SAVING FAITH = OBEDIENCE

“Through him we have received grace and our apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name. Read full chapter Romans 1:5

o. Romans 1:5 tn The phrase ὑπακοὴν πίστεως has been variously understood as (1) an objective genitive (a reference to the Christian faith, “obedience to [the] faith”); (2) a subjective genitive (“the obedience faith produces [or requires]”); (3) an attributive genitive (“believing obedience”); or (4) as a genitive of apposition (“obedience, [namely] faith”) in which “faith” further defines “obedience.” These options are discussed by C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC), 1:66. Others take the phrase as deliberately ambiguous; see D. B. Garlington, “The Obedience of Faith in the Letter to the Romans: Part I: The Meaning of ὑπακοὴ πίστεως (Rom 1:5; 16:26),” WTJ 52 (1990): 201-24. (NET note)

1:5 The universal scope of the gospel is expressed in Paul’s definition of his task as “call[ing] people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith” (v. 5). The promised Messiah did not come for the benefit of the Jewish nation alone. The gospel is good news for all who will respond in faith. But faith inevitably issues in obedience. Faith is not intellectual assent to a series of propositions but surrender to the one who asks us to trust him. To surrender is to obey. Biblical faith is not some mild assent to a collection of ethical maxims but an active commitment of one’s life. Obedience is the true measure of a person’s faith. E. Best comments that “faith and obedience go inextricably together. Only in obedience is there faith, for faith is not emotional feeling or intellectual acceptance but active response to a person.” Paul’s desire was to take the gospel to the entire world and see the nations turn to God in a faith that changes conduct. Any other response would be inadequate. Apart from a changed life there is no real faith.

Through Jesus Christ, Paul and the other apostles received their commission. Along with apostleship came the grace that made it possible.¹⁶ When people from every nation profess Christ and demonstrate their faith by the obedience it brings forth, then will his name be honored. (Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary [Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), pp. 62–63; emphasis mine)

Paul goes on to the purpose of the gift. The word rendered obedience is not found in pre-Christian writings (apart from one occurrence in LXX and one in Aquila). Christians did not, of course, bring the concept of obedience into the world. This virtue was known and appreciated long before, even if it found expression in other words. But certainly Christians gave it a new emphasis. Obedience follows from the truth Paul expressed in his opening line when he described himself as a “slave” of Christ. Believers belong to Christ without reserve. Therefore they owe him the most complete obedience. It is not without interest that this epistle, which puts such stress on the free salvation won for us by Christ’s atoning act, should also stress the importance of obedient response.

This is further brought out with a characteristic reference to faith. In the New Testament this noun normally denotes the attitude of trust, though sometimes it refers to what is believed, that is, the faith (e.g., Jude 3). In the present passage the expression is literally “to obedience of faith”, an expression which recurs in 16:26 and which may be taken in any one of a number of ways.

(a) The genitive may be objective and faith mean “the faith”, the body of teachings held by Christians. Thus Moffatt translates, “to promote obedience to the faith” (cf. 6:17; Acts 6:7). The absence of the article tells against this; therefore, some adopt the variant, “obedience to the authority of faith”, or even “obedience to God’s faithfulness”. The last two are possible, but they do not spring to the mind.

(b) The genitive may be subjective and denote origin, “obedience which springs from faith” (BAGD), or “obedience which faith demands”.⁷⁴

(c) The genitive might be epexegetic, meaning “obedience which consists in faith” (so Murray, Cranfield, etc.).⁷⁶ The absence of the article makes (a) less plausible. There is more to be said for (b), and in any case it expresses an important truth. Many favor (c), but there is a problem in that, while faith and obedience go together, they are not identical. Why use two words for one meaning? It seems rather that the gospel is seen as demanding the response of faith. Accordingly, the way to obey is to believe. But obedience is more than faith, and faith is more than obedience.

Whichever way we take the expression, obedience is not an option (cf. 1 John 3:23–24). It is binding on all Christians. “Faith’s obedience” is a reminder that, as Paul understood it, faith is not an easy out for those who find a strict morality irksome. When anyone is saved through faith, it is with a view to obedience. The life is given in service to the Lord in whom one has come to believe. In some modern discussions Paul is seen as a charismatic, impatient of rules and institutions. Whatever be the truth about that, he clearly valued obedience. He was not free to innovate where God had made his will known. (Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1988), pp. 49–50; bold emphasis mine)

Third, Paul says that he received grace and apostleship ‘to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith’ (lit. ‘for obedience of faith among all the Gentiles’). As an apostle he was to bring about ‘obedience of faith’. This phrase is susceptible to a number of translations/interpretations.⁴⁸ The two main alternatives are to construe ‘of faith’ as (i) a genitive of origin and interpret the phrase, as the NIV does, to mean ‘obedience that comes from faith’, or (ii) as a genitive of apposition and interpret it to mean ‘obedience that consists in faith’. Both options receive support from statements Paul makes elsewhere. The first is supported by such passages as 6:16; Eph. 6:1, 5; Phil. 2:12; Col. 3:20, 22; and 2 Thess. 3:14, which presuppose that obedience to godly instruction should issue from faith in Christ. The second finds support in passages like 6:17; 10:16; 15:18–20; 16:25–26; and 2 Thess. 1:8, which speak of obedience in terms of the call of the gospel to believe in God’s Son, that is, obedience that consists in faith. The question is how should we interpret ‘the obedience of faith’ in 1:5.

