Romans 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
Romans 16:19 For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.
Recently, I read this scripture and thought to myself, I want to be like the Christians in Rome, whose faith and obedience was known throughout the world. Immediately after I assessed my life to see if I was living in a way that was radical, being so obedient to God that people talked about it. I didn’t like what I found.
I began overhauling every aspect of my life, from how I spend my time, down to following the speed limit when I drive. I felt good, I was doing the things God commanded me to do in the bible and felt that I must be on the right track and people would surely begin to see me as different now.
Inevitably, I failed. What God showed me, yet again, was that the law is in place to bring glory to God, not man. When I began to do all of these things I was attempting to live by the law but, as it says in Hebrews 10:1:
“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.”
So if the law is but a shadow and can not bring me closer to God, who is the image of perfection, then what is the law’s purpose and why are we asked to live by it?
So, the law is the knowledge of sin and the only way to be justified is through the redemption of Christ. My next step is to go to God and say, God, I’ve realized yet again that I cannot do this in my own strength, please, through the blood of your son, show me grace. Perfect me in your sight.
Does this mean that we stop obeying the word of God? Did the Roman church do that? No! They showed their faith through their obedience. They recognized that they could not reach perfection in their own strength but continued to strive for it because now they were no longer doing it in their strength but God’s. In God’s strength we can be broken free from bondage.
In this way, as a result of their love and obedience to Christ, not as a goal in itself, the Roman Christians’ obedience and faith spread throughout the entire world. They followed God’s law, perhaps not perfectly, but with hope, knowing that if they slipped back into the flesh they could rely on his strength to pull them back.
By giving up control and surrendering ourselves to Christ, we will become more like him; by trying to be like Christ, we will fail.
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