the obedience of faith
what you know and why you know it
Romans 1:1-5 (ESV)
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son ... 5 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, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ ...
Paul's mission was to bring about the obedience of faith. It was for this that he was beaten, imprisoned and left for dead. More fully, Paul's mission was to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of God's name among all the nations. Another way of saying this is:
as Paul preached the gospel to the nations
his goal was to change sinners into people who obeyed God
so that God would have a good reputation.
The nations would understand how good God was when they saw how His followers obeyed him. To our culture, this is an incomprehensible motivation for "goodness". If there is any attempt to be "good" it is in order to improve my reputation, or, at best, to assist someone less fortunate than myself (which does wonderful things for my reputation). But the revolutionary teaching here is that "my" goodness is for the benefit of someone else, and that person is no less than the creator of the universe.
We see this from another angle in Paul's words to Titus:
Titus 2:11-14 (ESV)
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Jesus gave himself for us—submitted himself to murderers, and endured the torture of crucifixion for us—so that we would no longer belong to sin but belong to Him, be his own possession, and be a purified people, zealous for good works.
This is perhaps the greatest reason for us to stop sinning. It is what God is on about it. God's interest in our “goodness” is not a matter of him looking on and hoping that we will be good—he has been working towards this goal for the whole of history, he really wants to have a bunch of people who are pure and eager to do what is good. For this reason he called Abraham, for this reason he gave the law through Moses to the nation of Israel, for this reason he sent his prophets to Israel, for this reason he sent Jesus to Israel, for this reason Jesus died, for this reason Paul preached, and for this reason the gospel has been preached throughout the world since the death of the apostles. But in all these cases, God was not only interested in his chosen people's obedience, he was interested in the other nations.
God to Abraham: 1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3 (ESV)
God to Israel (through Moses): Keep [my commands] and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ Deuteronomy 4:6 (ESV)
God to Israel (through Ezekiel): 22 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. Ezekiel 36:22-24 (ESV)
God told Abraham His plans, made promises to him, taught him about Himself, and Abraham believed and acted on that information. God told Israel His plans, made promises to them, taught them about Himself, and some of them acted on that information. When they failed, He did the same thing through the prophets. God has always taught people about Himself, His plans and His promises so that those who listen will stop sinning and obey him. It is no different for us. Notice the relationship between teaching and holiness in the book of Colossians.
Col. 1:9-10 (ESV)
9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Col. 1:28 (ESV)
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
Col. 2:6-7 (ESV)
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
As we are taught from the Scriptures we will be “filled with the knowledge of his will” and therefore “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord”. Understanding God's ways is the key to our holiness. When we realise that sin is foolishness and that God's ways are wise we will naturally want to obey God, we will want to be slaves of righteousness. And we will do this knowing that it is for God's reputation in the world—our goodness is for the sake of his glory, and we rejoice that he is glorified in us.
Heard it all before?
“I've heard all this before.” I hear you say. “It's there as head knowledge but for me it's not heart knowledge so I don't change.”
I believe that the question is not how to make head knowledge heart knowledge. Your heart cannot understand propositions, your head does that. The question is what is preventing these truths from shaping your life? It is probably one of these three things:
- Disbelief. You say you believe these things but in fact you are just acknowledging the possibility that these things could be true. You think about these truths in the same way you think about the world of the Lord of the Rings. In theory, it all makes sense and you can talk about it as if it were true but you do not really believe that it applies in this reality, in your life, in your house, when you are with your friends. You need to be convinced by the word of God that these things are true of your life, your world, your friends. Read the Bible for yourself. Listen to those who preach from it.
- Guilt. You believe these things. In fact, you believe it so strongly that you don't believe someone like you could be part of it. God tried his best with me but I wasn't good enough and now he can't bear to look at me. These feelings of guilt have hardened you so that when you hear that you are forgiven and that God loves you in spite of your constant failure, you don't believe it and you won't change. You need to repent, which simply means coming honestly to God and admitting your failure. He will no more reject you than when you first believed. You know that but feel too ashamed. Just do it.
- Misunderstanding. There are things that you simply haven't understood about God's love and his desire for your holiness. The answer is obvious: keep being taught from the word of God.
“But you seem to be saying that if I simply understand the Bible perfectly I will automatically stop sinning.”
Such an objection misunderstands the nature of the teaching we need. It's not as though we go to church and learn new things each week until we know all the things we need to know. The gospel can be summed up in one sentence and yet it takes the whole Bible to explain it. We need to hear the one idea over and over again. We need to be reminded of the same truths every day—by reading, by talking to friends, by hearing faithful preaching. We need to be reminded in the face of the barrage of other “doctrines”, worldviews and temptations.
Be taught by God. Understand that He wants you to be holy. Understand that He has done everything necessary to make you holy. Understand that he will continue to complete his purposes in you. And while you are learning, here are some practical suggestions.
Ben Beilharz needs to be reminded daily of the goodness of God.
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