“But they have not all OBEYED the Gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has BELIEVED what he has heard from us?’” Romans 10:16
Good mornings friends and did you catch that?? Go back and read it again!
Do you see it now?
Well, if I’m being honest, this is a pretty BIG DEAL 🤯 … and the implications are HUGE on the Christian life, BECAUSE we see from this verse that true faith goes with OBEDIENCE!
OK, look again. Did you see how Paul (the guy who wrote Romans) uses the word OBEY where we would think he would say BELIEVE? Crazy, right?! Like, how can someone OBEY the Gospel?
Well, I thought this was pretty crazy too, and it’s honestly a little SCARY if you think about it. So that’s why I unpacked the topic in my NEW VIDEO “Heretic” linked below 👇👇👇
Nonetheless, I can imagine how surprising this may be ESPECIALLY if you think faith is just a MENTAL thing. But …. it’s not.
What we can see here is that, for the ancient Hebrews, faith was a POWERFUL agent in the life of a believer. For them, faith was ACTION. And faith (as in trust) was the principal act of obedience. Like I said, the implications are huge! To them, and to us, faith is REAL. Faith is functional. Faith transforms and faith PUSHES us to obedience.
This is also why not everyone should be quick to call themselves a Christian, especially if they are living lifestyle’s that do not DEMONSTRATE faith. Yet for those of us who have been CHANGED by faith, we can have ASSURANCE that God loves us and that his purpose will ALWAYS prevail in our lives!! 😀
Application:
Do you think people should be content to identify as a Christian because they “THINK” (mentally) Jesus is Lord?
When James says demons “believe” (James 2:19), what do you think he means by that?
What does “obedience as faith” say about your lifestyle as a believer?
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