(I)
Robert D. Decker
[Source: “The Foolishness of Preaching,” in the Protestant Reformed Theological Journal, vol. 8, no. 1 (October, 1974), pp. 28-30]
In John 10:27, 28, Jesus says: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” If we turn to Romans 10:13-15 we may learn how the sheep of Christ hear His voice. These verses read:
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 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? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
It must be noted that the words, “how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard” are erroneously translated in the King James. These words should read, “how shall they believe in him *whom* [not ‘of whom’] they have not heard.” This passage teaches that we must call on the Name of the Lord in order to be saved. We cannot, however, call on Him unless we believe in Him, and we cannot believe in Him apart from hearing Him. And we cannot hear without a preacher who is sent! What could be clearer than this? This means that today, as well as in Jesus’ own day, the people of God hear His voice. Precisely for this reason, Christ instituted the offices in His church. Ephesians 4:11 teaches that Christ: “… gave some, apostles and teachers.” Why did Christ give these?
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying [building up] of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love, they grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ (vv. 12-15).
At this point the question is often raised: “Cannot God save any other way? What about Bible reading and prayer and Bible discussion and witnessing by word and godly living … Cannot God save by these means?” The answer to that is that all these things simply would not be, were it not for the God-given means and power of preaching. The question is not “can” God save with other means, but the question is “will” He? And the answer is, No, He will not. No more that He will keep men alive (though He could) without the ordinary means of food and drink will God nourish men with His saving grace unto everlasting life apart from the means of preaching. Why not? The Scripture’s answer is “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (I Cor. 1:21). It is simply the good pleasure of God to save His own in Jesus Christ by means of the preaching of the Word. The 16th century reformers recognized that clearly as is evident from these words of John Calvin:
More detestable than this attitude is that of the apostates who have a passion for splitting churches, in effect driving the sheep from their fold and casting them into the jaws of wolves. We must hold to what we have quoted from Paul—that the church is built up solely by outward preaching, and that the saints are held together by one bond only, that with common accord, through learning and advancement, they keep the church order established by God [cf. Eph. 4:12]. (Calvin, Institutes, Book 4, Chapter 1).
And if you ask still further, But why did God choose preaching? the answer is that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and God chose the foolish things to confound the wise. Why? That no flesh should glory in His presence is ever the Word of God. Let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord! (Cf. I Cor. 1). To despise preaching, therefore, is to despise the wisdom of God. It is to pretend to be wiser than God!
Thus it is too, that the preaching of the Word is the chief key of the kingdom of heaven. By means of preaching, Christ opens the door of the kingdom to His own and closes it to unbelievers. When Christ opens, no man shuts; and when Christ shuts, no man opens. The preacher is an ambassador or official representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is His mouthpiece. He comes expounding the Word of Christ and bearing, therefore, the authority of Christ. In this way, Christ rules the church through His Spirit and Word. This is why the preaching of the Word is always effective. The fruit is always there! To the Jews, preaching Christ crucified is a stumblingblock and it is foolishness to the Greeks, but, to the called it is Christ the power and the wisdom of God (cf. I Cor. 1). This means, too, that neglect of the preaching leads to all kinds of false doctrine, apostasy and ungodly living (cf. Eph. 4:14). Calvin understood this, too, for he says:
Fanatical men, refusing to hold fast to it [i.e., to preaching—RDD], entangle themselves in many deadly snares. Many are led either by pride, dislike, rivalry to the conviction that they can profit enough from private reading and meditation; hence they despise public assemblies and deem preaching superfluous … And if we rashly attempt anything without God’s command, strange inventions forthwith cling to the bad beginning and spread evil without measure. (Calvin, Institutes, Book 4, Chapter 1).
When preaching goes, discipline goes and everything goes. Without preaching, sound doctrine is not vindicated and worldly-mindedness creeps into the church and the people of God.
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(II)
Rev. Angus Stewart
(a)
[Source: “The Attributes of God (Belgic Confession 2a): General Revelation,” in Salt Shakers, no. 17 (Nov. 2012), p. 17]
Romans 10:14-15 affirms the necessity of the preaching of the Gospel for salvation, for how can people believe and call upon the Lord unless they hear the Word proclaimed by one sent by God?
