Romans 10:16
But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

This part is also taking the same sequence in the chapter and lays the first unequivocal step towards explaining the concept of faith since it’s properly explained the righteousness of God

We have to break this verse into its component parts to fully understand it.

Part 1
But they have not all obeyed the gospel.

This part makes it clear that the gospel is something that must be obeyed. If the gospel needs to be obeyed, this means the gospel is a commandment that must be obeyed to attain righteousness before God. For obedience is righteous before God. In fact, the believers’ mission is to teach people to obey everything Christ commands Matthew 28:20. This means the gospel is the commandments of Jesus and nothing else. This commandment is buried in Mathew 5 and other parts of the scriptures where Jesus relays the commandments. All these commandments are embodied in love and are crafted by God to help anyone who obeys them become a loving, peaceful, and humble person.

Part 2
For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

This part explains the first part. This is why it starts with the word “for”. It’s indicating that to believe the gospel of Jesus means to obey the commandment of Jesus. Obedience is synonymous to believe according to the scriptures. If a person then says they believe in Jesus but do not obey his commandment, then they’re the people who the bible described as having their faith in their mouth; hearers of the word who are deceiving themselves (James 1:22).

Romans 10:17
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

This part is very direct. It’s establishing what had been said in Romans 10:16 through Romans 10:1; it’s establishing the link between faith and righteousness.

The verse contains a two steps process that must be completed to bring about faith. To fully understand this verse, we’ll have to break this process into its component steps:

faith cometh by:
1. hearing the word of God.
2. hearing by the word of God.

Step 1:

This statement establishes the fact that has been hitherto discussed in the chapter that a person needs to be preached to before they can obey the commandment of God. This is because all men are originally blind and deaf spiritually and a person needs to be led into their healing by another who’s already healed. They need to hear the commandment of God.

Step 2:
hearing by the word of God.

This part is the second step that completes and crowns the first step of the process of faith. This part says a person must hear-by the word of God. The phrase “hear by” does not have a specific word for it in the English language. It means to stay within; live by; abide by; comply with; continue in; act in accordance with; keep to; submit to; adhere to etc. It’s a phrase used to express a state or a being.

The closest words in meaning to this phrase are: Follow; Obey; Observe; Heed; Adopt; Embrace; Honor etc.

Paul was telling us in step two of the process that brings about faith that we have to obey, observe, or abide by the word that we heard from the preachers sent to us. If we do this then faith will come to us. In fact, Paul is consistent with this message throughout his ministry (1 timothy 4:16; 1 Corinthians 15:2). Jesus also passed the same message when he used the same phrase in letting us know that obedience to his command is the key to salvation and it’s what gives us the knowledge of God (John 8:31-33).

The implication of this is that a person must obey the commandments of Jesus for them to have faith and such a person shall be saved through the process of obedience to the word of God.

Whoever says they are saved and does not obey the commandments of Jesus is only deceiving themselves as we’ve seen James say. In this, God separates his children who are children of obedience from the children of the devil who are the children of disobedience. By this, the color of a person is known by how they live their lives, and thus, we know everyone by their fruits.

Romans 10:18
But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

This part is making reference to the comment in Romans 10:16 which is: But they have not all obeyed the gospel. So Paul is asking why is that they do not have faith? Is It that they’ve not heard? Then he said: Yes, verily they’ve heard because the words of the preachers have reached the ends of the world. What then is the problem why is it that they are yet to have faith? It’s their disobedience to the commandment which is the gospel. This further establishes the fact that obedience to the word of God is the key to having faith and salvation which come through faith.

Romans 19-21
This part is summarizing the whole context of this chapter and tells us why Paul prays for Israel that they might be saved. The reason for this Paul’s prayer is seen in Romans 10:21 where the scriptures says they’re disobedient and gainsaying people. If we look at this in comparison to the early verses of the chapter, we’ll see that a people can reject the righteousness of God and establish their righteousness and expect God to walk by their righteousness. They do this by rejecting what the bible says they must do, or intentionally twisting it so they might feign ignorance. This kind of people have a zeal for God but not according to know knowledge of God because we can only know God through our obedience to his word.

Thank you for reading…. God bless you
May you receive the grace to obey the word of God and walk in the path of his righteousness. Amen.