by John Piper
Consider the context of these words in Romans 9:30–10:21. Paul begins and ends this unit by saying that Gentiles, who never had the advantages of God’s revealed law, have nevertheless attained a right standing with God through Christ, while Israel, with all her advantages, has not attained a right standing with God. Here is how he says it in Romans 9:30–31: “Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but . . . Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.” Here is how he says it in Romans 10:20–21: “Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, ‘I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.’ But of Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.’”
Paul is burdened to show that the great reason for this strange reversal— Gentiles getting right with God and actually fulfilling the demands of the law of God, but Israel failing with their own law to get right with God—is that “the goal (or culmination) of the law is Christ for righteousness for everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4, author’s translation). Israel missed the point of her own law, namely, to point her to Christ and the way of justification by faith as the only hope of fulfilling the law (9:32). And then, when Christ appeared, she “stumbled over the stumbling stone” (9:32). The Israelites would not “submit to God’s righteousness” (10:3). But Gentiles embraced the promise that “whoever believes in him will not be put to shame” (9:33).
Paul makes the transition to his own gospel and the missionary setting of his life in 10:8, where he says that the message of the Old Testament law, pointing to Christ the Redeemer, is “the word of faith that we proclaim.” Then he says explicitly that this Redeemer is Jesus and that all salvation is now had by confessing him—just as salvation in the Old Testament was had by embracing the pointers to his coming, banking on God’s grace that he would provide. Thus, verse 9 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Paul underlines that salvation through believing and confessing Jesus as Lord was the Old Testament hope. He does this by quoting Isaiah 28:16 in Romans 10:11, “For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame,’” and by quoting Joel 2:32 in Romans 10:13, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” So when Romans 10:11 quotes Isaiah 28:16, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame,” the reference is clearly to Jesus, the predicted cornerstone. And when 10:13 quotes Joel 2:32, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” Jesus is the “Lord” referred to, even though in Joel 2:32 “Yahweh” is in view. The reason we know this is that 10:9 said, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord . . . you will be saved.”
Paul is making clear that in this new era of redemptive history, Jesus is the goal and climax of Old Testament teaching, and therefore, Jesus now stands as Mediator between man and Yahweh as the object of saving faith.
The flow of thought from Romans 10:14–21 is not easy to grasp. The sequence of questions in verses 14–15 are familiar and are often cited in relation to missionary work:
[Therefore,] how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?33 And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
But how do these verses fit into the flow of Paul’s thought? Why do they begin with the word “therefore” (oun)? How does asking a series of questions communicate an inference? Why does the next verse (v. 16) begin with “But [or nevertheless] they have not all obeyed the gospel”?
The answer seems to be this: The “therefore” at the beginning of verse 14 and the “nevertheless” at the beginning of verse 16 point to the fact that the series of questions in verses 14–15 are really making a statement to the effect that God has already worked to bring about these conditions for calling on the Lord Jesus for salvation. We could paraphrase as follows:
(10–13) Salvation is richly available to both Jews and Gentiles—to everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus. (14–15) Therefore, God has taken steps to provide the prerequisites for calling on the Lord. He is sending those who preach so that Christ can be heard and people can believe and call on the Lord Jesus. (16) Nevertheless, this has not led to obedience, as Isaiah predicted: “Lord, who has believed our report?”
So far then, the main point of verses 14–16 would be that even though God has taken steps to provide the prerequisites for calling on the Lord, nevertheless most have not obeyed.
But who is in view here when Paul says they have not believed? Differing answers to this question lead to two different ways of construing Paul’s line of reasoning in the entire passage. John Murray and Charles Hodge represent these two lines.
Murray says, “At verse 16 the apostle returns to that subject which permeates this section of the epistle, the unbelief of Israel.”34 Similarly, Murray says the focus on Israel’s unbelief continues to the end of the paragraph. So, for example, verse 18 also refers to Israel. “But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for ‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’” He says the quote from Psalm 19:4 (which originally referred to works of nature declaring God’s glory) is used by Paul to describe the worldwide spread of the gospel of Jesus, and the point is that if the gospel is going out to all the world, “it cannot then be objected that Israel did not hear.”35 So the focus stays on Israel. The point of Paul’s thought throughout Romans 10 is that Israel knows the gospel and is nevertheless rejecting it and is thus accountable.
