Romans
10 New International Version - UK (NIVUK)
10
Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is
that they may be saved. 2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous
for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3 Since they did not know
the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit
to God’s righteousness. 4 Christ is the culmination of the law so that there
may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
5
Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: ‘The person who
does these things will live by them.’[a] 6 But the righteousness that is by
faith says: ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”’[b] (that
is, to bring Christ down) 7 ‘or “Who will descend into the deep?”’[c] (that is,
to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? ‘The word is near
you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’[d] that is, the message concerning
faith that we proclaim: 9 if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with
your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says,
‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.’[e] 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, 13 for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord will be saved.’[f]
14 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? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How
beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’[g]
16
But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who
has believed our message?’[h] 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the
message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. 18 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.’[i]
19
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.’[j]
20
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.’[k]
21
But concerning Israel he says,
‘All
day long I have held out my hands
to a disobedient and obstinate people.’[l]
Matthews
Henry Commentary
Romans
10:14ff
1.
How necessary it was that the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, Rom.
10:14, 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, Heb. 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,
Matt. 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, Rom. 10:15. For this he quotes Isa. 52:7. The like
passage we have, Nah. 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 (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, Matt. 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 Thess. 5:12, 13.
The Bible Panorama
Romans 10
V 1–4: CONCERN Paul’s ‘heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
may be saved’. Their zeal in trying to establish their own righteousness, which
they can never do, shows their ignorance of God’s righteousness. That can only
be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is ‘the end of the law to righteousness
to everyone who believes’. In other words they must come to faith in Christ to
be saved.
V 5–13: CONFESSION Paul
shows from the Scriptures the principles of salvation which now apply to faith
alone in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That principle is that when one’s faith
in the living Christ is personal and real, that believer will confess this
openly and by mouth to others. This will form part of a changed lifestyle. The
challenge is whether one’s faith is real enough to produce the willingness to
stand out and confess personal faith in Christ. The encouragement given is that
anyone trusting in Him, whether Jew or Gentile, will never be put to shame, but
will be saved. God’s richness of mercy more than compensates for the poverty
caused by our sin.
V 14–16: CALL Given that
whoever calls on Him will know His salvation, the logical question is asked as
to how unbelievers are going to hear of Christ in order to call upon Him. The
answer is that preachers of the gospel must be sent to tell them, always
bearing in mind that even then there will be many who do not obey the gospel
and turn to Christ, though the offer is open to them.
V 17: CONCLUSION The
simple conclusion is that saving faith is produced by hearing God’s Word.
V 18–21: COMPARISON Using
the Old Testament Scriptures, the comparison is made between Gentiles, who have
believed and come to know God’s blessing, and the Israelites, who are thus
provoked to jealousy by seeing outsiders come to know the God who longs that
they should turn to Him. Although God will judge sin, He confirms to Israel
that ‘All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary
people’. God is always willing to welcome returning sinners, be they Jews or
Gentiles.
Dictionary of Bible Themes
7953 mission, of the church
The continuation of Jesus Christ’s
mission through his followers. Believers are empowered by the Holy Spirit and
sent out by Christ to bear witness to him and to preach, heal, teach, baptise
and make disciples of all peoples.
The power and authority of the church’s
mission
Believers are sent out by Jesus Christ
Jn 15:16 See also Mt 9:37-38; Lk 10:1-3; Jn 4:36-38
Believers are given authority by Jesus
Christ Lk 9:1 See also Mt 10:1; Mt 28:18; Mk 6:7; Mk 16:17-18; Lk 10:17-19
Believers continue Jesus Christ’s
mission Jn 20:21 See also Jn 17:18
Believers are empowered by the Holy
Spirit Ac 1:8 See also Lk 24:49; Jn 20:22; Ac 4:31; Heb 2:4
The task of the church in mission
Making disciples Mt 28:19-20 See also
Ac 2:41-42; Ac 14:15; Ac 16:14-15; Ac 18:8; Ro 10:14-15; 1Jn 1:2-3
Preaching and healing Lk 9:2 See also
Mt 10:7-8; Mk 16:20; Lk 9:6
Proclaiming the gospel Ac 20:24 See
also Ac 8:40; Ro 1:9; Ro 15:20; 2Ti 1:11
Bearing witness to Jesus Christ Ac
5:30-32 See also Lk 24:48; Jn 15:26-27; Ac 4:20
Bringing honour to God Eph 3:10-11 See
also Jn 15:8; 1Pe 2:12
The universal scope of the church’s
mission
Lk 24:47 See also Mt 24:14 pp Mk 13:10;
Mk 16:15
The church reaching out in mission
To the Jews Mt 10:5-6 The
disiples’mission began with the Jews. See also Mt 10:9-15 pp Mk 6:8-11 pp Lk
9:3-5 pp Lk 10:4-12; Ac 11:19 The scattered believers at first preached only to
Jews.
To the Samaritans Ac 8:4-8 See also Ac
8:14-17,25
To the Gentiles Paul as the apostle to
the Gentiles: Ac 9:15; Ro 11:13; Ro 15:16
Ac 10:34-35 Peter preaches to Cornelius
and his family; Ac 11:20-21 Scattered believers preach to the Gentiles; Ac
13:1-3 Paul begins his first missionary journey (with Barnabas); Ac 15:40-41
Paul begins his second missionary journey (with Silas); Ac 16:9-10 Paul is
called to preach the gospel in Macedonia; Ac 18:23 Paul’s third missionary
journey; Ac 28:31 Paul preaches the gospel in Rome.
Missions undertaken by church officials
Ac 11:22-23 Barnabas is sent to Antioch
to strengthen the new church. Paul and Barnabas take gifts to Jerusalem: Ac
11:30; Ac 12:25
Ac 15:22-23 Judas and Silas are sent to
Antioch with a letter from the apostles and elders.
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