We get some help by examining the only other use of the phrase ‘obedience of faith’ in Paul’s writings—in the closing doxology of Romans: ‘Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith’ [lit. ‘for obedience of faith for all nations’]—to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen’ (16:25–27). In the immediate context the ‘obedience of faith’ here is linked with Paul’s gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, suggesting that obedience of faith is primarily the obedience that consists in faith in the gospel. In 15:18–19, while not using the exact phrase ‘obedience of faith’, Paul can speak of what Christ accomplished through him ‘in leading the Gentiles to obey God’ (lit. ‘for obedience of Gentiles’) through his proclamation of the gospel of Christ. Again obedience appears to be acceptance of the gospel call to believe in Christ, that is, the obedience that consists in faith. Accordingly, the refusal of Paul’s Jewish contemporaries to believe in Christ can be described as disobedience, or, as Paul puts in 10:2–3, a refusal to submit to God’s righteousness: ‘For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness’—a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. All this supports the view that ‘the obedience of faith’ is best understood to mean ‘the obedience that consists in faith’.

In its immediate context the ‘obedience of faith’ in 1:5 is linked with the grace of apostleship that Paul received to proclaim the gospel, suggesting that the obedience of faith here is to be understood primarily as obedience to the gospel’s call to believe in God’s Son, that is, the obedience that consists in faith. This receives further support from the fact that Paul speaks apparently synonymously when he says, ‘I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world’ (1:8; italics added), and ‘everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you’ (16:19; italics added).

However, care must be taken not to assume that faith consisting in obedience can be separated from faith expressing itself in obedience. As noted above, there are many places in Paul’s writings, not least in Romans, that indicate that obedience to godly instruction should issue from faith in Christ. It is not surprising, then, that a number of scholars adopt what may be described as a ‘both and’ interpretation of the obedience of faith. Garlington argues that Paul chose an ambiguous phrase so he could express two ideas at the same time. He contends that both ‘obedience consisting in faith’ and ‘obedience issuing from faith’ are too restrictive to convey Paul’s meaning. He concludes that ‘faith’s obedience’ or ‘believing obedience’ are better translations of this phrase and preserve the intended ambiguity. Schreiner says: ‘It is unlikely, though, that “the obedience of faith” should be confined to a single act of obedience that occurred when the gospel was first believed. Nor should faith and obedience be sundered as if Christians could have the former without the latter.… The belief first exercised upon conversion is validated as one continues to believe and obey (11:20–22)’. Similarly, Dunn observes: ‘The genitive construction is probably to be taken as embracing both the sense “response which is faith” and “obedience which stems from faith”—“interchangeable ideas” ’.⁵¹

⁴⁸ Cranfield, Romans, I, 66, lists the following seven alternatives: (i) ‘obedience to the faith’ (i.e., to faith in the sense of fides quae creditur, the body of doctrine accepted); (ii) ‘obedience to faith’ (i.e., to the authority of faith); (iii) ‘obedience to God’s faithfulness attested in the gospel’; (iv) ‘the obedience which faith works’; (v) ‘the obedience required by faith’; (vi) ‘believing obedience’; (vii) ‘the obedience which consists in faith’. Cranfield notes that ‘the first three of these interpretations assume that the genitive is objective, the fourth and fifth that it is subjective, the sixth that it is adjectival, and the last that it is a genitive of apposition or definition’. (Colin G. Kruse, Paul’s Letter to the Romans, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary [Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England; Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2012], pp. 50–52; emphasis mine)

“But I have written more boldly to you on some points so as to remind you, because of the grace given to me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. I serve the gospel of God like a priest, so that the Gentiles may become an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. So I boast in Christ Jesus about the things that pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in order to bring about the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem even as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” Romans 15:15-19

“Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that had been kept secret for long ages, but now is disclosed, and through the prophetic scriptures has been made known to all the nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—” Romans 16:25-26

“The word of God continued to spread, the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.” Acts 6:7

“Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments. The one who says ‘I have come to know God’ and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person. But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him.” 1 John 2:3-5

“and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing to him. Now this is his commandment: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he gave us the commandment. And the person who keeps his commandments resides in God, and God in him. Now by this we know that God resides in us: by the Spirit he has given us.” 1 John 3:22-24

“For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments do not weigh us down,” 1 John 5:3

“So the dragon became enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep God’s commandments and hold to the testimony about Jesus.” Revelation 12:17

“This requires the steadfast endurance of the saints—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to their faith in Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write this: “Blessed are the dead, those who die in the Lord from this moment on!”’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘so they can rest from their hard work, because their deeds will follow them.’” Revelation 14:12-13

“Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were entrusted to, and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what benefit did you then reap from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:16-23

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36 Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)

“The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.’ ‘Lord,’ Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, ‘what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?’ Jesus replied, ‘If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. The person who does not love me does not obey my words. And the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.’” John 14:21-24

“I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit. You are clean already because of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and are burned up. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples. Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain in my love. If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” John 15:1-10

“When the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and were persuading them to continue in the grace of God.” Acts 13:43

“They strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, “We must enter the kingdom of God through many persecutions.’” Acts 14:22

“eternal life to those who by perseverance in good works seek glory and honor and immortality, but wrath and anger to those who live in selfish ambition and do not obey the truth but follow unrighteousness. There will be affliction and distress on everyone who does evil, on the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first and also the Greek. For there is no partiality with God. For all who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous.” Romans 2:7-13

“With flaming fire he will mete out punishment on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” 2 Thessalonians 1:8

“Granted! They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear! For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God—harshness toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And even they—if they do not continue in their unbelief—will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?” Romans 11:20-24  

“but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him—if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, without shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.” Colossians 1:22-23