(b)
[Source: “The Assurance That Scripture Is God’s Word (Belgic Confession 5)” in Salt Shakers, no. 22 (Sept. 2013), p. 10]
Paul argues in Romans 10:14-15 that people cannot hear Christ without a preacher and that they will not come into contact with a preacher unless Christ sends such through His church. This is what Augustine was getting at in his oft-quoted remark that he would not have believed the gospel if it had not been for the church, for the church with its preaching is the necessary instrument or means by which God brings His elect from the kingdom of darkness to the light of salvation.
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(III)
Rev. Steven Key
(a)
[Source: “The Primacy of Preaching (Part 1),” in Salt Shakers, no. 23 (Nov. 2013), pp. 6, 7]
The necessity of preaching is a prominent element of Romans 10:14. Preaching is essential to active faith in Christ.
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In Romans 10:13-15, the Spirit confirms that salvation is dependent upon the preaching. The Apostle shows from a threefold perspective the importance of preaching, saying in the first place, “How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?” To call on Him does not merely mean to worship Him. When you consider verse 13, and that especially in the light of the prophecy of Joel 2:32 where these same words are found, you learn that to call upon the name of the Lord is to call for help out of the midst of trouble. When the Spirit gave us to see ourselves as we are before God, we became deeply aware of the trouble of our sin and corruption and death. From the midst of that trouble we cry out for help. And the promise is, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” But the Apostle also says that this calling upon Christ is impossible, except we believe in Him. Faith is first. By faith we see our trouble; and, seeing our trouble, we call on Christ for help. That is the idea here.
In the second place, the apostle says, “How shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?” We shall see more about the translation in another article when we discuss the power of preaching as a means of grace. But notice, the proper translation speaks not merely of hearing *about* Him, but hearing *Him*. How shall they believe in Him *Whom* they have not heard? In the context the emphasis in this act of believing is in the element of trust, of confidence that He shall surely deliver us from our trouble. To believe on Christ is to rely upon Him for your righteousness. But how can we so believe on Him, if we have never heard Him? Your righteousness, your salvation, does not depend upon the word of a man. You must be able to say with confidence, “I heard Jesus speak to me, saying, ‘Come unto me and rest.’” It is the power of His call, of His voice, that moves us to lay hold upon Him. “How shall they believe in Him Whom they have not heard?”
Third, you cannot hear, says Paul, without a preacher. Nor has that changed in the centuries since Paul wrote that! There are those who say, “Well, that may have been true when Paul wrote it; but that is no longer true for us. We have our Bibles. At the time of the apostles they did not yet have Bibles. We have Bibles. And we have all kinds of writings. We can just sit at home and study our Bibles. It isn’t necessary any more to have a preacher, in order to have Christ.” Well, if you mean that it is not necessary to have a preacher in order to know about Christ, that is true. But we must not only know ‘about’ Christ; the devil, too, knows ‘about’ Christ. We must know *Christ*.
You may not say, “I can just as well stay home and read my Bible and gather with my friends in a spiritual discussion, as to sit in church under the preaching.” You contradict *Christ*! We can and we do well to have edifying gatherings, where we talk about spiritual things and grow in our knowledge of Christ. The organic life of the church is important. Bible studies are a blessing, and useful for our spiritual growth. But that is not where we actually hear Christ.
It was when Jesus sent forth His disciples to preach, that He said to them (Luke 10:16), “He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.”
I well remember my late seminary professor, Homer C. Hoeksema, talking about this subject. He said, “If to come under the preaching was simply to learn more about God and about Christ and about the Bible, I would just stay home. I probably know as much as any preacher in our churches about those things. But there is something that happens when I go to church. I don’t simply hear my pastor telling me about this or that. I hear the voice of Jesus. And that voice I cannot do without.”
Let us hear, therefore, with humility, the instruction of God’s Word, and say, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” How beautiful are the feet, that is, how welcome are they that preach the gospel to us; not because of who they are or what gifts they have, but because *Christ* speaks through them who proclaim His Word in faithfulness.
