Trust and Obey

Read Romans 1: 5 – 7
 
Because of Jesus we have received grace (God’s loving kindness) and apostleship (the dignity of an apostle of Christ) to bring about obedience of faith for God’s name sake to all nations…  Through Jesus we have received God’s grace, we have obtained the right to become apostles of Christ (this is not something we deserve but through God’s loving kindness we have received it) and thus we walk in obedience of faith.  Obedience and faith go hand in hand. We obey because of our faith in Jesus and not because we feel we “have to.”  The word faith means the conviction of the truth of anything.  In the NT it is a conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things.  Obedience should always accompany faith.  Why?  For God’s name sake.  When we walk in obedience of faith we are glorifying God and bringing honor to the name of Christ.

The opposite of walking in obedience of faith (especially to the believer) is walking according to the flesh.  When Christians act and walk according to obedience we are bringing glory to God and to all humanity.  Moo writes, “Paul saw his task as calling men and women to submission to the lordship of Christ, a submission that began with conversion but which was to continue in a deepening, lifelong commitment… Paul called men and women to a faith that was always inseparable from obedience.”[1] 

The key for believers is not just obedience because we cannot truly be obedient to Christ without faith.  The key is the obedience OF faith.  Submitting to God’s way and proclaiming the lordship of Jesus in your life is what Paul is talking about here.  It (obedience of faith) is only obtainable because of who Christ is and what he has done.  Jesus, who is without beginning or end, took on the form of a man and experienced life on earth as a human.  He gave his life up as an offering to God, rose from the dead and ascended to the Father so that all who believe in Jesus (faith) can have eternal life.   Truly this is a God who is worthy to follow in obedience in faith.

[1] [1] Moo, Douglas:  The Epistle to the Romans.  Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge UK:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996,