Chapter # 10 Paragraph # 3 Study # 3
September 16, 2018
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: Faith requires a "hearing" and arises out of it, and the "hearing" requires a "sent-herald" and arises through it.
Introduction: In our previous study we considered Paul's admission that "good news of good things" does not always produce the expected enthusiasm that good news should produce. Paul's argument is that there is a validity to the good news even though the reaction is not what we would typically expect. However, he deliberately admits that a negative response is not only expected, but is, actually, the majority response. This might indicate that he was anticipating the rather typical counter-argument that it is the majority response that defines legitimacy. This argument, though used by the vast majority of humanity for all manner of justifications of decisions made, has never been able to stand the test of reality in both prophecy and history. But, whether this was in his mind, or not, we are led by his reasoning to accept the fact that "salvation" does occur for those who do "believe" the divine word.
But, in our study for this evening, we are going to look into the conclusions that Paul drew from both the progression from "salvation" backwards to "having the saving words delivered by someone who has been sent" as well as the question of Isaiah as recorded in Isaiah 53:1: "Lord, who has believed our report?".
- I. Paul's Progression of Thought.
- A. The two larger "thoughts".
- 1. Paul is a legitimate messenger for the "saving" message.
- 2. The Jews have always resisted the words of God so that, now, God has "moved on" to offer His words to the Gentiles.
- 3. These larger thoughts are in an exact alignment with Isaiah 53:1.
- a. Isaiah was, according to 6:8-13, also a legitimate "sent one".
- b. His own admission was, according to 53:1, that the good news was being rejected by the nation just as he was told it would be at the point of his commissioning.
- B. The more immediate "thoughts".
- 1. Within the elements that lead to salvation (from, in reverse order, someone being sent with a legitimate message to others being saved by calling upon the name of the Lord), Paul selects two.
- a. The first is the question of how one comes to "believe" (so that he/she might "call" and "be saved").
- b. The second is the question of how the required content of truth that is to be "believed" is delivered.
- 2. His focus is upon how Isaiah 53:1 supports the required "chain of events".
- a. This use of Isaiah 53:1 assumes the contextual setting of the original commissioning found in Isaiah 6:8-13.
- b. But the key issues of Isaiah 53:1 are fundamentally also two.
- 1) The "problem" of the paucity of desired response in Judah ("...who has believed...").
- 2) The key issue is the "good news of good things" encapsulated in the words "our report".
- a) The word translated "report" is the noun form of the verb translated "hear".
- b) At issue is the declaration of Isaiah that he has produced the "hearing" for Judah's response.
- 3. His argument is that Isaiah 53:1 addresses the two critical elements of the "chain".
- a. The first of these is the "believing", turned by Paul into the noun, "faith".
- b. The second of these is the "hearing".
- 4. His claim is that Isaiah 53:1 puts forth an "It stands written"(10:15) reality where "truth" is given with the results continuing into Paul's present time.
- a. First, it stands written, that "faith" arises out of a "hearing" (if it arises at all).
- 1) The preposition here is "graphic" (the picture is of something coming out of the inner elements of something else) and indicates both "origin" and "agency" (where do we find this thing that is making its exit and how is the exit being provided?)
- 2) Paul is not saying that "faith out of hearing" is an inevitable or inexorable process; it is more like the pollinating process of the pine trees of the deep piney woods.
- a) There is a sense of the inexorable in Jesus' "where there is true hearing, there will be faith" (Mark 4:12).
- b) But the experience of Isaiah is more the normal sense of people hearing and not responding properly.
- 3) Paul deliberately omitted a stated verb in order to emphasize the graphic nature of the process that he had already addressed in his questions in 10:14, "How shall one call unto one whom he has not believed?", and "How shall one believe [upon someone] of whom he has not heard?".
- a) Paul's "How?" questions are already "origin and means focused".
- b) Thus, an "origin and means focus" in his prepositions are almost automatic.
- b. Second, it stands written, that the convincing "hearing" arises through a legitimate messenger (even if it does not "convince").
- 1) Paul switches prepositions in his "So then" conclusion as recorded in 10:17.
- a) In his first conclusion, the focus is upon "origin" and his preposition is "out of".
- b) In his second conclusion, the focus is upon "means/agency" and his preposition is "through".
- 2) The switch points to the issue of how the "hearing" exists.
- a) In his "chain", the hearing was generated by a "proclaiming messenger", but there, then, had to be a "sender" who had generated the message.
- b) The preposition is "through" and the picture is of someone on one side of an "agent" and someone on the other side of that "agent" who obtained the message as it went "through" that "agent".
- c) In the phrase, the "agent" is "the word of the faith"; the Creator of that word is "Christ" and the recipient of the "word" is the "apostle" (sent one), in this case, Paul.
- II. Paul's Point.
- A. That Isaiah 53:1 points to an "it stands written" fact of life.
- B. That one of the elements of that "fact of life" is that "believing" is the crucial aspect of "salvation".
- C. That the other of the elements of that "fact of life" is that the "believing" is directly connected to "our report", the message commissioned.
- D. That "So then", faith has its origin in the message, and that message has come from Christ to Paul to those who both hear and believe.