Commentary - Romans 10:18-21

Bird's-eye view

In this concluding section of Romans 10, the apostle Paul is driving home his argument that Israel's unbelief is inexcusable. Having established that salvation comes through faith in the preached word of Christ (vv. 14-17), he now anticipates and systematically dismantles any potential excuse from his Jewish kinsmen. Could they claim they never had a chance to hear? Paul says no, the message has gone global. Could they plead ignorance, that they didn't understand the implications of this message? Paul says no, their own lawgiver, Moses, and their great prophet, Isaiah, told them centuries beforehand that God would use the inclusion of the Gentiles to provoke them. The argument functions as a covenantal indictment. Paul, acting as a prosecuting attorney, marshals evidence from their own Scriptures to demonstrate that Israel's rejection of the Messiah was not due to a lack of information or a lack of warning. Rather, it was a culpable, stiff-necked disobedience in the face of God's patient, persistent, and gracious appeal. This section serves as a crucial bridge to the question of chapter 11: "Has God then cast away His people?" Paul's point here is that their rejection is real and blameworthy, setting the stage for his explanation of God's glorious and sovereign plan that incorporates even this tragic rebellion.

Paul's use of the Old Testament is masterful. He shows that the worldwide proclamation of the gospel and the subsequent jealousy of Israel were not unforeseen developments but were part of God's revealed plan from the beginning. The quotation from Psalm 19 universalizes the gospel's reach. The quotations from Deuteronomy and Isaiah historicize the conflict between Jew and Gentile within God's redemptive purpose. The final, poignant quote from Isaiah 65 paints a picture of God as a longsuffering Father, holding His hands out to a rebellious child. The cumulative effect is to close every escape route for the excuse of ignorance and to lay the responsibility for their unbelief squarely at Israel's own feet.

Outline

Context In Romans

This passage sits at the very heart of the great crescendo of Romans 9-11, where Paul wrestles with the profound theological problem of Israel's rejection of their own Messiah. Chapter 9 established God's sovereign right to choose. Chapter 10 has clarified that human responsibility is not nullified by that sovereignty; salvation requires the response of faith to the preached gospel. Paul has just quoted Isaiah 53 to show that this message has always met with unbelief. Now, in 10:18-21, he preemptively refutes any excuses for that unbelief. This is not an academic exercise for Paul; it is a deeply personal and pastoral agony, as he made clear in 9:1-3. The argument here provides the necessary foundation for chapter 11, where he will reveal that Israel's stumbling is neither total nor final. By demonstrating Israel's culpability here, he sets up the even greater display of God's wisdom and mercy in chapter 11, where God uses this very disobedience to bring salvation to the Gentiles, with the ultimate aim of grafting the natural branches back in.

Key Issues

Israel Without Excuse

One of the central tenets of biblical justice is that knowledge brings responsibility. God does not hold people accountable for what they could not have known. Paul understands this, and so he anticipates the objection that must be answered if Israel is to be held truly accountable for rejecting Christ. Has the message been clear? Has it been available? Has it been understandable? Paul's answer to all these questions is a resounding yes. He is not just making an assertion; he is bringing forward witnesses from Israel's own sacred library, from the Psalms, the Law, and the Prophets. He is proving from their own Scriptures that they had every opportunity and every warning. Their failure was not a failure of intellect or opportunity, but a failure of the will. It was, as the final verse states, a matter of disobedience and obstinacy. This is a solemn business. When God provides a clear word, as He has in the gospel, the only remaining issue is what we will do with it. To pretend we haven't heard or can't understand is simply to compound the original rebellion.

Verse by Verse Commentary

18 But I say, have they never heard? On the contrary, they have; “THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD.”

Paul begins with a rhetorical question, voicing the first and most obvious excuse: perhaps Israel didn't believe because they simply didn't hear the message. He immediately dismisses it with a firm "On the contrary." To prove his point, he quotes Psalm 19:4. Now, this is a fascinating use of the Old Testament. In its original context, the psalmist is talking about the non-verbal witness of creation. The heavens declare the glory of God; their "voice" and "words" go out to all the earth. Paul takes this language and applies it to the preaching of the gospel. He is not misusing the text. He is arguing that the proclamation of the gospel has become as universal and as plain as the testimony of the sun, moon, and stars. The creation reveals the Creator; the new creation in Christ reveals the Redeemer. By the time Paul is writing, the gospel had exploded out of Jerusalem and was being preached throughout the Roman Empire, the oikoumene, their "world." The point is not that every last individual on the planet had heard, but that the proclamation was public, widespread, and undeniable. Israel, at the very center of this explosion, had no excuse for not having heard the news.

