Introduction

The passage is Romans 10:14–21, but we’re going to start in verse 12:

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:

“Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says,

“I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”

And Isaiah boldly says,

“I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”

But concerning Israel he says,

“All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

Just a super quick orientation to the context. Note that in verse 1 the subject is the nation of Israel (“Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.”) and then also at the end of the chapter in verse 21 (“But concerning Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”) So, quite obviously, the original meaning of verses 14–21 must be grounded in that same context. In fact, we’re smack in the middle of three chapters where Paul is pouring out his anguish for the Jews—his own people—due to their rejection of the gospel, what God’s purpose is even in this rejection, and their future. This is one of those places where going through this letter little-by-little, week-by-week can let us down just a bit. Chapters 9 through 11 are one single argument, originally intended to be heard in one listening.

So I just want to throw that out there to anchor our understanding. Because if you’ve been around church circles for a bit, it’s likely that you’ve heard verses 14 and 15 used in the context of foreign missions. And there’s validity in that, and we’re eventually going to get there, but I want to get there through the lens of the original meaning. I guess that’s our super lame outline for this morning: (1) what the passage originally meant for the nation of Israel and (2) what it means for us.

Did Israel hear? Yes.

Starting in verse 14 Paul presents a series of rhetorical questions that reveal the necessary steps—at a human level (chapter 9 focused on the sovereignty of God; chapter 10 is the human angle)—for someone to come to salvation.

  • The end goal is for someone to call on the name of the Lord (v.13)
  • In order to call on the name of the Lord, they have to believe (v.14)
  • In order to believe, they have to have heard about the Lord (v.14)
  • In order to hear about the Lord, someone has to proclaim / preach God’s message (v.14)
  • In order for someone to proclaim God’s message, that person has to be sent (v.15)

As verse 17 states it, a little more succinctly, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”

Now Paul gives these to us in reverse chronological order, from the end result working backwards to the causes. Maybe it’s just me, but I think better in terms of forward sequence. So if we invert the direction of this steps, we have:

Preacher is sent → Preacher proclaims the message → Message is heard → People believe → People call on the name of the Lord

So, keeping the original context in mind, you might ask, “Where did this sequence break down for the nation of Israel?”

And I’m glad you asked that question, because that’s what Paul answers next. In verse 18, “But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did!” And then Paul does something very interesting in quoting the Old Testament, specifically Psalm 19:4:

“Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

Who is “they?” The quotation says that “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” In the original context of Psalm 19, “they” are the heavens and the skies that proclaim the glory of God. But look at what Paul did here, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This happens over and over and over again in how the New Testament uses the Old Testament; Paul is applying a truth from the Old Testament in its most glorious fulfillment in Christ. In this context, quite obviously “they”—the ones who have gone out, i.e. were sent, and whose voice has been heard—are the preachers of the gospel.

But isn’t this a bit overstated? How can Paul claim that “their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world?” Even today, 2,000 years later, there are remote groups who have yet to hear the gospel.

Again, we have to remember the context. Paul is concerned here with the nation of Israel. And from that perspective—and I need you to hear this point clearly, because if you don’t, something I’m going to say later is going to sound really offensive…. From the perspective of Israel, they heard the gospel; they are an evangelized people. That does not mean that every single Israelite individual heard the gospel, and certainly not that every Jew believed the gospel. But considered as a people group, they were saturated with the good news. Missionaries had gone forth. There were churches established in their regions. If a Jew wanted to know the gospel, it was readily accessible.

So where did the process break down for Israel?

  • Were preachers sent, and did they proclaim the message? Yep, their voice has gone out into all the earth.

  • Was the message heard? Yep, verse 18 explicitly says that they did.

  • So what’s the problem? In contrast with the Gentiles—this is verses 19 through 21—Israel was a disobedient and obstinate people. The problem was unbelief.

Specifically, going back to verse 2 and what follows, they held—zealously held—to a system, a worldview, that righteousness is based on law. And that is fundamentally incompatible with the righteousness of God, a righteousness that is by faith.

Did America hear? Yes.

Now everything we’ve talked about thus far is the original context. But let’s swing now to our context. Because most of what we’ve talked about is kinda academic, right? I mean, our present context is not one where we are trying to figure out Jew/Gentile relationships. But there are principles we can apply.

If we look back at the sequence of steps that Paul laid out—the steps, humanly speaking, that need to occur for someone to come to a saving knowledge of Christ—where is our culture at? Where did we get stuck?

And here’s where I really hope you were tuned into Paul’s argument earlier in verse 18, otherwise this is going to be really offensive. I would submit to you that, in the same way that Paul could say about the nation of Israel that they heard, so also for us. America has heard the good news. Beaver County has heard the good news. We are an evangelized people.

That does not mean that every single person has heard the gospel, any more than Paul’s words meant that every single Jew had heard the gospel when he wrote those words. Nor does it mean that we should stop reaching out, stop witnessing, stop serving; again, Paul can say what he says here and yet still during this time there is fervent outreach to the Jews.

But in applying this text to our own culture, it does mean that I think we need to at least consider a few things.

Incompatible worldviews

One, that the problem isn’t necessarily access to the gospel, strictly speaking. Israel had heard (verse 18), but they were a disobedient and obstinate people (verse 21). There may be worldviews in place that are fundamentally incompatible with the righteousness that is by faith, and just like the authors of the New Testament did, we need to be aware of those worldviews, drawn them out, and dismantle them.

