Day 5: Favor of God and Obedience of Faith

Romans 1:5 :

through whom we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake;

Paul tells us here that he received grace and apostleship. We discussed apostleship earlier, but this thing called “grace” is so important that you could say it is another word for “Christianity.” Grace means “favor” and when it comes from God it means that “God favors you.” Paul explains God’s grace in this letter in great detail, but one of the things he explains in this short passage is the purpose of his favor to the apostles. God favored the apostles so that they would bring “obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake.”

What is “obedience of faith?” I think of it this way. When you truly believe something, you live by it. In other words you obey your belief system. Another way to put it is that you live by your worldview. Paul brings a new worldview when he brings the Gospel of Jesus. Christianity isn’t just small addition to your life, it is an alteration of our worldview and that changes how we see things and what we do in any given situation.

Notice that the message wasn’t just for Jews but all the nations. Also, apostles didn’t teach in their own names but in the name of Jesus. No credit goes to Paul for the message or how it was delivered. The credit goes to Jesus. He is the one who gave the favor and apostleship.