BA brings up points that Baptist covenant theology pretty much agrees upon. That's part of the problem with NCT. It has no root! It assumes all CT is the same when it isn't and even though I've posted numerous links explaining the CT found among Baptists before the NCT was invented, the info is ignored, and NCT folks just keep on plodding forward believing paedobaptist CT is the same as what I believe. Just start on page one and read forward. You will soon see the guys promoting Gay's theology are ignoring what I've posted.
From the link I've already quoted:
The Gospel of Faith Obeyed and Disobeyed in Romans
Romans and 1 Peter are tied as the books that make the most use of this language of obeying the gospel. But it is Paul's letter to the Romans that contains the two main verses in this matter and will therefore be the first ones we look at. When Paul writes of bringing about the "obedience of faith" among the nations as the aim of his apostleship (R
Rom 1:5;
16:26, he does not have in mind obedience as part of faith, making obedience to Christ's commands and faith in Christ synonymous.
2 Nor does Paul write of obedience that springs from faith as fruit giving evidence to the genuineness of faith.
3 Though both mistaken, there is an enormous difference between these two interpretations. The former is another gospel that denies grace alone while the latter is an orthodox interpretation that does not pay close enough attention to the context.
The obedience Paul has in view here is in believing the gospel; that is how the gospel is obeyed, by believing it. As an epexegetical phrase, the obedience of faith is faith itself.
4 But by no means whatsoever is this to deny that Christians obey Christ and that Paul calls them to this � that is patently clear and undeniable � but what Paul is interested in communicating here with this phrase is purely justification by faith. As John Preston affirmed, "Our Doctrine is, you see, that faith only is required� the rest will follow upon it."
5 Preston and the Westminster Divines could say this because they understood that not only justification but sanctification is by grace through faith (see Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q.35).
Paul's apostolic ministry of the word, then, applies to both those outside the church and believers. It is Paul's intent for not only those who have not heard the gospel to take Christ by faith for their justification (15:26-21), but for those already united to Christ to continue walking by faith in him for their righteousness before God. As he writes in v.17 of this chapter, "The righteous shall live by faith." This was Martin Luther's (1483-1546) revolutionizing discovery that began to restore the church and freed his own soul from the threat of God's just wrath. When we are faced with the law of God and its perfect demands coming from the holy Judge, we are naturally burdened and grieved by our sin because we know we sin against him in thought, word, and deed throughout each day of our life. But we who are in Christ by faith are called by the gospel to rest in the righteousness of Christ with which we have been clothed. This is our assurance of standing in God's presence without blame (
Col 1:22;
1 Th 3:13;
5:23; Jd 24). This is what it means for a Christian to fulfill the obedience of faith. To live by faith means to walk before God by looking to the Righteous One (
Acts 3:14;
7:52), his Son, for our righteousness.
6 We are saints in God's sight by imputation, not by works of merit in either justification or sanctification.
The meaning of "obedience of faith" is not arrived at by discerning the genitive and whether it is subjective or objective,
7 but is determined in light of Paul's soteriology as a whole which categorically assures us that no one will be justified by works of the law in God's sight (
Rom 3:20-21,
28 Gal 2:16). Because the command of the gospel is to believe the gospel (
Acts 16:31;
1 Jn 3:23), obeying the gospel is through faith in the gospel, not some additional form of obedience on par with faith. This is why Matthew Poole could say in his commentary on
Rom 1:5 that faith "is the great command of the gospel."
8
We come now to
Rom 10:16. "But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, �Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?'" The use of parallelism introduced in the second sentence by �for' supplies the reason of the first sentence. Paul demonstrates that to not receive and believe the gospel is to disobey the Lord. Thus, �believe' in the citation from
Isa 53:1 serves to define the way in which Israel did not obey.
In
Rom 15:18 Paul again speaks of his apostolic ministry. "For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the gentiles to obedience � by word and deed." The obedience of the gentiles is spelled out in the following two verses: "by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God � so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel�" (emphasis mine). The goal of Paul's preaching was for gentiles to believe his gospel which was attested to by signs and wonders. Therefore, Paul glories in Christ for having brought the gentiles to himself through his labors. That is to say, by Paul's ministry in word and deed the gentiles were made obedient, that is, embraced Christ by faith.
