"Therefore, my beloved, as you have
always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in
you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."[1]
This
morning I was drawn to the “always obeyed”
in reference to working out our salvation with fear and trembling when the
apostles are absent. This is particularly significant because what it means to “obey” in the new covenant is often
confused with commands of the old covenant.
This
took me back to a phrase Paul used in both his introduction and conclusion to
the book of Romans. It is hugely significant as his theme, and a thorough
journey through Romans would see how he is arguing this as one of his main
points.
In
his intro to Romans, Paul wrote, “…through
whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of
faith for the sake of his name among all the nations”.[2] In his conclusion he said, “…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”.[3]
The
question is, does “obedience of faith”
mean to bring about faith as an act of obedience to something, or does it mean
that Paul was teaching the kind of obedience that comes from faith rather than
from the law? Is it possible it could even mean both?
I
looked at the phrase from both standpoints, and realized that neither
possibility allows for the idea that our obedience includes keeping the law, as
obedience would have been measured under the old covenant. If “obedience of faith” refers to the kind
of faith that is the obedient response to the gospel, then it is just that, the
faith that is ours by grace,[4] responding to the command of God, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your
household”.[5]
This
idea that our faith is the obedient response to the command to believe is what
John says in one of the passages we have been considering in I John. There he
writes, “we keep his commandments and do
what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of
his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us”.[6]
John said that “his commandment” is
to “believe” in Jesus, so Paul could
be speaking of this, that faith is the obedient response to the gospel command
to believe in Jesus. Of course, Paul was very clear that we are saved by grace
through faith, not by the “work” of believing in Jesus.[7]
On the other
hand, the idea that the “obedience of
faith,” refers to the kind of obedience that faith produces is also taught
by Paul when he adds that “we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk in them”.[8] There
is a way that obedience comes from faith differently than the way obedience
comes from law. Faith causes us to walk with God in the things he prepared for
us, while law calls us to do a whole bunch of things so that we can be good
enough to walk with God.
I ended up
focusing on a passage in Acts 15 where the church leaders in Jerusalem were
confronted with an issue of the Jewish believers who were still in the Pharisee
party. These “believers” thought that
the church should respond to the Gentiles[9]
coming to faith in Christ by telling them that, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law
of Moses”.[10]
The rest of the chapter answers this question: are Gentiles to be circumcised
and taught to keep the law of Moses when they come to faith in Jesus Christ?
What was
presented so clearly was that such a demand was a burden that was not required
(I will share my notes on that separately for anyone who would like to read
it). The church did ask the Gentiles to be respectful of where the Jews were
coming from by observing some things, “that
you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from
what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality”.[11] These
seem to be things that were not “requirements” of the law on the church, but
more a way of showing respect to the Jewish population in a way that they were
neither keeping the law of Moses, not unduly disrespecting the Jews.
What does this
mean to me? The more I look at Scripture in light of the frequent new testament
references to our obedience, the more I find the peace of God settling into my
heart as to the clarity the gospel, that we are saved by grace through faith,
not of works, so that none of us can boast.
We can look at
“the obedience of faith,” in its interpretation
that Paul was sent to bring Gentiles to obey the call of the gospel by putting
their faith in Jesus Christ, or its other possible meaning of Paul preaching a
gospel in which the obedience that came out of faith was far different than the
obedience that came out of law. Perhaps it is a truth-packed phrase covering
the dual way that the grace of God brings us to the faith that obeys the
gospel, and the obedience that arises from our faith.
Either way,
there is nothing to do with obedience in the church that is based on Gentile
believers keeping the law of Moses. We obey the call of the gospel with an
obedient response of faith that is only by grace, and we come to life in Jesus Christ
with a faith that now does the good works God prepared for us to do. Everything
to do with obedience is about faith.
When
we apply this to the picture of Philippians 2:12-13, everything begins with “it is God who works in you, both to will
and to work for his good pleasure.” Our faith in God’s work is our first
expression of response to this work of God already taking place within us. Once
our faith begins responding to this inner work of God in our lives and
churches, it then leads us to “work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Faith first responds to the
work of God within us, and then expresses that work by fellowshipping with God
in the things he is doing.
And,
of course, the people who relate to God like this are called his “beloved.” Faith must believe that we
are beloved in order for us to feel like God’s children joining our Father in
his work. When faith agrees with God’s revelation that we are his beloved, it
then seeks out the relationship that brings us closest to him, which is joining
the work that he is working in us.
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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