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Romans 1:8–17 (ESV)
What comes to your mind when I say the words “traveling salesman?” Do you think of a profession that stereotypically underpromises and overdelivers, or the opposite? (My apologies the Steve and Matt, or any other salespersons with integrity among us this morning).
We are continuing our series through Romans which we’re calling “Better than you think.” It is a reminder that the message of salvation which we can experience and offer to others will not underdeliver.
This morning Paul will show us why he is so eager to promote this message to the church at Rome. Our two verses this morning are Paul’s thesis statement for his entire letter.
Our points for today as we explore “The Power of God for Salvation”
1 Timothy 2:1–2 (ESV) — First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
Lord, grant us eyes to see and ears to hear the amazing reality that we can receive your righteousness as a gift by faith.
Does it seem strange to you that Paul begins vs. 16 with this claim, “I am not ashamed of the gospel?” We know enough of Paul’s biography to expect that he is not ashamed of it. Some scholars are so convinced that Paul was so far from being ashamed of the Gospel that they think this was merely a rhetorical device to emphasize that he thinks the gospel is awesome.
I don’t think Paul is merely using rhetoric, though. In my opinion he truly did have to reckon with the unpopularity and risks of preaching the gospel. Jesus, after all, did warn his followers that there would be a temptation to be ashamed in Mark 8:34-38.
Mark 8:34–38 (ESV) — “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. … For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
The temptation to be ashamed of Jesus was so strong that all of the disciples, including Peter, fled at Jesus’ arrest and trial. Peter even denied Christ three times.
It was dangerous and risky. Paul knew from personal experience that the Jews were so offended by the message of Christianity that they would jail or murder its messengers. Before his conversion, Paul himself stood by as one of the early deacons, Stephen, was stoned to death. After his own conversion, Paul was whipped with 39 lashes at least five times. He was imprisoned, beaten with rods, and even stoned and left for dead.
It wasn’t only dangerous with the Jews, though. The pagans of the day were also threatened by this new religion, and willing to threaten and imprison those who challenged the status quo in their cities.
Let’s step back from the actual danger to life and limb. It’s also important to realize that Christianity is often not treated with respect. This was true in Paul’s day and in ours as well. Christians were mocked and ridiculed.
1 Corinthians 1:23 (ESV) — but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
The gospel is offensive. It’s important for us to remember this. The message of the gospel will never be socially cool or accepted because it cuts against our sinful pride and self-importance.
Remember the basic message: we are all sinful wicked people; we cannot do anything to save ourselves; Jesus, a man born under disreputable circumstances, who taught a controversial message, lived a humble life, and died a criminal’s death, while claiming to be God and inviting sinners to follow him and to put their trust in him alone for salvation. We must not forget that he also did many miracles, never sinned, and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.
For mankind in every age this is an offensive message. You are a bad person. You cannot save yourself. Your religious activity cannot save you. Your efforts toward self-improvement cannot save you. You cannot atone for your own sin. This will be what we learn throughout the first three chapters of Romans.
Let’s look back at what Paul said again, beginning in v. 14.
Romans 1:14–16 (ESV)
There is a progression here. Paul is “under obligation”, “eager,” and “not ashamed.”
Under Obligation is an interesting idea. Literally, Paul is a debtor to Greeks and barbarians…
John Stott explains this in a very helpful way. There are two different ways I could be in debt to you. First, if I borrow $1000 from you, I owe it to you and am under obligation to pay you back. However, what if Daniel gives me $1000 and tells me that it belongs to you, and that I’m to give it to you? Even though I didn’t borrow the money from you, I still owe it to you. This is closer to what Paul is saying. God has entrusted him with the Gospel for the Gentiles. He is under obligation.
But, lest we think Paul was grudgingly bringing the gospel to them he reminds us in vs. 15 that he is eager to preach the gospel to them. He is not ashamed of it, and is about to tell us why.
Romans 1:16 (ESV)
Paul gives the first reason that he is not ashamed of the gospel. The clue is right there in the next phrase: “FOR it is the power of God for salvation.”
When I consider the power of God, my mind first goes to Creation—the expansiveness of the universe, the intricacies of the human eye, the destruction unleashed by volcanos and hurricanes and floods. I think of miracles—the parting of the red sea, God lengthening a day on earth in order for a battle to continue, God delivering Israel from 180,000 Assyrian soldiers, water being turned into wine, the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead.
Then, I even consider man-made power—the power of nuclear weapons, hydroelectric dams, and the computing power of AI.
And then I might even think of how power is portrayed in media and literature. The Avengers, Luke Skywalker, the Rings of Power.
We are amazed, enamored, and intrigued by power in all of its forms. We need to let our Bible-reading plans help us here. We need to observe all of the ways that God’s power is used for the sake of his people. Notice his deliverance, his protection, his revelation, the sending of his angels, the defeat of his enemies. God heals, restores, and brings his remnant back into the land.
