Now look at Romans chapter ten.  The Apostle Paul takes this very text.  Romans ten verse eight:

But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART "-- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED." 14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!" 16 However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?" 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Advertisement

So faith comes from hearing.  Getting to hear and yet survive.  This too explains why we are here.  Because in the very formula and logic of Romans chapter ten, somehow we heard.  Not one of us was at Horeb, yet we heard.  Someone had to tell us.  God spoke, and someone had to speak to us. 

So there is, as the Word of God makes so very clear, the mandate to go and to tell.  If God has spoken, then we do know.  If God has spoken, then we are accountable.  If God has spoken, it is by mercy and for our good, and if God has spoken, it comes with a commission and a command, which makes a difference of course in the life of a Christian, who is not only the one who has been saved, but instrumentally and day by day, is the one who was heard.  The difference for the church is that we understand what it means to gather together as the ones who by the grace and mercy of God have heard.  Under the authority of the Word we gather. 

It makes a difference for a seminary.  We’re not making this up.  Our task is not to go figure out what to teach.  Our task is not to figure out where to find meaning in life.  It is to be reminded continually that we have heard the voice of God speaking from the fire and have survived, and thus we teach.  This is the mercy of God, to hear and yet survive.  It’s the mercy by which we live every day and experience every moment and evaluate every truth claim and judge every worldview and preach every sermon.  We work and we live under that mercy. 

I can’t help connecting Deuteronomy chapter four, and understanding the experience of Israel, hearing the Lord God speak from the midst of the fire and yet surviving, with Hebrews chapter one, which in the prologue tells us that God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets, in many portions and in many ways, in these last days, has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.  We are here because God has spoken, not only in the fire, but in the Son, in whose name we are gathered and in whose name we serve.

________________

R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY