Today’s passage is the theme of Romans. The theme is the Gospel is “the power of God that brings salvation” (16) Today I’d like to share three things about the Gospel being “the power of God that brings salvation” (16)
I. The power of God that brings salvation (vs. 16)
Paul says in verse 16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel”. This is a strong way of saying that he is proud. It is like in Mark 12:34 when Jesus said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” He is stressing how close the kingdom of God is. Therefore, when Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel” (16), he is stressing the high value of the Gospel, how proud he is of the Gospel. Up until now Paul has experienced so many cruel things as a result of preaching the gospel so Paul must have realized what he would have to go through for preaching here in the capital of the Roman Empire. There would be nothing more than contempt. The worship of the Emperor was widely practiced and Rome proudly showed off the power of the Roman emperor in many ways. It seemed that there was no opposition to the worship of the emperor. To preach the Gospel in Rome under these circumstances would cause the person to lose his heart, cause him to tremble, and cause him to be held by feeling of embarrassment. However, even under these circumstances, Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel” (16). He was proud of the Gospel. He was able to say this because Paul understood well that no matter how great this world’s government, economy or culture is, no matter how bright it shines, the Gospel is even of more value. That is “because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” (16) This shows the value of the Gospel. That is the Gospel is “the power of God”. (16) It is not just moral precepts, philosophy, or logic, but it is power. “It is the power of God that brings salvation.” (16)
Paul wrote about the power of the Gospel because salvation is salvation from sin. When the average person hears the word “salvation”, they think about being set free from their sickness or financial concerns or the problems that they are facing in life. However, the salvation that this passage is talking about is not being saved from such problems, but being saved from the root of all these problems, sin. We have no power to overcome such sin by ourselves. Man who is under the power of Satan, no matter how hard he tries using all of his strength, no matter how much he reads and studies, there is no way that he can save himself. For man to be saved he must be set free by someone more powerful than Satan. That is God. There is no way that sinful man can be set free from sin except by the all powerful God.
People are always telling me that they want to change, but changing is very difficult. Even though we want to, we never seem to have the power to do so. We need power. Here is great news. This is the Gospel. The Gospel is the power of God that brings salvation In the New Testament the word, “power” appears 57 times. This word is used for the most powerful event in history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In our lives the most important thing is to know Jesus, and experience the power of Jesus’ resurrection. In Ephesians 1:19-21 Paul writes about the power of the resurrection.
The word that is translated as “power” is “dunamis” in Greek and is the root for the English word “dynamite”. The power of God is the power that over 2,000 years ago resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead. It is so powerful that it can completely destroy Satan’s stronghold. God’s power can set us free from Satan’s and sin’s control and can give us victorious power over all problems, and has the power to change our personalities completely. “The power of God that brings salvation” (16) has been presented to us. This is the Gospel.
II. To everyone who believes (vs. 16)
Secondly let’s look at how we can receive this wonderful power of God. We receive this power by faith. Verse 16 says, that the Gospel “is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.”
In this passage what is extremely important is that it presents God’s power as being for “everyone who believes.” (16) No matter how powerful the Gospel is, if you don’t believe, you will not be saved. There is no other way by which we may be saved except by Jesus Christ who died on the cross and three days later rose again. We must not abandon this message. If it is abandoned, then it isn’t Christianity. To say that it doesn’t matter what you believe in sounds like you have an open heart, but it is not the truth.
Acts 4:1
John 14:6
Some people believe that because they haven’t done anything really bad that they will go to heaven. They compare themselves with other people. However, our salvation is determined not how we rate in comparison with other people, but how the Absolute God sees us. All those who believe will be saved and go to heaven. All those who don’t repent and don’t believe in Jesus Christ will go to hell.
There are some people who think that if they do good things then they will go to heaven. However, God does not decide who is going to heaven by what good things we have done, but whether our sins have been cleansed or not. If we have even a little sin, a Perfectly Holy God can not accept us. That is unreasonable. We were born sinful, and are not perfect and we can’t become perfectly holy. However, God who is abundant in mercy sent his only son Jesus Christ into this world to forgive us and make us completely without sin. Those who believe in him “will not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 Jesus Christ bore our sins on the cross and died and through him those who believe in him have all their sins washed away.
Isaiah 1:18
Isaiah 4:22
From the moment that we believe in Christ, all of the sins that we had committed up until then were completely removed. God through the atonement of Jesus Christ of our sins, our sins are forgiven and we can go to heaven. This is only possible by believing in our Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. There is no other way that we can go to heaven. Any one, no matter who they are, who believers in Jesus Christ will be saved. The Gospel “is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes; first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” (16) It is only through faith that we can receive salvation.
III. The righteousness of God is in the gospel (vs.17)
The reason that we are saved by just believing is the Gospel is because “in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed.” (17) “The righteousness of God” is one of the main themes of the whole Bible. If this is ambiguous then you can’t grasp what the Bible is actually saying. It is that important. It could be said that it is at the bottom of the root for everything. For example, if you were asked what God was like, how would you answer? Probably you would answer that God is love. However, this love in reality has righteousness at its base. It is not a sentimental love. Therefore, if we are asked who God is like, the number characteristic is “righteous”. God is “righteous” He is completely right. Everything starts from here. Therefore, when you think of salvation, it is not just a physical healing, or mainly for our personal profit an answer to our problems, but is mainly a salvation from our sins.
“The righteousness of God is revealed” means that Gospel shows that what the law that God established claims is a right relationship with God. No one can in his own strength perform all of the law. There is no one that is perfect. However, God desires perfection. It is not like a test that 70% is passing and 35% means that you have no chance. Therefore, God sent Jesus to this world. That is so that not by our righteousness, but by God’s son, Christ’s perfect obedience we can become righteous. The only person that could follow God’s law perfectly died in our place on the cross so that by believing in him, in us God’s righteousness will become perfect. Through Christ we can have a right relationship with Christ. This is the Gospel.
“A righteousness that is by faith from first to last” means” that a right relationship with God begins with faith and is perfected by faith. This is not a new teaching that just started. In fact, this was a truth that was running consistently throughout the Bible starting in the Old Testament. One example is “The righteous will live be faith.” (17) These words were taken for Hab. 2:4. Habakkuk said these words when Israel was raided by the Chaldeans and the nation was in danger. He is saying that those who depend on the Lord are victorious. He is not saying to work making weapons and how to win and if you plan the strategies of war you will be victorious. The only way you can be victorious is by depending on the Lord. It means that the righteous live by faith. It is only by being in a right relationship with Christ and by faith that victory can be obtained.
We think that we can do things on our own. Thus we think we can save ourselves. This is somewhat necessary, but by effort and will alone our lives will fall apart and we can’t be saved from the sin that caused the destruction. We can’t do anything about the sin. We have no power. There is only one thing that we can do. That is to accept the power that died on the cross, 3 days rose again, the resurrection power that was victorious over death.
It is Jesus Christ who has the power to make it possible for us to overcome sin. God did what we couldn’t do. God sent Christ into this world, was put on the cross and promised that those who believed in him would be saved. Without the blood of Christ no one can cut the power of sin. We need only to believe that Jesus who died on the cross is our savior and call out to him, and faithfully live. The Gospel is indeed “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” (16)
“The righteous will live by faith” (17) May we live in this word by believing in Jesus Christ.