ is the end of the whole system of law. for he came to bring everyone who believes and trusts into a right relationship with God. Moses writes that the man who works at the righteousness which comes from the law shall live by it. But the righteousness which stems from faith speaks like this--"Do not say in your heart, 'Who shall go up into heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down), or, 'Who shall go down into the deep abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ again from among the dead)." But what does it say? "The word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart." And that word is the message of faith which we proclaim. This word of faith is our message, that, if you acknowledge with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For belief with the heart is the way to a right relationship with God, and confession with the mouth is the way to salvation, For scripture says, "Every one who believes in him will not be put to shame," for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord over all, and he has ample resources for all who call upon him. For "every one who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Paul has been saying some hard things about the Jews. He has been telling them truths which were difficult for them to hear and bear. The whole passage Romans 9:1-33; Romans 10:1-21; Romans 11:1-36 is a condemnation of the Jewish attitude to religion. Yet from beginning to end there is no anger in it; there is nothing but wistful longing and heartfelt yearning. It is Paul's one desire that the Jews may be saved.

If ever we are to bring men to the Christian faith, our attitude must be the same. Great preachers have known this. "Don't scold," said one. "Always remember to keep your voice down," said another. A great present-day preacher called preaching "pleading with men." Jesus wept over Jerusalem. There is a preaching which blasts the sinner with tempestuously angry words; but always Paul speaks the truth in love.

Paul was entirely ready to admit that the Jews were zealous for God; but he also saw that their zeal was a misdirected thing. Jewish religion was based on meticulous obedience to the law. Now it is clear that that obedience could be given only by a man who was desperately in earnest about his religion. It was not an easy thing; it must often have been made extremely inconvenient; and it must often have made life very uncomfortable.

Take the Sabbath law. It was laid down exactly how far a man could walk on the Sabbath. It was laid down that he must lift no burden which weighed more than two dried figs. It was laid down that no food must be cooked on the Sabbath. It was laid down that, in the event of sickness, measures might be taken to keep the patient from becoming worse, but not to make him better. To this day there are strict orthodox Jews in this country who will not poke or mend a fire on the Sabbath or switch on a light. If a fire has to be poked a Gentile is employed to do it. If a Jew is wealthy enough he will sometimes install a time switch to switch on the lights at dusk on Sabbath without his doing so himself.

This is not something to smile at, but to admire. The way of the law was not easy. No one would undertake it at all unless he was supremely in earnest. Zealous the Jews were and are. Paul had no difficulty in granting that, but the zeal was misdirected and misapplied.

In the Fourth Book of Maccabees there is an amazing incident. Eleazar the priest was brought before Antiochus Epiphanes whose aim was to stamp out Jewish religion. Antiochus ordered him to eat pork. The old man refused. "No, not if you pluck out my eyes, and consume my bowels in the fire. We, O Antiochus," he said, "who live under a divine law, consider no compulsion to be so forcible as obedience to our law." If he had to die, his fathers would receive him "holy and pure." He was ordered to be beaten. "His flesh was torn off by the whips, and he streamed down with blood, and his flanks were laid open by wounds." He fell and a soldier kicked him. In the end the soldiers so pitied him that they brought him dressed meat, which was not pork, and told him to eat it and say that he had eaten pork. He refused. He was in the end killed. "I am dying by fiery torments for thy law's sake," he prayed to God. "He resisted," says the writer, "even to the agonies of death, for the law's sake."

And what was all this about? It was about eating pork. It seems incredible that a man should die like that for a law like that. But the Jews did so die. Truly they had a zeal for the law. No man can say that they were not desperately in earnest about their service to God.

The whole Jewish approach was that by this kind of obedience to the law a man earned credit with God. Nothing shows better the Jewish attitude than the three classes into which they divided mankind. There were those who were good, whose balance was on the right side; there were those who were bad, whose balance was on the debit side; there were those who were in between, who, by doing one more good work, could become good. It was all a matter of law and achievement. To this Paul answers: "Christ is the end of the law." What he meant was: "Christ is the end of legalism." The relationship between God and man is no longer the relationship between a creditor and a debtor, between an earner and an assessor, between a judge and a man standing at the bar of judgment. Because of Jesus Christ, man is no longer faced with the task of satisfying God's justice; he need only accept his love. He has no longer to win God's favour; he need simply take the grace and love and mercy which he freely offers.

To make his point Paul uses two Old Testament quotations. First, he quotes Leviticus 18:5 where it says that, if a man meticulously obeys the commandments of the law, he will find life. That is true--but no one ever has. Then he quotes Deuteronomy 30:12-13. Moses is saying that God's law is not inaccessible and impossible; it is there in a man's mouth and life and heart. Paul allegorizes that passage. It was not our effort which brought Christ into the world or raised him from the dead. It is not our effort which wins us goodness. The thing is done for us, and we have only to accept.

Romans 10:9-10 are of prime importance. They give us the basis of the first Christian creed.

(i) A man must say Jesus Christ is Lord. The word for Lord is kurios ( G2962) . This is the key word of early Christianity. It has four stages of meaning. (a) It is the normal title of respect like the English sir, the French monsieur, the German herr. (b) It is the normal title of the Roman Emperors. (c) It is the normal title of the Greek gods, prefaced before the god's name. Kurios Serapis is Lord Serapis. (d) In the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures it is the regular translation of the divine name, Jahveh or Jehovah. So, then, if a man called Jesus kurios ( G2962) he was ranking him with the Emperor and with God; he was giving him the supreme place in his life; he was pledging him implicit obedience and reverent worship. To call Jesus kurios ( G2962) was to count him unique. First, then, a man to be a Christian must have a sense of the utter uniqueness of Jesus Christ.

(ii) A man must believe that Jesus is risen from the dead. The resurrection was an essential of Christian belief. The Christian must believe not only that Jesus lived, but also that he lives. He must not only know about Christ: he must know him. He is not studying an historical personage, however great; he is living with a real presence. He must know not only Christ the martyr: he must know Christ the victor, too.

(iii) But a man must not only believe in his heart; he must confess with his lips. Christianity is belief plus confession; it involves witness before men. Not only God, but also our fellow men, must know what side we are on.

A Jew would find it hard to believe that the way to God was not through the law; this way of trust and of acceptance was shatteringly and incredibly new to him. Further, he would have real difficulty in believing that the way to God was open to everybody. The Gentiles did not seem to him to be in the same position as the Jews at all. So Paul concludes his argument by citing two Old Testament texts to prove his case. First, he cites Isaiah 28:16: "Every one who believes in him will not be put to shame." There is nothing about law there; it is all based on faith. Second, he cites Joel 2:32: "All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered." There is no limitation there; the promise is to everyone; therefore, there is no difference between Jew and Greek.

In essence this passage is an appeal to the Jews to abandon the way of legalism and accept the way of grace. It is an appeal to them to see that their zeal is misplaced. It is an appeal to listen to the prophets who long ago declared that faith is the only way to God, and that that way is open to every man.

THE DESTRUCTION OF EXCUSES ( Romans 10:14-21 )

10:14-21 How are they to call on him on whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? How are they to hear without someone to proclaim the good news to them? How are they to proclaim the good news unless they are sent to do so? But this is the very thing that has happened, as it stands written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news of good things."

It is agreed by all commentators that this is one of the most difficult and obscure passages in the letter to the Romans. It seems to us that what we have here is not so much a finished passage as summary notes. There is a kind of telegraphic quality about the writing. It may well be that what we have here is the notes of some address which Paul was in the habit of making to the Jews to convince them of their error.

Basically the scheme is this--in the previous passage Paul has been saying that the way to God is not that of works and of legalism, but of faith and trust. The objection is: But what if the Jews never heard of that? It is with that objection Paul deals; and, as he deals with it in its various forms, on each occasion he clinches his answer with a text from scripture.

Let us take the objections and the answering scripture texts one by one.

(i) The first objection is: "You cannot call on God unless you believe in him. You cannot believe in him unless you hear about him. You cannot hear about him unless there is someone to proclaim the good news. There can be no one to proclaim the good news unless God commissions someone to do so." Paul deals with that objection by quoting Isaiah 52:7. There the prophet points out how welcome those are who bring the good news of good things. So Paul's first answer is: "You cannot say there was no messenger; Isaiah describes these very messengers; and Isaiah lived long ago."

(ii) The second objection is: "But, in point of fact, Israel did not obey the good news, even if your argument is true. What have you to say to that?" Paul's answer is: "Israel's disbelief was only to be expected, for, long ago, Isaiah was moved to say in despair: 'Lord, who has believed what we have heard?'" ( Isaiah 53:1.) It is true that Israel did not accept the good news from God, and in their refusal they were simply running true to form; history was repeating itself.

(iii) The third objection is a restatement of the first: But, what if I insist that they never got the chance to hear? This time Paul quotes Psalms 19:4: "Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." His answer is: "You cannot say that Israel never got the chance to hear; for scripture plainly says that God's message has gone out to all the world."

(iv) The fourth objection is: "But what if Israel did not understand?" Apparently the meaning is: "What if the message was so difficult to grasp that even when Israel did hear it they were unable to grasp its significance?" Here is where the passage becomes really difficult. But Paul's answer is: "Israel may have failed to understand; but the Gentiles did not. They grasped the meaning of this offer all right, when it came to them unexpectedly and unsought." To prove this point Paul quotes two passages. One is from Deuteronomy 32:21 where God says that, because of Israel's disobedience and rebellion, he will transfer his favour to another people, and they will be forced to become jealous of a nation which has no nation. The second passage is from Isaiah 65:1 where God says that, in a strange way, he has been found by a people who were not looking for him at all.

Finally, Paul insists that, all through history, God has been stretching out hands of appeal to Israel, and Israel has always been disobedient and perverse.

A passage like this may seem strange to us and unconvincing; and it may seem that some at least of the texts Paul quotes have been wrenched out of their context and made to mean what they were never intended to mean. Nevertheless there is in this passage something of permanent value. Beneath it there runs the conviction that there are certain kinds of ignorance which are inexcusable.

(i) There is the ignorance which comes from neglect of knowledge. There is a legal maxim which says that genuine ignorance may be a defence, but neglect of knowledge never is. A man cannot be blamed for not knowing what he never had a chance to know; but he can be blamed for neglecting to know that which was always open to him. For instance, if a man signs a contract without having read the conditions, he cannot complain if afterwards he finds out that the conditions are very different from what he thought they were. If we fail to equip ourselves for a task when every chance is given to us to equip ourselves adequately for it, we must stand condemned. A man is responsible for failing to know what he might have known.

(ii) There is the ignorance which comes from wilful blindness. Men have an infinite and fatal capacity for shutting their minds to what they do not wish to see, and stopping their ears to what they do not wish to hear. A man may be well aware that some habit, some indulgence, some way of life, some friendship, some association must have disastrous results; but he may simply refuse to look at the facts. To turn a blind eye may be in some few cases a virtue; in most cases it is folly.

(iii) There is the ignorance which is in essence a lie. The things about which we are in doubt are far fewer than we would like to think. There are in reality very few times when we can honestly say: "I never knew that things would turn out like this." God gave us conscience and the guidance of his Holy Spirit; and often we plead ignorance, when, if we were honest, we would have to admit that in our heart of hearts we knew the truth.

One thing remains to be said of this passage. In the argument so far as it has gone there is a paradox. All through this section Paul has been driving home the personal responsibility of the Jews. They ought to have known better: they had every chance to know better; but they rejected the appeal of God. Now he began the argument by saying that everything was of God and that men had no more to do with it than the clay had to do with the work of the potter. He has set two things side by side; everything is of God, and everything is of human choice. Paul makes no attempt to resolve this dilemma; and the fact is that there is no resolution of it. It is a dilemma of human experience. We know that God is behind everything; and yet, at the same time, we know that we have free will and can accept or reject God's offer. It is the paradox of the human situation that God is in control and yet the human will is free.

-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)

Gann's Commentary on the Bible

Romans 10:15

how shall they preach unless they are sent -- The Lord commission his apostles and them that heard them to go into all the world with the gospel message. Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:46-47; John 17:17-18; John 20:31; John 21:24; 2 Timothy 2:2

    An example of a church sending out missionaries is found in Acts 13:1-4.

Peter and John were missionaries of the Jerusalem church in Acts 8:14.

Barnabas was sent out also by the Jerusalem church Acts 11:22.

be sent -- Isaiah 52:7. Jeremiah 1:7; Jeremiah 7:25.

be sent -- These preachers were sent by the Holy Spirit, as Philip was in Acts 8:29 Heaven still sends men to preach the word. 2 Timothy 4:2. (2 Timothy 2:2)

beautiful feet -- A metaphor saying how good it is to see those coming with good news.

those who preach -- Literally, “that evangelize peace". That proclaim the good news of peace; or bring the glad message of peace.

good tiding -- Good news, the Gospel. Particularly here the message seems to be "peace" with God. The Gospel is the message about how man can be reconciled with God. Good news! Peace! (Cf. Luke 2:10; Luke 2:14;)

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And how shall they preach, except they be sent,.... There is no proper, rightful, regular, and lawful preaching of the word without a mission, which is either extraordinary, or ordinary; extraordinary mission was such as the apostles themselves had; who, as they were called to extraordinary service, had extraordinary qualifications, and were sent forth in an extraordinary manner, with a power of doing miracles, and immediately by Christ himself. Ordinary mission is of men to be pastors and teachers, which includes qualifications for the ministerial work; for whom Christ sends forth into such service, he bestows gifts on them, fitting them for it, some more, some less, but all have some; and it also includes a call unto it, which is either internal, and by the Spirit of God, and lies partly in the furniture he gives, and the inclination of the heart to this good work which he forms; and which arises not from a vanity of mind, and a desire of popular applause, and worldly views, and sinister ends; but from a real concern for the good of souls, and the glory of Christ, being willing to deny themselves, and forsake all for Christ, to suitor reproach for his name's sake, and to forego all worldly interest, and secular views: or is external, which is given by the churches of Christ, after due trial and examination of gifts, and a serious consideration of the matter, and that in the most solemn manner; and this is what may be properly called a preacher's mission, and none but such who are in this way sent out ought to preach the Gospel: and to such well agrees, and may be applied, that passage in Isaiah 52:7, where

it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things; which words are not to be understood of the messengers that brought the tidings of deliverance from the Babylonish captivity, but of the ministers of the Gospel. In Isaiah 52:7 it is expressed in the singular number, "how beautiful are the feet of him", c. and is by some understood of Christ, as it is also by many Jewish writers: thus interpreting the "turtle's voice" in Song of Solomon 2:12

"this (say they a) is the voice of the King Messiah, proclaiming and saying, "how beautiful on the mountains", c.''

And elsewhere b it is observed, that the

"Rabbins say, great is peace, for when the King Messiah comes, he does not open but with peace, as it is said, "how beautiful upon the mountains", c.''

And says c another,

"one verse says, "how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings", פירש המלך המשיח, "the explanation", or meaning is, the King Messiah:''

and some of the more, modern ones d of them, own these words are,

מענין הגאולה וביאת המשיח, "concerning the redemption, and the coming of the Messiah": and so the worlds, however they may principally regard the Messiah and his ministry, are property applied to the apostles of Christ and may be rightly understood of any minister of the Gospel, whose business it is to "preach the Gospel of peace": which is so called from the subject matter of it, peace made by the blood of Christ, which it proclaims from the effect of it, producing, peace and tranquillity in distressed minds, and making men of peaceable dispositions; and from the use of it, which is to direct men to the way of peace, to guide their feet in it, lead them to eternal peace: their work is also to "bring glad tidings of good things"; such as reconciliation, righteousness, pardon, life, and eternal salvation, by a crucified Christ; and the preaching of such a Gospel, and bringing such news, make their "feet beautiful": one should have thought rather their lips than their feet would be took notice of; the reason of this is, partly because of the agreeableness of their walk and conversation to the doctrine they preach; and partly because of their readiness to preach it everywhere, though they run the utmost risk in so doing; and also because of their swiftness, particularly of the apostles, in going through the cities of Israel, and running over the Gentile world with the Gospel of peace, in so short a time as they did; and more especially because of the acceptableness of their message, with which they were sent and ran; see 2 Samuel 18:27. And so this passage is pertinently alleged to prove, that mission is necessary to preaching; since these words declare the character of Gospel ministers, as publishers of peace, and messengers of good tidings; and express the message itself, and the nature of it; both which suppose them to be sent by another, even the Lord, under whose authority, and by whose warrant they act; just as ambassadors, heralds, and messengers do, by virtue of a commission they receive from their prince.

a Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 11. 4. b Vajikra Rabba Parash, c. 9. fol. 153. 2. Perek Shalom, fol. 20. 1. c Raziel, fol. 23. 2. d Menasseh ben Israel Nishmath Chayim, fol. 41. 2.

