“The Heart of the Gospel”
Romans 1:16-17
Introduction: (Ill.) French novelist and playwright Alexandre Dumas once had a heated quarrel with a rising young politician. The argument became so intense that a duel was inevitable. Since both men were superb shots they decided to draw lots, the loser agreeing to shoot himself. Dumas lost. Pistol in hand, he withdrew in silent dignity to another room, closing the door behind him. The rest of the company waited in gloomy suspense for the shot that would end his career. It rang out at last. His friends ran to the door, opened it, and found Dumas, smoking revolver in hand. "Gentlemen, a most regrettable thing has happened," he announced. "I missed."
Seriously, it is a common thing for humans to shy away from conflict, and difficult situations. It is especially encouraged in the business world. Courses are taught on how to avoid conflict. And that can be a good thing in many situations. Not everything is worth fighting for. However, some things are not only worth fighting for; they are necessary. Too many people are cowards when it comes to standing up for what is right. It is so easy to let things slide in an attempt to avoid conflict, when in fact, conflict is required in certain situations.
In our passage today the Apostle Paul addresses this topic directly when he says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” Let me add here that it is right to be ashamed of what is not good and right. However, when Jesus was arrested, Peter was ashamed to be associated with Him. Not only was he ashamed of Christ, he denied Him three times.
It is a natural tendency to be ashamed even of what is good, because it takes courage to take a stand. We don’t want to stand out. We don’t want to ruin a good friendship. And we have a hundred and one other excuses for not taking a stand when we should. Fortunately, after Peter denied Christ, he repented. And to demonstrate that his repentance was genuine, we find him soon after preaching Christ boldly. He was jailed and eventually crucified on a cross upside down. (tradition)
We tend to be a little more sophisticated in the ways we often fail to take a stand. We tend to water things down so that they do not appear to be so offensive. We do that because we are protecting ourselves. We really do not like to have others call us bigoted, racist, homofob., etc.
(Ill.) How do you respond when someone says to you, “God loves everyone the same.” Or, “We all worship the same God.” In such cases we tend not to speak up and stand for truth. Why? Because we care more about avoiding conflict than standing up for God’s truth.
ESV 2 Corinthians 2:17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
Gal. 1:6-7 “I marvel…”
Note how different the situation is when Jesus speaks with the Samaritan woman. (Ill.) John 4:20 (4:1-26) Those who know the saving power of the gospel are convinced of its truth and can not refrain from speaking. (Ill.) Like Luther, “Here I stand; I can do no other.” Or later, Peter, Acts 4:12. (Neither is there…”) And finally, it is the Apostle Paul who once killed those who believed in Christ to declare, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation.
There are times when we need to speak bolding and not moderately. Speak boldly when your neighbor’s house is on fire. Speak and act bolding to rescue your child from drowning. Speak and act boldly to protect your wife from danger. (Ill.) Barnhouse 161 “I feel more strongly than I can say that it is my duty to stand and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to warn people that much that is being preached from pulpits is not the gospel. The whole of the effort that is seeking to move the church leftward toward socialism is a Satanic counterfeit. (Christians will always be sensitive to inequalities and injustices that hurt people.) But the Christian will know and proclaim that communism and socialism are not the gospel, and that any attempt to introduce these things into our land is a crime against the gospel and against our land.”
In spite of the ethical and moral problems in the Roman Empire, Paul did not preach against them at the expense of the gospel. He realized, as so many today do not, that peace, righteousness, and justice are by-products of the Christian faith, not the central essence of Christianity. Only the power of the gospel can transform individuals and as a result bring about peace, justice, and equality. Preaching a social gospel will never bring about the desired by-products with out a spiritual transformation. To do so is to preach another gospel. Only the gospel has the power of God to make these things happen. Therefore, Paul can boldly declare, For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.
What is this gospel? People define the good news in a number of ways, but the Bible defines the gospel in clear terms in I Cor. 15:1-5 ESV 1 Corinthians 15:1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you-- unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
So the gospel has three essential historical facts:
1. Christ died for our sins.
2. Christ was buried.
3. Christ was raised on the third day.
Any other presentation of the gospel that does not contain these three historical facts is a false gospel. Hear what the Apostle Paul writes in Galatians: KJV Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Everything about the good news flows out of these three historical facts. Without these facts we have no good news. And we have no true Christianity. Any attempt to extract the ethical teachings of Christ apart from the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is a lot of hot air and wishful thinking.
