The Obedience to the Faith

If I had to sum up what the epistle to the church at Rome is about,

I would point at two verses that serve as the “book-ends” of the 

book of Romans. They are found in Romans 1:5 and Romans 16:26

and state that the letter was written for the “obedience to the faith”. 

in this blog post, I attempt to share the five-fold grace of God that

believers take part in when they obey the Lord.

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1. From the heart. - (Romans 6:17) (Romans 10:9) This is the first 

step of any believer’s obedience. And it has the potential to be the

most difficult; but one of the most satisfying ways as well. I’ve 

frequently admired Christians as they operate in this grace of

obedience. It’s a beautiful thing to see people live simplistically as 

they go about their lives abiding in God, delighting themselves in

Him as He gives them their hearts’ desires. (Psalm 37:4)

2. From the Word of God – (Luke 11:28) It’s an amazing thing

when people take the scripture verbatim and go about carrying out

what it says.

3. From godly counsel. - (Proverbs 11:14) (Proverbs 19:20)

There will always come times throughout the lives of believers

where we will need to obey the Lord thru the guidance and counsel

of other Christians who have insights on how we should go about

doing things. However, this form takes humility to confess we

don’t know as we ought and need help.

4. From Holy Spirit directly. - (Romans 8:14) (Matthew 4:1)

This has been my favorite way of obeying God for years. I just love

to hear personally from God. It has even gotten to the point where

the Lord has given more emphasis on other forms to bring me into 

more maturity of obeying in other areas of this five-fold grace than

just hearing from Holy Spirit. But it’s still a favorite.

5. From the needs of others. (James 2:14-18) (Matthew 10:42)

This one is similar to obeying from godly counsel. But it focuses on

being obedient to God by responding to the needs of others. Many

Christians throughout history have leaned heavily on this 

point to become obedient to the faith. And it is in no wise less than

any of the others when it comes to being faithful to God.

In conclusion, what I would submit here is that throughout the life

of a Christian, we will follow thru with all of these principles in our

walk. And while believers may put more emphasis on some rather

than others in this five-fold grace, the more we engage with each

one of them, the more mature we will become in time.