Romans 10:15, commentary and pictures

No one can preach unless he is sent by God, and those who are sent bring the good news of salvation and peace. Their coming and their work for the salvation of souls is beautiful, and it is a blessing to those who hear it. Calling on the Lord for salvation requires believing in Him, believing requires hearing of Him, hearing requires a preacher, and preaching requires being sent. The gospel must be proclaimed throughout the world to all nations and peoples to prepare the way for the Lord's coming, including in new and destitute fields where people have not heard of forgiveness through Christ. Sending preachers requires the church to give of its means to sustain the ministry and reach those fields, for to withhold what God claims robs Him and denies starving souls the privilege of hearing the truth.

Beautiful Feet Bringing Peace

The verse names the message the gospel of peace and glad tidings of good things, which is good news of salvation and of the grace of God. To preach that gospel is to proclaim peace and to bring good news to those who have not heard it. That bringing of the message to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples is necessary because hearers need a preacher in order to hear, believe, and call upon the Lord for salvation. The unselfish, self-sacrificing service of the church in giving that light helps convince those who have not believed to obey the truth.

The verse calls beautiful the feet and the coming of those who bring that good news, describing as beautiful their work for the salvation of souls. Their going is beautiful because they are sent to preach the gospel of peace and to bring glad tidings of good things. That beauty belongs to the faithful work itself, done throughout the world to prepare the way for the Lord's coming.

Those who bring the gospel of peace and its glad tidings are a blessing to those who hear, helping people understand the importance of present truth. Faithful witnesses carry that truth to others even amid persecution, difficulty, or widespread skepticism, and patient, untiring labor can find those who will welcome the message and become its bearers in turn. Those who devote themselves to this work with unselfish zeal do a blessed work and will be rewarded, and mission workers as God's instruments should be strengthened and encouraged in it. Those who bear the good tidings of salvation are messengers whose hearts are filled with praise.

Hearing Believing and Calling

There is no difference between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him, and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Calling on the Lord for salvation requires believing in Him, believing requires hearing of Him, hearing requires a preacher, and preaching requires being sent. People cannot hear without a preacher and cannot have light unless a preacher is sent, and sent preaching is the means by which people hear the Word of God.

With the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, and faith comes by hearing the word of God. Preaching the gospel is God's appointed way for converting souls, for men must hear in order to be saved and they cannot hear without a preacher who has been sent. They cannot be converted unless the truth is diligently explained to them step by step, as people hear of Christ's saving grace through messengers who carry the message to them.

The gospel offers everyone the hope of salvation, and preaching it is urgent because human souls face the choice between God's kingdom and Satan's power. But not all obey the gospel. When hearers meet sent messengers with evil surmising, criticism, faultfinding, and unbelief, they bar the Word from good and honest hearts so it does not profit them because it is not mixed with faith.

Sent by God to Preach

Preaching depends on being sent, for no one can preach unless he is sent by God. Those who are sent proclaim the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things, and their work for the salvation of souls is beautiful. Without a sent preacher people cannot hear, and without hearing they cannot believe, and without believing they cannot call on the Lord for salvation. Faith comes by hearing the word of God, with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, yet not all obey the gospel. When hearers meet sent messengers with evil surmising, criticism, faultfinding, and unbelief, the Word does not profit them because it is not mixed with faith.

The need for sent preaching applies to the white and colored people of the Southern States, who have souls to save and are included in the new covenant and must not be passed by while missions are done in foreign fields. Millions there are as ignorant as the heathen, and the colored people of the South are ignorant and destitute and need to be taught that Christ is their Creator and Redeemer, for though freed from national slavery they are still in the slavery of ignorance. Ministers carry responsibility under the Saviour's commission to set plans in operation to instruct them so they can hear of Christ and believe, and professed Christians must not hold aloof and leave the burden on a few. The same sending is needed to support and send laborers into new fields so people can hear the gospel and the warning message. A minister can preach only when sent, and every church member is also pledged to represent Christ by living the truth and helping carry forward His work.

Being sent means God separates, communicates with, and sends self-denying workers, as He did with Paul and Barnabas, who stand as representatives of what very many should be. Being urged or appointed by brethren to enter the gospel field or to travel to a place is not being sent, and those who go on that human authority alone are self-made messengers whom God Himself has not sent. God qualifies those He calls to teach, giving them power to command attention, hold a congregation, and gain the ears of the people. They carry a felt burden for souls and wisdom to move judiciously as Christ's servant, and lack of fitness shows lack of calling. Helping in the work of God at times and places, doing errands for the Lord, advocating truth as opportunity offers, and even administering baptism or attending to ordinances when ministers are absent, are duties of all who understand truth but do not prove God has laid the burden of teaching on a man for full-time preaching work.

Those who are sent have hearts touched by God and are filled with great love for those who have never heard the truth. The condition of the unsaved impresses them with a sense of personal woe, so taking their lives in hand they hurry away as God-sent, God-inspired messengers to do a work in which angels can cooperate. Being sent to preach is not limited to the ordained minister. God sends those who are humble in heart and who have walked in the light as far as they have known it, and uses them to reach souls that the ordained minister cannot approach. He moves them to speak words that reveal the saving grace of Christ to those who have a hungry desire to know more truth, including even the most irreligious in their hours of conviction when their souls cry out after God for something they have not.

The verse requires a living preacher who is sent, a living messenger to preach the truth to those who want it. Where there is a great want of laborers and no man can be sent, many must for a time be content with the silent preacher until God sends the living messenger. The lack of men to go from place to place and preach the word can in great degree be supplied by tracts and papers and by intelligent correspondence. Those who send matter that is alive and speak by the pen words bearing the holy unction are preaching to thousands.

