Believing Obedience

Advent & Christmas

December 19, 2023

Believing Obedience 

Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

Romans 1:5

Read: Romans 1:1-5

Paul’s letter to the Romans is a systematic presentation of God’s plan of redemption for the entire world. In the first five verses, Paul outlines this plan which he fully developed in the sixteen chapters of this letter. Perhaps more than any other book in the New Testament, Paul’s letter to the Romans has been used by God to keep his people on the right track.

In the NRSV Bible, the first five verses are one sentence and are somewhat convoluted, making it difficult to grasp Paul’s point. The NLT breaks this passage into five sentences where Paul’s passion is easier to see. Paul is writing to a group of Christians in Rome, which in his time was the political, financial, and military center of power for the known world. Implicit in Paul’s announced intention of his letter is that while Caesar may claim to be god, the only true and living God has sent His Son to be the Savior for the entire world.

I chose this passage as one of my fifteen essential scriptures that form my core Christian beliefs for two reasons. First, I find it so valuable because of the way Paul shows God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in complete unity in providing for the redemption of humankind.

Secondly, I chose this passage for the phrase, “so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.” (v.5) I like N.T. Wright’s translation of this phrase where he uses,

“Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about believing obedience among all the nations for the sake of his name.” (Emphasis mine.)

This is the explicit purpose of God’s redemption of humankind: that we would live in a state of believing obedience to Jesus and thus bring glory to his name. This was the practice of the first-century followers of Christ. When challenged about their ideas, Christians pointed to their actions. They believed their behavior said what they believed; it was an enactment of their message. They lived out the life in Christ as seen in The Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13.

My Takeaway: The good news about the Good News is that Jesus enables his followers to live in a state of believing obedience.

For God is working in you,

giving you the desire

and the power to do what pleases him.

Philippians 2:13

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.