Scripture says that faith comes from hearing (not specifically from reading a book) and hearing is hearing the word of Christ. The passage says:
Romans 10:9 You are saved, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and, in your heart, you believe that God raised him from the dead. 10 By believing from the heart, you obtain true righteousness; by confessing the faith with your lips, you are saved. 11 For Scripture says:
No one who believes in him will be ashamed.
12 Here, there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; all have the same Lord, who is very generous with whoever calls on him.13 Truly, all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. 14 But how can they call upon the name of the Lord without having believed in him? And how can they believe in him, without having first heard about him?
And how will they hear about him, if no one preaches about him? 15
And how will they preach about him, if no one sends them? As Scripture says:
How beautiful are the feet of the messenger of good news.
16 Although, not everyone obeyed the good news, as Isaiah said:
Lord, who has believed in our preaching?
17
So, faith comes from preaching, and preaching is rooted in the word of Christ.
Jesus comes to people by means of preaching. That is the core point of the message in Romans 10:9-17
When I see someone use such a long quote it tells me something, they see something significant in the context. The church at Rome was probably founded at Pentecost, Paul is writing to them some thirty years after they had first received the Holy Spirit. It's important to understand, the word of God was read to them, scrolls were expensive and in limited supply. There is a reason there are so many copies of the books of the New Testament, if you wanted to read Paul's letter to the Romans to your local congregation, you needed a copy. That's just a little about the background.
Paul is establishing that hearing the gospel requires more then passive hearing, you must hear and believe. Isaiah complains, 'Lord, who has believed in our preaching?'. That's from the eighth century BC, when Israel was at it's zenith, they had fallen into idolatry and God through the Levites and latter the prophets had been preaching to them for hundreds of years. Tragically, far too many had turned away from the message, even Moses complained that they were stiff necked and rebellious and always went astray in their hearts. Those that responded to Christ were sometimes pious, but most of the time it was publicans and prostitutes, sinners who were willing to repent. But there in the heart of pagan Rome was this group of Jewish believers that had received the gospel, devout, pious Jewish Christians.
The message is still to whosoever will. I never really got my theology from institutionalized teaching, mostly what I've had are the Scriptures themselves. I guess I just never questioned that the Bible is the word of God, I just never understood the introduction of that single term, 'alone'. When Jesus called the Apostles he just said, get up and follow me, and they did. I get the distinct impression that they had never met him, but all he had to do was tell them to come on and they left everything and followed him. He would pray later, Father they were yours and you gave them to me. The word of God comes to us as a revelation before we hear the gospel and the Holy Spirit is still making that revelation after we have received it. It's never alone, the Scriptures are a unique primary source for doctrine and I would never want to undermine that.
The only source of righteousness is God himself, we can listen to the word of God all day but it only heals us of our sin when we respond in faith. No self respecting farmer is going to just throw seed around carelessly, the soil has to be prepared and tended to the entire crop cycle. Then there can come the harvest, some thirty fold, some fifty, some a hundred.
Grace and peace,
Mark
