A Necessary Link

September 6, 2019

But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? Romans 10:14 NLT

In last week’s message we were given a bottom line that stirred much thinking: “The pathway to salvation and eternal life is not intuitive. It must be explained.” Isn’t there a possibility that some people are completely ignorant in their knowledge of God, and yet somehow find their way to Christ? Well, God can do anything, and we know that nothing is beyond His power. But I think most of us would agree that finding Jesus is something that certainly most of us have not been able to do on our own. Somewhere, somehow, we must get the information necessary to form a place for our faith to stand.

The apostle Paul was desperate for the Jews, the people of his heritage, to come to saving faith. He is writing to fellow believers in Romans 10, and he lays out his passion and how they must turn to Christ. He shares that God has made salvation available to both Jew and Gentile and has declared, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!” Then he launches into this series of questions. “How can they call on someone to save them unless they have believed in Him? How can they believe in someone unless they have heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?” These are obviously rhetorical questions.

Paul then goes on to say that while Jesus was here, God showed Himself to the Jews and not all of them believed. The rest of the discussion states that God’s voice goes out to all the earth. The discussion is very interesting and thought-provoking. Consider this: The statement “The pathway to salvation and eternal life is not intuitive. It must be explained.” is like a proverb. A proverb is generally true. For instance, when Proverbs 22:6 says “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it,” it is stating a general principle that is true more often than not. A parent will be very wise to heed it because children most of the time return to the way they were raised, even if they stray for a while. God never takes away a person’s free will and choice, but the chances for salvation are greatly improved if a child is brought up that way.

In the same manner, sometimes people can discover Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life without obvious human participation, but it is very unusual and unlikely. God has chosen to use us as witnesses and links to Him. Since that is the norm, we are wise to participate with God in His chosen and most frequent way of exposing people to the good news of salvation.

• Pray: God, there are people for whom I am the most likely link. Help me be Your representative.