<p>10:8 <i>But what did it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is, the word of faith, which we preach</i>- The word of the simple Gospel- that if you believe in Christ you shall be saved- was enabled by the Lord's resurrection and shall come to full term in His descent from Heaven at the last day (:6,7).</p><p>&quot;The word of faith&quot; can simply mean that the basic content of God's word is an appeal for faith in His Son. But it is thereby also true that the word of the Gospel leads to faith. The Lord foresaw in Jn. 17:20 that there would be those who would believe on Him &ldquo;through their word&rdquo; (i.e. the word taught by the disciples). Our word of preaching can bring others to faith. Our preaching leads to faith being created in the hearers. &ldquo;The word of faith, which we preach&rdquo; (Rom. 10:8) is the word (Gospel) that leads to faith; and a man cannot believe without hearing the Gospel, and he will not hear it unless it is preached by a preacher. Paul summarises by saying that faith comes by hearing the Gospel and hearing by the preaching of the word of God (Rom. 10:8,14,17). Paul&rsquo;s point is that whoever believes will be saved (Rom. 9:33)- and therefore, we must preach to all, so that they might take advantage of this blessed opportunity. In his repetitious manner, Paul builds up the argument in this letter:</p><p>- Even under the law, Israel could believe God&rsquo;s word as preached by Moses and have righteousness imputed to them (10:5-8)<br />- We preach, in essence, the very same word (10:9,10)<br />- Isaiah said the same: that belief of his preaching would result in justification (10:11)<br />- We preach the same. Whoever believes in the Lord&rsquo;s saving Name by baptism will be saved (10:12,13)<br />- Therefore preach the word, for without your doing this, people can never believe it and therefore be saved (10:14,15)<br />- Israel had heard the word of the cross preached in the past, so just hearing the preacher will not automatically result in faith (10:16-21). Both preacher and hearer must be aware of this. Therefore there was a need for the preachers to turn to another wider audience, i.e. the Gentiles.</p><p>Note that this passage in Romans 10 reasons that men will only hear the Gospel if there is a preacher, and yet it also states that all men have heard the Gospel, in fulfilment of the prophesy of Psalm 19 that the message would go into all the earth. But later in the same epistle, Paul says that he preached because he wanted to take the Gospel to those &ldquo;who have not heard&rdquo; (15:21). There must be a connection within his thought with what he wrote in chapter 10, about all men hearing the Gospel through preaching. Surely he understood that the fulfilment of the prophecy that all men will hear the Gospel is purely dependent upon our freewill effort to preach to all men. This understanding inspired Paul to press ahead with his plans to expand Gospel work into Spain; and it should motivate us likewise.</p><p>Paul comments that truly Israel have already heard the essence of the Gospel we preach, in that &ldquo;the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach&rdquo; (Rom. 10:8). He quotes here from Dt. 30:12: &ldquo;For this command to be obedient- or, as Paul interprets it, the word of the Gospel... is it not far from thee cp. how God is &ldquo;not far&rdquo; from anybody, Acts 17:27. It is not in heaven above, that thou shouldest say, Who will ascend for us into heaven, and bring it to us, that we may <i>hear and do it</i>?&rdquo; (Dt. 30:12 LXX). As Moses spoke these words on the last day of his life, he was at the foot of Nebo, which he ascended for his final meeting with God. He is surely alluding to the way in which he had &lsquo;ascended to heaven&rsquo; before in ascending to God on Sinai, fulfilling Israel&rsquo;s wish that he should bring God&rsquo;s word to them rather than God Himself speak with them. He had returned bringing God&rsquo;s word to them, to which they had agreed they would &ldquo;hear and do&rdquo;. Earlier, in Dt. 5:27, Moses had reminded the people how they had said: &ldquo;Go thou near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto thee; and we will <i>hear it, and do</i> it&rdquo;. Now he is telling them that actually the word he had brought to them needn&rsquo;t have been brought to them as in essence it was within their hearts. It is for exactly this reason that Paul could reason elsewhere in Romans that the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law, although they don&rsquo;t know the letter of the Law. And the same principle is found in 1 Thess. 4:9: &ldquo;As touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves i.e. from within yourselves? are taught of God to love one another&rdquo;. This is rather like how the Gentiles were not &lsquo;written unto&rsquo; and yet they knew from their conscience the essential spirit of the Mosaic Law.</p>