Grace to Obey
The Apostle Paul says, “Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name” (Romans 1:5).
What is grace?
Grace is often defined as “unmerited favor.” Grace is God’s divine love freely bestowed upon all people who by their very nature don’t deserve it. And the reason we don’t deserve it is because we all sin and fall short of God’s holy and righteous standards for living (Romans 3:23).
But God bestows His grace anyway for the distinct purpose to help us obey Him by faith.
God’s grace includes, but is not limited to, His love, mercy, and salvation. To his protégé, Timothy, Paul said that God “has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began” (2 Timothy 1:9).
Apostleship is a holy calling by God. In the Greek language, the word “apostle” means a messenger, one sent on a mission, or one commissioned by Jesus Christ to preach the Gospel.
An apostle is someone sent out by God as a messenger of His Good News, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And to this calling of apostleship He has called us to obey by faith. In short, it is the Great Commission given to every believer, to go and make disciples of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:16-10).
But such obedience is not forced, rather it is voluntary, like Jesus who took upon Himself the form of a bondservant becoming obedient to the point of death (Philippians 2:5:8).
The Apostle Paul said this same mindset should be ours as well. A bondservant was not mandatory servitude; rather it was by choice, voluntary, and from a willing heart. But it takes God’s grace.
So today pray that God gives you not only the courage to obey His calling, the Great Commission, but the grace to obey it as well.