Romans 10:12

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him: for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Here is another synecdoche. Can it be believed that calling upon the Lord without faith, repentance, confession and baptism would avail anything? Oh, but one says this implies faith. Of course it does, and all of the other things required in becoming a Christian are also implied. But error dies hard; and the allegation immediately appears that none but believers can call upon the Lord. This is also true along with the fact that repentance, confession and baptism are all necessary to any effective calling upon the Lord. That is why Ananias said to Paul himself:

Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on his name (Acts 22:16).

But the argument here is that it takes more than calling on the name of the Lord to be saved, if such calling on his name is understood otherwise than inclusive of the preconditions of salvation we have been discussing. The proof is as follows:

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out demons, and by thy name do many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity (Matthew 7:21-23).

Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say (Luke 6:46)?

In these blessed words of the Master lies the compulsion to receive Paul's words in Romans 10:13 an another synecdoche.

No distinction ... These were the words that antagonized Israel, whose people had been so long accustomed to a distinction in their own favor as the chosen race of God. Paul had already made it clear that the favored position of Israel had perished in their rejection of Christ; and here he made it plain that Jews, as individuals, were by no means excluded from the new institution but were acceptable in it upon the same terms that applied to all others. The thrust of "Whosoever shall call, etc." is that "You Jews also may become Christians and receive God's blessing."

Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved ... is a quotation from Joel 2:32 and formed THE TOPIC of Peter's opening sermon of the gospel age on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:21). The thesis maintained here, that calling upon the name of the Lord has reference to obeying the gospel (in its four primary steps), is remarkably supported by the apostle Peter's interpretation of what his sermon topic really meant. When the people cried out, "What shall we do?" (the obvious meaning of their question being "How shall we call upon the name of the Lord and be saved?"), Peter commanded them to "repent and be baptized, etc." (Acts 2:21,37,38). Paul's prior mention, only a moment earlier (Romans 10:9-10) of such a thing as the confession with its known relation to baptism and primary obedience, also indicates that the quotation from Joel is a synecdoche for all the things required of converts. And why not? Peter's interpretation of Joel's quotation was perhaps the most universally known and the most frequently repeated sermon of the entire New Testament age. Locke took the same position, thus:

Whosoever hath with care looked into St. Paul's writings must own him to be a close reasoner, that argues to the point; and therefore, if, in the preceding three verses, he requires an open profession of the gospel, I cannot but think that "all that call upon him" (Romans 10:12), signifies all that are open professed Christians; and, if this be the meaning of calling upon him (Romans 10:12), it is plain it must be the meaning of "calling upon his name" (Romans 10:13); a phrase not very remote from "naming his name" (2 Timothy 2:19), which is used by Paul for "professing Christianity."[11]

Moreover, this interpretation cannot be overthrown by an appeal to the context in Joel. We have already observed that Paul's meaning was not restricted to the context of Old Testament passages which he quoted. See under Romans 10:8. Paul's own understanding of calling on the Lord's name would inevitably have been associated with the words of Ananias quoted above (Acts 22:16) which associated them with his own baptism.