Mitchell's Commentary on Selected New Testament Books

Romans 10:1-21

God today is not dealing with nations. I want to emphasize this to you. God today is dealing with individuals—you, me.

The question is, what is your relationship, what is my relationship to the living God? He has already made very, very clear that there is a way open whereby any man or any woman, who­ever he or she is, whatever he or she may be, can come to know Him. This is what you have in Chap­ter 10.

Although the nation of Israel as such is under governmental discipline, having been scattered among the nations of the earth, God is dealing with Jews and Gentiles as individuals.

Now in the first 11 verses of Chapter 10, Paul gives to us the difference between righteousness by works and righteousness by faith; and I want to go a little easy on this for the simple reason that I want you to see what the Apostle Paul is after.

And I may make some strong statements about this. I do so because I believe the Word of God declares them. The tragedy is that too many of God’s people today have never seen the com­pleteness of Christ’s work on the cross nor have they seen the value, the importance of the resur­rection.

First, let us look at the difference between right­eousness by works and righteousness by faith (Romans 10:1-11):

Romans 10:1. Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.

We had the same thing in the first two or three verses of chapter nine where Paul said he called God to be his witness that he had great sorrow and continual grief in his heart. He could wish himself accursed from Christ for his brethren’s sake, the Israelites, that they might be saved.

Again, I say, mark the tremendous yearning of this man for his people Israel, for the Jews, not only as a nation but as individuals.

He yearns that they might be saved. And, as I said in chapter nine when we were discussing it, this man had unceasing pain in his heart. He was really burdened before God that these people might be saved.

Now in verses 2 and 3, you notice the ignorance of Israel concerning God’s righteousness—and the same thing can be said today of Christendom. In fact, I would say that even among many professing Christians today there is an appalling ignorance of the righteousness of God. Our very lives manifest that. Our theology manifests it.

Man is so occupied with man, so occupied with self-image, with love of self and with the importance of self-esteem, that he is blind to the righteousness of God.

Romans 10:2. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.

Romans 10:3. For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

Notice, they had a zeal for God; but zeal and sin­cerity are no ground for safety. Having zeal doesn’t imply that a person’s heart is right with God.

Take these Jews. You can’t read the history of Israel, especially between the fourth and the first century B.C. and not find that the Jews suffered. They were torn to pieces because they refused to deny the law of God. They had a tremendous zeal for God, but they didn’t know God personally.

The Jews claimed that they were following God’s law. Did God not give them the law? Did they not say to God, “All that the LORD has spoken, we will do”? I’m quoting Exodus 19:8.

Yes, they believed that the law was given by God to them. In fact, they believed they were the only ones who had the revelation of God through the law. Gentiles have no law. The law was given to Is­rael.

What for?

To make them good?

Oh, no. The law of God was given to prove they were no good that they might turn to Him in sim­ple faith and accept His mercy.

We have that same problem today. A great many people are depending upon their goodness, their morality. They pay their debts. They’re good parents. They don’t do anything really bad. They don’t get drunk. They don’t do this or that. They go to church every Sunday morning.

“Why, Mr. Mitchell, what more do you expect?”

I don’t expect anything. I say only this. If you are depending on that, then the evidence is that you are ignorant of the righteousness of God.

From the time a Jew entered his world until he died, his whole life—socially and materially and re­ligiously—was interlocked with the religious life of his people. Yet he was wrong.

The Apostle Paul could say in Philippians, chap­ter 3, that all these things that were gain to me— born a real Jew; of the tribe of Benjamin; a Phari­see; a fundamentalist with plenty of zeal in perse­cuting the church; touching the righteousness which was in the law, blameless—did nothing to save him. He was blameless but lost. But once he caught a glimpse of God’s righteousness, the rest just faded out of the picture.

And that was the Jew’s trouble. He knew the character of God. He knew that God is holy, but he was ignorant of the fact that nothing short of God’s righteousness would stand. Legal righteous­ness can never stand in God’s presence.

The third verse brings this out. Being ignorant of God’s righteousness, this righteousness that comes by faith, he tried to establish his own right­eousness; and, by trying to establish his own righteousness, he didn’t submit himself to the righteousness of God.

When a man or woman seeks to establish his own righteousness, he is manifesting ignorance of God’s righteousness.

“But, Mr. Mitchell,” a man says to me, “I am do­ing the best I can. I am trying to keep the golden rule. I am trying to keep the Ten Commandments. I am attending church. I was baptized. I joined the church. I pay my tithes. I’ve done all these things.”

Yes, but that is the manifestation of your igno­rance of God’s righteousness. If you are trusting those things for your salvation by establishing your own righteousness, that doesn’t mean you’ve got the righteousness of God.

So we have this question of the Jew in verses 2 and 3. He had no spiritual discernment—like a lot of folks today. For him it was a system of “do.” D­O. It was a system of works that barred him from the righteousness of God. The Jews never saw two things: They never saw their own frailty, weak­ness, sinfulness; and they never saw the right­eousness of God.

The rich young ruler was a very admirable per­son, but he was ignorant of two things. He was ig­norant of the character of God; and he was igno­rant of his own frailty, weakness and sinfulness. The lawyer in Luke 10:25 said, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

You see, we squirm, we turn around and do anything, anything but face up to the reality of the fact that God of necessity must be righteous and I must be a sinner who has no righteousness. So how can we come together? How can I come into the presence of God and be accepted? Verse 4 is the answer.

Romans 10:4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to eve­ryone who believes.

This is God’s method. Christ is the end of the law, not the beginning of the law. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. The law has had nothing to say since the cross.

When our Lord was raised from the dead, He started something entirely new; and the law doesn’t belong to this new creation. The law was an added thing, imposed upon the people of Israel to show them how bad they were and how they needed a Saviour.

No Jew—and no Gentile—will ever be able to stand before God, the righteous God, unless he is covered with the righteousness of Christ.

Now don’t jump to the conclusion, as so many theologians have, that Jesus Christ kept the whole law for us. He didn’t. You can’t find that in the Scriptures. They say because Christ kept every demand of the law, because He kept the whole law, that that is put to our account.

That is not true. Christ kept the whole law that He might be a perfect, satisfactory sacrifice for you. You are not joined to Christ because He kept the law. You were joined to Him because He bore your sins and died for your sin on the cross.

Let me make this thing very clear.

Christianity starts on the resurrection side of the cross. The law is through, either as a means of life or as a rule of life. The bill is canceled. It is out. Christ is the end of the law, outside of its ju­risdiction entirely. The law came to the cross, and the law was satisfied at the cross in what Christ did for us there.

I wish in some way this amazing truth of the righteousness of God by faith would get hold of your heart. If I were to ask you to witness to me, you would probably say, “Well, thank God, I was saved by faith in Christ.”

Why don’t you say, “Thank God, I was declared righteous by God when I accepted Christ.”

It might stagger your imagination if you said that, and yet faith and righteousness are coupled together over and over and over again.

God has pronounced us righteous, righteous with a righteousness that equals God’s righteous­ness. As Paul could say in Philippians 3:8-9, “I count all things to be loss.” What for? That I might be found in Jesus Christ, “not having a righteous­ness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of (through) faith.”

Now starting at Romans 10:5-11 and running down to verse 11, we have works and faith contrasted. Christianity is not a life of do’s and don’ts. It’s a life of walking with Him.

There are many things we push to one side be­cause we love Him and want to attract people to Him. We are now under the law of love because of our union with the God of love.

Romans 10:5. For Moses writes that the man who practices the right­eousness which is based on law shall live by that righteous­ness.

Romans 10:6. But the righteousness based on faith speaks thus, “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down),

Romans 10:7. Or, ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”

Romans 10:8. But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART’—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching.

The law’s demand of righteousness would be evi­dent by perfection if one would never, never, never break the law in one point. But the moment he breaks the lawjust once—then the judgment of God falls upon that man. You see the utter frailty and hopelessness and helplessness of man. If anybody is going to be saved, God has got to do it. And He’s got to do the whole thing—the whole thing. You have this in Leviticus 18:5 coupled with Galatians 3:11-12.

You see, what we need is not more strength to keep the law. What we need is a power from the outside. And God has made His salvation apart from man. And that salvation is in His Son. As it says in verse 4, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

Now then, in verses 6 to 8, we have “the right­eousness based on faith” (not great works) and this depends upon divine testimony.

This is a quotation from Deuteronomy 30:11-14: “For this commandment which I command you to­day is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.”

The Spirit of God applies these words to Christ. Our Lord did come. He did die. He was raised again from the dead, and the work is all done. The whole work of redemption is completed. God doesn’t need to do another thing.

When I think of the tremendous truths that are in this book, I just pray that every Christian might become saturated with the truth revealed to us by His Spirit here.

It is a precious thing to know that the moment a person accepts the Saviour he stands before God, our righteous God, in all the beauty, in all the merit, in all the righteousness of Christ.

Isn’t this a wonderful thing?

No man can stand in the presence of God with­out Christ. That’s very clear. Righteousness by the law is dependent upon doing. The righteousness of God is received by faith, and it shuts out all doing.

As I have so often said, “Oh, that men would stop their deadly doing and trust the Lord Jesus.”

Now, in Romans 10:9-11, we have righteousness realized.

Romans 10:9.That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;

Romans 10:10. For with the heart man believes, resulting in righteous­ness; and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salva­tion.

Romans 10:11. For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

Now, notice. The great thing here is not the nature of your faith. It is the object of your faith.

People say today, “As long as you believe and are honest in what you believe, you will be all right.” Well, the Muslim believes, the Shintoist believes, the Animist believes, the Buddhist believes. Be­lieves what? They believe their doctrines, they be­lieve in their gods, they are honest; and sometimes they may put you and me to shame with their de­votion to their gods. That doesn’t mean they are saved and fit for the presence of God. No, the ob­ject of faith is the important thing.

How often men have said to me, “Mr. Mitchell, I don’t see any difference between you and me. I have faith and you have faith.”

But I say, “There is a great deal of difference be­tween you and me. The difference is in the object of our faith.”

Is Jesus Christ the Son of God? He is the One of whom the Spirit of God spoke on the Day of Pente­cost, when Peter said (let me paraphrase it), “This Jesus whom you took by wicked hands and cruci­fied has God raised up and exalted to be both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:23-24; Acts 2:36).

If Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, His work on the cross does not avail. If He was never raised from the dead, then our faith goes down the drain. It doesn’t do any of us any good.

We must confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is our Lord. He must be the object of our faith. We recognize His position. He is Lord. This One, whom men put on a cross, God put on the throne. Men crucified Him as an accursed thing. God exalted Him to be Lord. Men cast Him out; heaven took Him in. The world repudiated Him, but heaven rejoiced in exalting Him as Prince and Saviour.

We are to confess this Jesus as Lord. How? With our mouth. It is a confession, I say, of a Person. You have it in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” It is our belief in a Person and our confession of His work.

If you will “believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” Notice, nothing is said here about the work at the cross. There is no need to. Paul has already spent eight chapters on that. He is writing about the confirma­tion, the guarantee that the work that Christ did on the cross absolutely satisfied the righteous character of God.

We’ve had this in chapter 3, and I only want to remind you that God is just and the Justifier of those who believe in Jesus. And when you confess with your mouth He is Lord and you believe in your heart—the very depths of your being—that God raised Him from the dead, you are saved.

Now, I’m not saved by confessing. But, be­cause I am saved, I confess.

Someone has well said, “We testify of the One in whom we have put our trust. We testify to God, and we testify to men.”

If you were to give me a gift or if you were going to give somebody else a gift, you would expect the recipient of that gift at least to say, “Thank you.” There would be a response to it. And, if we receive eternal salvation from God as a gift, the least we can do is thank God for it. And, by so doing, we confess that Jesus Christ is our Saviour, our Lord.

When the risen, glorified Saviour is the object of our faith, then we receive His salvation and His life. We are covered with His righteousness, His beauty and His merit. In fact, as Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” My, what a place to be! Just to be in Christ!

Of course, you can’t work your way into that. There is only one way, God’s way. And that’s the way of faith. And so we have here, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.”

The resurrection of Christ from the dead is the guarantee from God to you that this Jesus who was crucified is His Son and that the work He did on the cross absolutely satisfied God.

What a wonderful thing that Jesus Christ is the object of your faith and that He gives to you a salvation that is complete, that is personal.

And here you have in verse 11, “Whosoever be­lieves in Him will not be disappointed.” God will see to it. I think of that verse in 1 John 2:28, “Lit­tle children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.”

Now, starting in at Romans 10:12-18 and running through verse 18, Paul writes that righteousness by faith is for all. That is, it is open for all, irre­spective of whether you are a Gentile or a Jew. In the first 11 verses, he dealt with personal salva­tion. Now he is going to deal with a salvation for anybody.

Do you remember Romans 1:5 talks about the “obedience of faith among all the Gentiles”? This is not for any particular group. It is for the individ­ual. The great thing here in these verses is that righteousness by faith is for anybody who wants it. It’s for all.

It’s not limited to any group. It’s not limited to any nation or one country. It’s open for everybody who lives on the face of the earth; it doesn’t matter who they are. This righteousness through faith is open to everyone.

Romans 10:12. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him.

His character declares this. If God is righteous, He is not going to show any favoritism. God is righteous, and He offers this righteousness to any­one and everyone who will receive it. “For there is no distinction (no difference) between Jew and Gentile.”

You remember in Romans 3:23, there was no difference in sin. “All have sinned (Jew and Gen­tile), and fall short of the glory of God.”

Now he is saying in verse 12 that there is no dif­ference in salvation. All are lost and need a Sav­iour, and the same Lord is rich unto all that call upon Him.

You remember Romans 3:29-30, “Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also?

Yes, of Gentiles also—if indeed God is one—and He will justify the circumcised (the Jew) by faith and the uncircumcised (the Gentile) through faith.” You see, there is no difference whether you are rich or poor, whether you are wise or ignorant, whether you are brown or black or white or red or yellow or whatever your color may be. Whatever country you belong in, whatever tongue you may have, wherever you go in the world, this salvation is for all.

And I say, the very righteous character of God declares this.

Not only His character declares this, but His promises declare it.

Romans 10:13. For “WHOEVER WILL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

There’s a “whoever” in John 3:16 that puts you in, too, doesn’t it? This 13th verse is Joel 2:32 all over again. It is repeated in Acts 2:21 and Revelation 22:17 (“Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost”). This salvation from God is for anybody, anywhere and for anyone who will believe God’s good news concerning His Son. The Jews wanted to keep salvation for themselves; and, because they did that, they became occupied with themselves and they missed God’s salvation. Now Paul is saying it is for all.

God’s character declares it in Romans 10:12. His promises declare it in Romans 10:13. And now in Romans 10:14-18, His servants declare it.

Romans 10:14. How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

Romans 10:15. And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GLAD TIDINGS OF GOOD THINGS!”

Romans 10:16. However, they did not all heed the glad tidings; for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?”

Romans 10:17. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Romans 10:18. But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have: “THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD.”

The servants of God, the called of God, are sent with good news.

Now, remember, the law is not good news. The law says if you sin, you die. There is no re­course. But God has raised up men and women to go and tell their friends and their family, their neighbors, and everybody around some good news. God wants to communicate to men the good news concerning His Son. How is He going to do it? Through those who know the Word of God. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “Therefore, we are ambas­sadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg on behalf of Christ, be recon­ciled to God.”

The last words of our Saviour in Matthew 28:1-20 were, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” Our Lord could say in Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

What a change, I say. In the Old Testament when the Jews were called, their nation was set apart from others so they could reveal to the world the wonders of our God. They failed in that, and so what is God doing now?

He has turned to the Gentiles, to the saved men and women, and said, “You take My good news. Tell your friends. Go into all the world. Wherever there is a man or a woman who doesn’t know the Saviour, you go and bring the Word of God to that person.”

I say this with a great deal of sadness that after 2000 years of having the gospel of the grace of God, we still have not touched the whole world.

