How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?
Parallel translations
- WEB How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher?
- KJV How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
- NKJV How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
- NASB How then are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?
- NLT But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
People cannot call on Christ unless they believe, cannot believe unless they hear, and cannot hear without a preacher. Salvation depends on the gospel being proclaimed.
Overview
Paul traces a chain backward from calling on Christ to the necessity of preaching. Faith requires hearing the message about Christ, and hearing requires someone to proclaim it. This passage grounds the church's missionary task: since salvation comes through faith in the gospel, that gospel must be brought to those who have not heard. It shows that God's sovereign plan includes human means of proclamation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Mark 16:15–16And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
- Acts 26:17–18I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them
- Titus 1:3In His own time He has made His word evident in the proclamation entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior.
- Acts 8:31“How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
- Heb 11:6And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
- Luke 24:46–47And He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,
- Jas 5:15And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
- Eph 4:21Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him—in keeping with the truth that is in Jesus—
- 2 Tim 4:17But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of the lion.
- Acts 19:2and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” “No,” they answered, “we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
- John 20:31But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.
- Jonah 3:5–9And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.
- 1 Kgs 8:41–43And as for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your name—
- Rom 16:25–26Now to Him who is able to strengthen you by my gospel and by the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery concealed for ages past
- Rom 1:5Through Him and on behalf of His name, we received grace and apostleship to call all those among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.
- Jonah 1:9–11“I am a Hebrew,” replied Jonah. “I worship the LORD, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”
- Jonah 1:5The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
- Jonah 1:16Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to Him.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 10:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.