— Thomas Chalmers, Obedience to the faith is very important to God. A man may be believing soundly and effectively even when his mood is low, so low that he is hardly aware that he is alive emotionally at all. But this message is from the Word or command of God. But imagine that when the folks from Publisher’s Clearinghouse tell the guy that he’s won $5 million, he pulls out a gun and says, “Get off my property or I’ll blow your brains out!” “What? Whatever differs from the sound doctrine of the Scriptures, opens a door to divisions and offences. (NASB: Lockman). Heed (5219) (hupakouo [word study] from hupó = agency or means, under + akoúo physical hearing and apprehension of something with the mind - akouo gives us our English acoustics - the science of design which helps one hear) (Click word study on related noun hupakoe) literally means to listen under with attentiveness and to respond positively to what is heard. How tragic! In Genesis 22 Isaac's willingness to be offered as a sacrifice is a model of such submission. Rather, unbelief is active, driven by a dark dynamism (Ed: Called Sin and flesh). — Billy Graham, Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes. Surely they have never heard - With this rhetorical question Paul anticipates an objection from some of his Jewish readers. all did not obey the message of salvation. (SN). His story is yet another example of how the concept of a supreme God has existed for centuries in hundreds of cultures throughout the world. Unaccompanied by Thee; In God's works we see His hand, but in His Word His face. THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD: alla lego, (1SAAI) me ouk ekousan? These two verses show the way to a strong and lasting faith: Get acquainted with God through reading the Scriptures, and faith will come naturally…, Study the Scriptures and you will find that we are not going to have more faith by counting the promises of God. Thus Paul begins and ends Romans (Ro 1:5; 16:26) talking about “the obedience of faith.” Or, as 1 John 2:3 explains, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.”, Also, it’s important to realize that the gospel does not come to us as a nice suggestion that you may want to consider. Christ, the true, the only Light, If men reject God's natural revelation, they are lost. Do men see that your faith works; that its output is different from the output of men who are not possessors of a ‘like precious faith'? — John MacArthur (Romans), Faith is the starting-post of obedience. Compare head and hear, Romans 10:14. How then … 12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors. Your sinful unbelief is totally your own fault. No. In this exchange Jesus accused them of "seeking to kill Me" (John 8:40) declaring that these "believers" were of their father the devil (John 8:44). Revelation 12:9 (note) And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. THE CONTEXT As we look at verses 5-15, we must remember how they relate to the rest of the chapter. The heathen is not saved by looking at a tree and conceptualizing a god-form represented in that tree. The writers of the New Testament adapted the term as God's message of salvation for lost sinners. Hearing alone does not bring salvation, but faith, trust or belief in the message heard does bring salvation. (Luke 18:34). and why the Messiah would be rejected. If you were to die in this state of rebellion against God, you would face His eternal judgment. But a suffering servant didn’t fit with Israel’s idea of a Messiah. C. H. Spurgeon put it (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit [Pilgrim Publications], 4:337): “That God predestines, and that man is responsible, are two things that few can see. (John 8:59). —Charles Wesley. But, as we all know, not all who hear the gospel preached respond in faith. 4:12; Dan. It means to hearken (give respectful attention) or to listen attentively in order to answer or respond. The faith that justifies is the kind of faith that, by the Holy Spirit (Ro 8:13-note), changes us. Yes, they have: "The message of God's creation has gone out to everyone, and its words to all the world." And later missionaries were astounded at the way in which God had prepared these people for one of the greatest mass conversions in history! Christ must, indeed, utter His creating word from Heaven to the dead soul, saying, Live! (SN), 3 There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. For example in Luke we read "And they understood none of these things, and this saying (rhema) was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said." NKJV: So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (He 4:2-note), Peter (who like Paul also appeals to the OT) put it this way…, This precious value, then, is for you who believe. Even though you’ve sinned against the holy God and deserve His judgment, He offers a complete pardon to anyone who will receive it. Dr. E. Meyers Harrison, veteran missionary and professor of missions, says that there are four reasons why the church must send out missionaries: (1) the command from above—“go ye into all the world” (Mark 16:15), (2) the cry from beneath—“send him to my father’s house” (Luke 16:27), (3) the call from without—“come over and help us” (Acts 