Bottom line up front (BLUF):
The gospel message (Paul’s short version here - Jesus is LORD and God raised Him from the dead) creates our faith.
The opening word of this verse demands that we go back to find its context. ’So’, the opening to a summary, like ‘therefore’ indicates that the fuller explanation has already occurred.
So, going back to the beginning of this topic, takes us to the beginning of chapter 10. It opens with Paul expressing his love and desire for his people to come to salvation. But, not unlike many we may encounter, they are ignorant of God’s righteousness and intensely energetic in making up their own rules to cover for their ignorance. Not only do they not submit to God’s righteousness, I too often find myself in the same struggle. There are times when my rules are more comfortable than God’s truth. When I define what righteousness is, and don’t pay too close attention to not even following the rules I’ve created, I find myself right there with them. Possibly even holding at a distance those who don’t conform to my understanding.
This very verse is an object lesson in how my perspective can be off - and I can’t blame the ambiguities of the English language for all of it. But I’ll get to that later.
In verse 4, Paul says “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes”. Amplify that a bit with his words in Ephesians 2:15 -16“In His flesh, he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death.”
While this deals immediately with Greeks and Jews in Christ, it also seems to strongly infer the fusing (completing to use another scripture reference) of the law of God and His righteousness in this one man/God body as an offering on behalf of men to reconcile them to God.
As Paul continues to extoll the blessing of Christ - stating that all who call on His name will be saved, he asks four questions:
1 - How, then can the call on him they have not believed in?
2 - And how can they believe without hearing about him?
3 - And how can they hear without a preacher?
4 - And how can they preach unless they are sent?
And then, he approaches the ‘Hearing’ memory verse from the ‘Word Hand’ illustration.
I started out with my prefered transalation (NASB) which renders Romans 10:17 as:
So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
But, after reading some explanation of the Greek words by Wuest (I’d recommend picking up his New Testament word studies - usually sold in four volumes) and his references to other scholars’ work in this passage, I switched to the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) version which reads:
So, faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes from the message about Christ.
NASB is not, in my opinion, wrong. Many reputable translations use that or very similar wording. But, after reading the context and linguistic scholars’ work, it seems that the HCSB rendition makes it easier to see the focus of the verse. The Gospel - not my hearing.
And, if it is the message, then it is Jesus that is the focus, and God Who raised Him from the dead. It is His story that creates faith. I don’t want to conflate this with mystic and pagan thoughts on the creative power of words but, in context, it does appear that the message about Christ does create the faith that saves us. And that appears to be the point of this verse - instead of a learning taxonomy based on my efforts. While all do not accept and submit to this message - another long topic for another day - it is the entry point to understanding God’s word at least in that it creates the entry through which we become part of His family.
If this understanding is correct, it also would lend - instead of me ensuring that I hear more often so as to understand better - to efforts to ensure that the gospel, the message about Christ is proclaimed because this message is what regenerates man.
Some have said that I am a Christian because that is (or was) the predominant message being proclaimed im my setting. Therefore, their reasoning goes, that those in other countries will respond and, mostly, believe the predominant message in their context. So, from an obtuse angle, their argument confirms the Bible’s assertion that the Gospel creates faith. Is this argument, with the context of Romans 10, not a pressing call for the message about Christ to be proclaimed in all nations?
Once again, it has gotten late. Good night.
