Deeper Reflection
The Lord Jesus Christ is the one Saviour given to every member of the fallen human race: “… the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him” (v.12b). This “all-embracing blessing is salvation”20 and the “door of salvation”21 is open to anyone who “calls on the name of the Lord” (v.13), that is, puts their trust in Jesus Christ for their salvation from sin and death.22In verses 14 and 15, the Apostle Paul used a series of logically connected questions to emphasise the point that unless the Gospel is being preached, there is no way for the Good News to reach all peoples of all ethnicities so that they can call on the name of the Lord and be saved. In verse 14, Paul used the pronoun “they” five times to refer to all those people who have yet to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and believe in Him and call on Him.Paul saw clearly and felt strongly the urgency for the Gospel to be spread beyond the Jews to the Gentiles, in other words, to the ends of the earth. He wrote in the first chapter of Romans: “…the Gospel…is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. …as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” (Rom 1:16-17). This explains Paul’s fervency to preach the Gospel everywhere to all who have not heard.23 As Christian theologian Carl F.H. Henry once said, “The Gospel is only Good News if it gets there in time.”

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¹⁹ The acronym “PDA” refers to Personal revival, Divine appointments and Active obedience (per Reverend Edmund Chan). ²⁰ The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 11: Romans-Galatians, Revised Edition, 163. ²¹ Ibid. ²² See Romans 6. ²³ Paul did so with great purpose and passion even while he was under house arrest in Rome (Acts 28:30-31).