Your Faith Needs Encouragement (Part 2)

By Adam Nesmith | May 7, 2021

In the last post in this mini-series on Romans 1:11-12, I showed you what “encouragement” meant and what believers are encouraged by in the New Testament. The question to answer now is how can another believer’s faith be encouraging? Paul actually calls the encouragement of faith a spiritual gift in Romans 1:11-12.

For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
Romans 1:11-12, ESV emphasis added

Paul connects encouragement to faith. How does someone’s faith encourage or comfort you? How can your faith encourage or comfort someone else? In this post, I will give two ways and then describe the commonalities between Paul and the Roman Church that make this mutual encouragement possible.

Strong faith sets an example

Throughout the Bible, God gives us examples of strong faith. God doesn’t just say “have faith”. He also gives us practical pictures of what faith looks like. A great example of this is found in Luke 7 where Jesus marvels at the faith of the Roman Centurion.

You remember the story. A centurion’s slave was sick, and the centurion requested that Jesus heal him. In humility and faith, the centurion tells Jesus “There is no need to actually enter my house. You have authority simply to say the word and my slave will be healed!” How did Jesus react? The text says Jesus was amazed at the Centurion’s faith and said to the crowd “I have not found faith so great even in Israel.”

Jesus holds up the Centurion’s an example of strong faith to the crowd around Him. The Centurion was humble, came to Jesus in that humility, and had confidence in Jesus’ power and authority to heal. This is one way faith is an encouragement. When you demonstrate a strong faith in Jesus, other people are encouraged to imitate that faith.

Your faith can comfort other believers by setting an example of humble trust in Jesus and God’s word.

“Faith in God” can become an abstract thing in our minds, something very “heady” or intellectual. But thankfully in the local Church body, God gives us living and breathing examples of what faith looks like. A brother at my local Church mentioned a few weeks back “sometimes you don’t know how to live out a command of Scripture until you see another believer living it out.”

Faith is an encouragement because it sets an example to those around it. That is one reason Paul is anxious to come to Rome. His faith is going to set an example to the Roman Church, and the Roman Church’s faith is going to display what faith in Christ looks like to Paul.

Seeing faith in action increases our endurance

Faith doesn’t just set an example of the type of faith you should have. When you see someone’s faith in action, that encourages your faith to become more steadfast. This is exactly what happens in the 10th and 11th chapter of Hebrews. Hebrews 10 gives the problem with the Christians the letter was written to: they have faith, but they need endurance.

The author of Hebrews gives these Christian’s the encouragement to continue in the faith, to not draw back. How does the author of Hebrews then encourage enduring faith? In chapter 11, Hebrews gives a long list of what faith looks like in action.

Hebrews 11 goes through tons of Old Testament believers who had faith in God’s promises and lived in accordance with those promises. These examples didn’t just have faith, they acted on that faith. And did this in the midst of suffering and trial!

Then after going through this “cloud of witnesses,” the author of Hebrews turns again to the Church and says “therefore, you also run this race with endurance!”

When you see other Christian’s exercising faith, it encourages your faith to endure.

How? You see that you are not alone. That God was faithful to believers in the past and will therefore you can trust that He will hold you fast in the present. Hearing about someone’s faith in action encourages your faith to endure. And you know this is true in your own experience.

How many times have you read about some great missionary or Christian figure and felt your own heart hunger to live out your faith? When you see other people’s faith it gives you an example to follow and it also makes your own faith stronger.

That is how Paul can his faith and the Roman Christian’s faith can mutually encourage each other. Paul can say this because faith sets an example and also strengthens the other person’s resolve.

The foundation of mutual encouragement

But there is a final question to ask: what do Paul and the Church in Rome have in common? This might be one of the more important questions you could ask Romans 1:11-12. The apostle Paul is going to Rome and is excited to have his faith encouraged. But how could this happen? What common ground does Paul and the Roman Church have?

Apparent differences between Roman Church and Paul

If you take a superficial look at Paul and the Roman Church, they do not have a lot in common. If you focus just on externals, Paul and the Roman Church are pretty different.

