Bible Study Genesis Part 15-Obedience

Obedience is one of the most unpopular words in modern life, and maybe that’s exactly why Romans feels so sharp right now. We take a slow, careful walk through Romans 1 and land on a phrase that sounds small but isn’t: “the obedience of faith.” Not obedience as image management, not obedience as rule-keeping to earn God’s love, but obedience as active hearing and real surrender to what God has said about His Son.

We also wrestle with Paul’s line about receiving “Grace and apostleship,” asking what he means by “we” and why he pairs grace with calling. Our take is simple and sobering: Grace doesn’t just rescue, it appoints, and it sends. That leads us into a practical conversation about how churches and Christians talk about authority, truth, and the temptation to soften God’s demands to match the mood of the moment.

From there, we zoom out to the culture that trains us to “advise self,” then we zoom all the way back to Genesis 3 to show how disobedience begins with refusing to listen. Along the way we challenge the popular “Jesus will make you happy” sales pitch and replace it with something stronger: Jesus is Lord, Grace is real, and faith is not a casual option but a commanded response. If you care about Bible Study, Romans, the Gospel, Christian discipleship, and what obedience actually means, press play, then subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review with the biggest takeaway you’re sitting with.

Transcript

Why God’s Word Comes First

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel. God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries. We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God. We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day. The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold, and we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture. Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible. It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision. Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us. It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word. We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death. In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death. Never treat what God has said lightly. There's truly nothing more important to you. Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

Why Romans Defines The Gospel

SPEAKER_01 1:28

We're trying to make sure that the world sees that Jesus is our only opportunity. We are studying the letter to the Romans that Paul wrote because in it is all of the doctrine we need to know about the gospel. No, we don't learn anything about the multiplying of the fishes and the loaves. We don't know about all the caring of the lepers or any of that sort of stuff, those details that we find in the gospels. But Paul teaches us about the heart of the gospel, what's behind it. That's why we're studying it, and the devil hates us for it. We're going to preach God's word until Jesus comes or until he takes us away. That I promise you, because God wants us to do that. We are in the letter to the Romans. We have been at it for some time now. We're going to read the first few verses as we always do in order to get ourselves started. Here we go. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ. Paul is reminding the Romans that they're also a part of this. Now, lest we forget, Paul says it again. By whom? By Jesus, through Jesus, who was made of the seed of David and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness. By him, Paul is reminding all of us who he is working for and under whose authority he is sending this message. By him, by Jesus, we have received grace and apostleship.

Grace And Apostleship What Paul Means

SPEAKER_01 3:34

This is one of those verses that scholars like to go on about, but in a good way. Who is the we Paul is referring to is often the question that gets asked here. Now there are two possible answers, either of which you could choose and still be in line with good Christian doctrine. Paul could be using the royal we, the majestic plural, as the eggheads like to call it, made so famous by Queen Victoria. You know, we are not amused. You know, everyone knows that. Everyone recognizes Queen Victoria's voice when I do an impersonation of her. I'm sure you picked up on it. Using the word we, Paul is using the word we just like Queen Victoria instead of the word I. Paul could just be using the plural to refer to himself, which he does regularly in his correspondence. Or Paul could be referring to all of the other apostles in this statement, by whom we apostles received grace and apostleship. That is a possibility, but somewhat questionable given the context. Here he is introducing himself, and at no other point, neither before nor since in this letter, does he mention any of those others? Now that doesn't make it out of the question, just less likely your choice. By whom we have received grace and apostleship. Now, on this part, the experts also seem to spend what seems like too much time. Some say here we have Paul saying two things, saying that he received two things. He received grace, general every day, but nonetheless, less lovely grace, just like you and I and every other Christian. And he's received grace, and he's received apostleship. The theory is that Paul is just listing out the things he received, and he starts with grace and ends with apostleship. It's a short list, so he lists them out for us. Of course, Paul has received grace and he has received apostleship. That is obvious. He is saved by grace, as are we all. Some even say that Paul is what he's doing here is stopping to perhaps ease the minds of those Romans concerning his apostleship, letting them know it's okay that he's a called apostle because he's also been saved by grace. He qualifies to be an apostle because basically starting out the basic requirement of having received grace. And he's doing that just in case anyone had a question about that. He wanted to clear it up right away. That's what some people think. But I'm not so sure about that conclusion as to his motivation for mentioning grace. As I said, yes, he is a recipient of grace like you and me, but why make a point to inject it here? It just seems extraneous. To me, this wouldn't fit to the in the tone of his previous statement. So far in these first few verses, this has been fairly high-level doctrine. And to bring in a rather basic concept seems a little intrusive. Again, maybe I'm trying to overcomplicate Paul's intentions, but this idea would seem to interrupt the flow. The idea of just listing out grace and then apostleship seems to more or less stop what he's trying to do and slow everything down. Something Paul doesn't normally do without a purpose. I believe Paul is saying that he received this apostleship from Christ and he considers that, that call, an act of grace, a type of grace, an expression of grace. Paul treasured his calling and his master, and he knows that he didn't deserve either. Of course, that fact doesn't diminish the blessed nature of it. It's just a fact. No one earns apostleship, just like no one earns salvation. It's all of grace. But the grace we receive results in many different outcomes. God's unmerited favor toward us may lead us to become an inspirational singer or a gifted speaker or a compassionate counselor or even just a strong-backed laborer. God's unmerited favor toward Paul led him to be an apostle. Now, of course, not everyone is going to agree with me that Paul is saying that here, but I guess all should agree with the truth of the statement. By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among nations for his name, Paul's apostleship, the reason he was called and sent, the reason you and I are sent. We are all called and sent. We're not called in the same way that Paul is, but you get it. We are all called to, and now I'm quoting a source I rarely quote, the Jamison Fawcett-Brown commentary. We are called in order to get men to yield themselves to the belief of God's saving message, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for

