10 | Romans | Romans 1:16 | To Everyone Who Believes

INTRODUCTION

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation

Paul, the author of this letter, writes that he is not ashamed of the gospel.

Why is Paul not ashamed of the gospel?

Because it is the power of God!

The gospel is not cause for shame, but for confidence and rejoicing …

… because it will not fail to accomplish the purpose for which it is proclaimed.

The gospel is powerful to save!

So, why is Paul eager to preach the gospel to those who have already believed?

Because those who have believed will not be put to shame.

But that is not the whole sentence!

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.

This morning we consider this second half of the sentence.

It is not only that the gospel is powerful to save.

The gospel is powerful to save everyone who believes!

And then Paul tells us what he is thinking about when he says everyone—

—both the Jew and the Greek.

PRAY

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TO EVERYONE

The emphasis here is “everyone.”

The reason that Paul says “everyone” is that he already has in mind what he is about to say …

… to the Jew and the Greek.

Paul is strengthened in his resolve (not ashamed) by the fact that this gospel is power for the whole of humanity!

Jew and Greek!

I hope you already know that.

But do you understand the impact and implications of a gospel whose power is so great that it is for everyone …

… without respect to ethnicity or prior religious experience or cultural heritage?

The gospel is the power of God’s mighty arm extended into the whole of humanity to save those who believe.

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Implications

1) God is no local deity.

He is not the God of the Jews only.

In fact, later in Romans Paul says this explicitly.

Romans 3:29–30 (ESV) Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one …

There are some who would say, the gospel and all that bible stuff is just fine for you religious types …

… but I just didn’t grow up with that kind of emphasis.

Others would say that Jesus is the God of Christianity and might work fine in America, or the Bible Belt, or in the West …

… but there are other ideas, other religions and other philosophies that work just fine in other parts of the world.

Again, this just isn’t a claim that is compatible with the Bible.

If that claim is true, then Christianity is false.

The Lord is God or he is not.

And if he is God, he is the God of the whole of humanity.

2) The Gospel is not bound by culture.

The gospel is the power of God …

… it is not a persuasive philosophy or a mere practice of a human culture.

The claims of Christianity transcend the claims of a singular culture.

The claim of the gospel is the power to save everyone!

It is a bold claim that flies in the face of the pluralism and multiculturalism of this present age …

… but it is the clear claim of the scriptures.

The Gospel is the power of God …

… the one God over everyone and everything.

3) If the Gospel is the power of salvation to everyone …

… then the gospel ought be proclaimed to everyone.

A gospel that is the power of God to save.

A gospel that is not a mere local religion.

A gospel that transcends any human culture.

Is a gospel that we ought to be eager to preach in every local region and in every human culture.

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APPLY

There are many implications flowing from the reality that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone …

… but Paul has already given the application he has in mind.

That is, he is not ashamed and so is eager to proclaim this gospel to the church and in the city.

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Let us consider the words everyone who believes.

WHO BELIEVES

Read it again.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes …

The gospel is universal in scope, but not in specificity.

There is no people group—no nation, family or culture—who is excluded from the power of God for salvation.

This compels Paul to preach—even in Rome!

And yet, there is a clear quality that Paul names that is true of all for whom the power of God has been leveraged for salvation.

Salvation is to everyone who believes!

The design of God’s leveraging his divine power is to bring salvation to all who believe.

There are two main themes in Romans.

We have already begun to confront the first main theme with the word everyone.

That is, Paul argues for the unity of the church under the reality of God’s one gospel to save.

And the other theme is that salvation, which is by grace alone, is taken hold of by faith alone.

The gospel is the power of God is for salvation by faith.

Again, I hope you know this …

… but there are some who presume upon the kindness of God.

ILL: Just yesterday I heard this faulty illustration given.

The story is of two checkpoints at the Berlin wall:

One guarded by English soldiers and the other by American soldiers.

The story goes that when desperate residents of East Germany would come to the checkpoint …

… the English soldiers would explain that in order to cross one has to have the proper papers and explicit permission.

And most were turned away.

The American soldiers would also explain that in order to cross one has to have the proper papers and explicit permission …

… but sometimes they would also explain that if they were to take take a smoke break around the corner of the nearby building—say in 10 minutes

… it would be impossible for them to observe those crossing, nor to check if their papers were in order.

And, many in need of escape passed through.

I have no idea if there is any truth to that story, but …

… the commentator then made this application:

It seems to him that heaven will be much the same way.

There really is no one whose papers are really in order, whose lives are just right …

… and so surely whoever is guarding the pearly gates will have to turn some sort of blind eye to most everyone who passes through.

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You can hear in this illustration how the commentator makes two mistakes:

First, he presumes on the kindness of God.

The gospel is not the news that when it comes to sin, God looks the other way.

The gospel is the power of God to save by the revelation of his righteousness in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And centrally, that the Lord himself looked sin in its face and bore the full wrath of righteous judgment for all who believe.

God is not like a group of soldiers who selectively abandon their post.

Jesus is the Lord of genuine mercy through sacrificial grace.

He doesn’t look the other way when sinners enter the holy kingdom of heaven.

He powerfully crossed into enemy territory on a rescue mission for all who would trust him to carry them through to safety on the other side!

Don’t presume on the kindness of God …

… for in doing so, you cut off the power of amazing grace!

And this is the second error of the commentator.