Is God’s purpose going to be defeated? No. Even right now, God’s good news is being beamed out to practically every part of the globe. God has seen fit to use this means of mass communication by ra­dio, by television, shortwave, whatever it may be. There is hardly a place in the world today where you cannot hear the precious Gospel of God as re­vealed in Christ.

The coming of the Lord is very, very near; and, my Christian friend, I would plead with you as I plead with my own heart. May the Lord deliver us from any coldness or indifference concerning the salvation of men and women.

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.” If you have the Word of God, in some way then by your life, by your testimony, bring the good news to those around you that they may know Him whom to know is life eternal.

I would plead with you to be much in prayer that God will send forth laborers into His harvest field.

I believe Paul in verse 18 in his reference to the “voice” has the voice of creation in mind. Everyone has, through creation, heard of the Living God. There is no excuse for unbelief in the Living God.

No one will be able to stand before God and say, “I have never heard of the Living God.” For “the heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice (the voice of creation) is not heard” (Psalms 19:1-3). They may not have heard about the Saviour, but they have heard about the Living God.

Oh, how we Christians have failed to get behind God’s messengers who have gone to the farthest ends of the earth, sacrificing themselves and leav­ing their family and friends, to reach precious souls with the Word of Life.

Usually it takes missionary candidates two years to gather their support. This is to our shame.

And how often do we pray for them when they are there on the mission field? I just plead with you friends to spend some time remembering the servants of God in different parts of the world, es­pecially in those places where there is so much trouble.

My, what a wonderful, wonderful thing that God should call you and me to pass on the good news to our generation.

It is a universal salvation. It is for everybody. And this is right. If God is righteous, it has to be that way. His very character demands it. His promises declare it. His servants declare it.

So when we come down to verses 19 through 21, you find there is no excuse for the people of Israel. They should have known that God was not only the God of the Jews, but He is also the God of the Gentiles. They believed there was only one God, but they didn’t want the Gentiles to come under His blessing. Human nature is a strange thing. You want things for yourself but not for anybody else. This was their attitude. Is it yours?

So Israel was cast away under the discipline of God. For more than 1900 years, Jews have been in bondage, scattered over the face of the earth.

Romans 10:19. But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? At the first Moses says, “I WILL MAKE YOU JEALOUS BY THAT WHICH IS NOT A NATION, BY A NATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WILL I ANGER YOU.”

Romans 10:20. And Isaiah is very bold and says, “I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO SOUGHT ME NOT, I BECAME MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME.”

Romans 10:21. But as for Israel He says, “ALL DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE.”

There is absolutely no excuse for Israel because the Jews were not ignorant. Neither are you, my friend.

If the Gentiles in their heathendom discovered the wonderful truth of righteousness by faith, there is no excuse for Israel which had the Word of God. And if there are people coming to know the Saviour in Africa, Southeast Asia, South America and those different parts of the earth we call the Third World, then there is no excuse for those of us who have heard the name of the Lord Jesus all of our lifetime.

Whether we were raised in a Christian family or not, we knew about the Saviour. We knew about the Bible. We knew something.

But the very fact that men and women in pagan countries have come to know the Saviour is a re­buke to those in our land who in their arrogance have turned away from Jesus Christ as their Sav­iour. They are in the same position as Israel.

“Did not Israel know?” Of course they knew.

“But Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people.”

The very fact that Gentiles were coming under the blessing of God should have stirred Israel to jealousy to seek their God and be obedient to Him.

And Isaiah is saying the same thing—that God had already declared that He would save Gentiles. Hence, there is no excuse for Israel because they knew it. But why should they get mad at Paul who was going out among the Gentiles and preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ? Why should they be envious of Paul? Why seek to persecute him when their own Scriptures declared that God would speak to them through other nations?

The Gentiles, who did not seek God, accepted Him. Israel, which had the Word of God, was indif­ferent to him and full of unbelief.

What did God say? “But as for Israel He says, All the day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” In Exodus 19:5, God told His people, “You shall be My own posses­sion among all the peoples.” Oh, the blessings, the mercy, the love He poured upon them; but they never turned to Him. They became colder and colder.

Take the Book of Joshua when the people en­tered the land after the captivity. What happened? God gave them victories; and, when we come to the beginning of the Book of Judges, they are fighting their enemies. But they are coldly indiffer­ent to God. In the last half of the book, they are fighting among themselves and idolatry comes in.

And you find them all down through their history full of unbelief—unbelief. In fact, they were so indifferent to God, they didn’t care whether God wanted them or whether God had anything for them. They didn’t care anything about God.

That’s why God said with a broken heart to Jeremiah, “Oh, if I could only find one just man in the city, I would save the city for the one man’s sake.”

How God yearned over Israel. My, how He loved them. How He mourned over them.

Why?

What broke His heart?

They rejected a free salvation (Romans 10:1-11), and they rejected a universal salvation in the last half of the chapter.

Now another question is raised, “Has God cast away His people?”

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.   13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.   14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?   15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!   16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?   17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.   18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.   19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.   20 But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.   21 But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

      The first words express the design of the apostle through these verses, that there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, but they stand upon the same level in point of acceptance with God. In Jesus Christ there is neither Greek nor Jews, Colossians 3:11. God doth not save any nor reject any because they are Jews, nor because they are Greeks, but doth equally accept both upon gospel terms: There is no difference. For the proof of this he urges two arguments:--

      I. That God is the same to all: The same Lord over all is rich unto all. There is not one God to the Jews who is more kind, and another to the Gentiles who is less kind; but he is the same to all, a common father to all mankind. When he proclaimed his name, The Lord, the Lord god, gracious and merciful, he thereby signified not only what he was to the Jews, but what he is and will be to all his creatures that seek unto him: not only good, but rich, plenteous in goodness: he hath wherewith to supply them all, and he is free and ready to give out to them; he is both able and willing: not only rich, but rich unto us, liberal and bountiful in dispensing his favours to all that call upon him. Something must be done by us, that we may reap of this bounty; and it is as little as can be, we must call upon him. He will for this be enquired of (Ezekiel 36:37), and surely that which is not worth the asking is not worth the having. We have nothing to do but to draw out by prayer, as there is occasion.

      II. That the promise is the same to all (Romans 10:13; Romans 10:13): Whoever shall call--one as well as another, without exception. This extent, this undifferencing extent, of the promise both to Jews and Gentiles he thinks should not be surprising, for it was foretold by the prophet, Joel 2:32. Calling upon the name of the Lord is here put for all practical religion. What is the life of a Christian but a life of prayer? It implies a sense of our dependence on him, an entire dedication of ourselves to him, and a believing expectation of our all from him. He that thus calls upon him shall be saved. It is but ask and have; what would we have more? for the further illustration of this he observes,

      1. How necessary it was that the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, Romans 10:14; Romans 10:15. This was what the Jews were so angry with Paul for, that he was the apostle of the Gentiles, and preached the gospel to them. Now he shows how needful it was to bring them within the reach of the forementioned promise, an interest in which they should not envy to any of their fellow-creatures. (1.) They cannot call on him in whom they have not believed. Except they believe that he is God, they will not call upon him by prayer; to what purpose should they? The grace of faith is absolutely necessary to the duty of prayer; we cannot pray aright, nor pray to acceptation, without it. He that comes to God by prayer must believe, Hebrews 11:6. Till they believed the true God, they were calling upon idols, O Baal, hear us. (2.) They cannot believe in him of whom they have not heard. some way or other the divine revelation must be made known to us, before we can receive it and assent to it; it is not born with us. In hearing is included reading, which is tantamount, and by which many are brought to believe (John 20:31): These things are written that you may believe. But hearing only is mentioned, as the more ordinary and natural way of receiving information. (3.) They cannot hear without a preacher; how should they? Somebody must tell them what they are to believe. Preachers and hearers are correlates; it is a blessed thing when they mutually rejoice in each other--the hearers in the skill and faithfulness of the preacher, and the preacher in the willingness and obedience of the hearers. (4.) They cannot preach except they be sent, except they be both commissioned and in some measure qualified for their preaching work. How shall a man act as an ambassador, unless he have both his credentials and his instructions from the prince that sends him? This proves that to the regular ministry there must be a regular mission and ordination. It is God's prerogative to send ministers; he is the Lord of the harvest, and therefore to him we must pray that he would send forth labourers,Matthew 9:38. He only can qualify men for, and incline them to, the work of the ministry. But the competency of that qualification, and the sincerity of that inclination, must not be left to the judgment of every man for himself: the nature of the thing will by no means admit this; but, for the preservation of due order in the church, this must needs be referred and submitted to the judgment of a competent number of those who are themselves in that office and of approved wisdom and experience in it, who, as in all other callings, are presumed the most able judges, and who are empowered to set apart such as they find so qualified and inclined to this work of the ministry, that by this preservation of the succession the name of Christ may endure for ever and his throne as the days of heaven. And those that are thus set apart, not only may, but must preach, as those that are sent.

      2. How welcome the gospel ought to be to those to whom it was preached, because it showed the way to salvation, Romans 10:15; Romans 10:15. For this he quotes Isaiah 52:7. The like passage we have, Nahum 1:15, which, if it point at the glad tidings of the deliverance of Israel out of Babylon in the type, yet looks further to the gospel, the good news of our salvation by Jesus Christ. Observe, (1.) What the gospel is: It is the gospel of peace; it is the word of reconciliation between God and man. On earth peace,Luke 2:14. Or, peace is put in general for all good; so it is explained here; it is glad tidings of good things. The things of the gospel are good things indeed, the best things; tidings concerning them are the most joyful tidings, the best news that ever came from heaven to earth. (2.) What the work of ministers is: To preach this gospel, to bring these glad tidings; to evangelize peace (so the original is), to evangelize good things. Every good preacher is in this sense an evangelist: he is not only a messenger to carry the news, but an ambassador to treat; and the first gospel preachers were angels, Luke 2:13, c. (3.) How acceptable they should therefore be to the children of men for their work's sake: How beautiful are the feet, that is, how welcome are they! Mary Magdalene expressed her love to Christ by kissing his feet, and afterwards by holding him by the feet, Matthew 28:9. And, when Christ was sending forth his disciples, he washed their feet. Those that preach the gospel of peace should see to it that their feet (their life and conversation) be beautiful: the holiness of ministers' lives is the beauty of their feet. How beautiful! namely, in the eyes of those that hear them. Those that welcome the message cannot but love the messengers. See 1 Thessalonians 5:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:13.

      3. He answers an objection against all this, which might be taken from the little success which the gospel had in many places (Romans 10:16; Romans 10:16): But they have not all obeyed the gospel. All the Jews have not, all the Gentiles have not; far the greater part of both remain in unbelief and disobedience. Observe, The gospel is given us not only to be known and believed, but to be obeyed. It is not a system of notions, but a rule of practice. This little success of the word was likewise foretold by the prophet (Isaiah 53:1): Who hath believed our report? Very few have, few to what one would think should have believed it, considering how faithful a report it is and how well worthy of all acceptation,--very few to the many that persist in unbelief. It is no strange thing, but it is a very sad and uncomfortable thing, for the ministers of Christ to bring the report of the gospel, and not to be believed in it. Under such a melancholy consideration it is good for us to go to God and make our complaint to him. Lord, who hath believed, c. In answer to this,

      (1.) He shows that the word preached is the ordinary means of working faith (Romans 10:17; Romans 10:17): So then, ara--however; though many that hear do not believe, yet those that believe have first heard. Faith cometh by hearing. It is the summary of what he had said before, Romans 10:14; Romans 10:14. The beginning, progress, and strength of faith, are by hearing. The word of God is therefore called the word of faith: it begets and nourishes faith. God gives faith, but it is by the word as the instrument. Hearing (that hearing which works faith) is by the word of God. It is not hearing the enticing words of man's wisdom, but hearing the word of God, that will befriend faith, and hearing it as the word of God. See 1 Thessalonians 2:13.

      (2.) That those who would not believe the report of the gospel, yet, having heard it, were thereby left inexcusable, and may thank themselves for their own ruin, Romans 10:18; Romans 10:18, to the end.

      [1.] The Gentiles have heard it (Romans 10:18; Romans 10:18): Have they not heard? Yes, more or less, they have either heard the gospel, or at least heard of it. Their sound went into all the earth; not only a confused sound, but their words (more distinct and intelligible notices of these things) are gone unto the ends of the world. The commission which the apostles received runs thus: Go you into all the world--preach to every creature--disciple all nations; and they did with indefatigable industry and wonderful success pursue that commission. See the extent of Paul's province, Romans 15:19; Romans 15:19. To this remote island of Britain, one of the utmost corners of the world, not only the sound, but the words, of the gospel came within a few years after Christ's ascension. It was in order to this that the gift of tongues was at the very first poured so plentifully upon the apostles, Acts 2:1-47. In the expression here he plainly alludes to Psalms 19:4, which speaks of the notices which the visible works of God in the creation give to all the world of the power and Godhead of the Creator. As under the Old Testament God provided for the publishing of the work of creation by the sun, moon, and stars, so now for the publishing of the work of redemption to all the world by the preaching of gospel ministers, who are therefore called stars.

      [2.] The Jews have heard it too, Romans 10:19-21; Romans 10:19-21. For this he appeals to two passages of the Old Testament, to show how inexcusable they are too. Did not Israel know that the Gentiles were to be called in? They might have known it from Moses and Isaiah.

      First, One is taken from Deuteronomy 32:21, I will provoke you to jealousy. The Jews not only had the offer, but saw the Gentiles accepting it and benefitted by that acceptance, witness their vexation at the event. They had the refusal: To you first,Acts 3:26. In all places where the apostles came still the Jews had the first offer, and the Gentiles had but their leavings. If one would not, another would. Now this provoked them to jealousy. They, as the elder brother in the parable (Luke 15:1-32) envied the reception and entertainment of the prodigal Gentiles upon their repentance. The Gentiles are here called no people, and a foolish nation, that is, not the professing people of God. How much soever there be of the wit and wisdom of the world, those that are not the people of God are, and in the end will be found to be, a foolish people. Such was the state of the Gentile world, who yet were made the people of God, and Christ to them the wisdom of God. What a provocation it was to the Jews to see the Gentiles taken into favour we may see, Acts 13:45; Acts 17:5; Acts 17:13, and especially Acts 22:22. It was an instance of the great wickedness of the Jews that they were thus enraged; and this in Deuteronomy is the matter of a threatening. God often makes people's sin their punishment. A man needs no greater plague than to be left to the impetuous rage of his own lusts.

      Secondly, Another is taken from Isaiah 65:1; Isaiah 65:2, which is very full, and in it Esaias is very bold--bold indeed, to speak so plainly of the rejection of his own countrymen. Those that will be found faithful have need to be very bold. Those that are resolved to please God must not be afraid to displease any man. Now Esaias speaks boldly and plainly,

      a. Of the preventing grace and favour of God in the reception and entertainment of the Gentiles (Romans 10:20; Romans 10:20): I was found of those that sought me not. The prescribed method is, Seek and find; this is a rule for us, not a rule for God, who is often found of those that do not seek. His grace is his own, distinguishing grace his own, and he dispenses it in a way of sovereignty, gives of withholds it at pleasure--anticipates us with the blessings, the riches choicest blessings, of his goodness. Thus he manifested himself to the Gentiles, by sending the light of the gospel among them, when they were so far from seeking him and asking after him that they were following after lying vanities, and serving dumb idols. Was not this our own particular case? Did not God begin in love, and manifest himself to us when we did not ask after him? And was not that a time of love indeed, to be often remembered with a great deal of thankfulness?

      b. Of the obstinacy and perverseness of Israel, notwithstanding the fair offers and affectionate invitations they had, Romans 10:21; Romans 10:21. Observe,

      (a.) God's great goodness to them: All day long I have stretched forth my hands. [a.] His offers: I have stretched forth my hands, offering them life and salvation with the greatest sincerity and seriousness that can be, with all possible expressions of earnestness and importunity, showing them the happiness tendered, setting it before them with the greatest evidence, reasoning the case with them. Stretching forth the hands is the gesture of those that require audience (Acts 26:1), or desire acceptance, Proverbs 1:24. Christ was crucified with his hands stretched out. Stretched forth my hands as offering reconciliation--come let us shake hands and be friends; and our duty is to give the hand to him, 2 Chronicles 30:8. [b.] His patience in making these offers: All day long. The patience of God towards provoking sinners is admirable. He waits to be gracious. The time of God's patience is here called a day, lightsome as a day and fit for work and business, but limited as a day, and a night at the end of it. he bears long, but he will not bear always.