After considering all of the miraculous ways that God intervenes in our physical world to bring about his Providential plan with its temporal, earthly deliverances—now consider what Paul is saying.
Pay attention to how unexpectedly this phrase from Paul strikes us: “The gospel IS the power of God for salvation.” The same power of God that brought judgment through Noah’s flood and parted the Red Sea for Israel is at work through the Gospel to bring salvation—and not for a merely temporal military victory—to bring eternal redemption and forgiveness of sins to those who were God’s enemies.
1 Corinthians 1:18 (ESV) — For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
We’ve already hinted at the offensiveness of the gospel and how we cannot save ourselves, yet here again Paul highlights our weakness and desperate need for God to work for our salvation. When we think about God’s actions to save us, we likely think about God sending his Son—the incarnation. Then we think of all that Jesus did in his life, ministry, and death to save us. God works even beyond this. Through the message of the gospel, God’s power works yet again to bring us to salvation.
Given the firmness of sin’s grip on human beings…, it takes God’s power to deliver them from that grip and its consequences, both present and future.
- Robert H. Gundry, Commentary on the New Testament, 573.
We know that God’s word has power.
I know that you’ve heard this phrase perhaps a dozen times already this morning, but we need to consider explicitly what this means and doesn’t mean. We are tempted to make the subject of this sentence interchangeable with other spiritual fruit.
Of course many of these things are pleasing to God and a compelling testimony of love for God and neighbor, consistent with living our lives according to God’s law.
However, our text says that the GOSPEL is the power of God for salvation. The Gospel is the message of good news that God has made a way for guilty, fallen sinners to be saved by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through faith in Him.
Our choices and character may create curiosity among those around us so that they ask us what’s different about us—or what is the reason for the hope we have, but the power of God is found in the Gospel message itself, not our imperfect application of it in our own lives.
The Gospel uniquely demonstrates the power of God.
Paul now gives a second reason why he is not ashamed of the Gospel.
Romans 1:17 (ESV)
In the last point, we considered how God’s power is revealed in many different ways. We will see the same thing here regarding God’s righteousness, which is displayed in many different ways. Righteousness is an attribute of God, wherein he always does what is right. It is true in his character and his activity. In God’s creation, Providence, judgement, and salvation, God is righteous (or “just” if you prefer).
God’s righteousness is often celebrated in parallel along with either his covenant faithfulness or his saving action toward his people.
Psalm 98:2 (ESV) — The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
Psalm 71:2 (ESV) — In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me!
God’s Law is righteous.
Psalm 119:142 (ESV) — Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true.
If God’s righteousness has been evident through his law and his deeds throughout human history and Old Testament scripture, how is it being “revealed” in the Gospel? How is God’s righteousness is uniquely revealed in the gospel.
First, let’s go back in church history to around the years 1517-1518 and question our friend, the monk, Martin Luther. Luther tells us of how he wrestled through this passage when teaching through the Book of Romans.
Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that he was placated by my satisfaction.
I did not love … yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God. …
Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience. Nevertheless I beat importunately upon St. Paul at that place (Romans 1:17) most ardently desiring to know what St. Paul wanted.
- Eric Metaxas, Martin Luther, p. 94.
Luther is describing biographically the common interpretation of Romans 1:17 at that time—that the righteousness of God was on display in the right judgment and condemnation of the wicked. His conscience regularly and convincingly reminded him that he was a sinner, and therefore under the wrath of a righteous God. But, Luther had a breakthrough in his understanding that changed his life forever, and also to a large degree lit the fires of the Protestant Reformation.
At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed,” as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.”
There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.”
- Eric Metaxas, Martin Luther, p. 96.
Luther realizes that this righteousness of God is not his demand for punishment but the gift of righteousness itself to those who believe. Reflecting back later, he would see this as a moment of spiritual conversion.
Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. Thus a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me. Hereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory.
I also found in other terms an analogy, as the work of God, that is, what God does in us, the power of God, with which he makes us strong, the wisdom of God, with which he makes us wise, the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God.
And I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the word “Righteousness of God.” Thus that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise.
- Eric Metaxas, Martin Luther, p. 96.
Out of this historic recovery of the good news of the gospel came the Reformation cry sola fide! We are saved by faith alone! The glorious understanding of our justification by faith which had been obscured and corrupted by the Roman church was recovered.
Paul is going to spend several early chapters in Romans expounding on this in detail, and we will have many sermons to ruminate and glory in the gift of God’s righteousness to us.
This righteousness is forensic; it is a status; it is declared; it is given at the moment of saving faith.
We will see throughout the letter how God is also making us righteous through transformation via our union with Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, and our participation in the body of Christ. However, we first must see that God declares us to be righteous in his Son at the moment of saving faith.
