Choosing Unbelief

February 10th, 2025
by Dr. D. Lance Waldie

Romans 10:16-18 However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. 18 But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

The primary focus group in Romans 9-11 is Israel as a nation. Paul began chapter 10 by expressing his longing for the Israelites to be saved (10:1), and he has developed his argument by showing how they have had chance after chance to receive Jesus as their promised Messiah. So, in v. 16, “they” is clearly a reference to Israel. In fact, the entire paragraph concerns Israel’s negative response to the gospel of Jesus as the Messiah, for “they did not all heed the good news.” Notably, Paul did not say, They did not all believe the gospel; rather, he says, they failed to “heed” (Gr. hupakouō) the gospel. To use the word “heed”—to listen to; obey—instead of “believe” just means that the two go hand-in-hand. To believe in Christ is to heed Christ, to listen to and obey Christ. So, although the feet of those who brought the gospel to them were beautiful (v. 15), the Jews failed to receive Christ. The problem was them, not the gospel.

Quoting from Isaiah 53:1 in v. 16, Paul wondered, as Isaiah had, whether anyone listened to God’s word, whether anyone believed. If faith comes from hearing the “word of Christ,” either from Jesus Himself or from His messengers, then certainly all who hear His words should believe? But that did not happen. Israel did hear the gospel—witnessing Jesus heal the blind and sick, even witnessing His death and resurrection. But they failed to heed the gospel. It therefore follows that just hearing the gospel preached does not guarantee salvation. Yet for faith to be awakened, it must be heard. The gospel is not an exclusive word from Christ meant only for a few; it is a message for all (10:12). All who hear it are responsible to believe and obey it.

The Jews, at the time of Paul’s writing of Romans, had indeed heard the gospel. Paul affirms this in v. 18. Then he quotes from their Scriptures: “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world,” a quote from King David in Psalm 19:4. Of course David was talking about God’s natural revelation of the heavens which declare God’s glory—a personification of the creation itself preaching the good news about its Creator. Israel had absolutely seen God’s creation, for they believed in Him as the Creator (cf. Gen. 1-2). But Psalm 19 is not celebrating the worldwide declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul knew that. Paul is merely using Psalm 19 as an analogy, for as the message of God permeates all of nature, so too has the message of God’s work in Christ gone forth to the world. Psalm 19:4, then, would be symbolic of the spread of the gospel that comes through the preaching of evangelists and preachers. Stott attests to this, saying, “If God wants the general revelation of His glory to be universal, how much more must He want the special revelation of His grace to be universal too!”

Food for Thought

The gospel has gone into all the earth; Christ’s words to the end of the world (v. 18)—“the gospel that you heard which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven” (Col. 1:23). Truly, the gospel, when Paul wrote Romans around AD 57, had gone into the entire Jewish world in and around the Roman Empire. No one was in the dark about what had happened to the Jewish carpenter from Nazareth and His scattered disciples who were preaching everywhere about His death and resurrection. As a result, all were (and are) responsible for knowing the truth about Christ and trusting in Him. Reflecting back on Romans 9, we recall that God elects some for salvation. But here in Romans 10, we see that all are personally responsible for believing in Jesus Christ. No one can say, “I wasn’t elected to believe!” Unbelievers simply choose unbelief.