      (b.) Their great badness to him. They were a disobedient gainsaying people. One word in the Hebrew, in Isaiah, is here well explained by two; not only disobedient to the call, not yielding to it, but gainsaying, and quarrelling with it, which is much worse. Many that will not accept of a good proposal will yet acknowledge that they have nothing to say against it: but the Jews who believed not rested not there, but contradicted and blasphemed. God's patience with them was a very great aggravation of their disobedience, and rendered it the more exceedingly sinful; as their disobedience advanced the honour of God's patience and rendered it the more exceedingly gracious. It is a wonder of mercy in God that his goodness is not overcome by man's badness; and it is a wonder of wickedness in man that his badness is not overcome by God's goodness.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

The Whole Machinery of Salvation

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A Sermon

(No. 2327)

Intended for Reading on Lord's-Day, September 24th, 1893,

Delivered By

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

On Lord's-day Evening, August 18th, 1889.

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"How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" Romans 10:14-15 .

PLEASE NOTICE, dear friends, that in the thirteenth verse we have the way of salvation set before us in the plainest terms: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." I remember well when I lived on that verse for many months. I longed for salvation; I could not see that there was any way of hope for me; I thought that I must be left out, that I was too sinful, or too hard, or too something or other, so that others might be saved, but I should not be. But when I read this verse, I did what I ask you to do, I caught at it; it seemed like a life-line thrown to a sinking man. I clung to it, and it became a life-buoy to me: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." "Ah!" thought I, "I do call on that blessed name, I will call on that glorious name; if I perish, I will never cease to invoke that sacred name." An invocation of the name of God, a trusting in God, and a consequent calling upon God and acknowledgment of God, this it is that saves the soul.

But I must get you to notice these words a little more in detail. There is here, first, a wide word, a very wide word: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." "Whosoever." I have heard that, when a person is making his will, if he wishes to leave all he has to one person, say to his wife, if he just says so, that is the best thing he can do; but he had better not go into details, and begin making a list of what he is leaving, because he will probably leave something or other out. Now, in order to make this will of God very distinct, he does not go into any detail, but he just says, "Whosoever." That means the black man, and the red man, and the yellow man, and the white man. It means the rich man, and the poor man:, and the man who is not a man. It means everybody of every sort, and those who are of no sort at all, or of all sorts put together. "Whosoever." That includes me, I am sure; but I am equally certain that; it includes you, you in the aisles who were never here before, you who are quite unknown in London, you who are a stranger and a foreigner, whoever you may be. It is much better to have it put so, without going into detail, because otherwise somebody might be left out. I have often thought that, if I had read in Scripture that "If Charles Haddon Spurgeon shall call upon the name of the Lord, he shall be saved," I should not have felt half as sure of salvation as I do now, because I should have concluded that there might have been somebody else of that name, and very likely there is, and I should have said, "Surely it did not mean me;" but when the Lord says "Whosoever," I cannot get out of that circle. It is a big net that seems to entangle all men in its meshes. "Whosoever." If I call upon the name of the Lord, if you call upon the name of the Lord, if the man who lies upstairs a-dying calls upon the name of the Lord, we shall be saved. What a wide word that "whosoever" is!

And then, next, what an easy word we have here! "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord." Anybody can call upon the name of the Lord. Everybody understands what it is to call "Hi, there!" Have you not often used such a call as that? And if you have been in distress or danger, have you never called, "Help, help, help?" Very well, he who can thus call, let him call upon God, invoke his help, clamor for his mercy, crave his pity. If he does that; in a believing way, as we shall have to show you, trusting that God will hear him, he shall be saved. So there is no difficulty here that wants a doctor of divinity to explain; the truth is put mainly in monosyllabic words: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." It is as plain as a pikestaff. Oh, that you might see it, and begin to call upon the name of the Lord by earnest prayer!

But here is another word, a sure word: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." There is no "if" here; no "maybe" here; but a glorious "shall." Our shalls and wills are poor, puny things; but God's "shall" is firm as the eternal mountains. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," as surely as there is a God. The Lord has made no mistake; he will not revoke his declaration by changing his mind. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Oh, that many would call upon his name, tonight, and find immediate salvation, which will last them throughout life, and throughout eternity, for "shall be saved" reaches a very long way, even throughout the eternal ages that are yet to come.

Now here, you see, friends, we have a wonderful remedy for the disease of sin, very simple and very abundant; but the difficulty is to get it to the people who need it. I am going to talk about that matter in very plain language, because I want to be very practical, and I pray that God's Spirit may make my whole discourse to be so.

In our text there are four necessities upon which Paul insists. Praying to God, calling upon his name, will save a man; but first, there is no praying aright without believing: "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" But, secondly, there is no believing without hearing: "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" Thirdly, there is no hearing without a preacher: "How shall they hear without a preacher?" And fourthly, and lastly, there is no effective preaching without being sent: "How shall they preach except they be sent?"

I. First, then, THERE IS NO PRAYING ARIGHT WITHOUT BELIEVING, from which I gather this moral, then let us believe. Since we must pray, and only by prayer can find salvation, and there is no praying without believing, may the Lord help us to believe, for how shall we pray aright unless we do believe?

I think that I have persons here tonight who have commenced to pray, who have begun pleading with God. I hope, dear friends, nay, I feel sure of it, that, if that prayer is sincere, there is a measure of faith in it, for would you ask God to save you if you did not believe that you needed to be saved? There is a measure of faith in that. Would you ask God to save you if you did not think that there is a way of salvation by which he can save you? There is a measure of faith in believing that. I think that you believe that there is a Savior. There is a measure of faith in that; and, I hope, a measure of saving faith, too, in your believing that, notwithstanding all your sins and sinfulness, there is a Savior provided, who is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him. You may not have much faith; but you must have some faith if you are really praying to God from your heart, and entreating him to save you.

I think, too, that you must have a little faith that the Savior will save you. You have been praying to him to do it. Would you have expressed that desire, and have come to him in prayer about it, unless there was some kind of sediment of faith in your heart? I want to put it very gently to you, yet very plainly. Remember, faith is not measured by the quantity, but by the quality. A man of strong faith is happier, but he is not more truly saved, than a man of weak faith, so long as he has any faith at all. If yours is only feeble faith, the Lord will say to you, "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." The faith that comes behind Christ, and touches the hem of his garment, is a saving faith; and I think that is what you are doing when you say, "Lord Jesus, save me." If this is a real prayer, and not a sham one, if it comes from your heart, there is, at any rate, a tint, a shade, if not an actual color of faith, upon your soul already, How could you call on him in whom you have not believed? Would we call for help from a person who we did not think would help us or could help us? No; the mere fact of calling upon anyone for help proves that we have some measure of confidence in that person, that lie can and will help us. Well, if thou believest as much as that concerning Christ, and if thou wilt cast thyself upon the believing that thou shalt be saved, I would that thou hadst more faith, but even that little faith will bear thee into heaven.

You believe also that Christ can and does hear you. Ah, you would not have been alone upstairs this afternoon, crying for mercy, if yea had thought that there was nobody to hear you! Rational beings do not go and ask of nobody. You believe that Christ is able to hear you, and you have some faith that he does hear you, for which I am very thankful indeed.

I think that I may add that you are measurably trusting to Christ Certainly, you are not trusting to anybody else. The fact that you often pray to him for mercy, for the pardon of sin, for the renewal of your nature, proves that you have some degree, at least, some faint measure of faith in him. Now, let me exhort you, while you keep on praying, to mix more faith with your praying. "With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt," and with all thy prayings thou shalt offer faith. When thou askest anything of God, believe, and thou shalt receive. When thou dost appeal to his mercy, believe in the mercy. When thou art pleading for his help, believe in the help, for there is much power in faith. "According to your faith, be it unto you."

You all know, surely, what believing is. You say, "I shall go home to pray." No, no, no; believe, and pray as much as ever you like, and a believing prayer will save you. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved;" but "how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" Faith comes first. Believe, then, before you do anything else. May God, of his great mercy, enable, some poor sinner to have done with doings and with feelings, and to trust, just to trust Jesus! There you are, hanging up there in a tree; you are afraid of failing down, so you cling with all your might. Suppose that a strong man comes underneath, and says, "Here, drop into my arms; I will catch you, I am able to bear your weight." If you trust, him, you will drop into his arms. That is what you have to do with Christ tonight; trust him, and let go every other confidence; just drop into his arms, and you shall he saved. Remember, then, this first lesson, that there is no praying aright without believing.

II. Now we go another step, and come to the second necessity. THERE IS NO BELIEVING WITHOUT HEARING: "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?"

The word "heard" is to be understood in a wide sense. Reading is a kind of hearing. It is not merely listening with the ear; but you must, by some means or other, come to a knowledge of the truth, and you cannot know what you do not hear, or read, or learn. The truth must come under your notice, so that you are aware of it, or else there can be no faith in you concerning it. I hope that none of you ever believe with the faith of the man who, when he was asked what he believed, said that he believed what the church believed. "Well," said one, "what does the church believe?" "Oh!" he replied, "the church believes what I believe." "Well, then, please tell me, what do you and the church believe?" "We both believe the same thing," answered he; and he could be got no farther. Now, there is no faith in that at all; it is simple ignorance, and nothing more. "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" Why, to believe a thing is to know the ins and outs of it! To get at it by reading it or hearing it, are only different forms of the same thing. Well, now, if any man here desires faith, what should he do to obtain it? Sit still, and say, "I will try to believe?" Certainly not. Suppose that I were to announce to you tonight that the Czar of all the Russias is dead, and you said that you wished to believe it. You could not believe it by an effort of your mind; you would inquire for evidence of the truth of my statement, or you would wait till you saw the telegrams tomorrow, and so you would learn whether it was true or not. It is not a distinct act of the will alone that brings faith: "Faith cometh by hearing."

Listen, then. The offener you hear the gospel, the better. I mean you who have not yet believed it. As you are hearing it, you may come to believe it. It may insensibly, as it were, steal over you. Having heard it, and heard it, and heard it, again and again, you may at last find yourself believing that Jesus suffered on the cross for you. I recommend all seekers after Christ to hear the Word often.

Take another piece of advice. Hear better; hear with both your ears at once; hearken as you would listen if the preacher were telling you how you could make a fortune in ten minutes. How everybody would listen, how everyone would want to have a front seat, so as to make no mistake! How the pencils would go to work to take down the instructions! Hear that way, for there is more at stake than a fortune, even your immortal soul. Heaven and hell hang upon the hearing or not hearing of the Word. Hear often, and hear well.

But so hear as to try to understand it, and if you cannot meet with the preacher who seems to proclaim an all-round gospel, do what is better, go to the Bible itself. Read this blessed Book through studiously, with such helps as good men can give you. Yes, try and understand the truth, and prove it by experience. Come to this Book, and come to the house of prayer with this thought on your mind, "There is a something that I have to believe, and I am going to know what it is; I am going to know the top of it and the bottom of it, the head and the front and the heart of it; and, at any rate, I will, if I can, know what it is, and what are the grounds and reasons for it." Hearing thus, you will believe it.

There let me leave that point, then. Hear the gospel; only mind that what you hear is the gospel. You can hear some very smart sermons, and very clever sermons; and, as a rule, I may say that the cleverer they are, the worse they are; where you see so much of the man, you will see very little of his Master; when everything seems yielded up to the turning of the phrases, putting the thing very grandly, and carrying you away with wonderful eloquence, the gospel itself gets put out of sight. Let the eloquent men have a shop for themselves on a Monday; but let us have the Sabbath-day given up to plain dealing with the souls of men. We want none of this word-daubing; men are going to heaven or to hell, and it is time that we came to close grips with them about this all-important matter. God help us so to do! Hear that which really is aimed at your heart and conscience; hear that which tells of Christ, and heaven, and the way thither; hearing that, you are on the way to believing it.

III. Thirdly, THERE IS NO HEARING WITHOUT A PREACHER: "and how shall they hear without a preacher?" Therefore, let us preach.

Someone must make the truth known to men. They will not find out about the Savior unless they are told of him. The gospel will not be revealed to men by any supernatural agency; we must go with it. They cannot learn it without being taught it. No man will know the gospel unless somebody shall tell it to him, by word of mouth, or by the gift of a book or a tract, or by a letter, or by the open preaching of the Word. Somebody must make it known to the man, for how can he believe in him of whom he has not heard, and how can lie hear without a preacher?

Who ought to preach, then? Everyone who can preach, should do so. The gift of preaching is the responsibility for preaching. I often wonder at some Christian men who cart fire away so grandly on the hustings, or the platform, but who never speak for Christ; they will have to account for those prostituted tongues. If a man can speak upon the temperance question, he can speak upon the salvation question; let him take care that he does so. I do not wish him to be silent on the one, but I do earnestly entreat him not to be silent on the other. There are a great many persons who ought to preach the gospel, but who do not. Every man who knows the gospel ought to make it known. "Let him that heareth say, Come." When you hear the gospel, tell it to somebody else; you Christian people are all bound, in proportion to your gifts and your opportunity, to make the gospel known. "Why!" says one, "I thought that work was for priests." Just so, it is only for priests; but then all believers are priests. By his mighty grace, our Lord Jesus Christ hath made us kings and priests unto God; and it is our duty, as well as our privilege, to exercise this blessed priestly function of telling to the sons of men the way whereby they may be saved. Each man, then, in this place, who knows Christ, and each woman and each young person, too, are bound to tell of Christ in some way or other to all who are round about them.

For this work, a high degree of gifts is not required. It does not say, "How shalt they hear without a doctor of divinity?" It does not say, "How shall they hear without a popular preacher?" Oh, dear! some of us would have been lost if we could not have been saved without hearing a man of great abilities. I thank God that I owe my conversion to Christ to an unknown person, who certainly was no minister in the ordinary acceptation of the term; but who could say this much, "Look unto Christ, and be saved, all ye ends of the earth." I learned my theology, from which I have never swerved, from an old woman who was cook in the house where I was an usher. She could talk about the deep things of God; and as I sat and heard what she had to say, as an aged Christian, of what the Lord had done for her, I learned more from her instruction than from anybody I have ever met with since. It does not require a college training to enable you to tell about Christ; some of the best workers in this church have little enough of education, but they bring many to Christ. Go on, my dear brothers and sisters, telling of Christ's love to you, even if you have very few gifts.

Remember that, when you have told out the story of the cross to men, you are rid of one responsibility. At any rate, if they perish, it will not be because they did not know; and if they perish through ignorance, it will not be that their ignorance was through your neglect in teaching them. Now, tonight, I wish that I could stir up everyone here to become a preacher, women and all; not that I care much for women preaching, but I want them to preach in the sense in which I have laid the matter down; that is, to make known to somebody the wondrous story of the cross. Speak to an individual, if you can. If you cannot do that, write. If you cannot write, send a sermon, or give a tract. Only do keep on making Christ known. I suppose that there are two or three thousand believers here tonight out of these six thousand people. If every one of you Christians would every day make Christ known to somebody, what a missionary organization we should be! How can they hear without a preacher? Now, let every one of you become, in the sense in which the text means it, a preacher, by telling out in some form or other, and making known in some way or other, the wondrous doctrine of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.

It is pitiable that anybody should live and die without knowing the gospel. You can have no idea, unless you go into the houses in many of our streets, what absolute ignorance there is in this city of London about the simple elements of the gospel of Christ. City missionaries have often told me stories that have amazed and appalled me. You think, because so many come to some of our houses of prayer, that the people of London go into the house of God. There is at least a million of people, and perhaps two millions, who never attend any place of worship at all. There would be three millions, I suppose, out of our five millions, who only occasionally go to any place of worship at all. Why speak of "heathendom?" We have it at our doors. The more earnest a man is to win souls, the more he is shocked, amazed, and appalled by the necessity there is to keep on making known the gospel of Christ. And now they are starting new the-elegies, inventing falsehoods. Up with you, men and Christians publish Christ again. The only way to put this false fire out is with the old fire of the gospel; men fear that fire. Put down the new heresy with the old orthodoxy. Bring out Christ crucified. Cry again, with Luther's earnestness, "Believe and live!" Cry again, with Calvinistic determination, "Salvation is all of grace, of grace alone, through faith in Jesus Christ." I would to God that we might all preach thus. If we had but all our church-members resolved to testify the gospel of the grace of God, then should we see men hearing; then should we find men believing; and men believing are men saved.

