Romans 10.17-Faith In Christ Is Based On Hearing The Gospel And Hearing The Gospel Is By Means Of The Proclamation Of The Gospel About Christ
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday June 3, 2009
Romans: Romans 10:17-Faith In Christ Is Based On Hearing The Gospel And Hearing The Gospel Is By Means Of The Proclamation Of The Gospel About Christ
Lesson # 346
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 10:1.
This evening we will note Romans 10:17 and in this passage Paul teaches that faith in Christ is based on hearing the gospel message and logically following this is that hearing the gospel message is by means of the proclamation of the gospel, which is concerning Christ.
Romans 10:1, “Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”
Romans 10:2, “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.”
Romans 10:3, “For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”
Romans 10:4, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Romans 10:5, “For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness.”
Romans 10:6, “But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: ‘DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down).”
Romans 10:7, “Or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”
Romans 10:8, “But what does it say? ‘THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, in your mouth and in your heart’ -- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching.”
Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:10, “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
Romans 10:11, “For the Scripture says, ‘WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.’”
Romans 10:12, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him.”
Romans 10:13, “For ‘WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’”
Romans 10:14, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”
Romans 10:15, “How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!’”
Romans 10:16, “However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, ‘LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?’”
Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
Romans 10:17 is an inference from Paul’s teaching in Romans 10:14-16.
In Romans 10:14, Paul poses three rhetorical questions that emphasize the importance of the communicators of the gospel in order that the unsaved Jew might have an opportunity to exercise faith in Jesus Christ as Savior so as to be saved.
These rhetorical questions are employed with reference to the unsaved Jews in Israel as indicated by Paul’s statements in Romans 10:16-21 where he teaches that Israel rejected Jesus of Nazareth as their Savior, which was anticipated by God in the prophets of the Old Testament.
The first rhetorical question infers that no one can call on Christ if they have not believed in Him.
The second rhetorical question infers that no one can believe in Christ as Savior if no one has heard about Him.
The third rhetorical question infers that no one can hear about Jesus Christ without someone proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.
In Romans 10:15, Paul poses a fourth rhetorical question and cites Isaiah 52:7 to demonstrate Israel’s culpability.
The purpose of these four rhetorical questions in Romans 10:14-15 is to demonstrate to Paul’s readers that Israel is culpable because they did hear the gospel through Jesus Christ Himself, His apostles, pastor-teachers, evangelists and believers operating in their royal ambassadorship but rejected Jesus Christ.
Lastly, Paul in Romans 10:16 states that not all the citizens of Israel obeyed the gospel command to believe in Jesus Christ in order to be saved and to support this statement and to demonstrate that this rejection of Jesus Christ by Israel was anticipated by God, he quotes Isaiah 53:1.
In Romans 10:17, the conclusion that Paul draws from his statements in Romans 10:14-16 is that faith in Christ results from hearing the gospel message and hearing the gospel message is by means of the proclamation of the gospel, which centers upon the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
“Faith” refers to the non-meritorious system of perception of placing one’s “trust” or “confidence in” the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
Paul’s teaching in Romans 3:20-26 and 9:30-10:16 clearly indicates that Christ is the object of faith.
“From hearing” is composed of the preposition ek (e)k), “comes from” and the genitive feminine singular form of the noun akoe (a)kohv) (ak-o-ay), “hearing.”
The noun akoe appeared in Romans 10:16 where it meant “message” since it is used in a passive sense expressing that which is heard or the message itself, thus it refers to the Christian’s proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In Romans 10:17, the word appears twice but this time it is used in an active sense expressing the act of hearing rather than in a passive sense expressing that which is heard or the message itself.
This is indicated in that it corresponds to the verb akouo that appears in Romans 10:14 and 18, which are closely connected to Romans 10:17 as we noted earlier.
Also, the noun rhema, which appears in Romans 10:17 refers to the gospel itself as it did in Romans 10:8.
The noun akoe is in the genitive case and functions as the object of the preposition ek, which functions as a marker of cause with focus upon source.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase indicates that faith is as an eternal spiritual truth “based on hearing the message (the gospel) as a source.”
Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
“And” is the “sequential” use of the conjunction de (deV) (deh), which introduces a statement that follows logically the previous statement and this is indicated by the fact that Paul repeats the noun akoe from the end of the previous statement at the beginning of the next.
“By the word of Christ” is composed of the preposition dia (diaV) (dee-ah), “by” and the genitive neuter singular form of the noun rhema (r(hma) (hray-mah), “the word” and the genitive masculine singular form of the proper name Christos (xristov$), “Christ.”
In Romans 10:17, the noun rhema is used of the “proclamation” of the gospel since in context Paul is describing the agency through which the unsaved Jew hears the gospel message.
The unsaved Jew and Gentile hear the gospel message through the proclamation of the gospel, whose subject is Jesus Christ.
The preposition dia functions as a marker of means and the noun rhema, “proclamation” as a “genitive of means” indicating that the proclamation of the gospel is “the means by which” the unsaved Jew hears the gospel message.
“Christ” designates the humanity of our Lord as the promised Savior for all mankind who is unique as the incarnate Son of God and totally and completely guided and empowered by the Spirit as the Servant of the Father.
Christos functions as an “objective genitive” meaning that it functions semantically as the direct object of the verbal idea implicit in the noun rhema, “proclamation” indicating that Christ is the content of the gospel proclamation.
In Romans 10:14-16, Paul has been emphasizing that Christ is the object of faith for salvation and that Israel failed to exercise faith in Him, a point which he continues to elaborate on in Romans 10:18-21.
Paul in Romans 10:17 is summarizing his statements in Romans 10:14-16 and draws the conclusion from them that faith in Christ is based on hearing the gospel message and logically following this is that hearing the gospel message is by means of the proclamation of the gospel, which is concerning Christ.
This passage then sets up Paul’s comments regarding Israel in Romans 10:18-21 where he teaches that God did in fact commission people (Christians) to communicate the gospel and that Israel did hear the gospel about Jesus Christ.
However, instead of acknowledging that He is Lord, i.e. God as a result of believing that the Father raised Him from the dead, they rejected Him.