Romans 16:25–27Scripture
Romans 6:3-6, actually, we're going to look at Romans 16 today, the last few verses, 25 through 27. While you're looking that up, a Scripture that falls in line with those, the chorus we just sang. Romans 6:3-6 says, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin." Amen. That is the hope, the completion of the transformative work of Christ, not only at the cross but beyond it. All right, Romans 16, we close out Romans. We have been in this book for two years and it has been a wonderful journey. I really have grown so much as an individual, I feel, as a pastor. There is nothing more important to submit yourself to than the gospel. I love that in the ESV specifically, and probably many other translations, it earmarks this section the doxology, and the doxology is this, verse 25: "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
Introduction
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," and here is the key phrase this morning and it is very important, "the obedience of faith." Now I do find it fitting that he closes out, and I have one more verse, but he closes out this section, he closes out the entirety of Romans. He has spent so much energy and so much time talking about we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone, that's where our hope is. Then he speaks of the strength that comes out of this faith to do the transformative work in the lives of those who truly have faith in Christ alone. That's how he closes it out. He doesn't close it out by just saying, remember, faith alone in Christ alone. He has spent 16 chapters talking about this. He has spent 16 chapters trying to move us away from moralism to achieve heaven or to achieve salvation, but we put our faith in Christ alone and what he has accomplished, what he has done for us. But then he speaks of this faith, this true faith in Christ alone and what it accomplishes in the life of an individual who has faith in Christ, and he closes out his entire book, the doxology, if you will, by saying this produces in you the obedience of faith. "To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ!"
Amen. So I want to zero in this morning on this important phrase, and the phrase is "the obedience of faith" in verse 26, that the goal of all of this, the life of a believer, is to produce in us the obedience of faith. If the glory of the only wise God through Jesus Christ is the ultimate goal of all things in these verses, that's what it says, then the obedience of faith is next to the ultimate goal, and I would say it's not this and that, I would say this gives glory to God. It is the obedience of an individual that then brings glory to God. This is why then in the preceding verses, which we read just a few weeks ago, he really challenges and encourages the church to make sure that their obedience to God is not shipwrecked and their witness ruined because they are led astray by all types of false teaching. So here he is closing out this entire book by warning us, do not fall into this mindset that although we are preaching faith and grace and all of these things, that faith and grace you speak of does not have the power to transform the lives of individuals so that God gets the glory. Right, that's important, and that's because when faith in Christ produces obedience to Jesus, those obedient lives make God look glorious. That's what Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, and here's a Scripture we quote often: "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Notice it's not a light that's hidden, notice it's a light that's seen, and notice it's glory that is given
Point 1The gospel strengthens our faith
To God. I have five quick points I want to make today. One of them, the first one, is this: the gospel strengthens our faith. Okay, man, I, it's every, listen, I, i'm just going to be honest, I'm going to try to really stay on task today, and this might feel a little different, it might feel real robotic, but if I come off my notes, we will slip and slide off into Crazy Land. Right, like I have so many things to say about the gospel strengthening our faith, and not all the other ridiculous things you think strengthen your faith, or all of the other ridiculous things that are happening in greater evangelicalism today that we think strengthen our faith, like obscene things like worship soaking and all of this emotional conjuring happening in the church today.
That is not what strengthens your faith.
The Bible's clear, there is one thing that strengthens your faith and it is the gospel.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:33
We learned that here, we learn that here: between the opening declaration that God can strengthen your faith and the closing acclamation that God is glorious, Paul unpacks the gospel as the very thing that God uses to strengthen our faith. So there are some of you here today, and now we know this, now let me just go ahead and break this down for you: God gifts faith. It is a gift from God that no man can boast in. He gifts faith. We learn here he strengthens your faith.
It is God who does it. Everything happens for him, through him, and by him and to him, it is all about him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:22
He doesn't let you get involved in the process, because then you rob him of the glory. He does it all. He gifts the faith, he strengthens the faith, and he does all of it, he does every part of it. God gifts it, God strengthens it, the gospel produces obedience that comes from it. That's the way that it works. Follow the phrases he uses to unpack the gospel and you will see how he begins by saying the gospel strengthens our faith and ends by saying the gospel produces the obedience that comes from our faith. God gifts it, the gospel strengthens it, the gospel produces it. So if you find yourself today trying to strengthen your faith, and then not only does he gift it but he gifts a measure of it according to his plan, that's what we learned in Romans, he gifts it that no man can boast, he gives each man a measure of it, and the measure he gives, he strengthens according to the gospel and by the gospel. Today I'm afraid we are, actually this is statistically the most biblically illiterate generation the world has ever known, yet we talk more about how to strengthen our faith in the church, and the gospel is not the means by which we give people to strengthen their faith. We give all these other means and it never strengthens. Then it stands to reason why, when you look out into greater evangelicalism today, why obedience is not present, because strength is required for obedience to ensue. Are you with me? And for obedience to happen you have to have strength, which only comes from the Word.
