Stablished upon 'the faith'

Stablished upon 'the faith'

For what purpose did Paul receive grace and apostleship? For the obedience to the faith. In Romans, his intention is to impart this to those believers so that they may be established. Now, it's crucial to understand: the faith has already been established and cannot be altered. The Book of Romans states its truths. You can’t change it. Romans says what it says, and it did so long before you got here. It is firmly rooted and established. Our responsibility as a believer is to get your faith in line with what has been imparted, made known, and established for us.

Paul clearly tells us that we are to be established in the faith. THE faith! How many denominations are there? One. Certainly not. There are thousands! Well, something is terribly wrong! When you have several Christians and each of them have a different belief, there’s something clearly wrong, because the principles in Romans, and the rest of Paul’s epistles, have been established, written, and taught for two millennia. Paul's ministry was concluded before 70 A.D., approximately 1,950 years ago. This disparity among various denominations is shameful, isn't it? Despite this duration of time, numerous Christian denominations exist. Ask about baptism, and you’ll receive several different doctrines. Inquire how to gain forgiveness or justification with God, and you’ll get several unique answers. Why is there such difference?

Paul remarked, “You have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers.” He cautioned us about these issues. Look what Paul says in verse 12: "That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me." Paul received from Jesus Christ grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith. Paul now desires to see these Romans so that he can impart this to them so that they can be established and brought into the mutual faith of both him and them. He wants them to be established in the faith.

That’s the beginning of Romans. Now, come to Romans 16. Paul’s desire is for the Romans to be stablished. Look how the book ends, Romans 16:25. “Now to him that is of power to stablish you.” Modern bible translations keep messing with the archaic terms in the attempt to ‘update’ the Bible. The English language has never been as rich as it was in 1611. Words meant something back then. Is there a difference between something established and something stablished? Absolutely. Established is to be founded, to plant, or begin something. Stablish is to make something stable and fortified. They are two completely different concepts.

The Christians in Rome were already established. They had already believed the gospel unto salvation. Now it was time to stablish them; to make then stable in ‘the faith’ that saved them. Paul says, “Now to him that is of power to stablish you.” Paul wants to stablish them. Do you know how he did that? He made known ‘the faith’ that Jesus Christ gave him the grace to make known. How were they going to be stablished? Paul says, “… according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery.” You know what that tells me? If you look at a modern Christian today and say, “Do you know about the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began?” and they say no, they’re not stablished! That means you have a bunch of unstable Christians today. I’m not saying they’re lost or going to hell. What I’m saying is you have a lot of believers in Jesus Christ that are unstable because they’re not stablished upon what was given us in doctrine. 

Paul continues to say, “The preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began, 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.”

Remember what Paul said at the beginning of the epistle: “By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations.” So who was it made known to? All nations. For what purpose? The obedience of faith. So, to be ‘Established’ concerns ‘the faith’. How do you get stablished upon ‘the faith’? Through the obedience of faith. In other words, your faith must be subject to the authority of ‘the faith’ which has already been established. You don’t come along and start a new church every time you find a new verse in the Bible.

Dreams and visions are not the means through which God communicates with you today. God's revelation is complete. Recall what Paul stated— He said what was given to him was for the fulfillment of the word of God. Colossians 1:25. It’s done. You have everything you need to bring your faith in subjection to 'the faith' that God has made known. But you’ve got to stop playing games with God. “Well, God told me,” and “God said this to me,” and “I had a dream last night.” You have to quit playing games with the Word. Was it made known or wasn’t it made known to all nations? The reason God made it known was for the obedience of your faith. Meaning, if your faith is not subject to ‘the faith’, then you are disobeying the Almighty God.

How does faith come? By hearing, and hearing by the word of God. What most people have today is just a set of beliefs that are not subject to the word of God. In fact, they try to use their beliefs and their faith to subject God to their own beliefs, thinking that God is supposed to obey their faith.

The obedience of faith is when your faith is subject to what God has made known. That’s it. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Paul said in Romans 16:26, once again, that it was made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. So, you know what that means? True faith knows what God says. If it comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and it was made known for the obedience of faith. A person that walks by faith, is one who studies the Word and knows and does what God has said in His Word, not one who obeys his own imagination and tries to serve God by what he thinks is right or noble or true. One must be stablished in ‘the faith’ according to Paul’s epistles in this grace dispensation today. Amen.