Charles Hodge, on the other hand, sees the focus differently in verses 11–21. “Paul’s object in the whole context is to vindicate the propriety of extending the gospel call to all nations.” He sees both verses 16 and 18 as references not to Israel but to the nations. “The 16th verse refers to the Gentiles, ‘They have not all obeyed the gospel,’ and therefore this verse [18], ‘Have they not heard?’ cannot, without any intimation of change, be naturally referred to a different subject. . . . In the following verse [19], where the Jews are really intended, they are distinctly mentioned, ‘Did not Israel know?’”36
In spite of this difference between Murray and Hodge, the important thing for our purpose remains fairly clear, and both agree. Whether Paul is focusing in a narrower way on the accountability of Israel or more broadly on the availability of the gospel to the nations (and therefore also to Israel), both agree that calling on the name of the Lord Jesus is necessary for salvation (v. 13).
So necessary is it that Paul feels compelled to show that all the necessary prerequisites for calling on the Lord are being put in place by God (vv. 14–15). Even more relevant for our immediate question is the implication that “calling on the Lord” in a saving way is not something that a person can do from a position of ignorance. One cannot do it from another religion. This is made plain in the questions of verses 14–15.
Each succeeding question rules out an argument from those who say that someone can be saved without hearing the gospel of Jesus. First, “How are they to call on him in whom they have not believed?” shows that effective calling presupposes faith in the one called. This rules out the argument that one might call on God savingly without faith in Christ.
Second, “And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?” shows that faith presupposes hearing Christ in the message of the gospel. This rules out the argument that a person might have saving faith without really knowing or meeting Christ in the gospel.
Third, “And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” shows that hearing Christ in the gospel presupposes a proclaimer of the gospel. This rules out the argument that one might somehow meet Christ or hear Christ without a messenger to tell the gosp
el.
Millard Erickson does not seem to take the force of this sequence seriously enough when he suggests that the quotation from Psalm 19:4 in Romans 10:18 teaches that general revelation in nature is all that some need to receive salvation, apart from missionary proclamation.37
At first this suggestion may seem compelling. Paul says that people must hear in order to call on the Lord. Then he asks in verse 18, “Have they not heard?” And he answers with the words of Psalm 19:4 (18:4 LXX38): “Indeed they have, for ‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’”
In the original context of Psalm 19, “their voice” and “their words” refer to what is communicated through “night” and “day” and “heavens” and “firmament.” So one might conclude that the “hearing” that is necessary for saving faith (v. 17) is effectively provided through natural revelation. This is what Erickson concludes.39
The problem with this view is that it creates an insurmountable tension with the point of verse 14. There Paul says, “How are they to hear without someone preaching?” If Erickson were correct that a hearing that is effective to save comes through nature, then Paul’s question is misleading: “How are they to hear without someone preaching?” He clearly means that one cannot hear what one needs to hear for salvation unless a preacher is sent. He would contradict this if he meant in verse 18 that preachers are not essential for salvation, because an effective message of salvation comes through nature.
Therefore, as most commentators agree, it is unlikely that Paul intends for verse 18 to teach that natural revelation fulfills the saving role of the “word of Christ,” which gives rise to faith (v. 17). Murray and Hodge agree that Paul uses the words of the psalm to draw a parallel between the universality of general revelation and the universal spread of the gospel.40 The point is that God has set in motion a missionary movement (the “sending” of v. 15) that will reach to all the peoples of the earth on the analogy of the universal spread of God’s glory through natural revelation.41
To sum up these thoughts on Romans 10, the theological assumption behind Paul’s missionary conviction is that Christ is the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament pointed toward. Before Christ, faith was focused on the mercy of God to forgive sins and to care for his people. As revelation progressed, faith could move more easily from the animal sacrifices to the promised sin-bearer of Isaiah 53. But when Christ came, all faith narrowed in its focus to him alone as the One who purchased and guaranteed all the hopes of the people of God. From the time of Christ onward, God wills to honor Christ by making him the sole focus of saving faith. Therefore, people must call on him and believe in him and hear him and be sent as messengers with the Word of Christ.
Paul’s Conception of His Own Missionary Vocation
The indispensability of hearing the gospel for salvation is seen in the biblical texts that show how Paul conceived of his own missionary vocation.
At his conversion, Paul received a commission from the Lord that clarifies the condition of those without Christ. He refers to this in Acts 26:15–18.
