Romans 1:5 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Romans 1:5

Comments

‘By whom we have received grace and apostleship.’ Again the apostle is emphasising that he did not send himself. He seems to use the royal ‘we’ here of himself, the apostle Paul. Before God appointed me to be an apostle, he says, just like every Christian man and woman, I had to receive pardon and forgiveness. I had to be humbled. I had to receive the grace of God, undeserved salvation. He puts that first, most carefully. In case you should think, says the apostle Paul, there is anything special about me or that I have merited a great favour from God, or I ever deserved to be an apostle, I did not. It is by grace alone, he will say, that I have been saved, and it is by grace alone, undeserved favour of God, that I was ever made an apostle and given this privilege. He cannot leave it out. What a privilege, you can imagine him reflecting, for a persecutor, such a wretched man to be given such a privilege and such an office.This is my calling, Paul says. This is why I have been made an apostle: ‘for obedience to the faith.’ The apostle does not mean obedience to the doctrine of the Christian faith. It includes that, of course, but he means something else. He means obedience to God that springs from faith. Faith leads to obedience. Why has God saved Paul and other preachers? Why are the apostles particularly given the word of God? Why was Paul singled out and made the preacher, the apostle to the Gentiles? ‘This is the reason:’ he says, ‘so that there would be spread out through the Gentile nations, as well as among the Jewish converts, this wonderful thing: obedience to God which arises from true faith.

Application

Some people say, ‘All you need is faith’, and that is true. ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.’ I believe. That is it; I am a Christian. They have missed this vital point. ‘The obedience of faith.’ Faith and obedience are twins. True faith is coupled with obedience. True faith doesn't just trust Christ. It is a trust that obeys at the same time. The children's chorus has it perfectly: ‘Trust and obey, for there’s no other way.’ If there is no obedience coupled with the trust, it isn't saving faith. Saving faith is coupled with obedience. I trust in him, and at the same time I obey his call to repent. ‘Repent and believe the gospel’, says the Lord Jesus Christ. They are together, and repentance is the start of the life of obedience. As I trust him and his death on Calvary alone, I repent of my sin and begin to obey his commands. The two go together. I trust him obediently. Have they gone together for you? Or are you one of those worldly Christians? You are not really out of the world and the love of material things. You have got a kind of shallow belief, but not obedient belief, not repentant belief. That is right at the beginning of the letter to the Romans.

‘By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name.’ These are wonderful words. I am called to be an apostle, he says. I am giving you only the message of God. As Christian people we depend upon God for everything. We do not make up our own minds what the faith is; how to be saved; how to live the Christian life; how to operate the church. No, we depend upon the word of God.

‘Among all nations.’ As Christian people we cannot bear it when we look around and see little children and teenagers growing up, and adults also, with no knowledge of Christ. They know his name; they use it as a swear word. They know some basic things about him, but they do not know about his grace, and about his work, about what he has done, how much they need him, and about the fact that if they do not find him he must one day be their Judge. They do not know about his greatness and majesty and sovereignty. They do not know about the one who made them, the one who brings pardon and forgiveness and life.

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Romans 1:5 Commentary and Bible Study