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The Responsibility to Believe, Rejoice, and Never Give Up
Romans 10:14-21, Acts 2:43-47
Mari Ikeda
Today we are going to read the second half of Romans 10. The last part of our previous reading said that anyone who believes in the Lord will be saved, and this left us with the question, “then, will those who do not believe in the Lord perish?” The answer to this question is “No.” There is no teaching in the Bible that says you will go to hell if you do not have faith while you are alive. Nevertheless, the question of what differentiates those who have faith from those who do not seems to be of great interest both in biblical times and today.
Paul, the writer of this letter, attempts to explain this in the next chapter eleven starting with today’s reading. Paul consistently does not condemn those who do not have faith, but rather warns against those who have faith first. This is because those who have faith, first have the responsibility to continue to share their faith. But that responsibility, as we will see in today’s reading, is not one that we reluctantly fulfill out of a sense of obligation, but one that we take joy in fulfilling.
Now let’s read a bit at a time starting with verses 14-15.
A. Faith begins with “hearing”
1. There needs to be a messenger(14-15)
14 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? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
It is obvious, without hearing about Jesus from someone, none of us can know about Him. God is not looking down on us from high up in the sky and far away, but He wants to come down right beside us and walk with each of us in our lives, and we will never know that He is like that unless we hear about Him from someone else. That is why those of us who have heard about Jesus and believed in him have the responsibility to tell others about him.
However, this responsibility should be fulfilled naturally through our entire way of life, rather than by explaining Jesus with our mouths. We’ll come back to this later, so for now let’s move on to the next part, verses 16-17.
2. Some people will hear, but not believe (16-17)
16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
This is also obvious, but there will be people who hear about Jesus, but do not believe. In other words, even if we tell them about Jesus through our lives, they still will not believe. The reason for this can be found in verse 17, “The message is heard through the word of Christ”.
It is not clear what Paul was trying to say here, as evidenced by the slight difference in nuance between English and Japanese. But perhaps he meant that hearing about and believing in Jesus begins with receiving His words as something that is directed to us. It happens in the relationship between each person and Jesus, and it is something that others cannot intervene in, but only Jesus can. That is what we need to remember We need to remember as we continue to communicate with humility without giving up.
Let’s continue to verse 18.
3. Paul’s dynamic interpretation of the Old Testament (18)
18 But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
The “they” that Paul is referring to here when he says, “Did they not hear?” are the Jews who were Paul’s peers. Paul seems to have thought that everyone in the Roman Empire, Jews and Gentiles, had already heard about Jesus by the time he wrote this letter. Since the Roman Empire was the whole world to the people of that time, Paul may not have felt uncomfortable quoting the Old Testament words here, “Their words went out to the ends of the world.”
But this is not quite true for those of us living in the modern world. The world is a big place, and there are many people who have never heard of what Christianity teaches, even in a land where Christianity was introduced, like Japan. So I think it’s safe to say that this verse 18 is not really relevant to us.
However, I think that even for the key people of Paul’s time, this verse 18 was not very convincing. This is because the Old Testament quotation is a bit forced. I will skip the detailed explanation as I want to move on now, so if you are interested, please read the manuscript on the website later!
As follows:
Paul is quoting Psalm 19:5 here, but the context of Psalm 19 is a song of praise for God’s work of creation. The song says that the glory of God, who created the natural world, extends to the ends of the earth. In contrast, what Paul wanted to say was that Jesus’ words reached to the ends of the world. God’s glory as seen in the splendor of nature and God’s love as seen in the special event of Jesus’ cross are two different things. It is impossible to interpret them as the same thing. I think it is fair to say that this is a forceful and expansive interpretation of the Old Testament due to the limitations of the international sense of the time, when the Roman Empire was the whole world.
Now let’s move on to the second half, Verses 19-20.
B. Will those who hear but not believe be destroyed?
1. Those who don’t believe will envy those who do (19-20, 3:43-47）
19 Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, “I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.” 20 And Isaiah boldly says, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”
Paul is trying to say that there is nothing surprising about people not believing in Jesus when they hear about him, but that it was prophesied in the Old Testament. That’s why he quotes a lot from the Old Testament. As for the Isaiah prophecy in verse 20, this is a prophecy that “the Gentiles will come to believe in God.” It is a prophecy that not God’s chosen people, the Israelites, later the Jews, but foreigners who are supposed to be ignorant of God will come to know and believe in Him. We know that the gospel of Jesus is given to all people regardless of race or ethnicity, so it doesn’t really make sense to us when we are told that the faith of the Gentiles is prophesied. But the prophecy can be interpreted this way. It means that who will hear about Jesus and come to believe in Him is so much broader than we can assume.
