“All the Ends of the Earth Will See the Salvation of Our God.” Romans 10.

As a young man, after spending a few years in the work force, I felt God’s urge to explore World Missions. And so, after getting a 3 month leave from Tektronix by God’s grace, I took off for the University of North Dakota for a summer of linguistics training from Wycliffe Bible Translators. Further stints with Wycliffe followed on later.

The Scriptural inspiration was Rom 10:15: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” That passage has never left me.

In looking at the Old Testament reference, Isa 52:7, we see the image of a herald, proclaiming to Israel that their captivity is coming to an end. What a joy! The Lord has “comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem”. But most of all, and we can’t forget this, the message is “Your God reigns”; and “all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” It’s all about God, [just a little] about us. To Him be the glory; we get the reflection of the glory.

If we look carefully at this passage in Isa 52:5-10 we see two verses that are quoted in Romans, and another alluded to all over:

Isa 52:5 = Rom 2:24 - God’s name mocked because of Israel’s sin
Isa 52:7 = Rom 10:15 – God’s salvation proclaimed
Isa 52:10 ~ Rom 10:13,18, 15:9-12, 15:19; 1:8, 16:19 – “ends of the earth” seeing God’s salvation

We see here a progression: from 2:24 (God’s name mocked), to 10:15 (God’s name proclaimed), to 10:12-13, etc. (the nations accepting the message), and then finally at the end of Romans in 16:27 (God’s name glorified).

Paul was steeped in the Old Testament, and thus we see OT themes bursting out all over. And don’t forget, in Rom 1:2 Paul describes his mission as proclaiming “the gospel [God] promised beforehand in [the OT].” Here in Isaiah we see a microcosm of God’s redemption story, his plan for world missions if you will, played out in Israel’s exile and return. In Romans we see Paul’s exposition of this story, expanded to cover all of human history. As we carefully look at the OT passages we will find themes like this again and again.

There is another tie between Rom 10 and the Rom 2:24 text, although it comes out further in the passage at 3:22. I discovered this while memorizing some Romans verses, and found that two of them “sounded the same”. In 3:22 and also in 10:12 there is this phrase “there is no difference”; it was very distinctive. I found out later that the Greek words are totally identical and that nothing else like it occurs anywhere else in the Bible. Here are the two passages, somewhat expanded:

. . . there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
. . . there is no difference between Jew and Gentile . . . the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

This clearly shows a thematic tie (and I have since confirmed this in some commentaries). We have the negative and the positive. In the Romans 3 passage (beginning at 1:18) we see the culmination of the Jews’ attempt to maintain purity by “separatism” and nationalistic pride, all the while playing the “judge” of the Gentiles’ sins. The result (3:10-18) was a string of sins just as bad as anything the Gentiles did. There was no difference; they all fell into the same cesspool, and failed to give glory to God.

But in Rom 10:11-13 this is all turned around. Now, by sending Messiah Jesus, God did what Israel failed to do; he became a light for the Gentiles (Gen 12:3, Isa 42:6, Lu 2:32). And so, “there in no difference . . . everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” If we move forward to 10:18, noting the reference to Psalm 19, we will pick up the reference to God’s glory: “The heavens declare the glory of God . . .”

May each of us consider how we may help in the task of spreading God’s glory throughout the nations.

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Part two:

I feel constrained to comment briefly on Rom 10:9-10, since these are so often quoted and serve as the final passage of the "Romans Road" to salvation. And because I became a Christian in my college years, this passage is also very important to me.

This passage follows 10:8 ("the word is near you, it is in your mouth and in your heart") and the pair of strange verses in front of it, which talk about ascending into heaven and descending into the deep. It is all a reference to Deut 30:11 ff, where Moses puts God's law before his people, interestingly enough describing it as "not too difficult". In fact, God is a gracious God, and does not want this to be too difficult. It is within our reach, but it is a matter of the heart. And this becomes much more clear in the NT, although in the OT it was always so.

What I find most interesting here is that God does not expect us to search all over for his truth. As he says in Deut 30:13 we do not need to "cross the sea"; nor do we have to reach up to heaven or go to the bottom of the ocean. The message is that we don't need to search for God; in reality he is searching for us. He is putting his word near us, in our mouth and in our heart if we will only accept it.

And some of the time God will use us to "cross the sea" to help get his word to others.

hook's note: Robb Starr is a long-time member at BCC, and has studied Romans extensively.