So then if we're the most biblically illiterate generation the world has ever known, then that's why we're not strengthened and that's why we don't see obedience.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:29
That's why we are like Romans 1 today in our culture, on a downward spiral, weak in our faith. Listen, we are made strong not so we can be better preachers, we're made strong not so we can be better and more successful, we are not strong so that people can admire our gifts, that's glory going to you, not glory going to God.
We are made strong so that we will obey what he has commanded in his Word.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:04
Well, that's not as fun. I want to be made strong. We talk a lot today about, there maybe not here as much, we talk a lot about anointed. Listen, if you have the Holy Spirit you're anointed. We talk about measures of anointing. I mean, where is that in the, there's measures of faith, but see, anointing becomes about you, faith becomes about him. You see what we do? So we chase stuff that's unbiblical and we forsake things that are biblical. We forsake things that are biblical. Listen to this, here's what we do. Here's a T-shirt: "Be strong and courageous." That's it, that's it, that's the whole Scripture we quote. Be strong, and then we go, yeah, I gotta be strong at my job, I gotta be a strong dad, I'm going to be strong when I go to school, I'm going to be strong for this person, I'm going to be strong for that person. Why are we being strong? Well, the Bible says it right in the same place, but we don't put it on our T-shirts because this part wouldn't sell, the second part wouldn't sell, the next verse wouldn't sell, actually the next three verses wouldn't sell. Well, let's just read it. Joshua 1:5-8 says, "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life." Yes, no one can stand before me, I'll bust them, you know, "Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you." Yeah, you will, God, I'm your special elect anointed appointed person, I'm the man, I'm the woman. We love this verse until it gets three verses later. "I will not leave you or forsake you." He'll never leave me or forsake me, he guides me. "Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you."
Where's that on the T-shirt? Oh, so strength is not there for my good pleasure so I'll win every battle.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:56
You see, strength is given so that I can obey God. It goes on: "Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it." He strengthens you to do what you could not do in your moralism on your own, but you could only do by faith in Christ, being filled with the Spirit. You could obey what you could not obey as a sinner. That's what Romans 6 just said that we read: we are dead to sin and alive in Christ, and we are transformed, and we begin to do what we did not do under sin. There's transformation because we are strengthened with a new strength source. "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it." Not at least one-eighth of what was written in it.
"For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." The gospel strengthens your faith, but it is not just that it strengthens it so that you might obey the Lord your God, and more specifically obey that which is written in the Gospels, not just the Synoptic Gospels, but
Point 2The gospel is the means to faith
The gospel. All right, number two, the gospel is the means to faith. Notice the means to faith is not some motivational speech, but notice that it is the gospel. The gospel is the means to faith. So to even get faith you have to have the gospel, to be strengthened in that faith you need the gospel. Why do you think it is that Paul keeps preaching the gospel? Because he understands it is pivotal in the life of every person who believes. Faith produces obedience. Now finally in verse 26 we see that it was all designed to produce the obedience of faith among all the nations. I love this because he's not just talking to the Jews or he's not just talking to the Gentiles, but he is talking to all the nations. That is the key, that's at the heart of what he has been saying, to bring about. So let me just kind of rephrase verse 26: it has been made known to all the nations to bring about the obedience of faith. So the gospel is made known to us for the sake of bringing about in us the obedience of the faith that we have. That's the goal.
It is not just the faith, the gospel produces faith, it's faith and the obedience of faith. It's both.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:37
If you have one without the other, you don't have faith in Christ alone. Shawn, are you saying that we work our way to heaven? No, I'm saying that faith in Christ alone produces both, by Christ alone. All right, I didn't say it, Paul said it. The gospel is the means to obedience because it is the means to faith and obedience that comes from faith, and with this Paul closes the letter with the very same aim that he began with in Romans 1:5. Let me read that for us today: "We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations." Now notice three parallels between the beginning and the ending. Number one, his aim is the obedience of faith. Number two, this is for all the nations, not just Israel.
