Friday, August 12, 2022

 

Friday, August 12, 2022


Psalms 99; 100

2 Chronicles 26:16-27:9

Romans 10:14-21


How are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard?


Paul is coming hard and fast with the cross-references today. I hope your Bible has good footnotes!


There is a certain quote you may have heard before, attributed to St Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words!” Reading through this passage in Romans we might be tempted to change the punctuation in this sentence: “Preach the gospel, at all times if necessary. Use words!”


Paul is showing that the message of Christ was preached to the ancient Israelites since the time of Moses. Yet, some of them hardened their hearts and refused it. Then he goes on to show how that refusal doesn't mean the end of the story, because the gospel of Christ is embedded in the very structure of the universe: verse 18 comes directly from Psalm 19 (it is a short psalm, go and read it). The “voice” that has “gone out” is the “glory of God”. That is, Christ's cross is the glory of God, and it is embedded in the fabric of reality.


Look at one other cross-reference. In verse 16 Paul talks about Isaiah's question “Lord, who has believed our message?” He asks this in Isaiah 53:1. It is part of the fourth “Servant Song”, and it is a prophecy about Jesus on the cross, taking upon Himself the death we deserve, some 700-plus years before that first Easter. (The whole passage runs from Is 52:13-53:12.) It reminds me of the story in Acts 8:26-40. There, Philip overhears a man reading from the Bible. Philip asks him if he understands what he is reading. The man replies “How can I unless someone explains it to me?”. Then Philip, beginning with that passage, told the man about Jesus. That passage? Isaiah 53:7-8. Life, the universe, and everything in it begins to make perfect sense once we understand that the cross stands in the middle of it all. And we can only know unless we tell each other.

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