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"Teaching God's Word to God's World"
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An Observatin By John Mitchell
- One Of Our Students -
I decided to survey Paul’s writings to demonstrate that obedience to the faith/Gospel was a consistent theme with Paul. Much to my surprise, Paul only addresses obedience to the faith/Gospel in:
Romans 1:5, “By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience
to the faith among all nations, for his name:”
Romans 2:8, “But unto them that are contentious, and do
not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation
and wrath,”
Romans 6:17, “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but
ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.”
Romans 10:16, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?”
Romans 16:26, “But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the
prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to
all nations for the obedience of faith:”
Galatians 3:1, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not
obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath
been evidently set forth, crucified among you?”
Galatians 5:7, “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not
obey the truth?”
II Thessalonians 1:8, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God,
and that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ:”
Romans and Galatians are the two epistles
where he develops fully that we are saved by faith and grace and not by works
of law.
I find it
very, very interesting that the only emphasis Paul places on obedience to the
faith is right in these epistles detailing that we are not saved by works.
Along this
line, Galatians 3:27 is
particularly interesting. In Paul’s
discourse on being sons of God, this verse is essentially parenthetical; it’s
not even needed to make his point that sonship is in Christ. In the Galatians epistle where Paul labors so hard to establish that there
is no work or works that we can do to obtain salvation, he references the
physical event of baptism, as the time one comes into Christ.
The II
Thessalonians passage plainly teaches that Christ will
punish those who have not obeyed the gospel.
Anyway, am I onto something worth pursing with this obedience in Romans and Galatians thought? Or am I off track in my thinking.?
--John
Mitchell – Student at STS
ANSWER: RIGHT ON!
--George
L. Faull