⁵ … through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, ⁶ among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;

Using the editorial “we,” Paul primarily refers to his own appointment to apostleship, although some commentators feel it could possibly include all the apostles, concerning which Paul did not consider himself in any way inferior, as we have already seen. But notice the emphasis on grace. Anything we do for Christ is a grace, in that He has blessed us with the privilege of serving Him. Indeed, “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere…” (Ps 84:10). How much infinitely better to be graced with the task of being an apostle! The apostle considered his salvation as the “grace of our Lord … poured out on me abundantly” (1 Tim 1:14), himself being “the worst of all sinners” (1 Tim 1:15). He simply could not escape the wonderful blessedness of grace being poured upon grace, never ending.

The other apostles saw this in Paul’s apostolic calling: “… recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John … gave to me … the right hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles …” (Gal 2:9). He is an example that we all are graced by God, not only to be saved but to serve Him. What a privilege that we should never take for granted! And we should be mindful to recognize the grace of God working in others to serve, not only a grace to them, but a grace through them for others.

Paul connects faith and obedience. This does not equate faith with obedience in the sense of keeping the law. He later asserts: “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Rom 3:28). Rather he sees believing as obedience to the truth of the message of grace. This is consistent with the message of the early church, where many “…were becoming obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). Keeping the law does not save; we are saved by God’s grace through our faith. Our role in the matter is to obey the command of God to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a meritorious work that earns us salvation, for what we earn by our works is “death” (Rom 6:23). But it is nevertheless something we must do. The Philippian jailer asked, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). Peter’s response (consistent with Paul’s message) was, “Believe in the Lord Jesus …” (vs. 31). The Gospel message includes the necessity of our response of faith to the message of grace. To be sure, this needs to be taken in the context of God’s sovereignty, but the Gospel message demands a response of faith.

Lord, thank You for the Gospel of grace. Like Abraham of old, I, too, believe.