19 But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says, “I WILL MAKE YOU JEALOUS BY THAT WHICH IS NOT A NATION, BY A NATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WILL I ANGER YOU.”

Paul anticipates the second excuse. Alright, perhaps they heard the noise, but did they understand its significance? Did they "know" what was happening? Again, the answer is a sharp negative. And for his first witness, he calls Moses himself, the lawgiver. The quotation is from Deuteronomy 32:21, part of the Song of Moses, which is a prophetic summary of Israel's future history of rebellion and restoration. In that context, God warns that because Israel has made Him jealous with false gods ("what is not God"), He will make them jealous with a "not-people" (lo-ammi). He will use a foolish, pagan nation to provoke His covenant people. Paul sees the fulfillment of this prophecy in his own ministry. The gospel is going out to the Gentiles, those who were "not a nation" in a covenantal sense, a people "without understanding" of God's law. And as these Gentiles stream into the kingdom, it is meant to provoke covenantal Israel to jealousy and anger. The point is this: Israel should not have been surprised by this development. Their own founding prophet told them it was coming. The inclusion of the Gentiles was not a divine afterthought; it was a foundational strategy in God's plan to deal with Israel's eventual apostasy.

20 And Isaiah is very bold and says, “I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SEEK ME, I BECAME MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME.”

If the testimony of Moses was not enough, Paul calls a second witness, Isaiah, whom he describes as "very bold." The boldness of Isaiah was in stating the matter so plainly, so offensively to the Jewish mindset of his day. The quote is from Isaiah 65:1. In this passage, God declares that He will reveal Himself to a people who were not looking for Him. The Gentiles were not seeking Yahweh. They were not poring over the Scriptures, awaiting a Messiah. They were wrapped up in their pagan idolatries. And yet, God in His sovereign grace took the initiative and made Himself known to them. This is the essence of grace; it is unmerited and unsought. Paul's argument is that Israel, who had the Scriptures and were supposedly "seeking" God, should have seen this coming. Their own prophet told them that God's grace would leap over the covenant boundaries and manifest itself to outsiders. The shock of seeing pagan Gentiles welcomed into God's family should have been a wake-up call, but instead, it became a point of offense.

21 But as for Israel He says, “ALL DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE.”

Having shown that the Gentiles' inclusion was prophesied, Paul now contrasts God's posture toward them with His posture toward Israel. He quotes the very next verse from that same passage in Isaiah, 65:2. The image is one of incredible pathos and patience. God stands like a father at the door, with arms outstretched, pleading with his wayward son to come home. This is not a momentary appeal; it is an "all day long" appeal. It speaks of centuries of prophetic warnings, of covenant lawsuits, of mercies and judgments, all designed to bring Israel to repentance. The ministry of Jesus Himself was the ultimate expression of these outstretched hands. And what was Israel's response? They were "disobedient and obstinate." The word for obstinate, or "gainsaying," means to talk back, to argue, to contradict. They did not just passively ignore God's call; they actively and stubbornly resisted it. This is the tragic climax of Paul's argument in this chapter. Israel's unbelief is not because God was silent, but because they refused to listen. It is not because God was hidden, but because they refused to see. It is not because God was distant, but because they refused the embrace of His outstretched hands.

Application

This passage serves as a potent warning against the sin of presumption. Israel had the covenants, the law, the prophets, the temple. They were the custodians of God's revelation for centuries. And yet, this proximity to the truth did not save them. In fact, it increased their culpability when they rejected the fulfillment of that truth in Jesus Christ. We in the evangelical world are in a similar position. We have Bibles in every translation, sermons on every podcast, and theology books piled high. We have heard the message. We know the score. The danger is that we can become so familiar with the sound of the gospel that we no longer truly hear it. We can become inoculated to its power.

We must examine ourselves. Is our response to God's Word one of humble obedience, or is it one of "gainsaying", of arguing, qualifying, and explaining away its demands? Do we see God's grace extending to those outside our tribe, to the "not a nation", and respond with joy, or with a jealous and resentful spirit? The picture of God with His hands stretched out all day long is a picture of His posture toward us today. He calls us to repentance and faith through His Word. He offers grace upon grace. The question this passage leaves us with is a simple one: what will our response be? Will we be like the Gentiles who, not seeking, found Him? Or will we be like the Israel of that generation, who, having every advantage, turned their backs on the God who pleaded with them, and in so doing, proved themselves to be disobedient and obstinate?