The Obedience Of Faith Explained

SPEAKER_01 9:48

his name. The King James has actually mistranslated this. It should read the obedience of faith, not the obedience to the faith. Obedience of faith. Now you're gonna tell me, well, isn't that splitting hairs? No, not in the least. And I hope I can convince you that there is an important difference. First, let's talk about the word, the English word obedience. Obedience is a rare example of the perfect word to use as a translation. The original word is hupa koe, which is defined by Strong's dictionary as meaning, now get this, because it's important. Quote, hupa koe means attentive hearkening, but instead of hearkening, that's an old-timey word. In the place of hearkening, let's put hearing, attentive hearing. And we can actually make that change because the Greek allows us to. Our word acoustics is formed from it. Acoustics, as you know, pertains to the sound or hearing. When someone mentions the acoustics of an auditorium, for example, they are usually discussing the quality of the sound that room produces. Akuo, meaning to hear or listen. That is the root word of hupakoe. Now, isn't that interesting? In fact, the word akuo forms a whole group of Greek words, all related in one way or another to hearing, listening, and of course, obedience. Therefore, hearing and obedience are linked in the Greek, just like hearing and obedience are linked in the English. Now we're taking our time here because this is very important. Paul is not talking about obedience to faith or to the faith. He's not even talking about the obedience that results from faith. That is a real thing. Once we believe, we become more apt to obey God, but that isn't what Paul is saying here. This is the obedience of something, not to something. All right, so back to this word obedience. The English word obedience comes from the word obey, of course. And obey comes down to us through the French by way of the Latin obedire, from obe meaning to and obire meaning to listen or hear. But there's a little intensity twist here. The suffix au in the word odire means to perceive. So this isn't just hearing, this is impactful or active hearing. This is productive, useful, fruitful hearing, hearing that leads to something. You're not just listening, you're understanding. You're having a reaction to what you hear. All of that is in the word obedience, and that's why it is a perfect word to use here. I'm telling you, if the word obedience had existed in Paul's day, he would have used it.

Obedience As Active Hearing

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Now, I've said on this program before, and through just about every other medium we've used in this ministry, that I am a teacher and not a preacher. Catherine always disagrees with me and insists that I am both. And in the past, I have strongly disagreed, but I think now I realize that I've been wrong. I would say that my realization of this fact has happened since we started these structured Bible studies. Now, I'm not sure why it was that that made me change my mind. Perhaps it was our trip through Ephesians that convinced me that there's really not a lot to teach you about what Christ has done. What he's done, he's done. And yes, there are facts. Yes, there are little nuances that have to be examined, but there's no sterile syllabus-centric concept mapping approach that one can use to get people to understand what's being said here. What Christ has done cannot be perceived in the mind without the assistance of the heart. I can lay out the facts, we can study the background information, the culture, the history, the language. We can look at all that. We can demonstrate within the gospel the internal consistency of the narrative. We can look at the ancient references and see that only an authentic witness could lay down something like this in a record. Only someone who was actually there could describe the things that were laid out. A cogent, evidence-based case can be presented and still fall flat. I'm not going to teach like that anymore. You know why? Because my life's work has become about getting you to a point that you praise your Savior, that you worship him with all of your heart, that you believe in him as you have been commanded to do. I want you, I want to help you be obedient to God's call for you to believe. I want to, like Paul, preach the importance of the obedience of faith. Listen, I realize that this type of message is rather unusual.

