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 

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.