Page 70 - Romans Student Textbook.doc

one another. The confession rests on the belief and the belief is made known in the confession. To use a
well-worn metaphor, they are two sides of the same coin. To attempt to remove either one from the
other is to damage both. The confession and the belief spoken of in verse 9 go together then, the
confession and the belief are that Jesus is the Lord whom God raised from the dead to demonstrate His
victory over sin and death through his sacrifice on the cross. In verse 10 there is a further extrapolation
from this truth that again connects belief and confession inseparably as it connects justification before
God inseparably with salvation from sin. Such justification is only available by trusting in the one who died
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to pay the penalty for sin who is Lord of all people — both Jew and Gentile. He alone is the one who will
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give the riches of His position before the Father to all who call upon Him.

Paul’s point with this paragraph was simply that salvation is available for all people — both Jew and
Gentile — who trust, not in themselves and their ability to keep a set of rules faithfully, but in Jesus, the
Messiah who died as the righteous sacrifice for sin, who is the risen Lord who rules and reigns in Heaven
over all of God’s creation.

Faith comes through hearing the Word of Christ to all men, but the Jews have persistently resisted
believing that Word from God to them. (10:14-21)

“How do people get to know, understand and come to believe in Jesus?” That is the practical question
that Paul addressed next. Having established that God’s salvation is available for all people — including all
the Jews, Paul turned the attention of those who trusted in Jesus to their responsibility to make the
message of the gospel known in a very creative and convicting way. Again, he asks a flurry of questions.
There is a logical flow to his questions. Notice it in what He wrote,

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of
whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they
to preach unless they are sent?
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The logical flow is contained in the verbs Paul used: call, believe, hear, preach, sent. All of them flow
together seamlessly to drive the reader to ask themselves the question: “How am I communicating the
gospel to other people? Am I doing so faithfully or am I afraid to open my mouth?” It also forces on the
local assembly of believers the question: “Who are we sending out to proclaim this precious salvation to
Jew and Gentile?” Paul summarized the logic of these questions succinctly is this way, “So then faith
comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
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The problem with the Jewish people was that they and their leaders were persistently and systematically
resisting the message of the gospel. Hanging Jesus on a cross , inventing a story about the disappearance
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of Jesus’ body , and the ongoing persecution of the apostles as the church began are all evidences of
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that resistance. With a string of quotations from the Old Testament that the Jews so revered, Paul pointed
out that the prophets of Israel foretold that Israel would respond with stopped ears and hardened hearts
when their Messiah came. He showed that Psalm 19 affirms that the Jews have physically heard the
message that has gone out to all the world. Deuteronomy 32 revealed that God would work in such a way
with Israel that He would use the Gentiles to make Israel so jealous and angry that they would not listen.
Isaiah 65 proclaimed that those who were not seeking him — the Gentiles — would by the grace of God

78 Romans 10:12.
79 Romans 10:12-13.
80 Romans 10:14-15, ESV.
81 Romans 10:17, ESV.
82 Matthew 26-27; Mark 14-15; Luke 22-23; John 18-19.
83 Matthew 28:11-15.
84 Acts 4; Acts 8:1-3.

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