Rhema

“So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

– Romans 10:17

Another translation renders it,

“…what is heard comes through the message about Christ.”

The Greek for “word” is not “logos” here, but “rhema”.  Personally, what this verse means to me is that I am made able to hear by God pouring out a message, because “rhema” comes from a verb “rheo”, which has to do with “pouring forth” (a phrase used in the Strong’s concordance definition.)  When God pours out a message His word is made alive.

The translation that renders it “the message about Christ” rings with a more evangelistic connotation, but is no less fitting.  Perhaps I could say that people are being moved to faith by what is pouring out of people about Christ.  Think about it: though Paul was well versed in the Scriptures, what he really had to give was personal experience with Jesus.  Paul, Peter, John, James; for any of these people whose writings became the New Testament, the ‘Good News’ was also new-news, so although they were capable of well-constructed Scriptural arguments (or at least Paul was), what issued from them was the reality of their experience about Christ, and that is how hearing comes.  That is how truth is made available for faith.