Real Faith Leads to Real Obedience
Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. 6 And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ
Romans 1:5,6
Paul writes that he ‘received grace and apostleship’ (1:5) which in the context means ‘the undeserved privilege of being an apostle.’ Serving God and His people is a product of God’s unmerited favour towards us. We serve out of our own weakness. God calls us to minister and gives us the grace to do it.
Paul saw the scope of his mission to ‘all the Gentiles’ (1:5). This implies most of the Christians in Rome were Gentile. But Paul will shortly describe the gospel as ‘the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile’ (1:16). He saw the gospel being for ‘everyone.’ Its scope is universal. He was a patriotic Jew who kept his love for his people and longed passionately for their salvation (9:1ff; 10:1). But God called him to be the apostle to the Gentiles. We too, if we are going to be committed to world mission, will have to be freed from all pride of race, nation, tribe, caste and class and embrace the reality that the gospel is for everyone, without distinction.
From the time of his conversion God made it clear that Paul’s primary mission was to bring Gentiles to faith in Jesus. But rather than referring simply to faith, Paul uses an expanded phrase, literally ‘the obedience of faith’ (repeated in 16:26) The NIV’s translation ‘the obedience that comes from faith’ (1:5) takes the meaning: commitment to Christ in faith leads to obedience in life. A living faith in Christ involves submission to Christ. He is ‘Jesus Christ our Lord’ (1:4). The Christians Paul is writing to here had believed and obeyed. Paul immediately describes them as ‘those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ’ (1:6).
When we come to Christ, we come to one who demands total allegiance. This allegiance is something we learn to ‘live out’ as God begins His work of transforming our minds so we will do His will (12:1,2). This is the message Paul proclaims to the Gentiles – not just initial conversion but the transformation of life.
Faith and obedience should never be separated. Our faith should lead us into stronger obedience and our obedience must always be in faith, believing the God whose wish is our command.