From Faith to Faith

From Faith to Faith

Imagine yourself in a small boat in the very middle of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles away from land and people. How will you survive this ordeal? What can save you and what can benefit your salvation? Well, putting your faith in random chance that some ship will cross your path is not going to help. What you need is some form of knowledge that you can trust, that is credible and true and can be actioned out to aid your chances of survival. So, let's say you can draw from this knowledge set. You can navigate by the stars. You can read the nautical charts and understand global coordinates. You can fabricate a rod and hook to catch fish, and you can set up a sail and understand how to use the winds. In this regard, this knowledge can save you and greatly increase the reality of you getting home.

Now let's bring this little analogy into our spiritual lesson. Ignorance is not going to get you far in spiritual matters concerning God and heavenly things. The way to know God, to know His salvation plan, to walk after the Spirit, and to be confident in faith and in the substance of unseen things, is to gain in knowledge of the truth of these matters, to the point of confidence in applying that truth to your life. Having faith in the written Word of God is the only way to get you home in the ages to come.  

So, this is precisely what Paul brings to our attention in the very beginning of Romans, the grounding, the foundation of our Christian walk. Before Paul even starts to expound on the gospel in Romans chapter 1, he tells us that God's righteousness is revealed from faith to faith and that we must understand that the just; those who would believe in the gospel he is about to share, are required to live in it by faith. Have a look at verse 16 and 17,

Rom 1:16-17  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.  (17)  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

So, what does all this mean? Why is it so important to understand this little lesson of faith before we continue into the gospel, and what does, ‘from faith to faith’ mean? Let me answer these questions by explaining this phrase.

Look at how the following passage ends,

Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: 5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

“For obedience to THE faith”. The article, ‘the’, makes a big difference in this statement. If you leave the article out, as in, ‘obedience to faith’, it becomes more about a general idea of belief, but when you add ‘the’, it now refers to a certain body of doctrine, specifically, Paul’s epistles. When this becomes clear, it will bring some context to what ‘from faith’ means. To spell it out, it refers to our doctrine, or, as our analogy above teaches, it is to have knowledge in our doctrine.

But what about the ‘to faith’ part? Let me take you to the very end of Romans. Have a look at this very similar statement Paul makes to conclude this foundational epistle,

Romans 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

Again, look at how the following passage ends,

“Made known to all nations for the obedience of faith”. Where is the article, ‘the’? It’s missing here. So, based on the explanation on how an article can change the meaning of a phrase, we can understand this statement to refer to the practicing out of our faith in accordance, or obedience to ‘the faith’. Friends, it's as simple as that. Applying a few grammatical rules and extracting context from two similar phrases which Paul wrote provides a clear understanding.

It is interesting, and important to note therefore that Paul draws attention to faith before he tackles the details and presentation of the gospel. I should also mention that Paul is writing to believers here. Romans is a letter addressed to a body of believers, and Paul is about to explain to them the deeper understanding of the gospel, of justification, of sanctification, and of walking after the Spirit. If we are to receive these deeper spiritual truths, we had better be grounded in faith already. How would you truly receive what Paul is going to lay out in Romans if you have no faith in God and in His salvation plan of grace and love. 

The very last statement Paul makes before diving into a deep exposition of the grace gospel is, “The just shall live by faith”, confirming again that that those who have received the gospel and have been justified by God, Rom.5:1, shall live, not by ‘his own faith’, as differentiated by Hab.2:4, but by ‘the faith’, by that specific and personal body of doctrine defined in Paul’s epistles; that which was kept secret since the world began, but now made manifest, by the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith, Rom 16:25-26.

Friends, this is an important lesson and one we should carry close to our heart. Paul's epistles are our body of doctrine. It defines who we are, what we believe, and what we apply in daily situations. It is a knowledge set that we are to be intimately familiar with and in which we trust, which we stand upon, and which we are willing to suffer for. Our mindset and lives are to be influenced by this doctrine, and it is why Paul captures our attention in the opening statements of our foundational epistle, spurring us on to truly believe and apply his writings, as these are the words of God in which we shall have faith in, 1Cor.14:37.