Imagine that you’re sitting on an airplane and there’s a stranger sitting next to you. You want to be friendly, so you engage this person with the common questions: “Where are you from?” and “What do you do for a living?” They respond by saying they’re from Washington D.C. Then they proceed to tell you their occupation. In explaining what they do, you discover that they have contact information with many important people in our nation’s Capitol – even direct access to the President.
After talking for a little while, this other individual asks you what you do for a living. You start to fumble. You feel inferior.
Why would you feel that way? It’s because this person has access to very important people in the American government and you think that makes them more important than you.
Now, come back to reality and think with me for a moment on Romans 10:13-14. The apostle Paul writes, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him on whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.’” In the midst of the apostle Paul talking about the need for the Jews to trust Jesus, we come to Romans 10:13-14, which states boldly that Jesus rescues anyone who calls on him. The idea of this call is a call for help. But to whom are we calling out for help? God himself.
I barely believe a local government official will give me the time of day and yet these verses state that God, the ruler over all things seen and unseen, the Creator and Sustainer of all, he will hear and will answer those who call to him for rescue. Isn’t that amazing grace? Jesus’ life, death and resurrection brought God to us and us to God. Jesus’ work purchased salvation for real people. Now that we have this salvation, Paul then says, “Go! You are saved because you heard the message. Tell others.” Why? Because in telling this story of amazing grace can work miracles in others so that they too will call out to God and find the rescue for which they’re yearning.