Romans 1:5
Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name,
Truth to Learn
Paul received his salvation and apostleship from Jesus.
Behind the Words
The word translated “obedience” is hupokoē, which is made up of hupo, meaning “under” and akouō, meaning “to hear.” So, literally it means “to hear under.” This is a picture of a student learning from his teacher. It carries the idea of one who is “listening attentively and obeying what he is taught.”
The word translated “to” is the Greek word eis, which means “to or toward.” The root meaning of this word is “rendering something to or toward an end point or conclusion.” It focuses the attention not so much on the process as on the end result.
Meaning Explained
Paul has been talking about the humanity and deity of Jesus Christ. He now says, “Through Him we have received grace and apostleship.” This grace has been shown to all of us who are saved, as he tells us in Ephesians 2:8:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Not only did Paul receive grace just as you and I did when we were saved, but he claims that he received apostleship from Jesus as well. We find this described further in Paul’s letter to the Galatian Christians:
But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), (Galatians 2:7, 8 )
The next phrase in today’s verse is a little bit awkward in English: “for obedience to the faith among all nations” In the original Greek text there is no definite article (the) before the word “faith.” Based on this and on our interpretation of the word eis (see Behind the Words), we sould translate this as, “resulting in obedience of faith among all nations.” That is, God’s plan for Paul’s salvation and apostleship is ultimately to produce obedience and faith among all nations.
Finally, Paul gives the credit and glory to whom it belongs, “for His name;” Paul recognizes that the whole purpose of the Christian faith is not our personal glory or satisfaction. It is not simply to obtain a free ticket into heaven. In the final analysis it really has nothing to do with us at all; it has everything to do with God! It is for the glory of His name. The whole purpose of our salvation–totally underserved and freely given to us by the grace of God–is to bring praise and glory to God Himself.
Application
As Paul tells us in the Ephesians verse quoted above and the verses that follow, we have been saved by grace. Our salvation is a gift from God. We didn’t do any works to deserve it. In fact, God’s purpose for our salvation is that we will do works for His glory.
So our sole responsibility as Christians is to be hard at work for Him, and He will get all the glory. That should humble us all.
In God’s service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.
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