Don’t Miss the Footnotes

Scriptural footnotes can be ignored easily. In this era of USA Today and sound bites, we may not want to take the time to peruse them. But footnotes connect Scripture with Scripture. Many times, these references cross between the New Testament and the Old.

Look, for example, at the footnotes to Romans 10. The center column in my Bible gives references containing allusions, or similar statements, identified by letters in italic. At the bottom of the page, small numbers identify passages that are quoted by the apostle Paul. Three passages are quoted in full in Romans 10:17–21. Your Bible may have a different system, but it will at least identify the passages Paul cites.

Of course, Paul uses the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The New Testament books were still being written in his time, many by Paul himself in his epistles. See how he supports each step in his teaching with a passage from Scripture? He laments the fact that the Jews are ignorant of God’s righteousness and are trying to establish their own righteousness. Thus, he declares that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4). Then he uses the Scriptures to develop his argument.

To define the righteousness of the law, he quotes from Leviticus 18:5: “ ‘You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. . .’ ” We might suppose that Paul is saying that Moses taught the righteousness of the law in contrast to the righteousness of faith. Yet the apostle goes right on to define the righteousness of faith from a passage in Deuteronomy, another writing of Moses: “ ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” ’ (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)” (Rom. 10:6b–7; Deut. 30:12–14).

Paul interprets the questions in the passage as referring to Christ, and answers the questions from the same passage in Deuteronomy: “ ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.’ ” Then he explains, “that is, the word of faith which we preach.” The word of faith preaches the righteousness of faith, and Paul says that his preaching fulfills the promise written down by Moses in the book of Deuteronomy. He then summarizes his preaching: “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Again Paul supports his words from Scripture. He cites Isaiah 28:16: “ ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ ” That passage promises the coming Messiah as the foundation stone. Paul comments on the “Whoever” of that passage, observing that it includes gentiles as well as Jews. This, of course, was the crux of his ministry to the gentiles. He then appeals to the prophecy of Joel: “ ‘Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’ ” (Joel 2:32).

Paul’s ministry fulfills the Old Testament promise of the inclusion of the gentiles even as Israel rejects the gospel. Gentiles will call upon the Lord and enter His kingdom by faith. Not the sword given to Israel to judge the Canaanites, but the spiritual weapon of the preached Word will establish God’s kingdom. Therefore, those who proclaim the kingdom to the gentiles must be called to that task.

But Paul and other gospel preachers are not left to their own resources in preaching. The correct translation of Romans 10:14 strengthens our understanding of this. The last part of the verse should read, “And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?” (not “of whom”). It is Jesus Himself who addresses us in the preaching of His Word. Through the gospel preacher, the Lord Himself speaks His Word to Jews and gentiles.

Paul repeatedly referred to his call to the gospel ministry. The power of the Spirit of Christ spoke through him. His words were not in human wisdom. Cultivated orators might despise Paul’s preaching—the Athenians likened him to a bird picking seeds in the street. Yet Paul communicated with the urgent power that the Lord gave.

Paul turns again to Isaiah to describe the beauty of those who preach God’s gospel of peace (Isa. 52:7). He grieves over those who reject the gospel. Then again he uses Old Testament passages. Isaiah says, “ ‘Who has believed our report’ ” (Isa. 53:1). Faith comes by hearing the Word. They have indeed heard the Word, for “ ‘Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world’ ” (Ps. 19:4). Those to whom the good news has been brought, particularly the Jews as the people of God, have rejected it. But the Scriptures anticipated this, too. The Lord was found by the gentiles who did not seek Him, and to Israel God says: “ ‘All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people’ ” (Isa. 65:2).

Paul’s use of the Old Testament shows he is living out the Scriptures that he knows so well. The Scriptures tell him about his Lord, and also about himself as the apostle to the gentiles. Without the Old Testament, we cannot understand Paul’s gospel itself, for he found it there, testifying to the fulfillment that Jesus Christ brings. To understand what Paul wrote, we must understand the Scriptures he loved and lived.