Remember the question that we are answering in this point is how God’s righteousness is uniquely revealed in the gospel.
Here are a few more verses from Paul in Romans and elsewhere to give us a taste of the glorious gift of righteousness offered in the Gospel.
Romans 3:21–22 (ESV) — 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 10:3–4 (ESV) — For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Romans 10:10 (ESV) — For with the heart one believes and is justified (or declared righteous), and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
And, if I can borrow from a text outside of Romans, Pauls says this in Philippians:
Philippians 3:9 (ESV) — and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
Having seen how God’s righteousness is uniquely revealed in the gospel, we must now ask how one can receive this gift of righteousness. It is by faith.
Romans 1:16-17 (ESV)
Who is it that experiences God’s power for salvation? Everyone who believes. For the sake of clarity, we’re going to make two statements out of this truth.
Of course, if you’ve been in a protestant church and paid attention to what is preached this is no surprise. However, consider how radical this path to salvation would have sounded for the first time to the Jews or the pagans.
Let’s consider the pagans first. What is the ritual, the sacrifice, or the incantations needed to appease the Gods? Which god or gods must be appeased? Is there a particular temple or high place where worship must be performed?
For the Jews it was a little different, but not as different as it should have been. Though they should have remembered that “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness” what eventually came into focus as the path to God’s favor was the ritualistic keeping of the Law. In other words, salvation depended upon living a certain way, offering certain sacrifices, and worshiping in a particular temple.
Of course we will find throughout the New Testament and the entire Bible that God has a lot to say about how his people should live, but it is SO IMPORTANT to see the truth of vv. 16-17. The only requirement for experiencing the power of God for salvation is to believe the gospel message.
There is another truth in vs. 16 which we must not miss. God’s salvation is not universal. It does not come to everyone. It is not automatic. it is only for those who believe.
In our modern day religious environment we are used to claims of belief with no specific object of belief. We are too easily satisfied with generic non-committal statements like, “I believe in God” or even “you’ve just gotta have faith.”
Paul doesn’t explicitly say what must believed right here in this verse. He simply says “everyone who believes.” But make no mistake, the context screams out to us that we must believe “the gospel message” and Paul will make it clear throughout the letter. One example would be Romans 10:9.
Romans 10:9 (ESV) — because, 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.
It was radical in Paul’s day; it was radical in Luther’s day, and it is radical in our day to preach that all that is necessary to experience God’s salvation is belief in the gospel.
The second truth claim we made is that “everyone who believes” will be saved. Paul expands this by adding, “the Jew first and also the Greek.” One of the most controversial aspects of the Christian message in the New Testament and early church was the inclusion of the Gentiles (Greeks) in God’s offer of salvation.
As we’ve mentioned in the introductory message on Romans, there were even tensions in the Roman church between Jew and Gentile believers. Paul will go to great lengths in these early chapters in Romans to show that Jew and Gentile are both included in God’s plan for salvation.
Paul acknowledges that the Jews had had a special place in God’s salvation history. In Romans 3 (vv. 1-2) he’ll remind us that the Jews had been “entrusted with the oracles of God.” In Chapter 9 (vv. 4-5) Paul reminds the Roman Christians that the Jews had first experienced “the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.”
During the expansion of the church in Acts, things began with the Jews in Jerusalem and then spread outward. Even Paul on his own missionary endeavors would begin at the Jewish synagogue and then include the Gentiles.
Notwithstanding the current political drama in the Middle East, we typically do not divide the world up into Jew and Gentile in our thinking about the Gospel, but we still need to embrace the emphasis of this text—any person who believes the gospel will be saved.
Do we hold back from sharing the gospel with others because we do not think they are the “kind” of person who would want to hear it? We need to be reminded that the gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. Paul was under obligation to take the gospel to those very people—the ones whom his upbringing had told him did not deserve or would not accept God’s message of salvation.
What categorizations of people do we secretly believe either don’t deserve the message of the gospel or wouldn’t respond to the message of the gospel?
We all must remember that the gospel is THE POWER OF GOD for salvation for everyone who believes.
We need to remember the power of the Gospel so that do not hesitate to share it with others.
2 Corinthians 4:5–6 (ESV) — For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
It seems legitimate to affirm, therefore, that ‘the righteousness of God’ is God’s righteous initiative in putting sinners right with himself, by bestowing on them a righteousness which is not their own but his. ‘The righteousness of God’ is God’s just justification of the unjust, his righteous way of pronouncing the unrighteous righteous, in which he both demonstrates his righteousness and gives righteousness to us. He has done it through Christ, the righteous one, who died for the unrighteous, as Paul will explain later. And he does it by faith when we put our trust in him, and cry to him for mercy.
- John R. W. Stott, The Message of Romans, 64.
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