Obedience Through Faith

DEVOTION

ROMANS

OBEDIENCE THROUGH FAITH

Rom 1:5-6
5 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.
NIV

It would make sense to most of us in order to obey someone we first must believe this someone has authority to give us a command. Then also if we believe a person has the authority to command us, then we must conclude it is our duty to obey.

However, this issue of recognizing the person who has that authority stands at the core of this statement by Paul. The scripture clearly says I must make this judgment by faith, not by seeing an individual who may, in the case of the military, be wearing a symbol denoting his rank which gives him the right to command those under his particular rank or command. In this issue, in this passage I must recognize Jesus Christ as He who has the authority to command us me by faith. Jesus, himself, declared to me, faith is of great value.
John 20:29

29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
NIV

So, now the issue stands, if I truly do believe, if I really do have faith that Jesus is my lord and my savior and he is the one who has the right to command me and in fact has, then what is the reason for my disobedience? If I disobey the authority of this law, surely I could and most likely would be punished. If I disobeyed a military commander, I would be punished for sure. Yet God does not treat me that way because Jesus already paid the price for my disobedience, past, present and future. That still does not make it right, why can’t I obey completely? I am weak, I am not perfect, I am human are all good answers, but seem like more of an excuse rather than an answer. I simply need Jesus.