Number three, in Romans 1:5 this is all, and I quote, "for the sake of his," or Jesus', "name," and in Romans 16:27 Paul breaks into the concluding doxology by saying this: "To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ." For the sake of Jesus' name and for the glory of God through Jesus, that is the ultimate goal of the gospel. If the gospel does its work in you, it not only produces faith but it produces obedience in faith, because that's the goal. That's why Paul says in Romans 1: 5, why he preached it's both. And I don't think I need to go back and try to warn you to not trust in you working your way to salvation. He spent 16 chapters telling us not to do that, but that does not mean it will not produce obedience, because even at the beginning, in God's electing work in us, he designed for us good works that we would do in advance, for those who would be in faith and be strengthened by the gospel in their faith. These works are works of obedience, and if you wonder what kind of obedience he has in mind, he left us no doubt. Just remember Romans 12, he says this: "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor." Believe it or not, it doesn't say dishonor here. "Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them." Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:9-14 and then verse 21.
That is what obedience of faith looks like, guys. That is the beauty that the nations of the world need to see so that God gets the glory befitting his
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:56
Point 3The obedience of faith and justification
Name. Number three, I think, I don't know, the obedience of faith and justification. Now don't let me lose you here, because zero in with me on this is going to be hard, you're going to need your thinking caps on, because I've been thinking about this and honestly have not had enough time to actually process this, but we're moving on to Exodus, and I'm going to throw it out there, and if it doesn't stick and slides off, that's okay, because it's having a hard time getting sticky on me, right? But we'll do our best, God help us here. All right, the obedience of faith and justification. Now I said at the beginning that I want to focus on this one phrase and make it the occasion of reviewing something enormously important in the book of Romans. What I want to review is how the obedience of faith relates to justification. This is very important, and some of you are probably wondering where I'm getting this, justification.
Okay, there are few things more important for your life than this. Let me just do this, let me read this quote from Richard Gaffin's new book, newish book, By Faith, Not by Sight. Here's what he says, and I'm going to read this a couple times because I had to read it 15 times and I'm still reading it trying to grasp: "Disaster will surely result from denying or obscuring faith as the alone instrument of justification." Let me rephrase that. I'm going to say it again and then I'm going to rephrase it in a way that might help it stick for you. Disaster will surely result from denying or obscuring faith as the alone or only instrument of justification. Pause, because there's a comma here, he says more, but I'm going to say this today. We say faith alone and Christ alone and you're saved. That's true, but what we leave out when we say faith, and what he means when he says faith here, is, I believe, but there's no evidence of belief or transformative work in my life. But you cannot separate obedience of faith from faith in Christ, or let me say it this way, obedience of faith from belief in Christ, because if you were dead to sin, you're dead to sin and alive in Christ, meaning your life has changed, you're a new creation, and the newness of that creation is made evident in the obedience of your life, right? So we try to separate, okay, the persevering, completing work of what faith initiates in belief, we try to separate that and we just take belief, and that's, he said that's a wildly dangerous thing. There are hyper-grace movements today that say just believe and live fatalistically in your life and give little regard, and complete disregard, to anything you do. Live like a sinner but just believe in Christ.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that faith alone and Christ alone produces sinfulness.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:47
It's why Paul goes into this little bit of a diatribe with himself and says, should we continue to sin? Should we live fatalistically? Because if it's just belief alone and the moralism doesn't matter, and he goes, by all means, no, because faith produces obedience. Are you with me? You see the tension here. So because we are so scared to trust in our moralism, we eradicate it and we just say, just believe. That's in essence what he is saying. So let me say it again: disaster will surely result from denying or obscuring faith as the alone instrument of justification, both present and future. And I think that's right. Now
Point 4Grace reigns through Christ's righteousness
Please listen as I try to break this down even more in my weak-minded fashion. Number four, I'll break it down with these remaining two points: grace reigning through Christ's righteousness. Grace reigns through Christ's righteousness, not our own. How many of you would say you need grace? Trust in Christ's righteousness, not your own. Now we're getting close to the way our own obedience, the way our own obedience, the obedience of faith, relates to justification. Look at verse 21 with me, last chapter 5 and its connection to chapter 6. Verse 21 says this: "So that, as sin reigned in death, which is what we just read at the very beginning here of the sermon in relation to that chorus, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Now what does "through righteousness" mean? It's Christ's righteousness, it's Christ's obedience, and it's the gift of righteousness imputed to us, or is it our behavior, or a righteousness that God's grace is working in us, the obedience of faith? The answer comes by asking which of these makes sense of the question raised in Romans 6:1. Paul thinks that verse 21 might lead someone to ask the question, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" If the power of grace in verse 21 meant that God were working a new righteous behavior in us, and that is why it is leading to eternal life, then nobody would ask the question. You don't say, "Then shall we continue in sin?" If someone has just said grace is powerfully delivering us from it. No, you say, "Then shall we continue in sin?" When someone has just said grace imputed the gift of Christ's righteousness to us and thus secures us for eternal life. That radical doctrine unleashes the thought, well then, let sin, that grace may abound more. If Christ is my righteousness, then it doesn't matter what I do. And Paul radically refutes this comment. So you see, this questioner got something profoundly right and something profoundly wrong. He is right in this, grace reigns through righteousness means grace counts us righteous because of Christ's righteousness, but that our obedience doesn't matter, he gets that entirely wrong. That's why Paul has to write chapters 6 through 8 to deal with this.