IV. So I come to the fourth necessity, with which I shall close. THERE IS NO EFFECTIVE PREACHING WITHOUT BEING SENT: "and how shall they preach, except they be sent?"

"Ah!" says one, "now we have you in a corner. We must not all go and preach, if we are not sent." If you are not sent, do not go.

But what does it mean, "How shall they preach, except they be sent?" A man who goes to tell others about Christ must feel that he is sent to do it, or he will never do it properly and effectively.

The man who is sent, first of all, has a message given to him. You do not say to your servant, "You go north, south, east, west, and that is all." No, if you send him, you give him a message: "Go and say to Mr. So-and-so, this and that;" or you write it down, and you say, "Deliver that letter to such a person." You do not leave him to go and say whatever he likes: "John, I want you to call on Mr. So-and-so to-morrow morning, and to say whatever first comes into your head." You do not act like that, do you? Yet that is the notion some people have, nowadays, of what a preacher is; he is a man who makes his message up as he goes along; he is a "thinker;" he excogitates the gospel out of his own brains. I have heard of a German who is said to have constructed a camel out of his own consciousness. Very likely; but I am sure that nobody will construct the gospel that way he must receive it by the Rev. of God. The other plan is not Paul's notion, for he asks, "How shall they preach, except they be sent?" First, then, get your message, be determined to know nothing among men but what the Lord. himself has revealed to you in his Word, by the teaching of his Spirit. Get it well into you; say to yourself, "What I am going to speak is nothing of my own; else it would fall flat and powerless; but I am going with, 'Thus saith the Lord.' This is God's message." Then, if you are sent, you will preach, and you will so preach that men will hear; and they will so hear that they will believe; and they will so believe that they will be saved. But you must go as a God-sent man, having received your message from the mouth of your Master.

Next, I think that, even if we get a message from God, we want something more than that, there must be an impulse felt within, that shall compel us to speak of Christ. If you merely go and flippantly talk about Jesus Christ to people, you may as well talk about anything else; but if you pity them, if you love them, if you feel that they must not be lost, that you cannot bear the thought of it, if it is in your mind, so that yea cannot sleep while you are thinking of such an one because he is going down to perdition, if it gets such a burden that it oppresses you, and weighs you down, so that you must speak to somebody about his soul, ah, then you will speak, for you will feel that you are sent! Now, my impression is that, if we are in a right state of heart, we shall always feel like that. If a Christian man were in a right condition c f heart, whether he found himself in the train, or along a country road, or at, the railway-station, or in the police-court, or waiting in the lobby of a house, or anywhere, he would begin at once to deal with the person with whom he came into contact about his soul. I wish that it were your habit to be always looking out for souls. Up then, ye Christian men, and seek as God shall help you, by every means in your power, to make known Christ to the dying all around you! But you will not do it unless you are sent, driven, impelled, forced; you will not win souls for Christ till the gospel is like a fire in your bones, and you feel that woe is unto you if you do not preach it.

Well now, before you go to try to do that, there is one thing more. You cannot do it effectively unless you are sent; and to be sent means to have power given you with which to do the work. Can that power be had? If you feel impelled to cry to God to give you the power to preach, the spiritual power, the power of the Holy Ghost, if you are propelled to teach in the Sunday-school, and it is not worth doing unless you feel that you are impelled to it, and sent to it, then pray for the power to win the souls of those dear children for Christ. If you feel called upon to write a letter to a friend tomorrow about his soul or her soul, do it because you feel called upon to do it; but pray to God to show you how to do it. Pray to him to put the power into the words that you utter, that you may say the right words, and put even the right tone into those words. There is a good deal even in the tone of the preacher. "How shall they preach, except they be sent?" They must be clothed with divine power; but the Lord can clothe even a child with that power; he has often done it. He can clothe a humble Christian woman, who never spoke in public, with the power to win souls; he has often done it. And you, brother, who have been quite satisfied to be a church-member and to do nothing for Christ, a most unsatisfactory state of things indeed, should begin to be doing something for him who has; done so much for you. First tarry at Jerusalem till you are endued with power from on high; and then go forth as Christ's witnesses; for how shall you preach, except you be sent? But the power being obtained, you must go forth, and tell out the message that your Lord has given you.

But you have not done it all till you have given a report to your Master. If you have been sent, you will go back to your Lord after you have delivered his message, and you will tell him what they have to say about it. Every man who is sent on an errand gives an answer by-and-by as to the reply of the person to whom he was sent. I am afraid that some teachers and preachers forget this. We ought to go, like Isaiah, back to the Master, and say, "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" You have tried hard with Mary to bring her to Christ; did you ever tell the Master about Mary? Mother, you have tried hard with your boy to bring him to the Savior; have you ever told Jesus about your boy? Last Tuesday night, there were a mother and father who had a son about whom they had once been very hopeful; but he had left home, and gone away, for weeks, though he promised to return. He had gone off, and they had not heard a word about him. They came to a company of Christian people, last Tuesday night, broken-hearted. They had done their best to find their son, but they could not find him. It was to Haddon Hall that they came, and the people of God there prayed for his father and mother. The father himself prayed, and broke down with emotion about his lost son. He went home, and there was a letter from his son to say that the Savior had found him. He had given up the drink, and he hoped to be a comfort to his father and mother all the rest of their days. He was many miles away, and knew nothing of his father's prayer. Often, when you do not get on with people, go and tell the Lord Jesus Christ about it; say, "Lord, I have preached to them, I have prayed for them, I have talked to them, I have wept over them, I bear them on my heart as a burden. Their very name seems to burn itself with letters of fire into my soul. Lord, save them! Lord, save them, and they will be saved!" That is the way to win souls. If God works, he first of all makes us travail in birth for the souls of others, and then are they born into the kingdom.

The rest of the text is a kind of vision. The prophet sees persons coining down the mountain side; he looks at them, and perceives that they are not men of war; else the greaves upon their legs would be terrible to the peaceful inhabitants of the plain. Yet here they come, a great company from the mountain tops, descending into the valleys. Who are they? As he looks, he says, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" They are coming bearing the white flag, servants of the great King with whom you have been at war. They bear the banner that speaks of peace with God.

We, to whom the text alludes, who are the preachers of this gospel of peace, say to you tonight: Sinner, throw down your weapons of rebellion. Guilty one, fight no longer against God; come, and be at peace with him. His peace is proclaimed to you through Jesus Christ. He will freely forgive you every transgression and iniquity; he is ready to forget and blot it all out. God invites you to be reconciled to him, to have done with warring against him. We preach peace to you; and, if you hear us, we then tell you glad tidings of good things, full pardon for all the past, a change of heart to be given to you, to make you a new creature in Christ Jesus, yes, to be given you tonight, before you leave the Tabernacle, help for the future to strive against sin; strength to conquer and tread the dragon beneath your feet, power to become a child of God, to become an heir of heaven, to be taken under the guardian wing of providence, to be directed by the infinite wisdom of the Holy Spirit. These glad tidings of good things are published to all of you, even you that are farthest off from Christ, and hope, and peace. Believe in Jesus; trust him; trust God in human flesh, trust him who bled to death upon the cross, and paid down the ransom for your soul, and trust him now. He will do all for you that you need to have done for you, and he will save you, and bring you to his right hand in glory.

Now I have talked all in vain unless the Lord shall apply the truth to you, and you believe it; do not wait for somebody to believe for you; trust Christ for yourself; believe in Jesus even now. Amen.

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Romans 10:1-21

Verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

Desire is the mother and the soul of prayer: "My heart's desire and prayer." These Israelites had hunted Patti about, and sought to kill him. They were his deadly enemies; but the only return he made them was to pray that. they might be saved. I hope you will never have a worse wish for your worst foe.

2. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

Always see all the good that is to be seen; and, when you have to reprove and rebuke, begin by admitting what is good: "They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge."

3. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

They were very zealous; but it was blind zeal. They were very energetic; 'but they used their energy in going the wrong way. God has a righteousness, and our wisest course is to submit to it. Our righteousness, if we set it up in opposition to God's way of salvation, will only increase our sin. You can be ruined by your righteousness, as surely as by your righteousness, if you set it in the place of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. "They being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."

4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

If we get Christ by believing, we have the righteousness of the law. All that ever could come to us by the highest and most perfect obedience to the law, we get by faith in Christ Jesus.

5. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law,

And being the one through whom the law was given, he knew how to describe it; and we may be sure that he made no mistake. This is his description of legal righteousness:

5. That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.

That is it: "Do and live." That is the law, and a very just law, too. Leave anything undone, or break the command in any respect and you die; that is the law.

6. But the righteousness which is of faith

This is quite another thing; it

6. Speaketh on this wise,

And it is Moses who speaks here, as in the previous verse. This is what the righteousness of faith says:

6-9. Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

God's way of salvation, then, is "Believe and live." Believe in Christ; Christ dying, Christ raised from the dead. If thou so believest, thou art saved. Thou needest not mount to heaven in rapture, nor dive to hell in remorse. As thou art, believe and live. This is the way of the righteousness of God.

10. For with the heart,man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

True faith must be accompanied by an open confession. Come forward, and outwardly own what you inwardly believe. Remember those words of the Lord Jesus, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Here, as there, the confession is put after the faith, as indeed it must be. First, the reality, the thing signified, faith; afterwards, the outward and visible sign in the confession of that faith.

11. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

He need never be ashamed of his faith. It will bear him up; it will bear him through; it will bear him up to heaven.

12,13. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

That is a wonderful sentence; catch at it. Doubting, troubled spirits, catch at it, believe it, practice it; and you shall find it true.

14,15. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

See here the whole machinery of salvation. God provides salvation in Christ Jesus, he sends the preacher to tell of it, men hear, they believe, and salvation is theirs. You have not to make a righteousness, you have to accept the one that is made for you. It is not what you shall do that shall save you; it is what Christ has done. You are to get out of self-confidence into confidence in him; and as soon as you do so, you are saved.

16. But they have not all obeyed the gospel.

Oh, no; all who have heard it, have not obeyed it! There are many here who have heard it from their childhood, and yet they have not obeyed it. Notice the word "obeyed," for the gospel comes to you with the force of a divine command. If you reject it, you sin against it, for it is your duty to accept it: "but they have not all obeyed the gospel."

16. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

So few were the obedient, that he asked where they were.

17, 18. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, Have they not heard?

Oh, may they hear, indeed!

18, 19. Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.

Has he not done it? Israel is rejected, and remains without Christ, while many out of "a foolish nation" of Anglo-Saxons, who were idolaters, have accepted Christ. People who were regarded as dogs by God's chosen nation Israel have come into the house of the Lord, and still Israel refuses to come.

20. But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not;

Hear, then, you who have never had any religion; you who seldom go to the house of God. Even you may be saved, for it is written, "I was found of them that sought me not."

20. I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.

Here is the manifestation of sovereign grace, God choosing and saving whom he wills, irrespective of their condition; exercising the sovereignty of his mercy in saving the most undeserving.

21. But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands

In the attitude of invitation and entreaty, and readiness to receive,

21. Unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

And that is what he has done to thee, O thou careless child of pious parents, thou unregenerate hearer of the Word! All day long has he stood and stretched forth his hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. The Lord forgive all such, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

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HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" 485, 540, 503.

Kelly Commentary on Books of the Bible

The circumstances under which the epistle to the Romans was written gave occasion to the most thorough and comprehensive unfolding, not of the church, but of Christianity. No apostle had ever yet visited Rome. There was somewhat as yet lacking to the saints there; but even this was ordered of God to call forth from the Holy Ghost an epistle which more than any other approaches a complete treatise on the fundamentals of Christian doctrine, and especially as to righteousness.

Would we follow up the heights of heavenly truth, would we sound the depths of Christian experience, would we survey the workings of the Spirit of God in the Church, would we bow before the glories of the person of Christ, or learn His manifold offices, we must look elsewhere in the writings of the New Testament no doubt, but elsewhere rather than here.

The condition of the Roman saints called for a setting forth of the gospel of God; but this object, in order to be rightly understood and appreciated, leads the apostle into a display of the condition of man. We have God and man in presence, so to speak. Nothing can be more simple and essential. Although there is undoubtedly that profoundness which must accompany every revelation of God, and especially in connection with Christ as now manifested, still we have God adapting Himself to the very first wants of a renewed soul nay, even to the wretchedness of souls without God, without any real knowledge either of themselves or of Him. Not, of course, that the Roman saints were in this condition; but that God, writing by the apostle to them, seizes the opportunity to lay bare man's state as well as His own grace.

Romans 1:1-32. From the very first we have these characteristics of the epistle disclosing themselves. The apostle writes with the full assertion of his own apostolic dignity, but as a servant also. "Paul, a bondman of Jesus Christ" an apostle "called," not born, still less as educated or appointed of man, but an apostle "called," as he says "separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets." The connection is fully owned with that which had been from God of old. No fresh revelations from God can nullify those which preceded them; but as the prophets looked onward to what was coming, so is the gospel already come, supported by the past. There is mutual confirmation. Nevertheless, what is in nowise the same as what was or what will be. The past prepared the way, as it is said here, "which God had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, [here we have the great central object of God's gospel, even the person of Christ, God's Son,] which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh" (ver. 3). This last relation was the direct subject of the prophetic testimony, and Jesus had come accordingly. He was the promised Messiah, born King of the Jews.

But there was far more in Jesus. He was "declared," says the apostle, "to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" ( ἐξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν , ver. 4). It was the Son of God not merely as dealing with the powers of the earth, Jehovah's King on the holy hill of Zion, but after a far deeper manner. For, essentially associated as He is with the glory of God the Father, the full deliverance of souls from the realm of death was His also. In this too we have the blessed connection of the Spirit (here peculiarly designated, for special reasons, "the Spirit of holiness"). That same energy of the Holy Ghost which had displayed itself in Jesus, when He walked in holiness here below, was demonstrated in resurrection; and not merely in His own rising from the dead, but in raising such at any time no doubt, though most signally and triumphantly displayed in His own resurrection.

The bearing of this on the contents and main doctrine of the epistle will appear abundantly by-and-by. Let me refer in passing to a few points more in the introduction, in order to link them together with that which the Spirit was furnishing to the Roman saints, as well as to show the admirable perfectness of every word that inspiration has given us. I do not mean by this its truth merely, but its exquisite suitability; so that the opening address commences the theme in hand, and insinuates that particular line of truth which the Holy Spirit sees fit to pursue throughout. To this then the apostle comes, after having spoken of the divine favour shown himself, both when a sinner, and now in his own special place of serving the Lord Jesus. "By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith." This was no question of legal obedience, although the law came from Jehovah. Paul's joy and boast were in the gospel of God. So therefore it addressed itself to the obedience of faith; not by this meaning practice, still less according to the measure of a man's duty, but that which is at the root of all practice faith-obedience obedience of heart and will, renewed by divine grace, which accepts the truth of God. To man this is the hardest of all obedience; but when once secured, it leads peacefully into the obedience of every day. If slurred over, as it too often is in souls, it invariably leaves practical obedience lame, and halt, and blind.

It was for this then that Paul describes himself as apostle. And as it is for obedience of faith, it was not in anywise restricted to the Jewish people "among all nations, for his (Christ's) name: among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ" (verses 5, 6). He loved even here at the threshold to show the breadth of God's grace. If he was called, so were they he an apostle, they not apostles but saints; but still, for them as for him, all flowed out of the same mighty love, of God. "To all that be at Rome, beloved of God, called saints" (ver. 7). To these then he wishes, as was his wont, the fresh flow of that source and stream of divine blessing which Christ has made to be household bread to us: "Grace and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ" (ver. 7). Then, from ver. 8, after thanking God through Jesus for their faith spoken of everywhere, and telling them of his prayers for them, he briefly discloses the desire of his heart about them his long-cherished hope according to the grace of the gospel to reach Rome his confidence in the love of God that through him some spiritual gift would be imparted to them, that they might be established, and, according to the spirit of grace which filled his own heart, that he too might be comforted together with them "by the mutual faith both of you and me" (vv. 11, 12). There is nothing like the grace of God for producing the truest humility, the humility that not only descends to the lowest level of sinners to do them good, but which is itself the fruit of deliverance from that self-love which puffs itself or lowers others. Witness the common joy that grace gives an apostle with saints be had never seen, so that even he should be comforted as well as they by their mutual faith. He would not therefore have them ignorant how they had lain on his heart for a visit (ver. 13). He was debtor both to the Greeks and the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise; he was ready, as far as he was concerned, to preach the gospel to those that were at Rome also (ver. 14, 15). Even the saints there would have been all the better for the gospel. It was not merely "to those at Rome," but "to you that be at Rome." Thus it is a mistake to suppose that saints may not be benefited by a better understanding of the gospel, at least as Paul preached it. Accordingly he tells them now what reason he had to speak thus strongly, not of the more advanced truths, but of the good news. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (ver. 16).

