Romans 1:5

Romans 1:5 [AV]
By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

ANNOTATED NOTES:

By whom: referring to "Jesus Christ our Lord" from the end of v4

we: refers to Paul, as well as those whom he ministered to as an apostle; some sources see the “we” as the Figure of Speech heterosis, where the plural is put for the singular, to emphasize that the grace accorded Paul as an apostle was not for himself alone, but also for those to whom he ministered, which is certainly true. His life of service as an apostle was a gift to them (see Rom 1:11; I Cor 15:9-10; Eph 3:7-9).

grace and apostleship: more than just two separate words linked by the conjunction “and”; "grace and apostleship" are intricately connected, so that various readings can accurately convey the connection, such as "the grace accorded an apostle”, or “the undeserved privilege of apostleship”. Paul knew his apostleship was a gift of God’s grace to and for the benefit of the body of Christ, the church (1 Cor 3:10; Gal 2:9; Eph 4:8,11-12)

faith = pistis: believing, faith; this noun form of believing, pistis, occurs 40x in Romans; the verb form, pisteuo, occurs 21x

obedience to the faith: could read “obedience of believing”. Romans is not for the obedience to religious good works, which man often exalts, issuing in profitless disciplining of the flesh (Col 2:20-23). Jesus Christ declared “This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom He sent” (John 6:28-29). The obedience of believing rightly regarding Jesus Christ is a declared purpose of Paul’s apostleship, and a central theme in Romans, indicated here at the opening, as well as at the closing (Rom 16:26).

nations = ethnos: referring to Gentiles, which is how ethnos is translated elsewhere in the AV 93 times

ALTERNATIVE TRANSLATION:

Romans 1:5 [LIT]
By whom we have received the grace accorded an apostle, for the obedience of believing among all the Gentiles, for his name’s sake.


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