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 they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
MacArthur:
Only those who call on the name of the Lord can be saved. In other words, only those who ask can be saved. Only those who ask on God's terms. Only those who ask properly, understanding who Christ is, who God is and what the salvation provision is, only those who come on God's terms and ask can be saved. Then none can be saved who don't call, true? If only those who call are saved, then none can be saved who don't call. And none can call unless they believe, right? And none can believe unless they hear. And none can hear unless somebody tells them. And nobody can tell them unless they're sent....
You see, how are they going to call on one in whom they haven't believed? They're not. And how are they going to believe in Him of whom they haven't heard? They're not. And how are they going to hear without a preacher? They're not. And how are they going to preach except they be sent? They're not....God had to send preachers. There's no other way to believe than to hear the truth....
The gospel if it came to anybody, the saving message if it came to anybody, was sent by God, right? Was sent by God. And have you forgotten that God sent preachers beyond Israel? Have you forgotten that? Have you forgotten that not only Jonah but other of the prophets preached the message of repentance and faith to other nations? And have you forgotten that Jesus came to go beyond Israel? That the Apostles, including Paul, extended the gospel beyond the Jew?
Listen, the point is this, God has sent preachers beyond the Jew and that expresses the heart of God in His intention for salvation. The gospel is for whosoever. And God proved it by sending preachers to Jew and Gentile.
Did they miss this? Did they forget about Jonah? Go unto a bunch of wicked pagans? Did they forget that God cared about a whole world of people? Did they think God only cared about them and their ingrown exclusivity? And so he reminds them in verse 15, "As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring good news of good things." How beautiful are the feet of them that bring good news of good things...There's no real beauty in the feet. The beauty is in the message the feet are bringing
Isaiah 52:7-10
7 How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
they will see it with their own eyes.
9 Burst into songs of joy together,
you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
the salvation of our God.
How beautiful the feet of those who come bringing the good news of good things. And they were beautiful not just to the Jew who was hearing about the coming redemption in the future age but to the whole world as the salvation message extended to the ends of the earth. And when they heard him quote Isaiah 52:7 they should have remembered that this salvation message was to extend to the end of the earth. How sad...how very very sad that they missed the proportions of salvation and they thought they had to reject it because it was a Gentile message and all along in their own Old Testament Isaiah and Joel and again Isaiah indicated that salvation would extend far beyond the nation Israel...far beyond. It is a gospel to include all.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 10:16-21
No comments:
Post a Comment