They Have Not All Obeyed the Gospel

“But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”” -Romans 10:16

Here Paul briefly interrupts his line of reasoning (which will resume in verse 17) in order to address what he anticipates will be an argument about the faith always following the word. One may ask, if the word precedes faith that way seed precedes corn, then why don’t the Jews have faith? Since ambassadors have been sent, the gospel had been preached, and the Jews have heard the word of Christ, why is it that so many still have not believed? 

Continuing to rely on the testimony of Isaiah—The quotation is taken from Isaiah’s account of the suffering servant (Isaiah 53:1)—Paul shows that the problem is not with the covenant or the word. The problem lies in the hard heart of the Jews. He shows the Jews rejected the word in Isaiah’s day as well. In a sense, the words of the prophet are actually prophetic for his own day. The covenant is good, the gospel is effective, but the people are hard-hearted.

While the natural working of this is as has been laid out is that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the preaching and the preaching by the sending, hearing must be mixed with obedience, belief in the message send via the messenger.

“For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.” -Hebrews 4:2