By Ken Yates
And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”
INTRODUCTION
Many Evangelicals believe that almost everything in the Bible was written to tell people how to be saved from the lake of fire. They tend to interpret verses according to that view, even when those verses address another issue. The book of Romans is a case in point. It focuses on Christian living, but many use it to tell unbelievers how to go to heaven.
The way people handle Rom 10:15 is a good example of the near-automatic tendency of many Christians, seeing verses as evangelistic. In the verse, Paul quotes from the OT: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things.”
Many believers read these words and assume Paul is talking about how a person receives eternal salvation. The word gospel is understood to mean the message we are to preach to unbelievers. When a person believes in Jesus for eternal life, he has peace with God. The message of eternal life is one of glad tidings for the unbeliever.
A popular commentary on Romans reflects this view. The author recognizes that the OT passage Paul quotes originally had nothing to do with eternal salvation. But he says that Paul applies this verse to the message he and the other apostles preached to unbelievers. According to the commentator, Paul did not hesitate to remove verses from their OT contexts and place them in different NT settings (Mounce, Romans, 211).
Is the peace Paul speaks of in Rom 10:15 the kind obtained by believing in Jesus for eternal life? Is that the good news he is talking about? Or is Paul talking about a different kind of peace?
WHAT DOES THE OLD TESTAMENT SAY?
Since Paul quotes from the OT, we should at least consider what the words originally meant. Two prophets use these words.
Nahum tells the people of Judah that God will destroy their arch enemy, Assyria. For years, the Assyrians attacked them. But the Lord heard the prayers of His people. In Nah 1:15, the verse Paul quotes in Rom 10:15, Nahum says that somebody would soon come over the mountains with a message of peace. The message was that the Assyrians had been defeated.
Isaiah 52:7 also uses the words Paul quotes in Rom 1:15. Isaiah is prophesying about another of Israel’s enemies. The Babylonians would defeat Israel and take the people captive. The Babylonians would blaspheme the name of God (Isa 52:5). But the Lord would deliver His people and bring them back to the land. One day, somebody would come over the mountains with the good news that Israel would have peace because God had destroyed the Babylonians.
The OT prophets whom Paul quotes were not speaking of the peace that comes to the one who believes in Jesus Christ for eternal life. God had used the Assyrians and Babylonians to discipline His people because of their sin. But both Nahum and Isaiah prophesied that God’s discipline would not last forever. God would bring peace to the nation of Israel. The good tidings were that Israel’s enemies had been defeated.
Did Paul understand that the verse he was quoting spoke of peace for the nation of Israel when her enemies were defeated? Was that the context he had in mind?
WHAT DID PAUL MEAN?
Paul knew that both Nah 1:15 and Isa 52:7 were addressed to the nation of Israel. In Romans 10, Paul, too, has Israel in mind. He starts the chapter by mentioning that he prays for Israel (v 1). He refers to Israel again in v 19, as well as in 11:1, where he points out that he himself is part of the nation of Israel. In 11:26, Paul says that the entire nation will one day be delivered. We find many references to Israel in Romans 9–11.
Paul quotes from two prophets of Israel. Those prophets spoke of two times when God delivered the nation from its enemies. His people had experienced war at the hands of their enemies, and their sin had caused much pain. But God brought peace to His people.
Wouldn’t it make sense for Paul to be referring to the same thing, especially in a context where he repeatedly refers to the nation of Israel? He is looking ahead to the day when the nation will once again be surrounded by its enemies. The people will cry out to the Lord, and He will deliver them (Rom 10:13, quoting from Joel 2:32).
This will happen in the last days, during the Tribulation. The armies of the world will threaten Israel with extinction. The nation will be made up entirely of believers. They will ask the Lord to save them from their enemies. Christ will return and bring the nation of Israel into His kingdom. The nation will be at peace. That is indeed “glad tidings”!
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?
Paul did not take the words of Nahum and Isaiah and give them an entirely new meaning. The words of those prophets fit what Paul is writing about in Romans 10. In the future, God will once again bring peace to Israel.
Some will ask, “Is this important?” What harm is done if many in the Evangelical world see Rom 10:15 as being addressed to unbelievers today rather than to a believing nation of Israel in the future? Does it matter if we interpret the peace in this verse to mean the new believer’s peace with God rather than the peace Israel will have when Christ returns? If they have good intentions, why can’t evangelists use the verse in a way that neither Nahum, Isaiah, nor Paul intended?
This issue is important for at least three reasons. First, we should not spiritualize the Scriptures. If we can say that God’s promise of peace for the believing nation of Israel is the peace an unbeliever can receive, we have changed the meaning of God’s Word. We are then free to make the Scriptures mean almost anything we want them to mean.
Second, Paul’s words in Rom 10:15 are a beautiful reminder of God’s faithfulness to His people, Israel. He has promised that they will be His people forever. He showed His faithfulness to that promise in the days of Nahum and Isaiah. His past acts on the nation’s behalf point forward to the day when He will give Israel peace once and for all. God keeps His word.
Finally, even though the offer of eternal life as a gift by faith in Christ alone is the greatest news ever proclaimed, it is a tragic mistake to think that it is the message of the whole Bible. Most of the NT deals with Christian living. If we assume that a verse deals with how an unbeliever is saved from the lake of fire when it does not, we will miss what the Scriptures are really saying.
Romans 10:15 has an application for church-age believers. The Lord has given us many wonderful promises. Just as the nation of Israel called upon Him for deliverance from her enemies in the past, so the nation will call on Him in the future. We can do the same. When our sins have brought God’s discipline into our lives, we can go to Him for His grace and forgiveness. God has always been faithful to His people.
We will miss out on the wonderful counsel of God’s Word if we use a verse such as Rom 10:15 to refer to eternal salvation. Even though it is common to do so, let’s not make that mistake.
____________________
Ken Yates is a retired Army chaplain (Lt. Col). He has many theological degrees, including a Ph.D. from D.T.S. in New Testament. He leads the GES international ministry, cohosts the daily podcast, and assists Bob in all aspects of the GES ministry. His new book, Mark: Lessons in Discipleship, is a wonderful explanation of Christ’s call to discipleship. He and his wife, Pam, live in Columbia, SC.