Why Preaching Obedience Feels Rare

SPEAKER_01 16:15

In fact, any message in any medium on any form of obedience of any kind is not commonly heard, let alone from the pulpit. We don't like the word, do we? In fact, some say it's aberrant. They'll tell you that all of the problems of the world are due to an overabundance of obedience. We're all suffering because we're too compliant with the wishes of others. That the world would be a far better place if we all simply did as we wish to do. Certainly we think that the happiness of the world is dependent on my happiness. If I'm happy, then it makes the world happy, and I'm not happy being obedient to anyone other than myself. John, aren't you laying it on a little thick, kind of exaggerating, maybe overselling it a bit? Listen, no one who has a social media account would ask that question. The immense ugliness of narcissism is on full display on every smartphone in the world. And listen to me, narcissism and obedience are total and complete opposites. And for some reason, we who teach and preach God's word are loath to point that out. But Paul talks freely about the obedience of faith. One of the problems with the modern church, one of the problems with modern society is that we neglect the topic of obedience. We spend no time on what it means to do as God tells us. In fact, God is left out of most Sunday sermons, God is left out of most church policy meetings when coming up with doctrine and outreach programs and financial goals and strategic direction for our churches and denominations.

Modern Church Compromise And The UMC

SPEAKER_01 18:54

In spring of 2024, when the United Methodist Church holds its every four-year meeting, it's likely that they will make several rule changes, the most anticipated of which is the repeal of the denominational ban on performing same-sex marriages and allowing openly gay clergy. Now, currently, those things are against the official doctrine of that denomination. Although the church currently prohibits, for example, homosexuals in its pulpit, there appears there appears to be little enforcement because there have been a number of openly gay ministers and even two openly gay bishops. It seems since they can't even manage obedience to their own rules, they've decided to fix the problem by enacting things and rules that they can be obedient to. Did you hear me? The way they plan to correct the problem of the members flouting the rules is not improved education, not stricter disciplinary action, or even the outright removal of overt offenders. The leadership of the United Methodist Church seems to feel that the problem the problem isn't with the weakness of their membership, it's the severity of the rules. Right or wrong is not the issue. Choosing to be right and not wrong is. So they feel the best course of action is compromise. Compromise with the weakest at the expense of truth. Give in to disobedience. It's very sad. And as you probably know, this is not an isolated case. In fact, it can be argued that among the largest Protestant denominations, the Methodists have held out the longest. They'll be one of the last of the big American churches to drop such bigoted rules. Finally, say gay Christians, now we can worship our God freely in the place where the old God died. But Christianity is no longer about a recognition of the existence of a sovereign God, one who is in charge and is powerful and holy Son. Listen, Jesus is no longer worshiped as the one who delivered us from our sin, but rather he is now someone whose only purpose seems to be to make me happy. That's the whole reason for. His existence is to give me happiness. And if my pastor doesn't preach him as such, well, then I'll find someone who will, after all. If my pastor insists on me being obedient to Jesus instead of him being obedient to me, well then his sermons are wrong. I mean, that's how they got me on board. I was down on my luck. I was aimless. I was depressed. I was looking for love in all the wrong places. And then one day someone saw me with my head down at a bus stop and told me that if I just turned to Jesus, I'd be happy again. I mean, that's his job, isn't it? He's just a concierge. They told me that the problem to all my problems, the solution to all my problems is Jesus, right? They even had me sing it. I'm happy since I found the Lord. I'm happy on the way. The world cannot such joys afford. I'm happy all the day. He says my burdens he will bear. I'm happy on the way. I cast on him my every care. I'm happy all the way. You've heard that tune before, haven't you? The current modern evangelical church says to the outside world, is sin getting you down? Is temptation ruining your life? Do you want to be rid of the drink and the drugs and the unsavory living? Well, Jesus can do all that for you and he can make you happy again. Now, though my tone is purposely sarcastic, I don't want you to think that I don't believe that Jesus can do all that for us. Of course he can. But to view him as some sort of fixer or cleanup guy, someone I can call on to straighten out my life is selling him short. And worse, it's tempting me to think that once he's done with all that, well, then what do I need him for? He's not worth any more of my time. He did his job. Time to go. End the contract. If you just view your Christianity as a means to make you a better person, a happy, more adjusted human, someone who can finally live an anxiety-free life, and that's all, well, you don't understand in the least obedience, let alone the obedience of faith.

Jesus As Concierge Versus Lord

SPEAKER_01 24:39

But let me make sure I'm making my point. Listen, this ignorance is not entirely your fault. The majority of the blame falls on the ones who got you to go forward to the altar. They sold you a bill of goods that was only partially complete. Why did they do that? They want to fill their churches. Because empty churches are really hard to maintain because no one's paying the bills. You got to fill the churches. So they'll tell you a story you want to hear, not the one that's true. They'll tell you a story that you want to hear. And they leave a whole lot out. They convince you not to think of Jesus as someone to worship, but rather someone who's desperate to worship you. They convinced you that the only value Jesus has in your life is someone who can get you out of a jam. And listen, he is some. He is someone. He's the only one who can rescue you. But listen to me, until you understand what in you has you in bondage, what in you keeps causing you to fall into these pitiful states. And then if you don't understand what's what it is inside you that's causing all this, then you're going to miss the point. And whatever you take from him will not make a difference in your life, not one that's going to last. And then you'll end up being a poor representation of his power and influence. Until you understand that it is your sin that drags. I don't like that word. Don't use that word with me. I'm not a sinner. That's what I mean. You think you and sin are unacquainted. You're wrong. Your sin drags you down, and it will continue to do that until you use Jesus, you bring Jesus into your life for the right purpose. You'll never appreciate or your need for a rescue if you don't understand that you're a sinner. Now, what does any of this have to do with obedience?

