Audio commentary on this verse

Note 1 at Rom. 10:14: Paul had just conclusively proven that salvation was not according to a person's performance but according to his acceptance of God's grace by faith in Christ Jesus. This was great news! Yet this great news will not do anyone any good if they don't know it. The gospel has to be heard to release its power (Rom. 1:16).

Note 2 at Rom. 10:14: Verses 14 and 15 show a number of things that must happen in order for a person to be born again. The individual must believe, but he needs to have something or someone to believe in. Therefore, someone has to share the gospel with him. But in order for that to happen, others have to send the ministers to the uttermost parts of the earth.

So there are three areas of responsibility for salvation. An individual has to believe, someone has to preach, and others have to send. Satan works on all three of these areas to stop people from receiving God's gift of salvation.

Satan tries to harden a person's heart through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13) to the point that the gospel will not penetrate. If people are faithful to the two other responsibilities, salvation still will not occur if the individual rejects the good news.

Yet many times people are hungry and ripe for salvation, and yet there is no one to share the good news with them. If Satan can stop people from preaching the gospel, because of a lack of preachers or a lack of people who will send them, then he can stop the individual from being saved.

As Christians we cannot take responsibility for people's reaction to the gospel, but we must take the responsibility of preaching the gospel and giving so others can preach the gospel.