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Romans 1:5

Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.

After the gospel layout in vv.3-4, Paul resumes his personal introduction in v.5, and I paraphrase here to understand what the wording of the sentence: ‘I received the grace of being commissioned, from God’s son, to call the Gentiles to be obedient. This obedience comes from faith in Jesus Christ’. (The ‘I’ instead of ‘we’ in my paraphrasing is because in his letters,Paul often uses plurals when talking about himself, and in this case v.1 shows Paul is just introducing himself.) Although Paul felt his special commission from God was to reach the Gentiles, he definitely preached to the Jews as well.

We’ll see the theme of obedience and faith come up a number of times in Romans because it’s one of the cornerstones of being a christian. When I first went through Romans in depth over a year ago, this topic, obedience and faith, was very exciting to have clarified. The clarification for me, and you might have the same question, is what comes first; obedience for what God asks of us, or faith in God? Does faith lead to obedience or does obedience lead to faith? As Moo puts it, ‘obedience always involves faith, and faith always involves obedience’. One does not come after or before the other. In this verse, Paul is saying that his apostleship (special commission from God) isn’t just to bring the Gentiles to faith, but to bring them to obedience in the continual spread of the gospel.

You can see how this works if we take faith and obedience to their extremes. A woman with complete faith in God that he will provide for her will take risks to be obedient and spread the gospel to the ends of the earth and love others. A man with no faith that God is going to provide for him is going to spend his time seeking comfort from earthly things, and little to no time being obedient. The woman with complete faith couldn’t not be obedient, knowing what God does in her life, and the man with no faith wouldn’t be obedient, because there is no benefit in being obedient to a cause without faith of benefit or consequence. (you might find my post ‘Are we to pray for physical matters?‘ interesting)

ASK YOURSELF: Do you see both faith and obedience in your life? Which one do you think is most deficit, and is that result of deficit in the other area as well?

I pray, God, that you will give me the strength to increase my faith and obedience. Let me know that you are worth obeying wholeheartedly. Let me know that I can put my complete faith and trust in you, leaving nothing left for my own anxieties and pride.