God’s Gospel - The Cause and the Means! (Romans 9-11)

 Romans 10:14-17 (ESV)

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

This is such a powerful passage. To fully appreciate it you have to recall what Paul has previously written in chapter 9.   He has been teaching us the theological concept of “election.”  Paul has told us that the “elect” (those whom God chooses for salvation) are in contrast with those God does not choose to give mercy.   A key teaching truth in chapter 9 is:

Romans 9:15-18 (ESV)

For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

This truth obviously makes it sound like salvation is totally on God’s side.   But, as John MacArthur states:

Only lopsided and unbiblical theologies put everything on God’s side or everything on man’s side. In order to produce salvation, God’s unmerited grace demands man’s positive response. Inherent in God’s eternal plan of salvation is man’s obedient faith. In perhaps the most concise and beautiful statement of the gospel, Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever “believes” in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16, emphasis added).

The above passage tells us that God has designed the mystery of Salvation to include someone preaching the Gospel and someone “believing” Gospel as the “tool” for receiving God’s grace.   God’s “grace” (His unmerited favor) is the “means” of salvation, but the preaching the Gospel by men and the believing the Gospel by men is the “cause.”  We are all outside the circle of God’s holiness.  We all deserve His wrath. We all deserve His justice.  But God reaches from within His holiness to extend grace on those whom He will.   To do that He sends men to preach the Gospel and requires belief from men to receive the Gospel.   That is salvation.   The “cause” and the “means” are not opposed to each other.   They are simultaneously working on concert to make the mystery of salvation glorifying to God.