Point 5Obedience is the fruit of justification
I've already done that, I'm not going back. Last point, the fruit of justification, obedience. I'll just summarize this for you and then I'll say a paragraph. The fruit of justification is obedience. If you are justified because of your belief in Christ, the fruit of that justification is obedience. That's just the way it is. This is why 1 John tells us to test whether we are saved. How do we do that? You look at our life. I'm not saying perfect. How many of you are perfect up in here today? We should see the transformative work in our midst. How then does our obedience, the obedience of faith, relate to justification? The answer is this: our obedience is not the ground or the basis of our justification. Don't, please don't walk away taking bits and pieces of what I said today, because it could get really dangerous. Our obedience is not the ground, nor is it the basis, of our justification, nor is it any part of the instrument or means by which we are united to Christ, who alone is the ground and the basis of our justification. Faith alone unites us to Christ, and Christ alone is the ground for your justification, and evidence and fruit of that is obedience and faith. Okay, our obedience is the fruit of that type of faith. The faith that justifies is the kind of faith that, by the Holy Spirit, Romans 8:13, changes us.
If your faith in Christ leaves you unchanged, you don't have saving faith.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:24
Obedience, not perfection but a new direction of thought and affections and behavior, is the fruit that shows that the faith is alive.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:40
James puts it this way: "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." It's not saving faith.
Faith alone justifies, but the faith that justifies is never alone.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:10
That will help you, that's my summary statement for this: faith alone justifies, but the faith that justifies is never alone. It is always accompanied by Romans 6:4, newness of life. What a closing to Romans. What a closing. That is not the way I expected him to close this thing out. What a closing, what a wildly dangerous closing. He had just spent 16 chapters trying to help Jews understand they're not justified by the law, and then he closes this bad boy out talking about the obedience of faith. This guy's a wild man. Like, in preaching class 101, that's not how you close out a letter.
It's the gospel that saves, not your delivery of it that saves, because oftentimes your delivery, which you think is more effective, it ain't the gospel.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:31
Come on now, some of you, some of us in this process of going through Romans are like, I'm just really uncomfortable, I really don't like what's happening, I really don't like what's going on, I'm really wrestling. That's okay. I'm comfortable with you being uncomfortable, because it's the gospel that saves, not me making you comfortable as we preach a gospel, or perverting the gospel to the degree that it no longer saves. Are you with me? Shawn, why are we going through verse by verse? Some of you love it, some of you don't love it, there are times I'm not sure if I love it.
I would much rather cherry-pick some Scriptures out to make you happy, but I'd forego allowing the Lord to make you holy.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 35:30
It's a problem. And honestly, i'm excited about Exodus. I'm excited about Exodus because I'm ready to get into some narrative stuff. I need a story. But as I'm preparing, guys, there's so much theological, prophetic, wonderful, richly doctrinally sound information inside this narrative, and honestly a massive amount of connection. We are going to get a peek, we're going to get to peek into the lives of those that Paul is speaking about, and the establishment of the nation that we have come to know in Romans. Oh, it's exciting, oh, it's so exciting, what a beautiful thing it is.
Please cherish the gospel, because it gifts us with faith, it strengthens us with faith, and the gospel produces obedience in the faith we have.
If this is more of a priority in the mornings, the notifications on this are more important than this, then it is no wonder that your faith is so weak, you could never obey.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:54
It is no wonder that our culture is the way it is.
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