Observe, the gospel is not simply remission of sins, nor is it only peace with God, but "the power of God unto salvation." Now I take this opportunity of pressing on all that are here to beware of contracted views of "salvation." Beware that you do not confound it with souls being quickened, or even brought into joy. Salvation supposes not this only, but a great deal more. There is hardly any phraseology that tends to more injury of souls in these matters than a loose way of talking of salvation. "At any rate he is a saved soul," we hear. "The man has not got anything like settled peace with God; perhaps he hardly knows his sins forgiven; but at least he is a saved soul." Here is an instance of what is so reprehensible. This is precisely what salvation does not mean; and I would strongly press it on all that hear me, more particularly on those that have to do with the work of the Lord, and of course ardently desire to labour intelligently; and this not alone for the conversion, but for the establishment and deliverance of souls. Nothing less, I am persuaded, than this full blessing is the line that God has given to those who have followed Christ without the camp, and who, having been set free from the contracted ways of men, desire to enter into the largeness and at the same time the profound wisdom of every word of God. Let us not stumble at the starting-point, but leave room for the due extent and depth of "salvation" in the gospel.

There is no need of dwelling now on "salvation" as employed in the Old Testament, and in some parts of the New, as the gospels and Revelation particularly, where it is used for deliverance in power or even providence and present things. I confine myself to its doctrinal import, and the full Christian sense of the word; and I maintain that salvation signifies that deliverance for the believer which is the full consequence of the mighty work of Christ, apprehended not, of course, necessarily according to all its depth in God's eyes, but at any rate applied to the soul in the power of the Holy Ghost. It is not the awakening of conscience, however real; neither is it the attraction of heart by the grace of Christ, however blessed this may be. We ought therefore to bear in mind, that if a soul be not brought into conscious deliverance as the fruit of divine teaching, and founded on the work of Christ, we are very far from presenting the gospel as the apostle Paul glories in it, and delights that it should go forth. "I am not ashamed," etc.

And he gives his reason: "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith." That is, it is the power of God unto salvation, not because it is victory (which at the beginning of the soul's career would only give importance to man even if possible, which it is not), but because it is "the righteousness of God." It is not God seeking, or man bringing righteousness. In the gospel there is revealed God's righteousness. Thus the introduction opened with Christ's person, and closes with God's righteousness. The law demanded, but could never receive righteousness from man. Christ is come, and has changed all. God is revealing a righteousness of His own in the gospel. It is God who now makes known a righteousness to man, instead of looking for any from man. Undoubtedly there are fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, and God values them I will not say from man, but from His saints; but here it is what, according to the apostle, God has for man. It is for the saints to learn, of course; but it is that which goes out in its own force and necessary aim to the need of man a divine righteousness, which justifies instead of condemning him who believes. It is "the power of God unto salvation." It is for the lost, therefore; for they it is who need salvation; and it is to save not merely to quicken, but to save; and this because in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed.

Hence it is, as he says, herein revealed "from faith," or by faith. It is the same form of expression exactly as in the beginning of Romans 5:1-21 "being justified by faith" ( ἐκ πίστεως ). But besides this he adds "to faith." The first of these phrases, "from faith," excludes the law; the second, "to faith," includes every one that has faith within the scope of God's righteousness. Justification is not from works of law. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith; and consequently, if there be faith in any soul, to this it is revealed, to faith wherever it may be. Hence, therefore, it was in no way limited to any particular nation, such as those that had already been under the law and government of God. It was a message that went out from God to sinners as such. Let man be what he might, or where he might, God's good news was for man. And to this agreed the testimony of the prophet. "The just shall live by faith" (not by law). Even where the law was, not by it but by faith the just lived. Did Gentiles believe? They too should live. Without faith there is neither justice nor life that God owns; where faith is, the rest will surely follow.

This accordingly leads the apostle into the earlier portion of his great argument, and first of all in a preparatory way. Here we pass out of the introduction of the epistle. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness" (ver. 18). This is what made the gospel to be so sweet and precious, and, what is more, absolutely necessary, if he would escape certain and eternal ruin. There is no hope for man otherwise; for the gospel is not all that is now made known. Not only is God's righteousness revealed, but also His wrath. It is not said to be revealed in the gospel. The gospel means His glad tidings for man. The wrath of God could not possibly be glad tidings. It is true, it is needful for man to learn; but in nowise is it good news. There is then the solemn truth also of divine wrath. It is not yet executed. It is "revealed," and this too "from heaven." There is no question of a people on earth, and of God's wrath breaking out in one form or another against human evil in this life. The earth, or, at least, the Jewish nation, had been familiar with such dealings of God in times past. But now it is "the wrath of God from heaven;" and consequently it is in view of eternal things, and not of those that touch present life on the earth.

Hence, as God's wrath is revealed from heaven, it is against every form of impiety "against all ungodliness." Besides this, which seems to be a most comprehensive expression for embracing every sort and degree of human iniquity, we have one very specifically named. It is against the "unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." To hold the truth in unrighteousness would be no security. Alas! we know how this was in Israel, how it might be, and has been, in Christendom. God pronounces against the unrighteousness of such; for if the knowledge, however exact, of God's revealed mind was accompanied by no renewal of the heart, if it was without life towards God, all must be vain. Man is only so much the worse for knowing the truth, if he holds it ever so fast with unrighteousness. There are some that find a difficulty here, because the expression "to hold" means holding firmly. But it is quite possible for the unconverted to be tenacious of the truth, yet unrighteous in their ways; and so much the worse for them. Not thus does God deal with souls. If His grace attract, His truth humbles, and leaves no room for vain boasting and self-confidence. What He does is to pierce and penetrate the man's conscience. If one may so say, He thus holds the man, instead of letting the man presume that he is holding fast the truth. The inner man is dealt with, and searched through and through.

Nothing of this is intended in the class that is here brought before us. They are merely persons who plume themselves on their orthodoxy, but in a wholly unrenewed condition. Such men have never been wanting since the truth has shone on this world; still less are they now. But the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against them pre-eminently. The judgments of God will fall on man as man, but the heaviest blows are reserved for Christendom. There the truth is held, and apparently with firmness too. This, however, will be put to the test by-and-by. But for the time it is held fast, though in unrighteousness. Thus the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against (not only the open ungodliness of men, but) the orthodox unrighteousness of those that hold the truth in unrighteousness.

And this leads the apostle into the moral history of man the proof both of his inexcusable guilt, and of his extreme need of redemption. He begins with the great epoch of the dispensations of God (that is, the ages since the flood). We cannot speak of the state of things before the flood as a dispensation. There was a most important trial of man in the person of Adam; but after this, what dispensation was there? What were the principles of it? No man can tell. The truth is, those are altogether mistaken who call it so. But after the flood man as such was put under certain conditions the whole race. Man became the object, first, of general dealings of God under Noah; next, of His special ways in the calling of Abraham and of his family. And what led to the call of Abraham, of whom we hear much in the epistle to the Romans as elsewhere, was the departure of man into idolatry. Man despised at first the outward testimony of God, His eternal power and Godhead, in the creation above and around him (verses 19, 20). Moreover, He gave up the knowledge of God that had been handed down from father to son (ver. 21). The downfall of man, when he thus abandoned God, was most rapid and profound; and the Holy Spirit traces this solemnly to the end ofRomans 1:1-32; Romans 1:1-32 with no needless words, in a few energetic strokes summing up that which is abundantly confirmed (but in how different a manner!) by all that remains of the ancient world. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man," etc. (verses 22-32.) Thus corruption not only overspread morals, but became an integral part of the religion of men, and had thus a quasi-divine sanction. Hence the depravity of the heathen found little or no cheek from conscience, because it was bound up with all that took the shape of God before their mind. There was no part of heathenism practically viewed now, so corrupting as that which had to do with the objects of its worship. Thus, the true God being lost, all was lost, and man's downward career becomes the most painful and humiliating object, unless it be, indeed, that which we have to feel where men, without renewal of heart, espouse in pride of mind the truth with nothing but unrighteousness.

In the beginning ofRomans 2:1-29; Romans 2:1-29 we have man pretending to righteousness. Still, it is "man" not yet exactly the Jew, but man who had profited, it might be, by whatever the Jew had; at the least, by the workings of natural conscience. But natural conscience, although it may detect evil, never leads one into the inward possession and enjoyment of good never brings the soul to God. Accordingly, in chapter 2 the Holy Spirit shows us man satisfying himself with pronouncing on what is right and wrong moralizing for others, but nothing more. Now God must have reality in the man himself. The gospel, instead of treating this as a light matter, alone vindicates God in these eternal ways of His, in that which must be in him who stands in relationship with God. Hence therefore, the apostle, with divine wisdom, opens this to us before the blessed relief and deliverance which the gospel reveals to us. In the most solemn way he appeals to man with the demand, whether he thinks that God will look complacently on that which barely judges another, but which allows the practice of evil in the man himself (Romans 2:1-3). Such moral judgments will, no doubt, be used to leave man without excuse; they can never suit or satisfy God.

Then the apostle introduces the ground, certainty, and character of God's judgment (verses 4-16). He "will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: to them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile."

It is not here a question of how a man is to be saved, but of God's indispensable moral judgment, which the gospel, instead of weakening asserts according to the holiness and truth of God. It will be observed therefore, that in this connection the apostle shows the place both of conscience and of the law, that God in judging will take into full consideration the circumstances and condition of every soul of man. At the same time he connects, in a singularly interesting manner, this disclosure of the principles of the eternal judgment of God with what he calls "my gospel." This also is a most important truth, my brethren, to bear in mind. The gospel at its height in no wise weakens but maintains the moral manifestation of what God is. The legal institutions were associated with temporal judgment. The gospel, as now revealed in the New Testament, has linked with it, though not contained in it, the revelation of divine wrath from heaven, and this, you will observe, according to Paul's gospel. It is evident, therefore, that dispensational position will not suffice for God, who holds to His own unchangeable estimate of good and evil, and who judges the more stringently according to the measure of advantage possessed.

But thus the way is now clear for bringing the Jew into the discussion. "But if [for so it should be read] thou art named a Jew," etc. (ver. 17.) It was not merely, that he had better light. He had this, of course, in a revelation that was from God; he had law; he had prophets; he had divine institutions. It was not merely better light in the conscience, which might be elsewhere, as is supposed in the early verses of our chapter; but the Jew's position was directly and unquestionably one of divine tests applied to man's estate. Alas! the Jew was none the better for this, unless there were the submission of his conscience to God. Increase of privileges can never avail without the soul's self-judgment before the mercy of God. Rather does it add to his guilt: such is man's evil state and will. Accordingly, in the end of the chapter, he shows that this is most true as applied to the moral judgment of the Jew; that uone so much dishonoured God as wicked Jews, their own Scripture attesting it; that position went for nothing in such, while the lack of it would not annul the Gentile's righteousness, which would indeed condemn the more unfaithful Israel; in short, that one must be a Jew inwardly to avail, and circumcision be of the heart, in spirit, not in letter, whose praise is of God, and not of men.

The question then is raised in the beginning ofRomans 3:1-31; Romans 3:1-31, If this be so, what is the superiority of the Jew? Where lies the value of belonging to the circumcised people of God? The apostle allows this privilege to be great, specially in having the Scriptures, but turns the argument against the boasters. We need not here enter into the details; but on the surface we see how the apostle brings all down to that which is of the deepest interest to every soul. He deals with the Jew from his own Scripture (verses 9-19). Did the Jews take the ground of exclusively having that word of God the law? Granted that it is so, at once and fully. To whom, then, did the law address itself? To those that were under it, to be sure. It pronounced on the Jew then. It was the boast of the Jews that the law spoke about them; that the Gentiles had no right to it, and were but presuming on what belonged to God's chosen people. The apostle applies this according to divine wisdom. Then your principle is your condemnation. What the law says, it speaks to those under it. What, then, is its voice? That there is none righteous, none that doeth good, none that understandeth. Of whom does it declare all this? Of the Jew by his own confession. Every mouth was stopped; the Jew by his own oracles, as the Gentile by their evident abominations, shown already. All the world was guilty before God.

Thus, having shown the Gentile in Romans 1:1-32 manifestly wrong, and hopelessly degraded to the last degree having laid bare the moral dilettantism of the philosophers, not one whit better in the sight of God, but rather the reverse having shown the Jew overwhelmed by the condemnation of the divine oracles in which he chiefly boasted, without real righteousness, and so much the more guilty for his special privileges, all now lies clear for bringing in the proper Christian message, the. gospel of God. "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets" (verses 20, 21).

Here, again, the apostle takes up what he had but announced in chapter 1 the righteousness of God. Let me call your attention again to its force. It is not the mercy of God., Many have contended that so it is, and to their own great loss, as well as to the weakening of the word of God. "Righteousness" never means mercy, not even the "righteousness of God." The meaning is not what was executed on Christ, but what is in virtue. of it. Undoubtedly divine judgment fell on Him; but this is not "the righteousness of God," as the apostle employs it in any part of his writings any more than here, though we know there could be no such thing as God's righteousness justifying the believer, if Christ had not borne the judgment of God. The expression means that righteousness which God can afford to display because of Christ's atonement. In short, it is what the words say "the righteousness of God," and this "by faith of Jesus Christ."

Hence it is wholly apart from the law, whilst witnessed to by the law and prophets; for the law with its types had looked onward to this new kind of righteousness; and the prophets had borne their testimony that it was at hand, but not then come. Now it was manifested, and not promised or predicted merely. Jesus had come and died; Jesus had been a propitiatory sacrifice; Jesus had borne the judgment of God because of the sins He bore. The righteousness of God, then, could now go forth in virtue of His blood. God was not satisfied alone. There is satisfaction; but the work of Christ goes a great deal farther. Therein God is both vindicated and glorified. By the cross God has a deeper moral glory than ever a glory that He thus acquired, if I may so say. He is, of course, the same absolutely perfect and unchangeable God of goodness; but His perfection has displayed itself in new and more glorious ways in Christ's death, in Him who humbled Himself, and was obedient even to the death of the cross.

God, therefore, having not the least hindrance to the manifestation of what He can be and is in merciful intervention on behalf of the worst of sinners, manifests it is His righteousness "by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe" (ver. 22). The former is the direction, and the latter the application. The direction is "unto all;" the application is, of course, only to "them that believe;" but it is to all them that believe. As far as persons are concerned, there is no hindrance; Jew or Gentile makes no difference, as is expressly said, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the [passing over or praeter-mission, not] remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus" (verses 23-26). There is no simple mind that can evade the plain force of this last expression. The righteousness of God means that God is just, while at the same time He justifies the believer in Christ Jesus. It is His righteousness, or, in other words, His perfect consistency with Himself, which is always involved in the notion of righteousness. He is consistent with Himself when He is justifying sinners, or, more strictly, all those who believe in Jesus. He can meet the sinner, but He justifies the believer; and in this, instead of trenching on His glory, there is a deeper revelation and maintenance of it than if there never had been sin or a sinner.

Horribly offensive as sin is to God, and inexcusable in the creature, it is sin which has given occasion to the astonishing display of divine righteousness in justifying believers. It is not a question of His mercy merely; for this weakens the truth immensely, and perverts its character wholly. The righteousness of God flows from His mercy, of course; but its character and basis is righteousness. Christ's work of redemption deserves that God should act as He does in the gospel. Observe again, it is not victory here; for that would give place to human pride. It is not a soul's overcoming its difficulties, but a sinner's submission to the righteousness of God. It is God Himself who, infinitely glorified in the Lord that expiated our sins by His one sacrifice, remits them now, not looking for our victory, nor as yet even in leading us on to victory, but by faith in Jesus and His blood. God is proved thus divinely consistent with Himself in Christ Jesus, whom He has set forth a mercy-seat through faith in His blood.