Sin As Refusing To Listen

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Simple. Sin is a refusal to listen to what God says. Returning to the word obedience. Obedience comes from the word obey. Obey is a Latin word made up of the word obe, which means to, and obire, which means to hear or listen. But it is a hearing or listening that's intensified by the little prefix AU, which means to perceive while listening. This isn't just listening to, it's perceiving and doing something about it, knowing where it's supposed to hit, where it's supposed to apply. And when we refuse to obey God, we're just closing our eyes, our minds, not just our ears. We're closing our spirits to Him. We must perceive what He's telling us. In fact, this is not just the basis of sin, it's actually the very first sin ever committed. It's the sin that condemned an entire race of people and cursed the earth. Remember, let's read it. Genesis 3:1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made, and he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it lest ye die. Guess what? Eve heard that, didn't she? And a serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And the woman saw that the tree was good for food. The original word is Ra-a. And Strong's dictionary defines Ra-ah as meaning, you ready for this? Ra-a means to advise self. She heard what God said, but she obeyed herself. Eve disobeyed God and actually even stopped listening to the serpent, and she saw, she advised herself, she perceived using her own intellect something that was opposite to what God said. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Listen to me. Eve didn't kill anyone, she didn't steal anything, she didn't swear, she didn't light up a smoke, she didn't visit a movie theater. She just disobeyed. God said don't, but she did. It's the thing that ruined all of us, and for some reason, the United Methodist Church is debating whether or not it's okay to allow two homosexual congregation members to get married in the church, even though homosexuality is a moral aberrance to God. We perceive it as something else. Well, what should we do, John? How do we fix this?

Grace Never Cancels Obedience

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Preach and teach and insist on obedience. Whenever we don't obey, we are sinning. Whenever we don't obey God, we are sinning. Whenever we rebel against God's word, we are sinning. Sitting down and discussing whether or not what God says still has relevance to us in the 21st century is sin. From the pulpits, we must insist on obedience. Do you think that just because Jesus died for your sins that you don't have to be obedient? Paul says, God forbid. Now we'll get to it soon enough, but in the meantime, let me read it real quick. Chapter 6, verse 14 and 15. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Grace does not nullify obedience. If you're being told that, they're lying to you. Okay, again,

Repentance And Belief As Commandments

SPEAKER_01 31:56

I ask, what does this have to do with chapter one, verse four? Believing isn't just something we decide to do because nothing else is working. Faith isn't just an alternative, something we have the freedom to opt into. Faith is a commandment. Faith in Jesus is decreed by God. Now, does that surprise any of you? I'm sure it does. Because we're also poorly taught, especially when it comes to God's commandments. Hey, I've never broken a single one of those ten. Then why are you breaking this one? It's like Paul said to those men on Morris Hill, Acts 17, 30. But now God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Ah, but it says repent. It doesn't say anything about believe. What do you think he meant for us to repent from or to? The original word is metanoia, which means to change one's mind, think differently. God is telling us to no longer think in terms of the law, in terms of using our own efforts to please him. He says, change that mind of yours and believe in my son. And unexpectedly, to most of us, that's a commandment. To do so, to not do so, I should say, is to be disobedient. No different than breaking any of the other commandments. To not change your mind to what God says about his son is rebellion. For you not to accept the fact that Jesus died for your sins and your only hope is in him and not yourself. For you to not believe that is sin. Paul calls this the obedience of faith.

Meditate On This And Return

SPEAKER_01 34:03

Now, believe it or not, we're not done with this yet, but let's stop here for now. Let's meditate on this through the upcoming week, and we'll get right back into it next time. See you then.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

We hope this study has blessed you. God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption. It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners. Please join us again soon. New content is being added all the time, so make sure you check back often.

More Resources And How To Give

SPEAKER_00 34:41

For more information on Chapel Ministries, including our YouTube channel and podcasts, please visit www.chapelontheweb.com. And if God has laid it upon your heart to share materially with us, we encourage you to follow the links to our secure giving page. Please note, Chapel Ministries is not an IRS registered nonprofit organization, and your donations to this program are not tax deductible. It's our hope that you do not rely on taxing authorities to decide for you who is worthy of your generosity.