Romans 1:1-7 – “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

If you’ve been with us the past few times, we’ve been working through Paul’s salutation to the Church at Rome.  Having a firm foundation in understanding the salutation is important because Paul is really laying out in these 7 verses what he plans to unpack throughout the rest of His letter.   I went back and forth over how much ground to cover at once.  There’s a lot of topics here; the Lordship of Christ, Jesus as the source of grace, the purpose of grace in God’s appointing us as believers, and the means by which God’s purpose in calling is achieved.  I ultimately decided to put them all together in one message because they are all linked.  An easy task for a Monday email, right?  Well that explains why this became a Tuesday email…

If you remember, last time we dug into the resurrection of Christ, to understand that the lynchpin of our Christian faith is that Christ’s holiness was triumphant over sin and death; thus as He was risen by the Spirit of holiness, so too will we who are credited with His righteousness by faith be raised.  Now, I want to move forward to understand what is meant what Paul says “Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of the faith for the sake of his name among the nations including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”   What I hope for us to see at the end of today is that we have a calling by God.  The calling of God was our divine appointment by Him to believe on Him for a purpose.  That purpose is the glorification of His name.  The means of His glorification is our obedience, which springs forth from faith.  That faith, a gift of God, is sustained and growing through grace.  That grace was not free, but purchased for us in the blood of Christ.  Christ administers grace to us, His redeemed children, to help us in our calling.  Whew!  I hope you are still with me.  Clearly we have a lot to get through, but it will be worth it.

Many people do not believe that you can believe in Christ as your savior without believing Jesus Christ is your Lord.  Those people are probably not saved.  They come up with all names like “carnal Christian” to classify people who have at one point “believed” and then now are unrepentant in their sin and/or rejected God and the church.  If your understanding of the gospel is merely that Jesus died to save you from hell, you do not understand the gospel.  While the motivations of the people peddling this watered down gospel (heresy) would seemingly be good – to give assurance of salvation to all who “believe”, they’re not being helpful or loving in reality.  It is not loving to tell someone who is unrepentant in their disobedience to Christ, that they are saved.  All they are doing is smoothing a person’s pathway to hell.  The irony of those who deny the necessity of Christ’s lordship in salvation of course is that the claim to acknowledge Jesus as God.  Who do you think has more authority over your life, a lord and king, or the God who gives you air to breathe?   They implicitly make the claim that Jesus’s authority as God is somehow less than His authority as Lord…Ridiculous.  Jesus IS God and IS Lord.  We are His bondslaves, purchased with His blood.  I could go on, but that’s probably as much as I need to say about that.

Paul is saying that he has “received grace and apostleship” through Jesus.  Many people understand the grace of God apart from Jesus, but Paul is making it clear that the source of grace is the Jesus Himself.  His blood has satisfied the holiness of God.  Isaiah 53:5 – “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”  1 Peter 1:18-19 – “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”   The blood of Christ purchased grace for you.  The blood of Christ purchased the grace for you to have faith, purchased grace for your sanctification, and purchased grace for your glorification on the Last Day.  Put another way, many people define “grace” as “the unmerited favor of God”.  That is fair, but let me take that a step further; Grace is the unmerited favor of God to man, merited by the blood of Jesus.  God does not give grace without cause; the cause is Christ and God’s purpose for His glory.    1 Timothy 1:14 – “the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”  Likewise Eph 2:8-9 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  The grace is not contingent upon your first having faith, this scripture is God telling us that even your faith to believe comes from grace.  Therefore, there is nothing to boast in before God.  You are not “saved” because you made a “good decision” for Christ, you are saved because God had mercy on you, and extended you grace to believe on Him.  Christians should be the most humble persons in the world because there isnothing for them to boast in, save Christ alone.  Boast in Him!

So Jesus is Lord and is extending grace to believe and grace to strengthen faith, but to what end?  Paul tells us that this is for the “obedience of the faith for the sake of his name among all the nations”  What does God mean by the “obedience of the faith”?  When we think obedience, we’re thinking outward behavior usually, right?  Someone tells you to do something and you do it.  How can faith, which Hebrews 11:1 defines as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” be obedient?  Well there are two ways that faith can be obedient, and they are linked together.

