Faith requires Obedience

DEVOTION

ROMANS

FAITH REQUIRES OBEDIENCE

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

At the central theme of all the letters Paul writes as he is inspired by the Spirit, is Jesus Christ, the grace of God, his Lordship, and his authority over all creation. If we see grace, in one of the definitions, as unmerited favor, Jesus on that cross was a favor we were not worthy of. We did not deserve it, we could and cannot do anything to be worthy of that grace. It is a free gift of God. A gift we cannot re-gift or reciprocate with a greater gift or even one of equal value. We have learned in the Roman culture during the time of Christ, gifting was always responded by gifting back with something better than the gift and then it started all over, back and forth one gift better than the next. A never ending battle of who is the better gift giver. But here we cannot out-gift God. Sure our response to his free gift is to offer ourselves as living sacrifices as we will see when we get to chapter twelve. But for now let us just rejoice in the fact God gave us his grace, unmerited favor, freely. Yet we also must see that this grace, as defined by the meaning of the Greek word, is actually the type of grace which is God’s divine influence upon our heart and how that is reflected in our lives. So it is through Jesus and for his name’s sake that he influences our hearts so he is reflected in our lives. All this is done through our faith in him. But also this faith produces something else. This faith produces obedience.

To be obedient must be understood from a military perspective. A commanding officer is easy to identify by the rank wore on his uniform. His rank demands first a respect for his position of authority, and second a response of being obedient to his command. When we consider Jesus, who all authority in heaven and on earth has been given, we cannot see his rank, we cannot see him, nor in the physical sense hear his command. We have to accept his rank, his authority by faith, without seeing. He tells us by doing this we surely will be blessed.

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

It is by faith we accept salvation. If is by faith we accept the truth of God, the grace of God, the forgiveness of God. But is it not also by faith that we accept his authority in our lives? Then why do we struggle so much with obedience? If we are walking with God, rather than having God walk with us, then he leads and we follow. He commands, we obey. But why do we think we can cherry pick which of his commands we obey and which we ignore? In the military, especially in battle, the commands of the ranking officer are for two reasons. First, to insure the lives of his men are safe, second to win the battle. Yes, at times the soldier is commanded to be in harm’s way, and may lose his life, but the commands are to be obeyed. Jesus has given us commands, basically only two. They are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, spirit and strength and the other is to love our neighbor as ourselves. We could list all the other commands throughout scripture, but Jesus said:

Matt 22:40

40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." 

NIV

The question is, are we doing that? Are we being obedient because of our faith?