Those who have never heard will understand.

Romans 15:18-21, For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written,“Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”

Paul gives all glory to Christ; he was the vehicle. We can take great hope in this, for God is able to use cracked pots to accomplish amazing things. And in fact, that’s all he has to work with, for “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Even so he is able to use us, even sometimes unwillingly, to accomplish amazing things. Paul had to travel from place to place by walking or boarding a wind-powered ship; we have access to near instant world-wide communications, from cell phones to computers. We have air travel that shrinks the world to point to point in no more than a few days at the most. What would Paul have done with such amazing resources? And yet we have the same scripture and the same Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever!

We are astonished that you are able to use us to bring glory to your name, to bring the good news to those who have never heard so that they too will understand and bow the knee to Jesus Christ as Lord!

ESV Lectionary