9
Also relevant is what Paul says about Israel in
Rom 11:30-32.
Just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
From this passage we can make the following conclusions:
- Gentiles were disobedient to God
- God showed mercy to gentiles because of Israel's disobedience
- Israel became disobedient so that the mercy bestowed upon the gentiles would eventually lead to mercy for Israel
- Jews and gentiles have been given to disobedience so God would have mercy upon all
Israel's trespass (11:11-12) as illustrated in 11:2-4 was for worshipping Baal which was a result of not knowing the true and living God. Israel was therefore cut off from the covenant (11:15,17,19) on account of their unbelief. "They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith" (11:20). Therefore, "even they [Israel], if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again" (11:23). Jews can be "grafted back into their own olive tree" by faith in the Messiah (11:24) and in this way, together with gentiles brought into the new covenant by faith, "all Israel will be saved" (11:25-26). Therefore, the disobedience in view at 11:30-32 is unbelief. Like the gentiles, unbelieving Jews were shown mercy to believe and come into covenant with God as his chosen people (9:18, 23-26). We apostasize if we rely on works through disbelief in the gospel (11:21-22 cf.
Gal 5:4).
In
Rom 10:3 Paul writes of Israel's unbelief as an unwillingness to "submit to God's righteousness," thus seeing faith as a form of submission. We are found righteous not by attaining to the standard of God's law (9:30), but by submitting to God's righteousness based on faith (10:6 cf. 4:13). This is a fitting imagery for believing since both are passive. This is entirely different from saying obedience is part of faith. By faith we are counted righteous as we rest in Christ's active obedience and by faith we take hold of him as our Substitute (
Rom 1:17;
4:13,
23-25). This does not mean faith and obedience are routinely the same; they are distinct in their typical usage throughout the epistles and are just as far apart as are law and gospel.
10
One final consideration before leaving Romans. After providing an introduction in 5:12-21 to the two ages which began with the fall of Adam, Paul answers the potential objection that his gospel is licentious in chapter 6 � those who believe in Christ have been united to him in his death so that they have died to sin and live in his resurrection life (vv.4-11). In the second half of this section, he writes, "But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed" (v.17). Is Paul's reference to the Romans' obedience from the heart speaking of their faith in the gospel? Does commitment "to the standard of teaching" mean a commitment to Paul's doctrine of faith alone? In 10:9-10 Paul does link faith with our heart: "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." But as stated, in
Rom 6 Paul is expounding our new life in Christ in the already/not—yet where we have become slaves of righteousness (vv.16,18). In a word, the context concerns sanctification, not justification (vv.19-22). The gift of eternal life includes the fruit of righteousness in this age (v.23). Yet might it not be that Paul is grounding our new life in our faith in Christ? For instance, in v.18 Paul writes of us "having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness." We were born enslaved to sin (5:12) and walked in it with our unbelief being at the root (1:18; 3:11,18). How were we set free from sin? By faith. How did we become slaves of righteousness? By faith when we were united to Christ. We would not be freed from sin and slaves of righteousness if we did not believe the gospel. Despite the truthfulness of these observations, the obedience in v.17 is not their faith and the standard of teaching is not the gospel; it is the exhortations that flow out of the indicative of the gospel as seen in vv.11-14 (cf. what would appear to be Paul's same thought in
Eph 4:20-24). That this is the case is made even more evident in Paul's unusual construction in v.17 which literally reads, "the pattern of teaching to which you were handed over."
11God himself, whom Paul thanks, has given us to the ethics of baptism into Christ (vv.3-4). As God gave over those in Adam to sin (1:24,26,28), so he has given over those in Christ to new covenant obedience.
Romans 6:17, then, does not express "the obedience of faith" from 1:5.
(end quote)
Yours in the Lord,
jm
