How Will They Hear?

Read‍

Romans 10:13-15 "'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' 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? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'"

Think

Try tracing your own faith backwards.

Somebody told you. Before that, somebody told them. Go back far enough and you find a person who invited a person who invited a person, and the chain runs unbroken all the way to a handful of people standing on a hillside two thousand years ago.

You are downstream of somebody's courage. Every single person who follows Jesus is.

That is the argument Paul is making here, and he builds it like a set of stairs going backwards.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on someone they have not believed in? And how can they believe in someone they have never heard of? And how can they hear unless somebody tells them?

Read that chain slowly and notice where it stops.

It does not stop at God being willing. That was never in question. It does not stop at whether the person is capable of believing. Paul walks the whole thing back and it comes to rest on one thing: somebody has to say something.

God did not have to set it up this way. He could have written the gospel across the sky in a language everybody understands. He does not need you. He chose a system that runs on people telling other people, which is either the most encouraging thing in this passage or the most uncomfortable, depending on the day.

Now, the word “preaching” in verse 14 throws students off, so let us be clear about it. Paul is not describing a stage or a microphone. The word is closer to announcing, the way you would announce that something happened. It is what you already do when a game goes into overtime or a friend gets into the school they wanted. You tell people. Loudly. Without preparing.

You already know how to do this. You do it constantly about everything else.

Then look at verse 15, because Paul closes with a strange compliment. "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news."

Feet. Not mouths, which is what you would expect in a passage about telling people. Not minds. Feet, because feet are what get a person from where they are to where somebody else is.

It is a picture of somebody arriving. In the ancient world news traveled at exactly the speed a person could run, so if there had been a battle, you sat in your city with no idea whether you had won or lost until somebody came over the hill. Seeing feet on the road meant the news had arrived.

Paul is saying that showing up counts. Going to somebody counts. The unglamorous, physical act of getting yourself into the same room as another person and opening your mouth is called beautiful in the Bible.

And do not miss the last question in the chain. How can anyone preach unless they are sent? You are not doing this on your own authority or by your own idea. You are sent, which means somebody is behind you.

So somebody once did this for you, probably nervously.

Who is waiting on the other end of your feet this week?

Apply

Thank the person who told you. At some point you were the one who needed to be invited. Somebody told you, and it may have been your mom, or a friend who kept asking after you said no, or a leader whose name you barely remember, and you are reading this because they were brave enough. Find out who that was and thank them today. Then be the next link instead of the place the chain stops. Send one text to one person about tomorrow: One Night, 7:00 p.m., and you are coming to get them.

Pray

God, somebody was brave enough to tell me, and I have never really thought about what that cost them. Thank you for putting them in my life. Help me be the next link instead of the place where the chain stops. Send me to somebody this week. In Jesus' name. Amen.