The BLB Blog

The official blog of Blue Letter Bible

Our God Who Brings About Obedience

Posted on Posted by

(The following is adapted from the Blue Letter Bible Institute’s Survey of the Bible 3 class.)

The final section of the book of Romans, chapters 12 through 16, covers the practical application of the gospel and its truths in life. I will call attention to only one or two things. First, in chapter 12, verse 1, he begins,

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, [justification, sanctification, glorification] to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship [or reasonable service].
(Romans 12:1)

In other words, the most reasonable, intelligent, thoughtful, purposeful thing you can do with your life, in view of all these great facts that Paul has declared to you, is to give yourself to God and to live for him. Nothing else can fulfill you to any degree. Therefore, give yourself to him. It is the reasonable thing to do.

When you do, you will find your life being changed in all your relationships. First, it is changed with regard to your brethren, as the latter part of chapter twelve shows. Presenting your body will affect your life in the church. Then, in the latter part of chapter twelve and in chapter thirteen, he says it will affect your relationship to the governing powers, to mankind in general, and to all society. Even your inner attitudes will be different, as discussed in chapter fourteen. Your attitudes toward the weak will be entirely opposite to what it was before you were a Christian. And your attitude toward the lost (chapter fifteen) will be entirely different. There will be a burning passion to reach them, for a quite different reason than you ever could have had before.

Paul’s closing words are wonderful (chapter 16, verses 25-27):

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
(Romans 16:25-27)

Click here to study Romans 16 at the Blue Letter Bible. Or click here to take one of the several classes offered at the BLB Institute.

Comments

  1. This “obedience of faith” requires an undeniable change in our lives as the next verse speaks: Rom 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” ! All of our choices are governed by our thinking and mind. Once renewed, we are visibly changed! We no longer return evil for evil, we prefer one another, are given to distribution to the saints and abhor evil. “Abhor” evil indicates a passionate dislike of unholiness. Passion is hard to hide. It is expressed in every aspect of our lives, including how we dress, what interests we have, and ALL our conversation! Being not conformed to this world, means we are visibly and dramatically different than the unsaved around us. We become salt and light!

    • I believe that is what is lacking in the body of believers- salt and light—-we look like the world, we act like the world, we talk like the world and then we wonder why people don’t listen to us when we speak about our loving God and precious Savior. In fact we cannot even get along with other believers. But there is good news… God is on the move and He is doing a work and purifying His body as we listen to His Holy Spirit and being obedient. Righteousness is being restored. Those who have ears to hear-listen….

  2. The both of you are a breath of fresh spiritual air. It is so clear: ‘Friendship with the world is enmity with God.’ We cannot serve mammon and God, yet we do all the time. Every time the TV goes on and we watch secular shows (no matter how ‘good’ or ‘clean’ they may seem) is time we spend doing something for self when again the scriptures are clear that EVERYTHING we do should be to the honour and praise of our blessed Redeemer. I have been asked, am I to have high thoughts of God all the time? Why not? Some one even asked me about down time. Well, what about it? Read some verses, listen to someone read the word (Alexander Scourby) or ministry (http://www.gospelhallaudio.com/) or even some hymns. Don’t let your mind be lead away from Christ, that only leads to trouble.
    The scriptures tell us to seek the Lord with all of our heart and soul, to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and all of our mind and all of our soul and all of our strength. I ask you, what is left for the world or even self? We are to pick up our cross daily and count the cost. Paul certainly did (Philippians 3:7-11).
    Some may call me extreme. So be it. It’s what I read in the Bible, it’s what I believe we are expected to do. Our freedom in Christ is not licence, but to glory God, not self.
    The Lord bless his word.

  3. Was listening to a message from Creation Fest and it really seemed to fit with the comments. (It’s message #5 ‘Christ our Example’)

    http://bit.ly/pFSDP1

    The others are pretty good also (haven’t listened to the Q&A’s yet, though).

  4. Whenever I read about how passionate the Apostle Paul was about preaching the gospel, I’m reminded of the quote by Dickens in one of his books Great Expectations-“It was the best of times and it was the worst of times”. I say this because this statement I believe aptly describes the time we’re now living in. Worst…. because it is evident that we’re living in a “time of great sorrow” just before the end comes, as outlined in Matthew 24 and best…because it is the greatest opportunity we’ve ever had on such a wide scale to preach the gospel both locally and globally. This we must do, pointing others to Christ wherever the Lord plants us, either by our personal testimony or by allowing our lives to be living epistles to be read of all men so the name of Christ came be glorified in us; this we must do whether our families or those in our sphere of influence hear or forebear.

    I’m so thankful that we’re now approaching the time where the body of Christ is recognizing how unprofitable it is to fight over non-essentials and but is now more focused on receiving the truth of the gospel and responding in obedience because of their faith. Praise God! When we live to serve God and each other in righteousness, peace and joy, then our ministry becomes acceptable to God and to men