16:9), (4) the constraint from within—“the love of Christ constraineth us” (2Cor. SO FAITH COMES FROM HEARING: ara e pistis ex akoes: So then faith from hearing, but hearing through the word of Christ (Literal), Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. It’s staggering! Their words to the ends of the world - This declaration again emphasizes the universal scope of natural (general) revelation. — C. H. Spurgeon, When a person truly trusts Christ, he or she will obey Him. Probably Paul was speaking generally and with some hyperbole. The strongly adversative ‘but’ introduces the answer to a possible objection, in excuse of the unbelief spoken of in Romans 10:16. As plainly as it can be stated the answer is that "There aren't any people who have never heard about God.". (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. Vol. Faith as the Bible knows it is confidence in God and His Son Jesus Christ; it is the response of the soul to the divine character as revealed in the Scriptures; and even this response is impossible apart from the prior inworking of the Holy Spirit. "Let God be true, but every man a liar" is the language of true faith. We need but trust Him and He will take care of the rest… God has not failed me in this world; I can trust Him for the world to come. F F Bruce comments that "This might seem an exaggeration: the gospel had not been carried throughout all the earth, not even to all the lands that were known to the inhabitants of the Graeco-Roman world. Many call Christ, Master and Lord, who are far from serving him. (14-15) The necessity of the preaching of the gospel. In Isaiah’s day, the people did not believe God’s Word, nor did they believe when the Living Word was in their very midst. On substantially the same grounds he is even yet rejected by thousands. Conceivably, there may be some English speakers who have not heard, but it would be their own fault. In other words, if you believe in Christ, it is only because God had mercy on you. The Greek word means literally, our hearing. So they slammed the door on the best news in the world. 1Pe 4:17-note) is to reject it; and to obey it is to believe (cf. It is the tragedy of man's foolish unbelief! Here it is, the message preached by us, but heard by those who listened to it. They reject God's so-great salvation (Ro 10:9-note). Romans 10:14. Surely there were many Jews who had not yet heard about Christ. (Of God and Men). —Augustus M. Toplady, The highly respected theologian Louis Berkhof defines genuine faith in essentially the same way noting that it includes an intellectual element (notitia), which is "a positive recognition of the truth"; an emotional element (assensus), which includes "a deep conviction of the truth"; and a volitional element (fiducia), which involves "a personal trust in Christ as Savior and Lord, including a surrender … to Christ." It goes everywhere on earth." (NIV - IBS), NKJV: But I say, have they not heard? Scripture: Romans 10:13–21. yes, indeed -- 'to all the earth their voice went forth, and to the ends of the habitable world their sayings.'. —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Believing and obeying always run side by side. When we drift away from it, we become confused, and we begin dividing, bickering and fighting among ourselves. True faith is not the intellectual ability to visualize unseen things to the satisfaction of our imperfect minds; it is rather the moral power to trust Christ. 1985. Their pride caused them to try to establish their own righteousness, rather than to subject themselves to God’s righteousness (Ro 110:3). Young's Literal: but I say, Did they not hear? To apply this to our times, if people deny God by believing the myth of evolution, they are not going to be inclined to submit to Jesus as Savior and Lord. (NIV - IBS), NKJV: But they have not all obeyed the gospel. Psalm 96:13 Before the LORD, for He is coming; For He is coming to judge the earth. (10) Wherever faith is, there is also the word, but not the opposite, namely, wherever the word is, there may not necessarily be faith: for many refuse and reject the word. From Romans 9 alone we might think that salvation is God’s doing alone, but from Romans 10 we might think that salvation is man’s doing alone – together we see the matter from each perspective. In them He has placed a tent for the sun. As Ro 10:13 says, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But in verse 16 we read, “However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says [citing Isa. You've probably heard the argument "what about all those who have have never heard." Unbelieving and irreligious men have no ears. When Paul says that “not all” heeded the good news, he is using understatement to mean, “most” did not obey the gospel. He has neither wisdom nor judgment. So what makes the difference? Indeed, the great majority of people have DISOBEYED the gospel (cp this idea of "obedience" = Jn 3:36,1Pe 4:17-note, Acts 6:7 Ro 1:5-note,Ro 2:8-note, Ro 15:18,19-note, Ro 16:26-note Ga 5:7, 2Th 1:8 Heb 5:9-note). (Click here for W E Vine's similar definition of faith), Nothing in my hand I bring, As an aside, it is important to note what Paul is not saying. 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