First and most importantly, is what do you believe?  Unfortunately, people bring their sin with them when they read God’s Word.  Here’s what I want people to understand… The Bible is going to say things about yourself and God that are hard to take in, because you’re a sinner.  There is truth that your flesh is not going to want to accept, and this in part is why we have all these crazy heretical beliefs that God isn’t sovereign over evil/calamity, God isn’t sovereign over salvation, homosexuality isn’t a sin, man isn’t completely sinful, women and men were made exactly the same, etc.  Therefore, part of the obedience of the faith is pushing back our own understanding, and trusting in the Word of God as Truth, a blessing to us, regardless of whether or not we can comprehend it fully.  As an example, I cannot give you an exhaustive explanation of an eternal, triune God, but that is the God of the Bible, so I believe it.  The Bible says God chooses whom to extend grace to believe, and He is good for that, just as He is also good to allow others to continue in their unbelief.  I cannot understand God’s purpose in election fully, and how He is working all things for good, but the Bible says it is true, and through obedience, I believe.  The second way, there is an obedience of the faith, is developing right affections for God.  Many people love a God who saves them from Hell, but do not love God simply for who He is.  My question to my own heart is this – Do I look at Jesus and love His justice, holiness, righteous anger against sin; all the characteristics of His glory?  If I do not, then wherever else my affections may lie (usually in things in the world like security, approval of man, etc.)  I want them to be obedient to seeing and savoring Christ.

So we have two ways to be “obedient of the faith” both in trusting the Word of God, and with the heart bringing our affections in line with the gospel of Jesus, to love Him above all else.  Those are linked.  The more we see of God, the more we will love Him.  Most importantly, every single one of us is helpless in this task.  No one can make themselves see and trust the True God of the Bible, nor can someone muster True affections for Him.  We need grace.  We need the unmerited favor of God to push back the darkness, to lift our eyes, to burn in our hearts affections for Him rooted in Truth.  We are helpless before Him, but as a loving Father, He is EAGER to help those who call upon His name.  This is what it means in Luke 11:9-13 – “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.  What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”   So the grace of Jesus is working through men like Paul to bring about the obedience of faith of those who have been called by God to believe, to be saints.

Why?  Why has God chosen to work in this way?  I do not fully understand the mind of God or have the perspective of time and all creation that He does to see how everything works together, but thankfully I do not need to; He tells me.  God is saying that we have been given grace through Jesus to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of His name, for His glorification.  What a gift!  How amazing is our God that He would take us, helpless and hopeless in our sinful state, and not only give us grace to believe on Him to be saved, but even use us to carry that message of reconciliation forward and to bring about the obedience of faith!  What good news, that we are the means by which God has chosen to lift up His name!    Such things are too wonderful to fully take in, but we should strive hard towards the end God has called us to, under the power which is provided through His Spirit, by grace, purchased from the blood of Christ.

Everything comes back to our Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the glorious center of all things.  We cannot believe, but the blood of Christ purchases for us grace to believe.  We cannot bring about obedience of faith, but blood of Christ purchases for us the Holy Spirit to make us inwardly obedient from the heart and mind.  We cannot fulfill our calling, but the blood of Christ purchases for us grace to work joyfully in the service of Him, for His glory.  We cannot delight in the things of God, but the blood of Jesus has purchased for us grace to see the Risen Lord as ultimate, a treasure above all things.  Only through the blood of Christ can our hearts delight to say “to live is Christ and to die is gain!”  Let us pray for an outpouring of God’s grace, that we all might be obedient of faith for the glory of His name.  For now, this means fruitful labor for us, to know more of Christ as the Spirit sanctifies us inwardly, and let us look with eager expectation to the Day when we will see clearly, the Risen Lamb of God, pierced for our transgressions, the author and perfector of our faith.

Grace and Peace,

Adam