HAVING ONE GOD +kipkorir kirui
10:12-17
There is not one God to the Jews, more kind, and another to the
Gentiles, who is less kind; the Lord is a Father to all men. The promise
is the same to all, who call on the name of the Lord Jesus as the Son
of God, as God manifest in the flesh. All believers thus call upon the
Lord Jesus, and none else will do so humbly or sincerely. But how should
any call on the Lord Jesus, the Divine Saviour, who had not heard of
him? And what is the life of a Christian but a life of prayer? It shows
that we feel our dependence on him, and are ready to give up ourselves
to him, and have a believing expectation of our all from him. It was
necessary that the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles. Somebody
must show them what they are to believe. How welcome the gospel ought to
be to those to whom it was preached! The gospel is given, not only to
be known and believed, but to be obeyed. It is not a system of notions,
but a rule of practice. The beginning, progress, and strength of faith
is by hearing. But it is only hearing the word, as the word of God that
will strengthen faith.
+kipkorir kirui
FAITHSo
then faith comes by hearing,.... That is, by preaching; for the word
hearing is used in the same sense as in the preceding verse; and designs
the report of the Gospel, or the preaching of the word, which is the
means God makes use of, to convey faith into the hearts of his people;
for preachers are ministers, or instruments, by whom others believe:
and
hearing by the word of God; or "of Christ", as some copies read, and so
do the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions; and intends either the holy
Scriptures, which have God for their author, and Christ for the subject
of them; and which furnish the men of God, or ministers of the Gospel,
with proper materials to preach; and so hearing or preaching is by them,
or else the command of God or Christ, which more properly signifies;
and the sense is, that men preach the Gospel in obedience to the
commandment of the everlasting God, and according to the orders,
mission, and commission, warrant and authority, of the Lord Jesus
Christ: and so these words are the conclusion, and sum of the whole;
that as invocation is owing to faith, so faith to hearing, hearing to
preaching, preaching to a mission; whence it follows, that it is the
original will of God, to send forth his apostles and ministers, to
preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, as well as to the Jews; that they
hearing might believe, and believing call upon the Lord, and so be saved
by him: it is a saying of the Jews, , "hearing depends upon the word" amen
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