And I said, “Who are you, Lord?” And the Lord said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
Here we see what was at stake in Paul’s ministry. Without making any distinctions, the Lord says that those who do not yet have the gospel are in darkness and in the power of Satan and without the forgiveness of sins. Christ commissioned Paul with a word of power that actually opens the eyes of the spiritually blind, not so that they can see they are forgiven but so that they can be forgiven. His message delivers from the power of Satan. The picture of nations without the gospel is that they are blind and in the darkness and in bondage to Satan and without forgiveness of sins and unacceptable to God because they are unsanctified.
This accords with what Paul says elsewhere about the condition of man without the power of the gospel: All are under sin with their mouths stopped before God (Rom. 3:9–19); they are in the flesh and unable to submit to God or please God (Rom. 8:7–8); they are natural and not spiritual and therefore unable to receive the things of the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:14–16); they are dead in trespasses and children of wrath (Eph. 2:3–5); and they are darkened and alienated from God and hard in heart (Eph. 4:17–18).
With the coming of Christ came a message that has power to save (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 15:2; 1 Thess. 2:16) and bear fruit (Col. 1:6) and triumph (2 Thess. 3:1), and it is the mission of Paul and all his heirs to preach that message to the nations. “Since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom [or false religion], it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21).
Salvation is at stake when Paul speaks to Jews in the synagogue as well. Paul does not assume that God-fearing Gentiles or Jews are saved by virtue of knowing the Old Testament Scriptures. What does he say in the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia?
Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
Acts 13:38–39
Paul does not tell them that even the best of them are already forgiven by virtue of their obedience to the law. He offers them forgiveness through Christ. And he makes “freeing” (“justification”) from sin conditional on believing on Christ. When the synagogue later opposes this message, Paul says in Acts 13:46–48:
It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
Paul’s vocation is to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. The assumption is that salvation is not already at the ends of the earth. Paul is to take it there. Paul’s message is the means of salvation. There is no salvation without it: “As many as were appointed to eternal life believed”
Paul’s message and were saved. God has ordained that salvation come to the nations through sent messengers whose obedient preaching of the gospel brings salvation to the nations.
Through Paul’s preaching, God is now doing the sovereign work that he had overlooked for so long during the times of ignorance. He is bringing Gentiles to faith according to his preordained plan. He is opening their hearts to the gospel (Acts 16:14), granting them repentance (Acts 11:18), and cleansing their hearts by faith (Acts 15:9).
Before this time of gospel privilege, these things were not possible, for God was allowing the nations to go their own way (Acts 14:16). But now a great movement is under way to gather a people for his name from all the nations, and God himself is active in the ministry of his messengers to sanctify a people for himself. This becomes wonderfully clear in Romans 15, where Paul describes his own vocation in its relation to the work of Christ in and through him.
But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed.
/> verses 15–18
Notice the initiative of God in these verses. First, God gave Paul the grace of apostleship and called him to the ministry of the gospel (vv. 15–16). Second, the Gentiles who believe Paul’s message are acceptable to God because they are sanctified by the Holy Spirit (v. 16). Third, it is not Paul who has won obedience from the Gentiles; it is what Christ has accomplished through him (v. 18).
Therefore, the Gentile mission is the new work of God. It is the fulfillment of divine prophecy that once God allowed the nations to go their own way, but now
God . . . visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, “After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.”
Acts 15:14–18
A new day has come with Jesus Christ. The people of God are being rebuilt in such a way that they will no longer fail in their task of reaching the nations. In this new day, God will not suffer his people to neglect their mission; he will no longer allow the nations to go their own way. He is establishing a church “that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord.”
And he will now gather in all those among the nations who are called by his name! It is his new work! All those who are predestined will be called (Rom. 8:30). All those who are foreordained to eternal life will believe (Acts 13:48). All those who are ransomed will be gathered from every people under heaven (Rev. 5:9). God himself is the chief agent in this new movement, and he will take out a people for his name among the nations (Acts 15:14).
The Writings of John
John’s conception of the new missionary task parallels Paul’s. Just as Paul said that no one could believe in a Christ of whom they had not heard (Rom. 10:14), so Jesus says in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (cf. 10:4, 14). In other words, Jesus gathers his redeemed flock by calling them with his own voice. The true sheep hear his voice and follow, and he gives them eternal life (10:28).