The Obedience of Faith - Romans 1:5

 

“By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name.” Romans 1:5

This verse is of course dependent on that which has preceded, and the antecedent of the pronouns “whom,” and “his,” is the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord.” The apostle’s statement is, that by Jesus Christ he has received the grace to be an apostle, for obedience to the faith among all nations. The grace, which he says, he has received, is more than the ordinary grace, which is invoked upon all the saints, in the apostolic benediction. It is special grace for special work. In Ephesians 1:7, 8, he expresses it thus: —

“Whereof [that is, the gospel] I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

Grace was given to Paul in large measure, simply because he was called to a great work. God gives to every man strength according to his day. So far as grace to overcome sin is concerned, Paul had no more of it than any man may have. Heaven has no special favorites; “God is no respecter of persons.” The patriarchs, prophets, and apostles were men of like passions with us, and had no more aid in overcoming any habit than we may have in overcoming the same. Enoch “walked with God;” but that is nothing more than God requires of every man. “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Micah 6:8

But the special point of the verse under consideration is the expression, “obedience to the faith.” Notice that the margin has it, “the obedience of faith;” and this is the exact rendering of the original. The same expression occurs in Romans 16:26, where Paul says that the mystery of God, namely, the gospel, “is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.”

A somewhat similar expression comes in Acts 6:7, where it is said that “a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.” By some, these expressions are supposed to refer to a system of faith; but we cannot so generalize. Faith is a personal matter. Obedience to a system would be simply a performance of the rites of that system; but that would amount to nothing without the exercise of personal faith. When Paul said, “I have kept the faith,” he meant that he had kept in his heart that faith which enabled him to fight the good fight, even the good fight of faith. With this view in mind, we shall see that it matters little whether we say “obedience to the faith,” or “the obedience of faith.”

The great characteristic of faith is, that it works. We do not mean that works are attached to it, but works come from it. “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” James 2:26. Faith “works by love,” says Paul. There may be that which is called faith, but if no works proceed from it, it is not faith.

Obedience implies