I want you all to have resources to help continue studying Shame for Faith and The Greatest Story Ever Told individually based on what we are studying as a group. Therefore I am trying to post blogs related to the Scripture we are studying, so that you can dig deeper throughout the week, and keep up if you are not able to meet on a Sunday/Wednesday night. Without further ado: Famous Faith—last week’s installment of our Shame for Faith series.
The last three weeks of this study “Shame for Faith” we examined Paul’s life, his apostleship, his mission, and the people to whom he wrote this letter. He wrote Romans to the saints, the believers in Rome for the purpose of bringing about the obedience of faith among all the nations for the sake of God’s name. The epistle to the Romans is all about the gospel, the gospel that brings about the obedience that only faith can produce—to the glory of God. Paul begins and ends this letter with God, for everything good and holy begins and ends with God. Paul is a bondservant of Christ, and acknowledges Christ above all things even in the opening lines of his letter, to ensure that the reader knows that this whole thing is about glorifying God. Verses 8-15 will give us more details about his ministry goals, and show us the earnestness with which Paul lived according to his desire to preach the gospel to all men, that they might hear the good news and embrace justification by faith—trading their shame for faith in Christ and recieving forgiveness from sin.
Romans 1:8-15 “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.”
Paul ends his God-centered-Christ-exalting introduction—his “dear Romans” if you will—in verse seven and in verse eight begins to delve into the teaching portion of this epistle. He writes, “first”—you might always assume that when Scripture uses the word “first” that is of the utmost importance. Paul writes, “First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.” Paul begins this portion of his letter by thanking God through Jesus Christ for the faith of the Romans. Paul did not thank Peter, who served as apostle in that city, or Mark Peter’s associate for the faith of the Romans. Paul did not credit himself or his letter for their faith. Paul did not even credit them for believing, but he thanks God through Jesus Christ—the only mediator between God and man (2 Timothy )—for the Roman’s faith. Hebrews says that Jesus is the “founder and perfecter” of our faith. God receives the glory for our faith, for without God stirring our affections toward him we are unable to believe that He is better than our sin. God begins our faith, sustains our faith, and ends our faith when at the return of Christ our faith becomes sight.
The faith of the Roman believers was famous. Faith is invisible, as it is an act of the heart; however the obedience that faith produces is evident. Christians all over the Roman Empire faced harsh persecution for their faith, but there was no greater persecution than that which occurred in the city of Rome. To be a Christian in Rome was to be unpatriotic. Romans regarded their false gods highly, and their emperor as one of those false gods. Many of the gladiators were Roman Christians who refused to swear their allegiance to false gods. Christian gladiators would be beaten severely by soldiers, mauled by lions and tigers, and even set on fire. Their obedience to the gospel call to make disciples of all nations in the face of persecution made their faith famous. Do not forget who Paul credited for this famous faith. He was not thanking them for remaining faithful to God in the face of persecution, but rather he thanked God who begins, sustains, and ends faith. He did not leave room to boast in anyone save God Almighty in Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.
Francis Chan tells a story of a group of Korean missionaries to Afghanistan who were arrested and detained in prison for their gospel ministry. Francis Chan had dinner with one of the missionaries who told him about the conditions of the prison. He told Francis that and that one woman managed to sneak a Bible into the cell and they tore it into as many sections as there were people, so that they could have the Scriptures to read whenever they had the opportunity. It became apparent that some of them were going to be put to death and the senior pastor of the group announced that he would die first. Another man told him that he could not die first, because he was their shepherd, and that the second man must die first as he was an elder. They argued back and forth, the senior pastor eventually saying that he had no right to dissent because the elder was not even ordained yet. It was however the elder who died first and it was the senior pastor with whom Francis Chan spoke. A few others died later in the ordeal. The senior pastor told Chan something that I will never forget. He said that since the incident the group members all agree that they wish they could go back. They wish they could go back to the prison cell, with the looming threat of death and torture ever upon them, because the fellowship with Jesus brought them so much joy. He told Chan that they group unanimously agreed that they have never been so close to Christ as they were in that cell, completely dependent on Him as to whether or not they carried on in the flesh or went immediately Home to Heaven.
The point of that story for you is that God is the giver of great, world famous faith. If you one of His saints, called and loved by God, then when you step out in faith to bear His name to the nations He will grant you the faith necessary to do that. And when I say nations, that includes your own nation, your own school, your own neighborhood, and for some of you your own families. You may not think you have the faith to step out and witness Christ to your dad, to that kid in school that everyone hates, to devote your whole life to some mountain in China, but Jesus is the author and finisher of your faith. Faith is synonymous with joy for the Christian. Be encouraged therefore, to step out and make disciples in this nation, and consider the possibility of making disciples in other nations on this planet for the glory of God and your joy! Be encouraged that God is the author and finisher of your faith, and he will give you the faith necessary to accomplish what He has set out for you to accomplish.
Life’s short. Preach Christ.