Workers Sent With Gospel

Paul and Barnabas stand as representatives of what very many self-denying workers should become, for the chain that none can call without believing, none believe without hearing, none hear without a preacher, and none preach except sent means God separates, communicates with, and sends workers into the field. That sending calls for holy men and women to cultivate mental, physical, and spiritual powers to the uttermost, to be ordained, and to go forth as intelligent medical missionaries to untried fields rather than folding hands and expecting the committed work to be done by proxy. Consecrated medical missionaries, men and women who deny self, are sent to serve as channels of light. They can carry the message as they treat the sick from house to house, reaching many who otherwise would never hear the gospel.

Canvassers who go in the Lord's name fulfill the sending by carrying the truth of God's word into homes to people who otherwise might not hear it. That work brings the truth of salvation through Christ and obedience to God's law, warning those asleep to their danger. It can also prepare the canvassers themselves for ministry and open opportunities to speak of Bible religion. The same commission reaches every church member, for each is pledged to represent Christ by living the truth and helping carry forward His work.

The church must have the missionary spirit, with workers going into the harvest field in the Spirit of Christ praying for the Holy Spirit to go with them to hold forth the words of life to those hastening to death. That aggressive warfare is to be entered upon with a devoted, self-sacrificing spirit that uses every opportunity and open door to bring the Word of Life to the people, even though presenting the truth as it is in Jesus makes hearers responsible and stirs opposers into operation. The sending requires earnest ministry in places where camp meetings have been held, especially personal house-to-house labor, so that many with strong convictions become established and small and large companies are raised up in every place. Those who proclaim the gospel of peace are sent to bring its good news to people in spiritual darkness, so conscientious gospel workers should be encouraged and prayed for to go and do their best rather than restricted by requirements that hinder the work. Patient, untiring labor amid persecution, difficulty, or widespread skepticism can find people who will welcome the message and become its bearers in turn, and those who devote themselves to this work with unselfish zeal will be rewarded.

Fields Needing Sent Preachers

The gospel of peace must be proclaimed throughout the world to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples to prepare the way for the Lord's coming. That worldwide proclamation includes the warning message that the Lord's soon coming is at hand and that the end of all things is at hand. Those who proclaim it are beautiful because they bring good news, and they must be sent so that people who do not know it can hear it.

Messengers must be sent into new, untried, unreached, and destitute fields and into all the cities. In those places there are heathen who have not had the truth presented to them, who have not heard that their sins may be forgiven through a crucified and risen Saviour, and who have not heard the warning message. They do not yet know Christ's grace, goodness, and mercy, and they cannot be converted unless the truth is diligently explained to them step by step by messengers who carry the message to them.

The verse applies to the white and colored people of the Southern States, who have souls to save and are included in the new covenant. They must not be passed by while missions are done in foreign fields, for millions in this country are as ignorant as the heathen. The colored people of the South are ignorant and destitute and need to be taught that Christ is their Creator and Redeemer, for though freed from national slavery they are still in the slavery of ignorance.

Ministers carry responsibility under the Saviour's commission to set plans in operation to instruct both white and Black people in the South so they can hear of Christ and believe. People who have not heard of Christ cannot believe in Him, and without a sent preacher they cannot hear. Professed Christians must not hold aloof and leave the burden on a few.

God is displeased when England is passed over and left in sad neglect without a sent living preacher. Missionaries should feel the burden to send the living preacher there rather than leaving that field without one.

Supporting Those Who Are Sent

Those who know the truth are under obligation to share its truth and to work for the salvation of others, and those who have had the advantage of knowing God's Word are responsible to work with Christ for souls. Those who proclaim the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things do a beautiful work, and the gospel must be proclaimed throughout the world to prepare the way for the Lord's coming. Proclaimers must be sent, and those who know the truth are to give of their means to carry it to people who do not know it and have not heard it.
Being sent requires a living interest that constantly supplies the treasury with means to sustain the ministry and to provide for the missionary to reach destitute fields. Sending preachers so people can hear the truth and be saved requires practical support, including putting entrusted means to work for the gospel. Mission workers are God's instruments to bring present truth to those who have not heard it, and they should be strengthened and encouraged as a blessing to their hearers.
Proclaiming the gospel to those who have not heard it requires people and means to carry the message, and financial gifts can play a definite part in making that proclamation possible. Selfish indulgences keep souls from hearing the truth, because hearing requires a preacher and preaching requires being sent; denying self and lifting the cross and following in the steps of Jesus means awaking to the responsibility to give. Preaching is God's appointed way for converting souls, since men must hear in order to be saved, they cannot hear without a preacher, and the preacher must be sent, which makes funds in the treasury necessary. To withhold tithes and offerings that God claims as His own is to rob God and to refuse bread to a starving soul, denying souls for whom Christ died the privilege of hearing the truth, and will bring the curse of God. Money for the work will not be furnished in some mysterious way by unseen agencies nor showered from the windows of heaven, for God has made His people stewards of His means to supply what is needed for souls to be saved.
The chain stands that calling requires believing, believing requires hearing, hearing requires a preacher, and preaching requires being sent, and those sent preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things in a beautiful going. This lays the work plainly upon the church to give to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples the light of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the good tidings of the grace of God. That giving is done with Christian united to Christian and church to church, human instrumentality cooperating with the divine and every agency subordinate to the Holy Spirit. People are to hear the gospel through preachers who are sent, and unselfish, self-sacrificing Christians are needed to help people understand the importance of present truth. Those who bring the gospel of peace are a blessing, and the church's unselfish service helps convince those who have not believed to obey the truth.