Caravaggio’s masterpiece The Calling of St. Matthew captures a vast auditory drama erupting out of silence. A single beam of light pours diagonally into the worn darkness of the tax collector’s booth, and along that light, the tip of Jesus’ hand points directly toward Matthew the tax collector. No sound effect is painted on the canvas, yet within that taut tension, we vividly witness the moment when the call, “Follow me,” cuts through the air and pierces the depths of the soul. To call someone, and for that person’s whole being to respond to the call, is not a merely functional act of “hearing,” but a saving event in which human destiny is overturned. Pastor David Jang’s sermon, which probes deeply into Romans 10, begins precisely at this point. Through this passage, he carefully weaves together rigorous logic and warm humanistic insight to show how faith is conceived through hearing, and how the collapsed human self is rebuilt within the word of grace.
The Near Word That Brings the Steep Path of the Law to a Halt
Paul, invoking the writings of Moses, honestly exposes the dilemma of human existence. The proposition, “The one who practices the righteousness that is by the law shall live by it,” may at first sound like a noble invitation to life, but in reality it is a sharp mirror revealing just how steep and perilous that path is, and how helplessly human beings slip and fall on it. Humanity lacks the ability to uphold the order of creation perfectly by its own strength, and before the supreme command that we “must live,” we are constantly confronted with the miserable reality that we “cannot live” as we ought. It is at the end of this devastating limit that a great reversal takes place.
Pastor David Jang makes it clear that salvation is not a fierce leap by which human beings ascend to heaven to seize the hem of God’s garment, nor is it an attempt to dig into the bottomless abyss to uncover spiritual secrets. Salvation is not a medal won by conquering the heights. Instead of demanding extreme achievement, God has come near to us in the word that is closest to our mouths and hearts. Like the divine hand reaching toward Adam’s powerless fingers in Michelangelo’s ceiling fresco The Creation of Adam, salvation is the wondrous event of grace in which we quietly receive the mercy that first comes to us.
The Order of Faith Formed by the Heart’s Surrender and the Lips’ Confession
Borrowing the language of Deuteronomy, Paul declares, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, you attain righteousness.” Within this short sentence, a subtle inner order unfolds between the heart and the lips. If confession comes first while the heart lags behind, faith is in grave danger of soon degenerating into a hardened shell or a religious habit. Only when the hardened heart is first opened through true repentance and wholly surrenders to the lordship of Christ does the confession of the lips gain life. Just as honest words naturally flow when love soaks the soul to its depths, the confession that leads to salvation is born from a fundamental reorientation of the inner life.
This theological insight reminds us that true faith is never the mechanical memorization of doctrine or mere cultural inertia. To “attain righteousness” does not mean arming oneself with religious morality and feeling morally superior. Rather, it means the warm restoration of a broken relationship with God being set right again in the gospel.
Obedience Walking Through Barren Fields, Feet That Carry the News
The life-giving news of the gospel becomes a vivid event that shakes the inner person only when it comes through someone’s words. The declaration of Romans, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ,” remains a touchstone for determining the spiritual constitution of the church today. We live in an age flooded with information and noise, yet the only thing that can reshape the worn grain of the soul is the revelation of the cross and resurrection, and the love that stooped endlessly low for sinners.
Pastor David Jang emphasizes that the church’s highest priority must be to return to the place of quietly “hearing” this word of life. When we repeatedly listen to the words of Christ through meditation on Scripture, the arrogant lips that once judged others harshly begin to fall silent, and ears that embrace the wounds of our neighbors begin to open. Like the farmer in Millet’s painting The Sower, the steps of the one who carries the message of life are acts of hope, willing to walk the field even amid uncertainty about the results. It is trusting that such obedience, scattering seed even on barren ground, will one day conceive green life. Just as the wandering Augustine opened the Scriptures after being led by a child’s singing voice, and his destiny was changed, hearing always stands at the threshold of great transformation.
The Hand That Is Not Withdrawn Even in the Face of Rejection, the Love That Never Gives Up
Even so, not all who hear the word move into the place of joy. Pointing to Israel’s painful unbelief, Paul lets us hear God’s anguished lament: “All day long I have held out my hands.” That outstretched hand, never withdrawn despite countless rejections and acts of indifference, is not the hammer of judgment for condemnation, but the hand of invitation, endlessly extended to gather the wounded back into His embrace.
As Matthias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece portrays with searing intensity, God is not one who watches human suffering from afar, but one who entered directly into the very heart of sickness and torn anguish. Therefore, true faith is the act of embracing without excuse that overwhelming love of the cross which came searching for even my deepest and most tattered wounds, and opened the way of salvation. At this point, Pastor David Jang’s message moves beyond simple doctrinal explanation and turns into a weighty, existential question addressed to us who are living today.
The true gospel is not transferred automatically through bloodline or long religious experience. Truth never drags us by force; it waits to the very end for the personal and voluntary response of “receiving.” What sound is reaching your ears right now? Amid the familiar noise of the world and the excuses of self-justification that pour over us every day, are you truly listening to the call that shakes and awakens the deepest part of your soul?
The word of life is never far away, beyond our reach. Toward me, and toward this broken world, He stands with arms stretched out all day long. Into that inexhaustible love, what step will you take today? Even after closing the Bible, may this cool yet stirring question lingering quietly in your ears become a new prayer that tills our hardened hearts.