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?
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?
- BSB 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?
- 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 16:15–16He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation.
- Acts 26:17–18delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you,
- Titus 1:3but in his own time revealed his word in the message with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior;
- Acts 8:31He said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He begged Philip to come up and sit with him.
- Heb 11:6Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
- Luke 24:46–47He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,
- Jas 5:15and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
- Eph 4:21if indeed you heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus:
- 2 Tim 4:17But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me, that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
- Acts 19:2He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They said to him, “No, we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
- John 20:31but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
- Jonah 3:5–9The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least.
- 1 Kgs 8:41–43“Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes out of a far country for your name’s sake
- Rom 16:25–26—
- Rom 1:5through whom we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake;
- Jonah 1:9–11He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.”
- Jonah 1:5Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship, and he was laying down, and was fast asleep.
- Jonah 1:16Then the men feared Yahweh exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh, and made vows.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.