(b)
[Source: “The Primacy of Preaching (Part 2),” in Salt Shakers, no. 24 (Jan. 2013), pp. 10, 11]
God Himself has instituted the preaching of the Word as the power unto salvation to all who believe. That is a matter of emphasis in the words of Romans 10:14. In the middle part of that verse, the Apostle asks (according to our translation): “and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” There is a little error in translation there. That error, by the way, is carried on in most other translations too. We are thankful, of course, that there are not many errors in our King James translation. More importantly, the principle of translation upon which this version is based is absolutely correct—the principle which recognises the truth that the Scripture are word for word inspired by the Holy Spirit. But here, there is an error, (an easy mistake for a translator to make) an error of only two letters; but an error which makes a world of difference to the meaning of the text. The word which does not belong in the translation is the little word “of”. In the original, the text reads very definitely this way: “and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard?” Now, I want you to understand that makes a world of difference. You can hear of someone, without any personal contact with that person. But when you hear him, that is quite different. Then you say, as a hymn has it, “I heard the voice of Jesus say, Come unto me and rest.”
The power of preaching is not to be found in the man who brings the Word, in the one who speaks about Christ. Anyone who knows a little about the Bible can speak about Christ, but that does not make him a preacher. If that were preaching, there would be no power whatsoever. For the words of a man may have a certain influence upon the thinking of people, but it has no power in itself. But, a preacher is a man through whom Christ is pleased to speak!
That is why, when you hear preaching as a means of grace to you, it is not just a matter of enjoying the sermon. When you come under the faithful preaching of the Word, and you are conscious of the Spirit of Christ applying that Word to your heart, you hear Christ calling you into the fellowship of His life and love. Christ speaks to you! Christ draws you to Himself by the preaching of the Word! He causes His voice to be heard through a weak and sinful man, such as me. That is preaching.
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That Word of Christ, the powerful Word proclaimed by the preaching of the Gospel, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. And being the power of God unto salvation, it is glad tidings—good news. The apostle, in Romans 10:8, speaks of those glad tidings being the “word of faith, which we preach,” the word addressed to you and which you take to yourself by faith.
What is that Word, which is powerful unto your salvation? It is this: You are justified by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Whenever you receive the promise of the Gospel by a true faith, all your sins are really forgiven you by God, for the sake of Christ’s merits. And the result is that all the blessings of salvation are yours! (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 84).
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(IV)
Prof. Herman C. Hanko
(a)
[Source: Herman Hanko, Covenant Reformed Fellowship News, vol. 4, no. 4]
God [in saving His people] uses the means of the preaching of the gospel to work faith. In fact, so true is this that no salvation is even possible apart from the preaching of the gospel. Paul makes this clear in Romans 10:13, 14: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 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?
(b)
[Source: Herman Hanko, Covenant Reformed Fellowship News, vol. 4, no. 11]
[With regard to the question of whether God also uses other means as well as the preaching of the gospel in order to save, Before] I enter this question in a bit of detail, it might be well to point to the Westminster Confession.
In Chapter 10 on “Effectual Calling” the first paragraph connects the divine calling with predestination and speaks of the calling as “by [God’s] Word and Spirit.” That by “calling” is meant the preaching of the gospel is evident from the fact that the creed always connects the calling with the ministry of the Word (See paragraph 3: “… outwardly called by the ministry of the Word”; paragraph 4: “… although they may be called by the ministry of the Word …”).
In Chapter 14, on “Saving Faith,” the creed states that faith “is outwardly wrought by the ministry of the Word” (paragraph 1). The use of the word “ordinarily” might be interpreted by some to refer to exceptions; i.e., God sometimes gives faith apart from the ministry of the Word; but it is also possible that the word “ordinarily” refers to the exceptions of those who “are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word” (10:3), namely, elect infants who “are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit” and other elect people who are so mentally handicapped that to be outwardly called is impossible.
The Reformed confessions teach the same.
The Heidelberg Catechism asks an important question when it asks: “Since then we are made partakers of Christ and all his benefits by faith only, whence doth this faith proceed?” The answer is: “From the Holy Ghost, who works faith in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel …” (Q&A 65). The Belgic Confession states: “We believe that this true faith being wrought in man by the hearing of the Word of God, and the operation of the Holy Ghost, doth regenerate and make him a new man …” (Art. 24).
