"through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake,"
Now I think we need to cover the most unpopular word in the verse: obedience. It is one thing to stay in the hypothetical but obedience is where the rubber meets the road. James tells us, "What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?" (James 2:14) That does seem to contradict Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; no as a result of works, so that no one may boast." That is until you look closer. Many say that they believe in God; many say that the believe in Jesus; many say that Jesus is their savior. However, even if you confess Jesus Christ as your lord and savior by faith and continue in sinful behavior there is a good chance that your faith is worthless. Just to be clear, faith + obedience does not equal salvation; rather the equation should be grace + faith = salvation and obedience. What that means is if you have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, it should manifest in obedience to His commands and good works. After all, "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?" We as Christians are guilty of that very frequently. We say, "I will be praying for you," and don't lift a finger to help; we often even forget to pray (I know that I frequently do). Now prayer is a wonderful thing and we should absolutely pray for our brothers and sisters in need but we shouldn't stop there; God has given us all spiritual gifts to glorify Him and to serve others. If you find someone in need even the smallest actions can be a dramatic blessing. Even talking to them can help immensely. It is a matter of living sacrificially for your neighbor.
This is also a question of the Lordship of Jesus. Romans 10:9 tells us, "that (or because) if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;" The Greek word for lord is kurios (koo-ree-os) and it means chiefly he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord. Since that is a central part of salvation we should do what He says and wants don't you think? Jesus has more than earned that right (not as though He needed to do so but He did anyway). He suffered and died to pay for our sins; something no one else could ever do. Any mortal man could conceivably go through the physical torments that Jesus experienced: pray so hard that you weep tears of blood; get betrayed by one of your closest friends; get beaten; spend the night in a cold jail cell; get questioned in a kangaroo-court; then questioned by a political weenie; then scourged until the skin on you back is hanging of in ribbons; then have a crown of thorns pressed on your head; then be forced to carry a 300 lb. block of wood across town with guards wiping you every time you stumble with exhaustion (which Jesus did a few times); and then have someone nail your to the cross in your wrists and feet so you hang there. Of course that was just a warm-up for Jesus, the worst was yet to come. When Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Some Theologians believe that is when Jesus was experiencing the full wrath of God for the sins of those who would believe in Him. There is no way any of us could survive the full wrath of an almighty, infinitely holy, and infinitely just God. Without Jesus, a person will spend eternity paying for their own sins and will never come anywhere close to satisfying the whole debt of their own sin. Now imagine paying for the sins of untold trillions of people. All that was accomplished by Jesus. God the Father greatly exalted Jesus Christ as it is written, "Being found in appearance as a man, He [Jesus] humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:8-11). There is one last sobering consideration in Jesus' own words, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'" (Matthew 7:21-23). Note that these people were claiming all the showy flashy works to try to earn their entrance into Christ's Kingdom; all those things that are crowd drawing and self-glorifying and yet their lives were measured demonstrations of sinful behavior. Any person who claims Jesus as Lord and yet carries on in a sinful lifestyle is like someone who is building his house on sand which will eventually wash away and leave him with out God and without hope.
That is all the time we have; tune in next week for the eventual conclusion of this loaded verse.
Not to us, O LORD, not to us,
But to Your name give glory
Because of Your lovingkindness,
Because of Your truth.
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