“How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed and how are they to believe in Him, of whom they have never heard and how are they to hear without someone preaching and how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News.'”
– Romans 10:14–15
In Romans 10:14–15, we have a pretty clear picture of how the gospel spreads to all the peoples of the world. Jesus sends people who proclaim the gospel. People hear the gospel proclaimed. People believe that gospel when they hear it, they call on the name of the Lord, and they are saved. This is God’s plan for getting the gospel to all people in the world, and yet there are still approximately 2.8 billion people in the world who have little to no knowledge of the gospel. They haven’t heard it. That’s what Paul’s asking because he’s writing this to the church of Rome, he’s encouraging them to get the gospel of those who’ve never heard it in Spain and he says, how are they going to hear and believe and call on him if somebody doesn’t go and preach to them.
There are 2.8 billion people who have little to no access to the gospel. They will not hear unless we take the gospel to them.
The same is true today, and 2.8 billion people today will continue to be born and live and die without ever hearing the gospel and we know based on all that Paul has taught in Romans, all the book of Romans teaches, that people without Christ cannot go to heaven and apart from Christ they spend an eternity paying the penalty for sin against God. To think there’s 2.8 billion people will be born. They’re living and dying. They’re not even hearing the gospel of going to an eternal hell and they’ve never even had a chance to hear the gospel. This is not right.
This Verse Wants Us To Spread The Gospel To Others
We talk about social justice issues. This must be the greatest social injustice in the world, that there’s a couple billion people who are on a road that leads to an eternal hell and no one’s sharing with them how to get to an eternal heaven. Romans 10:14–15 compel us to pray for the spread of the gospel to those people, to give for the spread the gospel in our lives and our families and our churches. Let’s give as part of the gospel those peoples and let’s go, let’s go, like every one of our lives saying to God, how do you want to use me to get the gospel to them and he’ll lead us in different ways but that’s where it’s got to start. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?
Romans 10:14–15 Prays For The Guja People
God, how do you want to use my feet to bring this good news. I think about the Guja people in Pakistan and 5 million of them. 5 million people, men, women, boys, girls like just like my kids who have little to no knowledge of the gospel and God desires them to hear the gospel. Lord, we pray, we pray for the Guja people in Pakistan, please. Oh God bring them to a knowledge of the gospel. God please cause feet to go to Pakistan and Afghanistan northern India right around where they are. And God, please take the gospel to them, cause the gospel to go to them. Use our churches, our lives toward that end, we pray, we pray, we pray, we plead for that, oh God.
We pray for their salvation. We pray that they would hear the gospel. That they would believe it. They would call on your name and they would be saved many, many people among the Guja people in Pakistan. Please, oh God may it be so.
Please don’t let us risk contempt in our churches. While there’s still 2.8 billion people who have little to no knowledge of the gospel. So Lord, please cause massive change in your church that would lead us to go and take this gospel to those who’ve never heard it. With the hopes they might hear it and believe and call on your name and be saved. So God please use us. Please use our lives for the spread of the gospel to those who have never heard it. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
