“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’” (Romans 10:15-16).
Because of the host of predictive prophecies made by Isaiah which are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, Isaiah is often referred to as “the Messianic prophet”. In the tenth chapter of Romans alone, there are five quotations of Isaiah which are applied to Christ and His gospel. Clearly, the gospel of God was promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures (Romans 1:1-2).
This is invaluable knowledge, because it clearly demonstrates the unity (and therefore, the inspiration) of the Scriptures.
In addition, it is invaluable because it categorically refutes any false doctrine which explicitly or implicitly denies the total success of Jesus’ incarnation. Implicit in the heresy of premillennialism, for example, is this disgusting, horrific blasphemy of our Lord.
Romans 10:15 is a quotation of Isaiah 52:7, which is less than ten verses prior to Isaiah 53:1 and is quoted by Paul in Romans 10:16. As Paul’s pen plainly proves “the glad tidings of good things” (of Isaiah 52:7) and “our report” (of Isaiah 53:1) are synonymous with “the gospel of peace”. As it is written, the gospel of peace is grounded in the bedrock facts that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). It is these events which are reported by the Messianic prophet in the eleven verses following Isaiah 53:1.
Isaiah’s prophecies are proof positive that Jesus’ incarnation accomplished everything he and all the other Old Testament prophets foresaw and foretold. The salvation which they predicted is the gospel Peter and the other apostles proclaimed in the first century (1 Peter 1:10-12).
To imagine Jesus needs to come again and accomplish what He supposedly failed to get done the first time so that He can finally have a thousand year period of success is a pure imaginative fiction; it has absolutely no basis in Scripture.
Even today Isaiah’s question is still razor sharp in relevance: “Lord, who has believed our report?”