Accordingly the apostle says that boast and works are completely set aside by this principle which affirms faith, apart from deeds of law, to be the means of relationship with God (verses 27, 28). Consequently the door is as open to the Gentile as to the Jew. The ground taken by a Jew for supposing God exclusively for Israel was, that they had the law, which was the measure of what God claimed from man; and this the Gentile had not. But such thoughts altogether vanish now, because, as the Gentile was unquestionably wicked and abominable, so from the law's express denunciation the Jew was universally guilty before God. Consequently all turned, not on what man should be for God, but what God can be and is, as revealed in the gospel, to man. This maintains both the glory and the moral universality of Him who will justify the circumcision by faith, not law, and the uncircumcision through their faith, if they believe the gospel. Nor does this in the slightest degree weaken the principle of law. On the contrary, the doctrine of faith establishes law as nothing else can; and for this simple reason, that if one who is guilty hopes to be saved spite of the broken law, it must be at the expense of the law that condemns his guilt; whereas the gospel shows no sparing of sin, but the most complete condemnation of it all, as charged on Him who shed His blood in atonement. The doctrine of faith therefore, which reposes on the cross, establishes law, instead of making it void, as every other principle must (verses 27-31).

But this is not the full extent of salvation. Accordingly we do not hear of salvation as such in Romans 3:1-31. There is laid down the most essential of all truths as a groundwork of salvation; namely, expiation. There is the vindication of God in His ways with the Old Testament believers. Their sins had been passed by. He could not have remitted heretofore. This would not have been just. And the blessedness of the gospel is, that it is (not merely an exercise of mercy, but also) divinely just. It would not have been righteous in any sense to have remitted the sins, until they were actually borne by One who could and did suffer for them. But now they were; and thus God vindicated Himself perfectly as to the past. But this great work of Christ was not and could not be a mere vindication of God; and we may find it otherwise developed in various parts of Scripture, which I here mention by the way to show the point at which we are arrived. God's righteousness was now manifested as to the past sins He had not brought into judgment through His forbearance, and yet more conspicuously in the present time, when He displayed His justice in justifying the believer.

But this is not all; and the objection of the Jew gives occasion for the apostle to bring out a fuller display of what God is. Did they fall back on Abraham? "What shall we then say that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God." Did the Jew fancy that the gospel makes very light of Abraham, and of the then dealings of God? Not so, says the apostle. Abraham is the proof of the value of faith in justification before God. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. There was no law there or then; for Abraham died long before God spoke from Sinai. He believed God and His word, with special approval on God's part; and his faith was counted as righteousness (ver. 3). And this was powerfully corroborated by the testimony of another great name in Israel (David), in Psalms 32:1-11. "For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding-place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye."

In the same way the apostle disposes of all pretence on the score of ordinances, especially circumcision. Not only was Abraham justified without law, but apart from that great sign of mortification of the flesh. Although circumcision began with Abraham, manifestly it had nothing to do with his righteousness, and at best was but the seal of the righteousness of faith which he had in an uncircumcised state. It could not therefore be the source or means of his righteousness. All then that believe, though uncircumcised, might claim him as father, assured that righteousness will be reckoned to them too. And he is father of circumcision in the best sense, not to Jews, but to believing Gentiles. Thus the discussion of Abraham strengthens the case in behalf of the uncircumcised who believe, to the overthrow of the greatest boast of the Jew. The appeal to their own inspired account of Abraham turned into a proof of the consistency of God's ways in justifying by faith, and hence in justifying the uncircumcised no less than the circumcision.

But there is more than this in Romans 4:1-25 He takes up a third feature of Abraham's case; that is, the connection of the promise with resurrection. Here it is not merely the negation of law and of circumcision, but we have the positive side. Law works wrath because it provokes transgression; grace makes the promise sure to all the seed, not only because faith is open to the Gentile and Jew alike, but because God is looked to as a quickener of the dead. What gives glory to God like this? Abraham believed God when, according to nature, it was impossible for him or for Sarah to have a child. The quickening power of God therefore was here set forth, of course historically in a way connected with this life and a posterity on earth, but nevertheless a very just and true sign of God's power for the believer the quickening energy of God after a still more blessed sort. And this leads us to see not only where there was an analogy with those who believe in a promised Saviour, but also to a weighty difference. And this lies in the fact that Abraham believed God before he had the son, being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able to perform. and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. But we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. It is done. already. It is not here believing on Jesus, but on God who has proved what He is to us in raisin, from among the dead Him who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification (verses 13-25).

This brings out a most emphatic truth and special side of Christianity. Christianity is not a system of promise, but rather of promise accomplished in Christ. Hence it is essentially founded on the gift not only of a Saviour who would interpose, in the mercy of God, to bear our sins, but of One who is already revealed, and the work done and accepted, and this known in the fact that God Himself has interposed to raise Him from among the dead a bright and momentous thing to press on souls, as indeed we find the apostles insisting on it throughout the Acts. Were it merely Romans 3:1-31 there could not be full peace with God as there is. One might know a most real clinging to Jesus; but this would not set the heart at ease with God. The soul may feel the blood of Jesus to be a yet deeper want; but this alone does not give peace with God. In such a condition what has been found in Jesus is too often misused to make a kind of difference, so to speak, between the Saviour on the one hand, and God on the other ruinous always to the enjoyment of the full blessing of the gospel. Now there is no way in which God could lay a basis for peace with Himself more blessed than as He has done it. No longer does the question exist of requiring an expiation. That is the first necessity for the sinner with God. But we have had it fully in Romans 3:1-31. Now it is the positive power of God in raising up from the dead Him that was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justifying. The whole work is done.

The soul therefore now is represented for the first time as already justified and in possession of peace with God. This is a state of mind, and not the necessary or immediate fruit of Romans 3:1-31, but is based on the truth of Romans 4:1-25 as well as 3. There never can be solid peace with God without both. A soul may as truly, no doubt, be put into relationship with God be made very happy, it may be; but it is not what Scripture calls "peace with God." Therefore it is here for the first time that we find salvation spoken of in the grand results that are now brought before us in Romans 5:1-11. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." There is entrance into favour, and nothing but favour. The believer is not put under law, you will observe, but under grace, which is the precise reverse of law. The soul is brought into peace with God, as it finds its standing in the grace of God, and, more than that, rejoices in hope of the glory of God. Such is the doctrine and the fact. It is not merely a call then; but as we have by our Lord Jesus Christ our access into the favour wherein we stand, so there is positive boasting in the hope of the glory of God. For it may have been noticed from chapter 3 to chapter 5, that nothing but fitness for the glory of God will do now. It is not a question of creature-standing. This passed away with man when he sinned. Now that God has revealed Himself in the gospel, it is not what will suit man on earth, but what is worthy of the presence of the glory of God. Nevertheless the apostle does not expressly mention heaven here. This was not suitable to the character of the epistle; but the glory of God he does. We all know where it is and must be for the Christian.

The consequences are thus pursued; first, the general place of the believer now, in all respects, in relation to the past, the present, and the future. His pathway follows; and he shows that the very troubles of the road become a distinct matter of boast. This was not a direct and intrinsic effect, of course, but the result of spiritual dealing for the soul. It was the Lord giving us the profit of sorrow, and ourselves bowing to the way and end of God in it, so that the result of tribulation should be rich and fruitful experience.

Then there is another and crowning part of the blessing: "And not only so, but also boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation." It is not only a blessing in its own direct character, or in indirect though real effects, but the Giver Himself is our joy, and boast, and glory. The consequences spiritually are blessed to the soul; how much more is it to Teach the source from which all flows! This, accordingly, is the essential spring of worship. The fruits of it are not expanded here; but, in point of fact, to joy in God is necessarily that which makes praise and adoration to be the simple and spontaneous exercise of the heart. In heaven it will fill us perfectly; but there is no more perfect joy there, nor anything. higher, if so high, in this epistle.

At this point we enter upon a most important part of the epistle, on which we must dwell for a little. It is no longer a question of man's guilt, but of his nature. Hence the apostle does not, as in the early chapters of this epistle, take up our sins, except as proofs and symptoms of sin. Accordingly, for the first time, the Spirit of God fromRomans 5:12; Romans 5:12 traces the mature of man to the head of the race. This brings in the contrast with the other Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we have here not as One bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, but as the spring and chief of a new family. Hence, as is shown later in the chapter, Adam is a head characterized by disobedience, who brought in death, the just penalty of sin; as on the other hand we have Him of whom he was the type, Christ, the obedient man, who has brought in righteousness, and this after a singularly blessed sort and style "justification of life." Of it nothing has been heard till now. We have had justification, both by blood and also in virtue of Christ's resurrection. But "justification of life" goes farther, though involved in the latter, than the end of Romans 4:1-25; for now we learn that in the gospel there is not only a dealing with the guilt of those that are addressed in it; there is also a mighty work of God in the presenting the man in a new place before God, and in fact, too, for his faith, clearing him from all the consequences in which he finds himself as a man in the flesh here below.

It is here that you will find a great failure of Christendom as to this. Not that any part of the truth has escaped: it is the fatal brand of that "great house" that even the most elementary truth suffers the deepest injury; but as to this truth, it seems unknown altogether. I hope that brethren in Christ will bear with me if I press on them the importance of taking good heed to it that their souls are thoroughly grounded in this, the proper place of the Christian by Christ's death and resurrection. It must not be, assumed too readily. There is a disposition continually to imagine that what is frequently spoken of must be understood; but experience will soon show that this is not the case. Even those that seek a place of separation to the Lord outside that which is now hurrying on souls to destruction are, nevertheless, deeply affected by the condition of that Christendom in which we find ourselves.

Here, then, it is not a question at all of pardon or remission. First of all the apostle points out that death has come in, and that this was no consequence of law, but before it. Sin was in the world between Adam and Moses, when the law was not. This clearly takes in man, it will be observed; and this is his grand point now. The contrast of Christ with Adam takes in man universally as well as the Christian; and man in sin, alas! was true, accordingly, before the law, right through the law, and ever since the law. The apostle is therefore plainly in presence of the broadest possible grounds of comparison, though we shall find more too.

But the Jew might argue that it was an unjust thing in principle this gospel, these tidings of which the apostle was so full; for why should one man affect many, yea, all? "Not so," replies the apostle. Why should this be so strange and incredible to you? for on your own showing, according to that word to which we all bow, you must admit that one man's sin brought in universal moral ruin and death. Proud as you may be of that which distinguishes you, it is hard to make sin and death peculiar to you, nor can you connect them even with the law particularly: the race of man is in question, and not Israel alone. There is nothing that proves this so convincingly as the book of Genesis; and the apostle, by the Spirit of God, calmly but triumphantly summons the Jewish Scriptures to demonstrate that which the Jews were so strenuously denying. Their own Scriptures maintained, as nothing else could, that all the wretchedness which is now found in the world, and the condemnation which hangs over the race, is the fruit of one man, and indeed of one act.

Now, if it was righteous in God (and who will gainsay it?) to deal with the whole posterity of Adam as involved in death because of one, their common father, who could deny the consistency of one man's saving? who would defraud God of that which He delights in the blessedness of bringing in deliverance by that One man, of whom Adam was the image? Accordingly, then, he confronts the unquestionable truth, admitted by every Israelite, of the universal havoc by one man everywhere with the One man who has brought in (not pardon only, but, as we shall find) eternal life and liberty liberty now in the free gift of life, but a liberty that will never cease for the soul's enjoyment until it has embraced the very body that still groans, and this because of the Holy Ghost who dwells in it.

Here, then, it is a comparison of the two great heads Adam and Christ, and the immeasurable superiority of the second man is shown. That is, it is not merely pardon of past sins, but deliverance from sin, and in due time from all its consequences. The apostle has come now to the nature. This is the essential point. It is the thing which troubles a renewed conscientious soul above all, because of his surprise at finding the deep evil of the flesh and its mind after having proved the great grace of God in the gift of Christ. If I am thus pitied of God, if so truly and completely a justified man, if I am really an object of God's eternal favour, how can I have such a sense of continual evil? why am I still under bondage and misery from the constant evil of my nature, over which I seem to have no power whatever? Has God then no delivering power from this? The answer is found in this portion of our epistle (that is, from the middle of chapter 5).

Having shown first, then, the sources and the character of the blessing in general as far as regards deliverance, the apostle sums up the result in the end of the chapter: "That as sin hath reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life," the point being justification of life now through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is applied in the two chapters that follow. There are two things that might make insuperable difficulty: the one is the obstacle of sin in the nature to practical holiness; the other is the provocation and condemnation of the law. Now the doctrine which we saw asserted in the latter part ofRomans 5:1-21; Romans 5:1-21 is applied to both. First, as to practical holiness, it is not merely that Christ has died for my sins, but that even in the initiatory act of baptism the truth set forth there is that I am dead. It is not, as in Ephesians 2:1-22, dead in sins, which would be nothing to the purpose. This is all perfectly true true of a Jew as of a pagan true of any unrenewed man that never heard of a Saviour. But what is testified by Christian baptism is Christ's death. "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized unto his death?" Thereby is identification with His death. "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." The man who, being baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, or Christian baptism, would assert any license to sin because it is in his nature, as if it were therefore an inevitable necessity, denies the real and evident meaning of his baptism. That act denoted not even the washing away of our sins by the blood of Jesus, which would not apply to the case, nor in any adequate way meet the question of nature. What baptism sets forth is more than that, and is justly found, not in Romans 3:1-31, but inRomans 6:1-23; Romans 6:1-23. There is no inconsistency in Ananias's word to the apostle Paul "wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord." There is water as well as blood, and to that, not to this, the washing here refers. But there is more, which Paul afterwards insisted on. That was said to Paul, rather than what was taught by Paul. What the apostle had given him in fulness was the great truth, however fundamental it may be, that I am entitled, and even called on in the name of the Lord Jesus, to know that I am dead to sin; not that I must die, but that I am dead that my baptism means nothing less than this, and is shorn of its most emphatic point if limited merely to Christ's dying for my sins. It is not so alone; but in His death, unto which I am baptized, I am dead to sin. And "how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?" Hence, then, we find that the whole chapter is founded on this truth. "Shall we sin," says he, proceeding yet farther (ver. 15), "because we are not under the law, but under grace?" This were indeed to deny the value of His death, and of that newness of life we have in Him risen, and a return to bondage of the worst description.

In Romans 7:1-25 we have the subject of the law discussed for practice as well as in principle, and there again meet with the same weapon of tried and unfailing temper. It is no longer blood, but death Christ's death and resurrection. The figure of the relationship of husband and wife is introduced in order to make the matter plain. Death, and nothing short of it, rightly dissolves the bond. We accordingly are dead, says he, to the law; not (as no doubt almost all of us know) that the law dies, but that we are dead to the law in the death of Christ. Compare verse 6 (where the margin, not the text, is substantially correct) with verse 4. Such is the principle. The rest of the chapter (7-25) is an instructive episode, in which the impotence and the misery of the renewed mind which attempts practice under law are fully argued out, till deliverance (not pardon) is found in Christ.

Thus the latter portion of the chapter is not doctrine exactly, but the proof of the difficulties of a soul who has not realised death to the law by the body of Christ. Did this seem to treat the law that condemned as an evil thing? Not so, says the apostle; it is because of the evil of the nature, not of the law. The law never delivers; it condemns and kills us. It was meant to make sin exceeding sinful. Hence, what he is here discussing is not remission of sins, but deliverance from sin. No wonder, if souls confound the two things together, that they never know deliverance in practice. Conscious deliverance, to be solid according to God, must be in the line of His truth. In vain will you preach Romans 3:1-31, or even 4 alone, for souls to know themselves consciously and holily set free.

