Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans. Tonight is study 22 of Romans, chapter 1, and we are going to read Romans 1:8-10:

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

In our last study, we were looking at Romans 1:8:

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

I mentioned that it seemed improbable that the faith of the Roman believers was literally spoken of throughout the whole world. We do not find any major miracles or dramatic events that took place in Rome that would have the whole world “buzzing” and speaking about it, or discussing the faith of the few believers that were in Rome.

From there, we started looking at the phrase “your faith,” and we saw that in Luke 7:50 that Jesus said to the woman that had washed His feet with ointment: “Thy faith hath saved thee.” And we realize that it could not possibly have been her own personal faith (the faith belonging to her) that saved her because the Bible is clear that faith is a “work.”

So we started looking at some verses, like Acts 26, where the Apostle Paul recounted what the Lord Jesus had said, in Acts 26:17-18:

Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

That is, it is the faith of Jesus Himself, and that is the faith that sanctifies, saves and forgives sin. That is the faith which justifies, as we saw in Galatians 2:16:

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law…

Let us look at Galatians 2:20:

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

It does not say, “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” No – it says, “…the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” The faith of Christ is what saves. It moves within the soul of the one that has the indwelling presence of the Spirit of Christ that was granted to them after they were saved by His faith. You know, sometimes we find Reformed individuals that are “pretty slippery,” and they go to someone they say knows Greek grammar very well, and they go to places like Galatians 2:16 where it says, “the faith of Christ,” and they say, “Oh, that is an ‘instrumental genitive’ or an ‘objective genitive,’” And, basically, it is just a way to get it to say what they want it to say. The King James translators were a team of seventy of the best theologians and scholars in Hebrew and Greek that could be found at that time (and, certainly, better than anybody today), and they translated it properly in Galatians 2:16 and in Galatians 3:22:

But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

I guess they would try to say that is another “objective genitive.” But we are going to read some more. It says in Philippians 3:9:

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

The righteousness is “of God by faith,” the faith of Christ. That is the righteousness that justifies and saves the sinner. Again, and again, and again, it is pointing to Jesus. Jesus is the one, and that is why the Bible tells us: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves.” How plain does it need to be? It is not your faith, O man. As a matter of fact, the Bible says, “...for all men have not faith,” in 2Thessalonians. We do not have faith when we are dead in sin, and a dead heart cannot exercise faith – it is dead. It cannot believe. It cannot trust God unto salvation, so God has to do it for those He intends to save through the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we read in Hebrews 10:37-38:

For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

And God was quoting from Habakkuk 2:3-4:

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for him; because he will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

His faith – not yours; not mine, but Christ’s faith. The personal pronoun was left out of Hebrews, as God was laying a trap. “Oh, the just shall live by faith, so that means I have to have faith.” No – the just shall live by Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is His faith that is all in all to one of God’s elect. Let us go back to Romans 1:8:

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

Your faith is spoken of, and that plays right into the pride of man; he loves to be the center of attention. He loves the idea that he is the one that will be lifted up and exalted and talked about in all the world: “spoken of in all the world.” You know, we are all in the flesh, and there is even pride that resides in the flesh of those that God has given new hearts to, so it would be very easy for us to go along with that kind of understanding, but it is not correct.

I was not sure of this at first because of the way it is written: “…I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” Why could it not be their faith, as we know that God moves in us to will and to do of His good pleasure? Ultimately, He would get the glory anyway, so maybe this was just the Apostle Paul’s way of writing a friendly greeting. Do we really think that Paul was using language to “puff up” the listeners? Keep in mind that it was not Paul speaking, but it was God moving Paul as the instrument to write exactly the words He wished and intended to be written. So this is God, and God does not try to flatter man or to “puff up” any individual, or to be a respecter of persons in any way. God tells us the hard truth in His Word, the Bible, and there are many places we can read in the Bible where God speaks truths that are extremely grievous to hear. So, no, this has nothing to do with Paul writing a letter as we might write a letter trying to “make nice” with the people because we have some difficult and harsh things to tell them (and in the book of Romans, there would be those things), so we would want to start out nice and soft. No – that has nothing to do with it, but because it says, “your faith,” it does make us think that it was the faith of the believers in Rome that was somehow spoken of throughout the whole world.

But, no, because there is actually confirmation that this, too, is referring to the faith of Christ. When we understand that their faith (the believers in Rome), as well as Paul’s faith and the faith of all the elect, is Christ. And Christ, both at that time and throughout all generations, was spoken of throughout all the world. It is true of Christ, is it not? All the Roman Empire heard of the things that took place as Jesus performed mighty miracles and went to the cross, and all the incredible things that had happened just a couple of decades earlier, and these things were certainly spoken of throughout the whole world, so He qualifies, whereas it is very unlikely that the faith of the believers in Rome (who were not well known people and who did not do mighty deeds or miracles) would have been spoken about in the whole world.

But there is confirmation (that this refers to the faith of Christ) in the word “spoken,” where it says, “…your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” When we look up that word, it is Strong’s #2605 in the Greek concordance, and it is found seventeen times in the New Testament. Ten times out of the seventeen, it is translated as “preach,” and one time it is translated as “teach,” and two or three times as “declare.” But only one time is it translated as “spoken of,” and that is in this verse.

So let us look at some places where this particular Greek word is used. Let us go to Acts 4:2:

Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

It says in Acts 13:5:

And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister.

Also, it says in Acts 13:38:

Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:

It is used two times in Philippians 1. It says in Philippians 1:16-18:

The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.

The word “preach” in verse 16 and the word “preached” in verse 18 is our same word.

Going back to Acts, it says in Acts 16:17:

The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.

It is the word translated as “shew” here, but the translators could have translated that as “preached unto us the way of salvation,” and that would have been a better translation.

It says in Acts 16:21:

And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.

That is, the masters of that woman accused Paul of what he was teaching or preaching, so there the word “teach” identifies with him preaching in that city.

It says in Acts 17:2-3:

And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.

Actually, out of the seventeen times that this Greek word is used in the New Testament, the other sixteen times it is focused on preaching Christ, preaching the Word of God or preaching the Gospel. All sixteen of them are used in this manner, but only in Romans 1:8 does it differ as it is referring to the believers in Rome and their faith. Let us insert the word “preach” in here in Romans 1:8: “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is preached throughout the whole world.”

“Oh, that is terrible! That is terrible. No – we would not want that. The believers in Rome would not want that. No elect child of God would want that kind of statement made about them. That our faith is preached?” That is not the point of sharing the Gospel. Remember what we read in 1Corinthians 4:3-5:

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

That is the heart’s desire of every elect child of God. We do not preach “ourselves” or “our faith,” but we preach the “faith of Christ.” That is why it is not possible for this verse to say, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is preached or taught or declared throughout the whole world.” It does not fit. But it is only when we realize that it is just like with that woman in Luke 7:50, where it says, “Thy faith hath saved thee,” meaning Jesus. “Thy God hath saved thee.” And her faith was her God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who did the saving work on her behalf. Likewise, the faith of the Roman believers is Christ. He is the one preached throughout the whole world. And then we have harmony with the whole Bible, and God is glorified. He is the focus of His Word, of course, as He should be, and the focus is not on ourselves or on any believer. No – that should never be the case.