Obedience to the Faith

[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by kclee4jc

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

Paul explicitly demonstrates that grace is received FOR obedience to the faith. Is it because of obedience to the faith or received in order to produce obedience to the faith?

There are three kinds if works that men tend to attempt to produce salvation. Keeping the law of Moses, human merit, and obedience to God. The following scripture demonstrates that grace is received for obedience to the faith.

James demonstrates that a man is 'Justified by works and not by faith alone'. What kind of work justifies a man. It is not Human merit nor is it the keeping of the Law of Moses. A man is justified and saved by the 'work' if you will, of obedience to the faith!

Just recently taught a family devotion on this very verse (Romans 1:5).

The key to understanding the relationship between obedience and faith is the preposition "for", as in for obedience to the faith...

Here, it is the Greek word eis and it means to, unto, or towards, suggesting a reason of goal. So, Paul received grace and apostleship from God for the reason or goal of bringing all nations into the faith "for the sake of" the name of Christ (Here, "for" is the preposition huper).

So, translations like the ESV or the NASB have it right. If we want to win souls among the Gentiles, we need grace and commissioning.

This does not detract from the need to obey the commandments of God.

As you mention, in James 2, Abraham was justified when he ascended Mt. Moriah to offer Isaac before the Lord. Why?

Because if he had not obeyed, his disobedience would have been counted to him as unrighteousness. So Abraham's literal effort to obey God wrought with his faith to bring about his justification.

Note, however, that this is different than what Paul writes of Abraham in Romans 4. There, there is no obedience, for Abraham simply believed the promise God made to him, and through his inner conviction that what God said was true, God imputed righteousness to him. Why? Simply because he believed.

So then, there are two equally important aspects of justification. There are some things in the Word that are simply received by faith, in which no action or act of obedience is possible. They simply must be believed. Once so believed, God counts it for righteousness.

However, the second form of justification then takes shape. Based on what is received and believed, if and when a response is required by God, then one's justification is determined by what one does.

Note how we are exhorted to "believe the Gospel", but then are told that not all have "obeyed the Gospel". The Gospel must be believed in the heart, or else "obeying" it is futile. But on the other hand, once it is firmly believed in the heart, obedience must flow outward into action as proof of the inward conviction that the Gospel is truth, and that it must be obeyed through application.

This proves the relationship far better, in my opinion, between faith and obedience.

Compare Mark 1:15 with Romans 10:16.

Mark 1:15,

And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

Romans 10:16,

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

Even in the Greek of the NT, there is a relationship between believe/faith and disobedience, i.e. not obey.

See here:

Believe: Pisteuo, verb: to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in, from the Greek word pistis, which is the noun, from the word peitho, to persuade or induce one to believe through words, i.e. to listen to, obey, yield to, comply with, etc.

Disobedience or not obey: me peitho, to be unpersuaded, not induced into believing; therefore, to not listen to, obey, yield to, or comply with, and etc.

Granted, sometimes there are other or different words behind them in the Greek. Take Ephesians 2:2, where disobedience is apeithia, meaning obstinately opposed to believing, sometimes also translated as unbelief.

Then note how the Greek word for unbelief is sometimes not apeithia, but rather apistia, meaning lacking faith/trust, even to the point of rebellion, especially in terms of the commandments of God.

The point?

All these words are variations of each other, slightly amended in each specific case for the intended expressed meaning. But there is a reason faith, trust, belief, believe, obey, not obey, disobey, and etc. are all interconnected. It's to show us that we really can't separate the two (i.e. faith from obedience). They beget each other. When we have true faith and when we truly obey, it is impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.