The same is taught in different places in the Canons. We quote one place: “But when God accomplishes his good pleasure in the elect, or works in them true conversion, he … causes the gospel to be externally preached to them …” (III & IV, 11).
It is my judgment that the context of Romans 10:14, 15 rather supports my interpretation … Starting at verse 9, it is clear that the apostle is saying here that salvation is no different for Jew or Gentile. All are saved in the same way. And that way in which they are saved is the way of calling upon the name of the Lord; for “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (v. 13).
But the question is, a question of crucial importance: How do men call on the name of the Lord? The answer the apostle gives in verse 14 is: Men have to believe in the Lord before they will call upon Him. And this is in keeping with verses 9-11. If a man does not believe in the Lord, he will never call upon Him.
But that is not the whole matter by any means. How does a man believe in the Lord? And that the apostle answers, also in verse 14, by saying that they must hear the Lord: “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?”
But even that is not the whole story. The question is: How then shall they hear the Lord? And this question also is answered with yet another question. They hear the Lord by means of a preacher: “How shall they hear without a preacher?”
And so the matter is pushed yet one further step back. Who is a preacher? And the answer is: One who is sent by the Lord Himself. He sends His preachers through the church in the midst of which and in the service of which they preach.
And so the argument is clear. When preachers preach, Christ is heard. And when Christ is heard, men believe in Christ. And when men believe in Christ, they call upon Him. And when they call upon Him they are saved because “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Thus, preaching is a marvelous task because preaching is bringing Christ Himself in the gospel in such a way that Christ Himself is heard. No wonder that the apostle quotes in awe and amazement Isaiah 52:7: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”
We might add, as Paul does, that when Christ is heard not everyone believes. Paul himself says, in the very next verse, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?”
Nevertheless: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (v. 17).
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(V)
Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965)
(a)
[Source: Righteous By Faith Alone: A Devotional Commentary on Romans]
In the first part of the text [Romans 10:14], Paul says, ‘How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?’ Then he adds, in our translation, ‘How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?’ This translation is incorrect, however. It is only an error of a little word of two letters, but this little error makes a world of difference as to the meaning. In the original, the text does not read, ‘OF whom they have not heard.’ Very differently it reads, ‘WHOM they have not heard.’ You can hear OF someone. This implies that the one of whom you hear is not there. You do not hear that person. You hear about him. But when you hear HIM, you hear that person himself. This is quite different. As the hymn has it, ‘I heard the voice of Jesus say, Come unto Me and rest.’ This is something quite different than saying, ‘I know that the voice of Jesus says, Come unto Me and rest.’ A preacher is not one who speaks about Christ. Anyone can do that. Anyone can speak about Christ. A preacher is a man through whom it pleases CHRIST to speak. This is quite different.
(b)
[Source: Righteous By Faith Alone: A Devotional Commentary on Romans]
We cannot hear [the voice of Christ] unless there be preaching. ‘How shall they hear without a preacher?’ [Romans 10:14]. Without a preacher it is impossible to hear Christ. Perhaps you say, ‘Yes, that may have been true at the time of the apostles, for the heathen world. But that is no longer true for us. We have our Bibles. At the time of the apostles, they did not have Bibles. We have all kinds of tracts. It is not necessary anymore to have a preacher in order to hear Christ.’
If you mean that it is not necessary to have a preacher to know ‘about’ Christ, what you say is true. But if you are really saying, ‘I can just as well stay at home on Sunday and read my Bible and have my own spiritual gatherings,’ you contradict Christ. You can baptize your child at home and eat bread and drink wine at home, but if your child does not receive more than water, and if you receive no more than bread and wine, you do not receive Christ. And if you have edifying gatherings, you do not hear the word of Christ. You hear ‘about’ him, but you do not hear *him*.
Therefore, let us rather hear the word of the text and say, ‘How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!’ How beautiful are the feet; that is, how welcome are they who preach the gospel of peace ...
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(VI)
More to come! (DV)
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