How then shall they call on him in whom they, have
not
believed?
&c.] The apostle having observed, that whoever, Jew or
Gentile, believe in the Lord and call upon his name, shall be
saved; and that the same Lord was ready and willing to dispense
his grace, without any difference to them; suggests, that it was
therefore absolutely necessary, that the Gospel should be
preached to the Gentiles, as well as to the Jews; that it was the
will of God it should be; that what he and others did, was by a
divine commission; that they were sent by the Lord to preach the
Gospel to them; that hearing they might believe, and so call upon
the name of the Lord, and be saved; and therefore the Jews ought
not to blame them for so doing, for there was a real necessity
for it, since there can be no true calling upon God without
faith, no faith without hearing, no hearing without preaching,
and no preaching without a divine mission. The first of these is
signified by this interrogation. Every man calls upon the God he
believes in, and him only; this has been the practice of all men,
in all nations; such as have not believed in God and Christ, do
not call upon them; it is true indeed, there may be an external
invocation of them, where there is no true faith; but then this
is not calling upon them in truth and sincerity; as is their
faith, so is their calling upon them; as the one is historical,
the other is only external; there is no true invocation without
faith, or any that is acceptable to God, or of any avail to men;
for calling on the name of the Lord, as it ought to be practised
in all religious worship, so it includes and every part of
worship as done in faith:
and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not
heard?
the meaning is, that there is no faith in Christ without hearing
of him; as it is in human, so in divine faith, there may be
believing without seeing, but not without hearing; so we believe
that there were such men as Alexander and Julius Caesar, and
other persons now in being, though we never saw them, having
heard of them, or had a report made of them, which we have reason
to give credit to; so there may be, and is faith in Christ
without seeing him with our bodily eyes, though not without
hearing of him; for of an unheard of person, there can be no
faith in him, because no exercise of thought about him. This is
to be understood of outward hearing of the word, and of adult
persons only; for that, infants may have the grace of
regeneration, and so faith wrought in them by the Spirit of God,
without hearing the word, is not to be denied; since as they are
capable of the principles of corruption, why not of grace? and
also of such persons as have the right and free exercise of the
faculties of hearing and speaking, and not of such who never
could hear, and speak; for as the Spirit works where, and how he
pleases, so he can work faith in the hearts of such persons who
never heard the word, and enable them to exercise it on the
proper object, and cause them secretly to call upon the name of
the Lord, with groans which cannot be uttered. Moreover, this is
to be, understood of the ordinary way and means of believing; for
though God can, and sometimes does work by other means, and even
without any, yet his usual way and method is, to bring men to
faith and repentance by the hearing of the word:
and how shall they hear without a preacher?
or there is no hearing without, preaching; there may be reading
without it, and this ought to be where there is preaching, to see
that what is preached is agreeably to the Scriptures; but there
is no hearing the word explained without preaching; explaining
the word is preaching. There is no hearing of Christ, and
salvation by him, without the preaching of the Gospel; the usual
and ordinary way of hearing from God, and of Christ, is by the
ministry of the word: this shows not only the necessity and
usefulness of the Gospel ministry, but also points out the
subject matter of it, which is Christ, and him crucified. They
that preach ought to preach concerning the person of Christ, his
offices, grace, righteousness, blood, sacrifice and satisfaction,
otherwise men may hear the preacher, and not hear Christ.