"How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?..." Romans 10:14-15a
WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE READ THIS PASSAGE AND MAKE IT TO TEACH THE LIE THAT THE GOSPEL MINISTRY IS... THE MEANS GOD USES TO REGENERATE SINNERS DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS?
PLEASE EXPLAIN!
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Please note a few things that are plainly stated in the passage:
Paul DID ask, "How then shall they call on him...?"
Paul DIDN'T ask, "how are they to BE REGENERATED... without calling on Him' did he? It seems that many insist reading that idea into Paul's question.
Paul DID ask, "how shall they believe in Him...?"
Paul DIDN'T ask, " how shall they BE REGENERATED... without believing in Him" DID he? It seems that many insist reading that idea into Paul's question.
Paul DID ask, "how shall they hear without a preacher?"
Paul DIDN'T ask, "how shall they BE REGENERATED without a preacher" DID he? It seems that very many PREACHERS insist reading that idea into Paul's question.
Concerning Paul's rhetorical questions:
- "how then shall they CALL on him?,"
- "how shall they BELIEVE in Him?," and
- "how shall they HEAR without the preacher?"
DO NOT all these rhetorical questions PRESUPPOSE one simple and plain truth... that they are dealing with people who are ALREADY regenerated and are capable of hearing and believing... FOR it is SUCH alone who are able to HEAR the good news (the REPORT of their eternal salvation by God's free grace), to BELIEVE in Him, and to CALL on Christ???
DO NOT all these activities PRESUPPOSES LIFE? Is it not EVEN COMMON SENSE that life MUST PRECEDE the activities of that life?
Is it not common sense that these activities - of calling upon Christ, of believing in Christ, and hearing the gospel - are POSSIBLE only because eternal life has been given them. They are spiritual activities of the eternal life that has been bestowed at new birth - WITHOUT the gospel preaching. "So is EVERY ONE that is born of the Spirit."
Christ Himself declared, "Except a man be born again, he CANNOT..." Those under consideration in Paul's rhetorical questions are those who have enabled and CAN... they are ALREADY regenerated, and they needed to be CONVERTED to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the gospel ministry.
So many preachers and their followers insist that the preaching of the gospel is indispensable means to the regeneration of sinners dead in their trespasses and sins.
And hearing comes by the Word of God
Then we read, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing [cometh] by the word of God.
Please note two plain facts stated here:
First, it is 'faith' that comes by hearing; it is NOT regeneration nor life that comes by hearing.
Second, the ability to hear the gospel comes by the Word of God, the second person of the Godhead. He gives eternal life to His redeemed people, and this enables them to hear.
The ability to hear DOES NOT come from the hearing the word of God preached. Ability to hear is the result of the eternal life given by the life giving eternal Word of God.
"And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God." Re 19:13.
Do you remember the "word of God" mentioned in Heb 4:12? So many are confused and misguided with this passage. Perhaps Heb 4:12 should be understood in another light. The 'word of God' in that passage OBVIOUSLY refers to a DIVINE PERSON. Read that passage slowly... and meditate on it!
"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in HIS sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of HIM with whom we have to do."
The 'word of God' is "a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight". Note the pronoun HIS, and HIM. The Word of God is a divine Person, the Second Person of the eternal triune God.
The same life giving eternal Word of God is spoken of in John 1:
1 ¶ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
V Johnson
Amen Bro. Sing. It has been imbedded in the minds of the multitudes that man must hear and believe the gospel in order to get themselves saved. As you point out, only those who have already been regenerated can hear and believe the gospel One of the great utilities of the gospel is to bring good news of salvation, not to offer salvation.
Sing F Lau
Of course they must hear and believe in order to save themselves from this perverse and crooked generation. But in order for them to be able to hear and believe God must FIRST effectually call them out of their state of sin and death, all by God's own free and sovereign grace. God got them saved from eternal lake of fire, so that they may hear and believe and obey to save themselves from the hell on earth!
V Johnson
Amen. And that is why it is so important to rightly divide the word of truth.
