Walking in Faith

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.

The KJV captures this first verse as “But they have not all obeyed the gospel.” To me, this is a slightly different message than “they did not all heed the good news”. I say that because heed means to consider or give attention to something. Obey is to follow the command of something. I certainly have “heeded” the good news but am I obedient to the gospel? Being obedient to the Lord requires a complete submission of oneself to God. In order to do things pleasing to the Lord, we must put the Lord first in our mind. There hasn’t been a single day in the history of my life that I have put the Lord first for the duration of that day. With that in mind, am I obedient to the gospel? Insomuch that I have submitted myself to the Lord Jesus Christ as my complete and total savior, yes. I know that He paid the price for my sins on that cross, but His blood was shed to wash my sins away. Yes, I am obedient to the gospel — if, in fact, God would have this mean submitting ourselves to Christ.

In the times of Isaiah, when he was prophesying and telling people about the coming of Christ, they rejected him. They rejected his words then and now. They reject the gospel of Christ. God does not force salvation on people — that would not be to His glory. For a creature that is completely evil to come to Him and desire Him — that gives Him great glory!

Very few people come to the Lord without interacting with someone else about salvation. I don’t have actual statistics on the numbers, but I would be surprised if the number was even as high as 5% of all professed Christians found Christ without any interaction with other humans about that. Salvation is heard from preaching — exhortation, prophecy, love. If a person hears the words of truth being spoken, they might feel that slight tug from the Lord. They might begin to feel compelled to learn more, to hear more, to see more. The truth is incredibly powerful when given an opportunity. God has blessed our lives, in that way, by giving us the ability to be filled with the Spirit. Then, as we share with others (through preaching, sharing our testimony, sharing the gospel, etc.), God is in control and can work His miracles.