Preaching

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

The greatest need that every person has is their need to hear the Gospel! The Gospel is God’s power unto salvation (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:18). It is by the hearing of the Gospel that faith is obtained (Rom. 10:17), and without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). God has not left mankind to wander aimlessly through life trying to figure out on our own how to please Him, but He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) in order that we have instruction in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). Of all of the ways that God could have seen that mankind learn the Gospel He chose that it be preached. Before Jesus ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of God, He commissioned His apostles to carry the Gospel into all the world and to preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:18-20). In the tenth chapter of Romans, Paul addresses the need for preaching the Gospel, and this need is one that is very much needed today.

In Romans 10 the apostle Paul points out the purpose for preaching. There are many today that do not understand the purpose of preaching. Some think that preaching is boring, or maybe it is just another act of worship that is done because it is a tradition. We need Gospel preaching and need to understand the purpose of preaching. Paul points out the purpose for preaching by pointing out that Israel needed to be saved (v.1). Paul makes this statement by stating that this is his desire and prayer to God that Israel might be saved. Paul understood that the Gospel needed to be preached and Israel needed to hear the Gospel in order that they might obey. There was a purpose for preaching to Israel because they were zealous for God, but they did not have knowledge, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, trying to establish their own righteousness and would not submit to God. The purpose of preaching the Gospel was that these that believed they could obey God in the way they had known and thought it was the best way might learn of their ignorance of God’s commands. They were only fooling themselves and needed to hear the truth and obey the truth. The truth that they needed to know was that Christ is the end (aim, goal) of the Old Testament Law of which they were zealous. The Jews were given a stumbling block (1 Cor. 1:23) by preaching Christ. Christ was the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law and He had taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross (Col. 2:14). Now there was a New Covenant in place (Matt. 26:28), and the Jews would not believe these facts, but Paul knew the need the Jews had to hear this message and desired that they hear it. We need to understand the purpose of preaching as we may have loved ones that may have some type of zeal for God which is not according to the Gospel message, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and need to hear the Gospel preached in order that they might be saved.

The Gospel message needs to be preached because it is a message of power. In verses five through thirteen Paul gives contrast between the Old Testament Law and the Gospel. The Old Testament was a law that required that those living by it would have to be perfect. There was a word that was nigh to them, even in their mouths, it was the word of faith, and was a message that was preached (preached by John the Baptist, preached by Christ, preached by the apostles, rejected by the Jews). The preaching of the Gospel was different from the Old Law in that it had the power that was lacking in the Old Law (Heb. 10:4). The Gospel has the power to save people from their sins, but the Old Law required a yearly atonement for sins. The word was in their mouths and in their hearts (Rom. 10:8) and if they would confess Jesus then they would be saved because it is with the heat that we believe and the mouth that we confess (Rom. 10:9-10). Of course, this is not proving the false doctrine of faith only or confession only. This does prove that confession is necessary in order to be saved, as is repentance and baptism (see Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16), but the Jews, the one’s Paul is addressing, would not confess or believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and the Gospel that Paul was preaching to them proclaimed the fact that Jesus was the Christ/Messiah and this fact could not be ignored. The Gospel has the power to save both Jew and Gentile and anyone that will believe and obey it may be saved.

Because the Gospel has the power to save it needs to be preached. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord (obeys the commands in the Gospel) will be saved (Rom. 10:13), but how will they call on Him whom they have not heard and how will they hear except it be preached (Rom. 10:14). Because there are lost souls in the world that will go to face the Lord in Judgment someday (2 Cor. 5:10), and knowing that the only thing that will save them on that day is their obedience to the Gospel, there is a great need that we preach the Gospel. Paul would exhort Timothy to “preach the Word in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2), and this is the same charge to which we must take heed today. Souls are in danger and eternity hangs in the balance and the only message that will save is the Gospel. May we never fail to preach the Word!