For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)
These two verses really set the stage for this whole book. Here Paul gives the grounds for why he is eager to preach the gospel in Rome (Romans 1:15). Not only is he not ashamed of this gospel, but he sees it as the “power of God for salvation.” Paul says something very similar in 1 Corinthians 1:18: “For the word of the cross . . . is the power of God.” The gospel is a message. It is by definition “good news.” But Paul speaks of it as a power, a force, a cause. It isn’t just a neutral piece of information. It is message that does something to its hearers. It moves upon them, effects them, and changes them. This statement helps explain why Paul spends so much time breaking down this gospel message in Romans with such intimate detail. He does it because the gospel is the “power of God for salvation.”
I’ve been thinking about how a message is a power, but in some respects it isn’t that difficult to figure out. This message reveals our desperate need, our evil hearts, our utter hopelessness. It declares a God who willingly crushes his Son in our place so that we can become the righteousness of God. It opens up to us a future in which the entire creation is renewed, a glory that far outweighs the pain and suffering of the present time. There is simply too much at stake in such a message to not have an effect upon the hearer. A message like “You just inherited one million dollars from your deceased uncle Filbert” is too powerful not to affect you. Either you say, “Filbert? I have no uncle Filbert. You’re a liar,” or “Filbert left me a million dollars! Are you serious? Thank you uncle Filly.” It creates either disbelief and doubt or joy and excitement. In fact, most messages are not benign. They bring about some emotion, thought, and reaction from us. But a message as massive and embracing of all of reality like the gospel, a message that exposes such darkness but also gives such hope will always cause a response.
Paul says more than this, though, for the gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” The power of the gospel is not just that it causes a response, but that it actually brings about salvation. It is a message that brings life from death. How does it do that? Part of the answer lies in the next verse. I think the NIV rightly translates the phrase “from faith for faith” as “by faith first to last.” Salvation from the very beginning to the very end comes by faith, for “the righteous shall live by faith.” A large reason as to why a message can be a power to salvation is because salvation comes through faith. Salvation does not come by law-keeping, by national identity, by personal effort. It comes simply by the reception of a gift, which is told in the message of the gospel. But of course, for this all to make sense, Paul has to mean that in some sense the message of the gospel has the power to make faith happen. For now I just want to observe that fact. I think Paul will explain it later.
So application wise this text gets me excited about communicating the gospel message to others. We don’t need gimmicks. We don’t need to win an argument. We just need to tell the world the truth about Jesus. And as we proclaim that truth in conversations, in teaching, in our small groups, we are proclaiming a power that affects faith and leads to salvation. The gospel is the greatest power that we have. It is the greatest power on the planet. Let us wield it with confidence and not be ashamed of it.
5 comments:
I think sometimes it is difficult, in the light of these present times, to present the gospel only. We feel gipped out of something, like, "Is that it? I need to accept it by faith? Nothing's free." It's like the example of puppies for sale compared to free puppies. One is more likely to get a puppy when it costs something compared to picking up a puppy and taking it home.
We live in a "nothing's free" society. Cost determines value. We almost feel better by paying large sums for things we deem valuable. We don't understand that concept with Christ.
We can never earn salvation, no amount of money in the world can buy back what our sin gave away. We feel, though, that we can do something physical to obtain a spiritual gift. Christ was spiritual and physical, He came with a simple message. We need to accept that message, knowing that we can never so anything more to earn it than asking Jesus to give it to us.
That being said, if the Gospel is the only Truth, only way to Heaven, then we need to accept it as such. We can no more add to it, because its message is so perfect. We need to use it to reach all men, because it is able to be understood by all men. That is the unashamed message of the Gospel. That is what we need to share. Jesus came to die, that we might live in Him, no strings attached.
Why do you think we don't like a "free" salvation? I think you are right, but why is that? Wouldn't a salvation by faith, salvation by gift be far better then one we had to earn?
I agree it would, but in our culture, we have been inundated with the adage, "Nothing is free". We feel like we need to pay for what we get. It is the same with faith. If we pay for our faith, we feel like we earned it somehow, like we had a part in our eternity. Jesus is the only one who could give this gift, because he was the only one who was qualified enough to give it. He was the one who lived a sinless life, He was the one who died a sinless death, and He was the one who rose from the grave. I did none of those things. Now, if the requirement to get into heaven was doing all of those things, or at least one, I would fail. The problem is, people think themselves good. When we see that there was no way at all to get to heaven without Jesus, and only through Him, will we be able to accept the gift that Christ offered us. We then see the cost that Christ paid, and then see that His gift was not free. We can never fully comprehend the cost that was paid, but we should know that a cost was paid, and that cost was the dearest cost that could have ever been paid for a free gift.
I think that with that in mind, we will be able to see that we can accept that gift, and live like we are trying to earn it, to fill the cost with our obedience.
I think you're right when you say, "The problem is, people think themselves good." I don't think the problem is so much that we don't want a gift, as much as what a gift implies. It implies that there is something so messed up with me that I can't earn God's favor.
"I think that with that in mind, we will be able to see that we can accept that gift, and live like we are trying to earn it, to fill the cost with our obedience."
I'm not sure what this statement means. Should a Christian live like he is trying to earn the gift?
I don't think the deciding factor of how a Christian should live is to live like he is trying to earn the gift. If we live like we are trying to earn the gift, we are at the same time not excepting it. I think we have successfully conveyed the point that we are not good enough and we do not deserve the gift, therefore the focus should be off of us and fully on God ( "for by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" Ephesians 2:8). So when we realize that, and truly believe, we will understand that this life is not of our own, we don't deserve it, and Jesus has sacrificed himself for it. It is then we live our life not like we are trying to earn it, but live life as if it is not our own (because it isn't). So we should live life for God and to spread the "Good news" of salvation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
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