Paul is from a completely different part of the world.
Paul lived and grew up in a completely different context than these Roman believers.
Paul an apostle specifically called by God.
Paul studied the Old Testament with Gamaliel, Roman Church was likely not near “his level”
Paul was traveling around planting Churches, Roman Church likely had a more ordinary local ministry

If you step back and look at the superficial differences, it should make you think “how could Paul and the Roman Church have anything in common? How could there be mutual encouragement when they had completely different backgrounds, lived in different parts of the world, had different levels of intelligence and Biblical knowledge?”

But if you leave the superficial, external differences, you can see just how similar Paul and the Roman Church were at a spiritual level.

Commonalities between Paul and Roman Church

Despite these superficial differences, Paul and the Roman Church on a spiritual level have many things in common. In fact, the whole of the letter to the Romans demonstrates the rich spiritual commonalities Paul and the Church in Rome have.

Same problem: Sinners under God’s wrath

Paul and the Roman Christians had the same fundamental problem: the wrath of God on their sins. Paul persecuted the Church. We might not know the specifics of what sins the Roman Church members were guilty of before believing in Christ but we do know “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Paul and the Church in Rome had the same problem, the same problem you and I face: every human has not given God the glory due to Him. Rather than glorifying God, acknowledging Him, worshiping Him, thanking Him, every human has exchanged God’s glory. Given it up. Instead we build idols of self or out of material things.

Neither Paul nor the Romans before they were saved looked for God. No one seeks after God, no one does good, not even one. Paul thought he was doing good when he persecuted the Church, but no, it was rebellion.

The law could not help either of Paul nor the Roman Church either. For “by the works of the law no human being will be justified in God’s sight, because through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” Paul and the Roman Church had the same problem when they were unbelievers: their sin and rebellion. It manifested itself differently, but deserved the same punishment: the wrath of God.

Same need: Christ’s righteousness

And so, because Paul and the Roman Church had the same fundamental problem, they had the exact same need:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
Romans 3:21-22a, ESV

That is what Paul and the Romans both needed. The law was a dead end, they could never keep it but God has made another way. “For what the Law could not do because it was weak because of the flesh Christ did.”

Jesus. He is the end of the law for all who believe. Jesus’ death and resurrection are the only way God can be just and justify sinful humans. Paul and the Church had only one question they needed to answer, the question every human being has to answer: “How can God still be perfectly righteous, perfectly just and yet forgive me?”

Through Jesus. God’s righteousness has been manifested, displayed, shown apart from the Law. How did God do it? God put Jesus forward as a propitiation. Jesus paid the punishment for those who would believe in Him. When Jesus was on the cross he cried “My God my God why have you forsaken me?” It wasn’t for His own sins that Jesus suffered.

It was because “God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all!” “it pleased God to crush” Jesus. Why? So that by His wounds, we can be healed. That payment, that righteousness is given to all who have faith in Jesus and His sacrifice. It is what Paul and the Roman Church both needed.

They were different in so many ways, but Paul and the Roman Church were now united. They were united in that they had both received mercy! Magnificent mercy! Costly mercy!

Paul and the Church had the same background and the same need. And everyone in the world also has the same background and need.

Have you received God’s mercy in Christ? Have you believed upon Jesus and this gospel?

The world tells you that you have a lot of problems and gives you a lot of solutions but the Bible is the only place you can find the truth about yourself. The truth about your real problem. And God offers to you His very son as the solution.

If have not repented, turned from your rebellion against God, and turned to Jesus by believing in His death on the Cross, there is only one implication for you: believe. Do not delay. There can be no encouragement for a faith that doesn’t exist. You must have faith before your faith gives and receives encouragement.

Conclusion

Paul and Roman Christians were united in all the important ways. They had the same needs, same present reality, same future. Therefore the encouragement really can be mutual. Even though Paul and the Roman Church had different backgrounds, they could speak into each other’s lives because their lives were the same in all the important ways, in all the essential ways.

Christians need other Christians so that their faith can be encouraged and can endure.

Fellow believers are one of the main sources of comfort God gives. Your faith can both set an example for someone else and also encourage a fellow believer to endure. The reason any believer can encourage you is that you are UNITED to any other person who believes in Jesus.

In the final post in this mini-series, I will lay out 5 practical implications of these truths from Romans 1:11-12.

If you missed Part 1 of this mini-series, find it here. You can also listen to me preach this text here.