"Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations"(Romans 1:5)
This verse captures me. It is in one brief statement the whole purpose of the church. We exist by the grace ours in Christ to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all nations. Let’s break it down.
“To bring about the obedience of faith.” The “obedience of faith” seems a rather strange phrase. “Faith” is, we think, just believing in something, trusting in something. Obedience is doing something. So how do these connect? We could put these together in at least two ways. One way would be to say that faith is a form of obedience to God. God commands, “Believe in Christ,” and to do it is to obey him. The second way would be to say that true obedience is an expression of faith. You only have the power to truly obey God when you are living by faith in Christ. Given what is yet to come in Romans, I think the later of these is the correct choice (See Romans 3:20; 6:15-22; 7:21-25; 8:1-4). So here is the bottom line. Paul’s mission is not simply to bring about a single response to Christ, a simple act of the will, a “yes” to Jesus. He’s not looking for a mere prayer. He wants a world living in total obedience to the will of God, a new humanity, which is only possible by faith. To Paul, real faith in Christ leads to total life transformation. We’ll leave the “how” faith transforms to be flushed out later. For now, maybe we should consider the possibility that our definition of faith may have to be revamped.
“For the sake of his name.” Faith is the means to obedience. Obedience is the means to God’s glory. The ultimate aim is not moral conformity to God’s rules. The ultimate aim is the spread of joy and delight in God.
“Among all the nations.” This is the climax of Paul’s vision. The grace that enables worship, that crushes sin, that awakens our dead hearts streams from the cross of Christ. That grace is expressed in us through our faith, which is the reception of that grace. It then moves us, changes us, and drives us to true worship of God. And as the faith and delight grow, it unavoidably spreads to others. But Paul is not content that it should spread to just neighbors and friends. God is worthy of the worship of the nations. So Paul longs for the “obedience of faith” to grip the whole globe. Sound like a pipe dream? Just remember that as Paul wrote this Christians only existed in a relatively tiny portion of the world and accounted for such a minute percentage of the human population that they wouldn’t have even shown up in the statics on world religions. Now thousands of miles from where Paul wrote, in a land Paul had no idea existed, from a people group Paul had never seen, sit you and I reading his letter to Rome
4 comments:
I'm stuck on the Obedience of Faith.
The first rabbit trail are two commentaries I read which said that it is implied to say the obedience of the faith. so I'm wondering if here is any hint in the original language to suggest our translation should have that implied.
I spent some time pondering on Hebrews 11:6, "and without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."
please him = obedient to him
We are called to believe... thus
We are called to have faith...
and by having faith, and believing, we are obedient.
Obedience is also an action, it's interactive. I'm doing something by choice, or deliberately being obedient, as opposed to just passively doing nothing.
Faith requires a belief in something unseen. It also requires an action on my part. I must accept the thought, and believe in it to have faith.
With Gods help I have faith, and I work at having that faith, and I'm obedient to working on that faith. I'm believing.
I'm not sure I have anything meaningful out of this yet...
Jacob . . . er . . . Doug,
There is no clear indication in the Greek that would suggest "the obedience of the faith." That would be an interpretation issue and not a translation issue. I find your comments helpful, and I think they are on the right track. Especially, helpful is the connection with Hebrews 11:6. Faith is the necessary ingredient to pleasing God (i.e. true obedience). I think we are on the same page. I was attempting to suggest that obedience stems from faith.
I'm not so sure if faith requires obedience, or if faith inevitably leads to obedience. I suppose we could say that obedience is required to call it genuine faith, but that is because true faith leads to obedience.
I think Heb 11:6 explains this. The statement "and without faith it is impossible to please him" is further explained in the rest of the verse (thus, "for whoever. . ."). The reason faith is required is that in order to draw near to God (be pleasing to him) you must believe that he exists (he is really there) AND that "he rewards those who seek him." You don't just believe that God is, you believe that God is a giver, a benefactor, a rewarder. You believe that God exists and that he loves to do good to you. If that faith is actually welling up in your heart, you will act. The faith will find expression in obedience. It's like God spreads out a great feast, and faith is just believing that the feast is really delicious and that you are starving. If you really believe that, you eat. Does this make sense?
That's better. I got twisted up in the "which comes first" thought that my brain thought was suggested as I read it originally.
Through all this, I think that God provides us with Faith (a glass), and the faith leads to obedience (water in the glass), and the obedience wouldn't be possible (or real) without the faith to hold it all together.
Not the best word picture, but sometimes having an image like that helps me to solidify it in my mind.
I'm ready to move on now.
For so few words, this message is very deep. It would seem this way with the Catholic church (an organization that I am becoming very familiar with), that we want obedience without faith. We feel like our obedience + Jesus = maybe Salvation. Not Jesus + His death = a free gift we need to accept by faith. This faith is the spring board for our obedience. Just as faith without works is dead, so we cannot do works without faith. We are commanded by God, once we have accepted Jesus by faith, to be filled by Him and follow Him. This following would be deemed obedience. That would be the filling of the glass. We are called to fill our "faith" glass with obedience to Him, so, if we are not filling it, we disobey God. Likewise, we cannot fill our glass with obedience if we have no glass to add the obedience to. The natural order is faith first, then obedience. It works no other way, as evident in Romans. Only then will we be able to reach the nations. That is where our works exemplify our faith.
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