Next, going back to verse 19, the quote is from Deuteronomy, which is also similar to Isaiah’s prophecy, saying that the nations will be blessed. However, what is different from Isaiah’s prophecy is that Deuteronomy says that the Israelites will be jealous when they see the different peoples being blessed. In other words, the reason why God awakens those who believe in Him is to cause envy among those who do not believe in Him. In other words, the reason why some people do not believe in Jesus when they hear about Him is for them to become jealous of those who believe in Him first. Paul mentions this again in chapter 11, saying, “in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them” (11:14).
What kind of envy is this envy? For a hint, I would like to read part of Acts chapter 2.
43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:43-47)
This was what the first church looked like when it was just born. The Holy Spirit was working abundantly, and the believers were supporting each other materially and spiritually, worshipping God constantly. The people who saw them were afraid of them, but at the same time, they favored them. I think this is what Paul is referring to as the “envy” that the non-believers have for believers.
Conversely, those of us who believed first must live in such a way that those who have not yet believed will be envious of us. It does not mean that we have to live in a splendid way, but it means that we have to rely on the work of the Holy Spirit, help each other, and constantly rejoice in God, just like the people in the first church. It is not a performance to be shown to others, but a sincere belief, joy, and worship of God with all of our lives. We can say that we are to love each other, forgive each other, and live in a way that serves all people, just as Jesus gave his life to love us. God wants people to come to believe in Him through us, so He has given us the responsibility and entrusted us with the work, but all we have to do is be willing to live with Jesus ourselves. Or when we can’t rejoice because we don’t understand Jesus anymore, we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us without hiding our weakness.
Paul’s first question in verse 19 was, “So then, did Israel not understand?” He means, if they heard the gospel and did not believe, did they not understand the gospel? The answer to this question is what we have been talking about so far, but I think you will notice that Paul has changed the point. Paul tells us that God has not abandoned those who hear but do not believe, but rather that even their unbelief is part of God’s plan. He leaves them to those who have believed first, and at the same time, He continues to speak to them Himself. Let’s read the last verse, verse 21.
2. God never gives up (21)
21 But concerning Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
Rebelling against God by the people He loves has not changed since the time of the Old Testament. The book of Isaiah quoted here, as well as the entire Old Testament, can be said to tell us about a God who continued to hold out his hand “All day long to a disobedient and obstinate people”. And those of us who have made up our minds to believe in Jesus are all just people who finally noticed such a God and took the hand that was held out to them. Even after believing in Jesus, there are many times when we forget about Him and live our lives selfishly. But through Jesus, we have learned that God never gives up on anyone and continues to reach out to us. So we can believe that God never gives up on us or anyone else, but continues to love us.
In Japan, there are far more people who do not believe in Jesus, and I think most of the people around us do not believe either. God has entrusted us with those people, and we have a responsibility to tell them about Jesus. That responsibility is for us to believe in Jesus ourselves, to rejoice, and to not give up on anyone.
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, we will not hide our weaknesses in front of you now. We have grieved you and hurt others, but you have forgiven us many times and never given up on us. Change us so that we can trust in the magnitude of your compassion and share your love with those around us, even if only a little. Enable us not to rely on our own strength, but on Your Spirit. Lord Jesus, we pray in your name. Amen.
Summary
The Bible teaches that “those who believe in the Lord will be saved,” but it doesn’t teach that those who don’t believe will be destroyed. It teaches that those who believe in Jesus first have the responsibility of sharing the gospel with others. This responsibility has more to do with believing in Jesus, rejoicing in the privilege of walking with him, and not giving up hope regardless of our circumstances, than it does with explaining what we know about Jesus. We also have the responsibility of continuing to believe that God loves all people with an unrelenting love.
For Discussion
1. Why are there people who hear, but don’t believe?
2. What is the “envy” described in verse 19?
For the children (and their caretakers)
In Japan, the number of people who do not believe in Jesus is overwhelmingly large, and most of the people around us do not believe either. Those of us who met Jesus first have a responsibility to tell them about Him. But our responsibility is not to explain or teach them about Jesus, but to live in such a way that they will look at us and think, “I like that.” It doesn’t have to be a splendid way of life, but the way we seek Jesus even when we are in pain, the way we know we don’t have to hide our weaknesses, the way we support each other in church. Believing and rejoicing in Jesus ourselves will fulfill our responsibility to tell others about Him.