Belief in the good news of these historical facts brings salvation. The next word we need to pause and look at is salvation. How do you define salvation? Our English word comes from a Latin word that means health. It was essentially used to speak of the health of the body. But it later came to be applied to the soul and spirit. In order to appreciate our salvation we need to know why we need salvation and what we are saved from. As we proceed through this document, we will see a well- developed explanation of why we need salvation. But for now suffice it to say our sin has separated us from God and that relationship needs to be restored. We will also see spelled out in detail why our effort in the initial work of salvation is totally God’s work and not ours.
The salvation is often spoken of in three tenses – past –present-and future. In true salvation the believer has been saved from the penalty of sin. In the present, the believer is being saved from the power of sin in his or her life. And in the future, the believer will be saved from the presence of sin. Theologians often use Latin terms to distinguish the differences. 1. When Adam and Eve were born, it was ‘possible for them to sin’ (possé peccare). 2. After they sinned, they and the rest of humanity found that they were ‘not able not to sin’ (non possé non peccare). But when a person is transformed by the power of the gospel, then he/she is ‘possible not to sin’. 3. In heaven we will ‘not be able to sin’ (non posse peccare). Each of these expressions teaches a marvelously rich spiritual truth.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation from sin’s penalty. ESV Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is also the power of God to salvation from sin’s power. When Jesus was born, the angel said, ESV Matthew 1:21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." ESV Romans 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Ill) (Sin vs Sins)
The gospel of Jesus Christ is also the power of God to salvation in the future. Hear what Peter says, ESV 1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
As we proceed further in Romans, you will see these three aspects of salvation elaborated. Chapter 3 &4 deal largely with salvation from the penalty of sin. Chapters 5-7 deal with salvation from the power of sin.
Chapter 8 deals with salvation from the presence of sin.
The next important word in this verse is the word believe (faith). Without faith it is impossible to be saved. Faith essentially is believing the word of another and acting upon it. You do that many times in a day. In this case it involves believing what we have just considered. Not only from your own experience do you know you are a sinner, but you believe it because God’s word declares it to be so. You also believe what God’s word says about the Person and work of Jesus Christ. You believe He shed His blood and died for you, taking your sins upon Him. You believe that He was buried and rose again on the third day. And you believe that all who trust Christ are justified from all their sins.
All this good news is further elaborated on in verse 17. In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed. Our next challenge is to understand the expression, “the righteousness of God.” The first thing we need to understand is that this is God’s righteousness, not my righteousness. Many have a tendency to think that God’s righteousness is just a better form of human righteousness. However, such thinking is a fatal mistake. God’s righteousness is different from human righteous in every way. It is different in nature, aim, scope, and quality. My friend and mentor, Luther, expressed it this way. There are two kinds of righteousness. One kind is human righteousness and the other is ‘alien righteous’. The Apostle Paul expresses it this way in Titus, Ephesians, and Romans.
ESV Titus 3:5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
ESV Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
ESV Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
What is difficult for us to understand is that all of this comes as a free gift. We cannot earn it. We do not deserve it. No human has ever measured up to God’s standard. And even if they measure up to 100%, it would still be the wrong kind of righteousness. (Ill.) Paul
We receive this marvelous free gift from God by grace, through faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The next expression, ‘from faith to faith’ or ‘from faith for faith’ is not as clear as it could be. The Greek is literally out of faith into faith. The idea is that one person preaches and another person believes. Each of us who has been saved was saved through the instrumentality of another believer who proclaimed the gospel to us. And in all probability, we were exposed many times to the gospel message, through reading, through preaching, through personal witness, TV or radio, or through film. But at least another human was involved in the process.
Numerous times on Reformation Sunday I have preached on this verse. And it is the familiar words of verse 17, ‘The just shall live by faith’ that sparked the Protestant Reformation. But the truth of this verse did not begin with Luther. In fact, it is a quote from Habakkuk 2:4. So this expression is an OT truth as well as a NT truth. The truth had been there all along. But it was Luther who had his life transformed by it when the Holy Spirit spoke to him through His written word. I would argue that the essence of Reformation theology did not begin in the 16th century. It was even present in the OT. While Christians from the first century understood this truth and proclaimed it faithfully for a number of centuries, it eventually became distorted and lost as human organization became prominent and the truth of the gospel was neglected.
Next week I plan to say a little more about this verse, but I will then hasten on to the rest of Chapter 1.
Have you been the recipient of God’s righteousness through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? God has provided a way for you to exchange your righteousness (which God calls filthy rags) for His righteousness. If you will admit your unrighteousness and accept God’s substitute for you, you may receive His righteousness and the assurance of forgiveness and a place in heaven. You know whether God has been speaking to you. You also know whether you truly believe this message of God’s good news.