Romans 10:14

"How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" Plainly in these words he says this: by the words "How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?" he taught that what he had set down above as spoken by the prophet — that "everyone whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" — is to be referred to Christ the Lord.

This is why you first learned the creed. Here is a rule of your faith which is both short and long—short in the number of words, long because of the weight of the thoughts.

For "a people," he says, "whom I knew not hath served me; in obedience of the ear it hath obeyed me." Prophets made the announcement.

"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." Here again he takes from them all excuse. For since he had said, "I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge," and that "being ignorant of God's righteousness, they submitted not themselves" to it: he next shows, that for this ignorance itself they were punishable before God. This he does not say indeed so, but he makes it good by carrying on his discourse in the way of question, and so convicting them more clearly, by framing the whole passage out of objections and answers. But look further back. The Prophet, saith he, said, "Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved." Now somebody might say perhaps, "But how could they call upon Him Whom they had not believed? Then there is a question from him after the objection; And why did they not believe? Then an objection again. A person certainly may say, And how could they believe, since they had not heard? Yet hear they did, he implies. Then another objection again. "And how could they hear without a preacher?" Then an answer again. Yet preach they did, and there were many sent forth for this very purpose. And whence does it appear that these are those persons sent? Then he brings the prophet in next, who says, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" You see how by the kind of preaching he points out the preachers. For there was nothing else that these men went about telling everywhere, but those unspeakable good things, and the peace made by God with men. […]

He said above that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now he reproaches the Jews for not having called on the name of the Lord. Why then did they not call? Because they did not believe. And why did …

Then when he says, how then shall they call on him, he presents the order in which one is called to salvation, which is from faith. In regard to this he does two things: first, he shows that the later steps in this order cannot …

The beginning, progress, and strength of faith, are by hearing. The word of God is therefore called the word of faith: it begets and nourishes faith. God gives faith, but it is by the word as the instrument.

(1.) They cannot call on him in whom they have not believed. Except they believe that he is God, they will not call upon him by prayer; to what purpose should they? The grace of faith is absolutely necessary to the duty of prayer; we cannot pray aright, nor pray to acceptation, without it.

He here shows the folly of that mistake, and what an unreasonable thing it was for them to be seeking justification by the works of the law, now that Christ had come, and had brought in an everlasting righteousness; considering, 1. The subserviency of the law to the gospel (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

How then shall they call on him in whom they, have not believed?....

PLEASE notice, dear Friends, that in the 13th verse we have the way of salvation set before us in the plainest terms— "Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." I remember well when I lived on that verse for many months. I longed for salvation. I could not see that there was any way of hope for me. I thought that I must be left out, that I was too sinful, or too hard, or too something or other, so that others might be saved, but I could not be.

PLEASE notice, dear Friends, that in the 13th verse we have the way of salvation set before us in the plainest terms— "Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." I remember well when I lived on that verse for many months. I longed for salvation. I could not see that there was any way of hope for me. I thought that I must be left out, that I was too sinful, or too hard, or too something or other, so that others might be saved, but I could not be. But when I read this verse, I did what I ask you to do, I caught at it—it seemed like a life-line thrown to a sinking man! I clung to it and it became a life buoy to me—"Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." "Ah," I thought, "I do call on that blessed name. I will call on that glorious name! If I perish, I will never cease to invoke that sacred name." An invocation of the name of God, a trusting in God and a consequent calling upon God and acknowledgment of God— this it is that saves the soul! But I must get you to notice these words a little more in detail. There is here, first, a wide word, a very wide word— "Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. "Whoever.''" I have heard that, when a person is making his will, if he wishes to leave all he has to one person, say to his wife, if he just says so, that is the best thing he can do. But he had better not go into details and begin making a list of what he is leaving because he will probably leave something or other out! Now, in order to make this will of God very distinct, He does not go into any detail, but He just says, "Whoever." That means the black man, the red man, the brown man, the yellow man and the white man. It means the rich man, the poor man and the man who is not a man! It means everybody of every sort and those who are of no sort at all—or of all sorts put together.

How then shall they call. ... - The apostle here adverts to an objection which might be urged to his argument. His doctrine was, that faith in Christ was essential to justification and salvation; and that this was needful for all; and that, without this, man must perish. The objection was, that they could not call on him in whom they had not believed; that they could not believe in him of whom they had not heard; and that this was arranged by God himself, so that a large part of the world was destitute of the gospel, and in fact did not believe; Rom 10:16-17. The objection had particular reference to the Jews; and the ground of injustice which a Jew would complain of, would be, that the plan made salvation dependent on faith, when a large part of the nation had not heard the gospel, and had had no opportunity to know it. This objection the apostle meets, so far as it was of importance to his argument, in Rom 10:18-21. The first part of the objection is, that they could “not call on him in whom they had not believed.” That is, how could they call on one in whose existence, ability, and willingness to help, they did not believe? The objection is, that in order to our calling on one for help, we must be satisfied that there is such a being, and that he is able to aid us. This remark is just, and every man feels it. But the point of the objection is, that “sufficient evidence of the divine mission and claims of Jesus Christ had not been given to authorize the doctrine that eternal salvation depended on belief in him, or that it would be right to suspend the eternal happiness of few and Gentile on this.” How shall they believe in him ... - This position is equally undeniable, that people could not believe in a being of whom they had not heard. […]