The word is near you
1Brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God for them is that they be saved. 2I can testify that they have a zeal for God—but a zeal without knowledge. 3Not recognizing the righteousness that comes from God, and trying to set up a righteousness of their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4For the Christ is the end of the law, so that there is righteousness for everyone who believes. 5Moses writes of the righteousness that comes from the law: “Whoever does these things will live by them.” 6But the righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will go up into heaven?’”—that is, to bring the Christ down— 7“or, ‘Who will go down into the abyss?’”—that is, to bring the Christ up from the dead. 8What does it say instead? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith that we proclaim. 9If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart a person believes and is made righteous, and with the mouth a person confesses and is saved. 11The Scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” 12There is no difference between Jew and Greek: the same Lord is Lord of all, and his riches go out to all who call on him. 13For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How will they hear?
14But how can they call on someone they have not believed in? And how can they believe in someone they have never heard? And how can they hear without someone to proclaim him? 15And how can anyone proclaim him unless they are sent? As it stands written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” 16But not everyone obeyed the gospel. Isaiah says, “Lord, who believed our message?” 17So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of the Christ. 18But I ask: did they never hear? Of course they did: “Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” 19Again I ask: did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of a nation that is no nation; I will make you angry with a nation without understanding.” 20Then Isaiah is bold enough to say, “I was found by those who were not looking for me; I showed myself to those who were not asking for me.” 21But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a people who disobey and answer back.”