Just as Israel had a worldview that was incompatible with the gospel (that righteousness is by law), what are some of the dominant worldviews in our culture that are fundamentally incompatible with the gospel, and cause unbelief? Here’s a short list I came up with; I’m sure you could add others.

1. Righteousness based on sincerity

This is a review from last week. It is rather common to believe that it doesn’t matter too much the content of your belief, as long as you are faithful to your convictions and sincere. So, you know … Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, some form of live-in-harmony-with-naturism, activism, etc. As long as you are sincere, all those are valid paths.

Maybe … but not if the Bible is true. That’s the point of verse 2. Israel was zealous—they were sincere—but they were also sincerely and zealously wrong. Sincerity isn’t enough. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

2. Righteousness based on the curve

This is maybe a softened version of Israel’s righteousness by law. There’s not necessarily an exact external law, like the law of Moses, but a general sense that, “Hey, everyone knows what’s good and bad, and I must be ok because I’m not as bad as that guy.” No one may say it this way, but it’s almost like we have a thermostat, constantly measuring the spiritual temperature of others, and making sure we’re above average.

But again, not according to God’s righteousness by faith. What did we see in chapter 3? “There is no one righteous, not even one.” There’s no curve. We all failed. We must have a different source of righteousness, outside of us, credited undeservingly to us. And that’s what Jesus provides.

3. Righteousness based on vengeance

This is the weaponized version of the previous one, popular on social media. Not only am I not as bad as that guy, but it’s necessary for me to expose that person, to inflict pain on that other person, to signal my virtue.

What does God’s word say about that? Well, let’s be real … much of the time what’s going on in social media is calling good evil and evil good, so that’s a non-starter. But even in those cases where real sin is being called out, is that righteousness going to save anyone? No, Romans 2 reminds us, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.” Everyone, again, needs a righteousness outside of themselves.

4. Righteousness based on God’s niceness

Finally, here is the idea that, yeah, I’m not perfect, nobody is, but I don’t believe that God would punish anyone. He’s too nice. He’s all about forgiveness, right? A loving God will forgive everyone in the end.

But this focuses on one attribute of God at the expense of others, without considering how they all work together. Exodus 34, “The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” So far, so good, right? Put that on a coffee mug. But the description of God continues, “Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” Not making the coffee mug. God is love and holy and cannot just overlook sin. But He has done something about it in Jesus, and thus righteousness is by faith, by trusting in that sacrifice of Christ.

Again, those are just a few of the worldviews to which people in our culture are committed, which can prevent them from being able to believe the gospel. And of course, many others could be described. That’s the first application.

Foreign missions

Second, we need to consider the possibility that God is doing some pretty awesome things in other places that we would be wise to pay attention to. This is starting to get into the argument of chapter 11, but Paul alludes to it here in verses 19-20. God’s dramatic and miraculous work among the Gentiles was intended—in part—to make the nation of Israel jealous and provoke them to repent. And if the accounts are to be believed, and I think they should be, God is doing some really amazing stuff today in places like China, South America, and Africa.

There’s a reason that verses 14 and 15 are often used in the context of foreign missions. Although Paul’s point in his original context was to demonstrate that these things, in fact, had already happened among the Jews, it nonetheless remain true that these are necessary steps. And not every group is in the same place.

There are people groups today to whom no one has been sent with the gospel message. There are people groups where missionaries have been sent, but the good news not yet proclaimed because they are still learning the language and culture so that they can communicate effectively. There are people groups where there is a small presence of the gospel, but it hasn’t yet been heard across the group as a whole because the hard work of carrying that message to other villages, establishing churches, etc. is underway.

So some brief statistics. These are from the site peoplegroups.org. I mention that only because there is no universal agreement on how one defines a distinct “people group,” but their definitions seem reasonable and in any case show the trends. They define a people group as “An ethno-linguistic group with a common self-identity that is shared by the various members. For strategic purposes it is the largest group within which the gospel can spread without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.”

That’s a pretty significant distinction. By that definition, for example, the vast, vast, vast majority of America is a single people group. A separate people group might be, for example, the deaf community, where there is a significant communication barrier that must be (and has been) overcome so that people can understand one another. Or perhaps ethnic communities in larger cities who have maintained their original language and customs. Those might be distinct people groups. But we’re not talking Republican vs. Democrat here, or Black vs White, or Rich vs. Poor, or Gen X vs. Gen Z. The barriers need to be larger than that to constitute a distinct people group.

By that definition, here’s their estimate of the current progress of the gospel globally.

  • Reached: 4,810 groups (40%); 3.2 billion persons
  • Unreached (engaged): 4,073 groups (34%); 4.5 billion persons
  • Unreached (unengaged): 3,147 groups (26%); 278 million persons

That’s another point of application here. I’m sure many of us already are, but if you aren’t involved in some way partnering with what God’s doing in some of these other parts of the world, I’d recommend looking into it. God’s doing an awesome thing, fulfilling his purposes which will culminate in what we read about in Revelation, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9) God invites us out of our abundance to be a part of that. Missionaries need our support, both in terms of prayer and emotional support, as well as financial support. I’d be happy to connect you with some workers out on the field if you are interested.

Gratitude

And one final point of application, I think, is gratitude. If you are here today knowing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, recognize that these steps had to happen. Someone was sent—a parent, a Sunday school teacher, a pastor, a friend—and God allowed you to hear and believe. Here’s we can meld together the truths from chapters 9 and 10. This section has focused on the human elements, if you will. But underneath all of that we recognize that it is God’s sovereign will being worked out.