From verse 14 there is an advance. There we find Christian knowledge as to the matter introduced; but still it is the knowledge of one who is not in this state pronouncing on one who is. You must carefully guard against the notion of its being a question of Paul's own experience, because he says, "I had not known," "I was alive," etc. There is no good reason for such an assumption, but much against it. It might be more or less any man's lot to learn. It is not meant that Paul knew nothing of this; but that the ground of inference, and the general theory built up, are alike mistaken. We have Paul informing us that he transfers sometimes in a figure to himself that which was in no wise necessarily his own experience, and perhaps had not been so at any time. But this may be comparatively a light question. The great point is to note the true picture given us of a soul quickened, but labouring and miserable under law, not at all consciously delivered. The last verses of the chapter, however, bring in the deliverance not yet the fulness of it, but the hinge, so to speak. The discovery is made that the source of the internal misery was that the mind, though renewed, was occupied with the law as a means of dealing with, flesh. Hence the very fact of being renewed makes one sensible of a far more intense misery than ever, while there is no power until the soul looks right outside self to Him who is dead and risen, who has anticipated the difficulty, and alone gives the full answer to all wants.

Romans 8:1-39 displays this comforting truth in its fulness. From the first verse we have the application of the dead and risen Christ to the soul, till in verse 11 we see the power of the Holy Ghost, which brings the soul into this liberty now, applied by-and-by to the body, when there will be the complete deliverance. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." A wondrous way, but most blessed! And there (for such was the point) it was the complete condemnation of this evil thing, the nature in its present state, so as, nevertheless, to set the believer as before God's judgment free from itself as well as its consequences. This God has wrought in Christ. It is not in any degree settled as to itself by His blood. The shedding of His blood was absolutely necessary: without that precious expiation all else had been vain and impossible. But there is much more in Christ than that to which too many souls restrict themselves, not less to their own loss than to His dishonour. God has condemned the flesh. And here it may be repeated that it is no question of pardoning the sinner, but of condemning the fallen nature; and this so as to give the soul both power and a righteous immunity from all internal anguish about it. For the truth is that God has in Christ condemned sin, and this for sin definitely; so that He has nothing more to do in condemnation of that root of evil. What a title, then, God gives me now in beholding Christ, no longer dead but risen, to have it settled before my soul that I am in Him as He now is, where all questions are closed in peace and joy! For what remains unsolved by and in Christ? Once it was far otherwise. Before the cross there hung out the gravest question that ever was raised, and it needed settlement in this world; but in Christ sin is for ever abolished for the believer; and this not only in respect of what He has done, but in what He is. Till the cross, well might a converted soul be found groaning in misery at each fresh discovery of evil in himself. But now to faith all this is gone not lightly, but truly in the sight of God; so that he may live on a Saviour that is risen from the dead as his new life.

Accordingly Romans 8:1-39 pursues in the most practical manner the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. First of all, the groundwork of it is laid in the first four verses, the last of them leading into every-day walk. And it is well for those ignorant of it to know that here, in verse 4, the apostle speaks first of "walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." The latter clause in the first verse of the authorised version mars the sense. In the fourth verse this could not be absent; in the first verse it ought not to be present. Thus the deliverance is not merely for the joy of the soul, but also for strength in our walking after the Spirit, who has given and found a nature in which He delights, communicating withal His own delight in Christ, and making obedience to be the joyful service of the believer. The believer, therefore, unwittingly though really, dishonours the Saviour, if he be content to walk short of this standard and power; he is entitled and called to walk according to his place, and in the confidence of his deliverance in Christ Jesus before God.

Then the domains of flesh and Spirit are brought before us: the one characterized by sin and death practically now; the other by life, righteousness, and peace, which is, as we saw, to be crowned finally by the resurrection of these bodies of ours. The Holy Ghost, who now gives the soul its consciousness of deliverance from its place in Christ, is also the witness that the body too, the mortal body, shall be delivered in its time. "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by [or because of] his Spirit that dwelleth in you."

Next, he enters upon another branch of the truth the Spirit not as a condition contrasted with flesh (these two, as we know, being always contrasted in Scripture), but as a power, a divine person that dwells in and bears His witness to the believer. His witness to our spirit is this, that we are children of God. But if children, we are His heirs. This accordingly leads, as connected with the deliverance of the body, to the inheritance we are to possess. The extent is what God Himself, so to speak, possesses the universe of God, whatever will be under Christ: and what will not? As He has made all, so He is heir of all. We are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.

Hence the action of the Spirit of God in a double point of view comes before us. As He is the spring of our joy, He is the power of sympathy in our sorrows, and the believer knows both. The faith of Christ has brought divine joy into his soul; but, in point of fact, he is traversing a world of infirmity, suffering, and grief. Wonderful to think the Spirit of God associates Himself with us in it all, deigning to give us divine feelings even in our poor and narrow hearts. This occupies the central part of the chapter, which then closes with the unfailing and faithful power of God for us in all our experiences here below. As He has given us through the blood of Jesus full remission, as we shall be saved by this life, as He has made us know even now nothing short of present conscious deliverance from every whit of evil that belongs to our very nature, as we have the Spirit the earnest of the glory to which we are destined, as we are the vessels of gracious sorrow in the midst of that from which we are not yet delivered but shall be, so now we have the certainty that, whatever betide, God is for us, and that nothing shall separate us from His love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Then, in Romans 9:1-33; Romans 10:1-21; Romans 11:1-36, the apostle handles a difficulty serious to any mind, especially to the Jew, who might readily feel that all this display of grace in Christ to the Gentile as much as to the Jew by the gospel seems to make very cheap the distinctive place of Israel as given of God. If the good news of God goes out to man, entirely blotting out the difference between a Jew and a Gentile, what becomes of His special promises to Abraham and to his seed? What about His word passed and sworn to the fathers? The apostle shows them with astonishing force at the starting-point that he was far from slighting their privileges. He lays down such a summary as no Jew ever gave since they were a nation. He brings out the peculiar glories of Israel according to the depth of the gospel as he knew and preached it; at least, of His person who is the object of faith now revealed. Far from denying or obscuring what they boasted of, he goes beyond them "Who are Israelites," says he, "to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all God blessed for ever." Here was the very truth that every Jew, as such, denied. What blindness! Their crowning glory was precisely what they would not hear of. What glory so rich as that of the Christ Himself duly appreciated? He was God over all blessed for ever, as well as their Messiah. Him who came in humiliation, according to their prophets, they might despise; but it was vain to deny that the same prophets bore witness to His divine glory. He was Emmanuel, yea, the Jehovah, God of Israel. Thus then, if Paul gave his own sense of Jewish privileges, there was no unbelieving Jew that rose up to his estimate of them.

But now, to meet the question that was raised, they pleaded the distinguishing promises to Israel. Upon what ground? Because they were sons of Abraham. But how, argues he, could this stand, seeing that Abraham had another son, just as much his child as Isaac? What did they say to Ishmaelites as joint-heirs? They would not hear of it. No, they cry, it is in Isaac's seed that the Jew was called. Yes, but this is another principle. If in Isaac only, it is a question of the seed, not that was born, but that was called. Consequently the call of God, and not the birth simply makes the real difference. Did they venture to plead that it must be not only the same father, but the same mother? The answer is, that this will not do one whit better; for when we come down to the next generation, it is apparent that the two sons of Isaac were sons of the same mother; nay, they were twins. What could be conceived closer or more even than this? Surely if equal birth-tie could ensure community of blessing if a charter from God depended on being sprung from the same father and mother, there was no case so strong, no claim so evident, as that of Esau to take the same rights as Jacob. Why would they not allow such a pretension? Was it not sure and evident that Israel could not take the promise on the ground of mere connection after the flesh? Birthright from the same father would let in Ishmael on the one hand, as from both parents it would secure the title of Esau on the other. Clearly, then, such ground is untenable. In point of fact, as he had hinted before, their true tenure was the call of God, who was free, if He pleased, to bring in other people. It became simply a question whether, in fact, God did call Gentiles, or whether He had revealed such intentions.

But he meets their proud exclusiveness in another way. He shows that, on the responsible ground of being His nation, they were wholly ruined. If the first book in the Bible showed that it was only the call of God that made Israel what they were, its second book as clearly proved that all was over with the called people, had it not been for the mercy of God. They set up the golden calf, and thus cast off the true God, their God, even in the desert. Did the call of God. then, go out to Gentiles? Has He mercy only for guilty Israel? Is there no call, no mercy, of God for any besides?

Hereupon he enters upon the direct proofs, and first cites Hosea as a witness. That early prophet tells Israel, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah, and Lo-ammi were of awful import for Israel; but, in presence of circumstances so disastrous, there should be not merely a people but sons of the living God, and then should Judah and Israel be gathered as one people under one head. The application of this was more evident to the Gentile than to the Jew. Compare Peter's use in1 Peter 2:10; 1 Peter 2:10. Finally he brings in Isaiah, showing that, far from retaining their blessing as an unbroken people, a remnant alone would be saved. Thus one could not fail to see these two weighty inferences: the bringing in to be God's sons of those that had not been His people, and the judgment and destruction of the great mass of His undoubted people. Of these only a remnant would be saved. On both sides therefore the apostle is meeting the grand points he had at heart to demonstrate from their own Scriptures.

For all this, as he presses further, there was the weightiest reason possible. God is gracious, but holy; He is faithful, but righteous. The apostle refers to Isaiah to show that God would "lay in Zion a stumbling-stone." It is in Zion that He lays it. It is not among the Gentiles, but in the honoured centre of the polity of Israel. There would be found a stumblingstone there. What was to be the stumbling-stone? Of course, it could hardly be the law: that was the boast of Israel. What was it? There could be but one satisfactory answer. The stumbling-stone was their despised and rejected Messiah. This was the key to their difficulties this alone, and fully explains their coming ruin as well as God's solemn warnings.

In the next chapter (Romans 10:1-21) he carries on the subject, showing in the most touching manner his affection for the people. He at the same time unfolds the essential difference between the righteousness of faith and that of law. He takes their own books, and proves from one of them (Deuteronomy) that in the ruin of Israel the resource is not going into the depths, nor going up to heaven. Christ indeed did both; and so the word was nigh them, in their mouth and in their heart. It is not doing, but believing; therefore it is what is proclaimed to them, and what they receive and believe. Along with this he gathers testimonies from more than one prophet. He quotes from Joel, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He quotes also from Isaiah "Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed." And mark the force of it whosoever." The believer, whosoever he might be, should not be ashamed. Was it possible to limit this to Israel? But more than this "Whosoever shall call." There. is the double prophecy. Whosoever believed should not be ashamed; whosoever called should be saved. In both parts, as it may be observed, the door is opened to the Gentile.

But then again he intimates that the nature of the gospel is involved in the publishing of the glad tidings. It is not God having an earthly centre, and the peoples doming up to worship the Lord in Jerusalem. It is the going forth of His richest blessing. And where? How far? To the limits of the holy land? Far beyond. Psalms 19:1-14 is used in the most beautiful manner to insinuate that the limits are the world. Just as the sun in the heavens is not for one people or land alone, no more is the gospel. There is no language where their voice is not heard. "Yea verily, their sound went forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." The gospel goes forth universally. Jewish pretensions were therefore disposed of; not here by new and fuller revelations, but by this divinely skilful employment of their own Old Testament Scriptures.

Finally he comes to two other witnesses; as from the Psalms, so now from the law and the prophets. The first is Moses himself. Moses saith, "I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people," etc. How could the Jews say that this meant themselves? On the contrary, it was the Jew provoked by the Gentiles "By them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you." Did they deny that they were a foolish nation? Be it so then; it was a foolish nation by which Moses declared they should be angered. But this does not content the apostle, or rather the Spirit of God; for he goes on to point out that Isaiah "is very bold" in a similar way; that is, there is no concealing the truth of the matter. Isaiah says: "I was found of them who sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me." The Jews were the last in the world to take such ground as this. It was undeniable that the Gentiles did not seek the Lord, nor ask after Him; and the prophet says that Jehovah was found of them that sought Him not, and was made manifest to them that asked not after Him. Nor is there only the manifest call of the Gentiles in this, but with no less clearness there is the rejection, at any rate for a time, of proud Israel. "But unto Israel he saith, All day long have I stretched out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people."

Thus the proof was complete. The Gentiles the despised heathen were to be brought in; the self-satisfied Jews are left behind, justly and beyond question, if they believed the law and the prophets.

But did this satisfy the apostle? It was undoubtedly enough for present purposes. The past history of Israel was sketched inRomans 9:1-33; Romans 9:1-33; the present more immediately is before us inRomans 10:1-21; Romans 10:1-21. The future must be brought in by the grace of God; and this he accordingly gives us at the close of Romans 11:1-36. First, he raises the question, "Has God cast away his people?" Let it not be! Was he not himself, says Paul, a proof to the contrary? Then he enlarges, and points out that there is a remnant of grace in the worst of times. If God had absolutely cast away His people, would there be such mercy? There would be no remnant if justice took its course. The remnant proves, then, that even under judgment the rejection of Israel is not complete, but rather a pledge of future favour. This is the first ground.

The second plea is not that the rejection of Israel is only partial, however extensive, but that it is also temporary, and not definitive. This is to fall back on a principle he had already used. God was rather provoking Israel to jealousy by the call of the Gentiles. But if it were so, He had not done with them. Thus the first argument shows that the rejection was not total; the second, that it was but for a season.

But there is a third. Following up with the teaching of the olive-tree, he carries out the same thought of a remnant that abides on their own stock, and points to a re-instatement of the nation, And I would just observe by the way, that the Gentile cry that no Jew ever accepts the gospel in truth is a falsehood. Israel is indeed the only people of whom there is always a portion that believe. Time was when none of the English, nor French, nor of any other nation believed in the Saviour. There never was an hour since Israel's existence as a nation that God has not had His remnant of them. Such has been their singular fruit of promise; such even in the midst of all their misery it is at present. And as that little remnant is ever sustained by the grace of God, it is the standing pledge of their final blessedness through His mercy, whereon the apostle breaks out into raptures of thanksgiving to God. The day hastens when the Redeemer shall come to Zion. He shall come, says one Testament, out of Zion. He shall come to Zion, says the other. In both Old and New it is the same substantial testimony. Thither He shall come, and thence, go forth. He shall own that once glorious seat of royalty in Israel. Zion shall yet behold her mighty, divine, but once despised Deliverer; and when He thus comes, there will be a deliverance suited to His glory. All Israel shall be saved. God, therefore, had not cast off His people, but was employing the interval of their slip from their place, in consequence of their rejection of Christ, to call the Gentiles in sovereign mercy, after which Israel as a whole should be saved. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first liven to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever."

The rest of the epistle takes up the practical consequences of the great doctrine of God's righteousness, which had been now shown to be supported by, and in no wise inconsistent with, His promises to Israel. The whole history of Israel, past, present, and future falls in with, although quite distinct from, that which he had been expounding. Here I shall be very brief.

Romans 12:1-21 looks at the mutual duties of the saints. Romans 13:1-14; Romans 13:1-14 urges their duties towards what was outside them, more particularly to the powers that be, but also to men in general. Love is the great debt that we owe, which never can be paid, but which we should always be paying. The chapter closes with the day of the Lord in its practical force on the Christian walk. In Romans 14:1-23 and the beginning ofRomans 15:1-33; Romans 15:1-33 we have the delicate theme of Christian forbearance in its limits and largeness. The weak are not to judge the strong, and the strong are not to despise the weak. These things are matters of conscience, and depend much for their solution on the degree to which souls have attained. The subject terminates with the grand truth which must never be obscured by details that we are to receive, one another, as Christ has received us, to the glory of God. In the rest of chapter 15 the apostle dwells on the extent of his apostleship, renews his expression of the thought and hope of visiting Rome, and at the same time shows how well he remembered the need of the poor at Jerusalem. Romans 16:1-27; Romans 16:1-27 brings before us in the most. instructive and interesting manner the links that grace practically forms and maintains between the saints of God. Though he had never visited Rome, many of them were known personally. It is exquisite the delicate love with which he singles out distinctive features in each of the saints, men and women, that come before him. Would that the Lord would give us hearts to remember, as well as eyes to see, according to His own grace! Then follows a warning against those who bring in stumbling-blocks and offences. There is evil at work, and grace does not close the eye to danger; at the same time it is never under the pressure of the enemy, and there is the fullest confidence that the God of peace will break the power of Satan under the feet of the saints shortly.

Last of all, the apostle links up this fundamental treatise of divine righteousness in its doctrine, its dispensational bearings, and its exhortations to the walk of Christians, with higher truth, which it would not have been suitable then to bring out; for grace considers the state and the need of the saints. True ministry gives out not merely truth, but suited truth to the saints. At the same time the apostle does allude to that mystery which was not yet divulged at least, in this epistle; but he points from the foundations of eternal truth to those heavenly heights that were reserved for other communications in due time.