He gives the sense that those who enter the kingdom of heaven are those who can almost enter of their own accord and just need a little help to make it the last leg of the journey.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation to those who believe!

Not those who are mostly good enough …

… but those who confess they are lost apart from the powerful intervention of Jesus Christ.

The gospel is power for those who believe …

… that is, those who trust in the righteousness of Christ in their place.

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“everyone who is believing”

There is one more clue for us in this phrase “who believe.”

The biblical manuscript is a present participle.

It conveys the sense of everyone who is believing.

The faith, the trust, that we have in the power of God is ongoing.

There is never a moment in which the believer may say …

… “Okay, good. I believed and am saved. Now I can transfer my trust to walk out this new life in my own power.”

The power of God is an eternal power.

And that power continues its work.

Daily, we are united to the grace of God by faith.

Daily, we are saved for only one reason …

… the power of God keeps us saved.

And so, daily our faith must be nourished by the proclamation of this grace …

… so that we may know him on whom we have placed our trust.

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APPLY

And here it is again …

It is clear why Paul is not ashamed, but compelled.

v13 — He is eager to “reap some harvest among you.”

v12 — He is eager “that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.”

Are you compelled to preach the gospel?

Are you confident that there is no people, no culture, no ethnicity, no background upon whom the power of God is not effective to save?

Are you eager to follow the Christ into enemy territory …

… to proclaim the good news that the guardian of the gates of heaven

… the very king himself

… has gone out to rescue all who will trust in his power to save?

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FIRST AND ALSO

This most precious sentence ends this say.

Read v16.

Jew and Greek (or Jew and Gentile) is not a new topic.

It is a demonstration and agreement with the "everyone" of God's power.

The thrust of Paul’s expression here (Jew first, then Greek) …

… is not to create a distinction, but to demonstrate a unity.

He is joining all of humanity …

… (and particularly relevant to the church in Rome)

… the Jew and the Greek

… under the same banner of the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

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So, why this statement …

Jew First

The first gospel promise came to our first parents, Adam and Eve.

After confirming to them the wages of their sin, which is death …

… Jesus speaks this curse upon the serpent

… that itself is a promise for human.

Genesis 3:15 (ESV) I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

In this promise from God is the seed of the gospel.

The offspring of the woman though struck by the evil one will crush his head.

This is fulfilled in Jesus, who though struck by the cross …

… rose victorious over sin, death and the devil.

So the first revelation of the gospel is to the parents of all humanity …

And yet, God chose to reveal his plan of redemption to a man named, Abraham, who would become the father of a chosen people.

Genesis 12:2–3 (ESV) And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

This is the revelation of the promise of blessing to one man and his offspring …

… and through this one man a blessing to all the families of the earth.

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How is the Jew First?

revelation — News of redemption, which we call the gospel, or “good news,” was revealed to the Jews, from Abraham to Moses to David to the prophets.

John 4:22 (ESV) You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

By their access to the Hebrew scripture and their worship at the temple …

… the Jews knew the Lord

… and ought to have recognized him when he came to dwell among them.

And some did!

This is the second way that the gospel is to the Jew first.

Yes, the Lord revealed the plan of redemption to the Jews …

… and when he came, it was some from among the Jews

… a remnant

… who believed and were saved.

The Jews not only received revelation, but they were also the first to receive salvation by faith.

Third, the gospel itself was accomplished by the Jewish Messiah.

Jesus, our Lord and Savior, as Paul himself said in the first verse of Romans …

… was descended from the Jewish King David according to the flesh.

The gospel came by the righteous obedience and sacrificial love of a Jew.

And that Jew, the God-man Jesus Christ, rose in victory and sits on the throne of heaven from which he will come and gather the “everyone who believes” by the power of his gospel.

And finally, I’ll say these two things together.

As the apostles go from town to town and city to city …

… they first make effort to enter the synagogue

… and preach the gopsel to the Jews

And it is those who believe by which the gospel is proclaimed.

The gospel came first to the Jews …

… and it was from these first Jewish faithful

… that the gospel came then to the nations.

The gospel is the power of God to everyone who believes …

… to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

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There are two relevant and important verses in Romans that hold out this same sort of unity and priority.

Romans 2:9–11 (ESV) There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

tribulation and distress — glory, honor and peace

It is clear that the Jew is not first out of some innate privilege …

… for they are also first at judgment.

If they were first a salvation due to some innate good …

… then they would be first in judgement due to some innate evil.

But this is not the argument of scripture.

The priority given to the Jew is a matter of grace alone.

And everywhere grace is given, the Lord requires it to be received with faith.

For those who receive his gift with faith it is the power of God for salvation.

And for all who reject his gift, judgement remains.

Scripture teaches that the early Jews to whom the gospel was preached often refused Christ because they stumbled over the reality of a suffering Messiah.

And, the Greek refused Christ because grace and resurrection was folly to them.

And so, these peoples, whom are passage unites in salvation are also united in judgment for those who fail to believe.

Romans 10:12 (ESV) For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.

Again, we have this expression that these two ethnic groups … so radically distinct from one another …

… are united under one Lord because of the grace he has bestowed on all.

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APPLY

Again, there are so many implications for us here.

And Paul will unpack many of these implications throughout Romans.

All the church ought to recognize the priority of revelation God gave to the Jews.

The promises of the gospel first came through these fellow saints.

And it was through the eager and sacrificial proclamation of these early Jewish saints that the power of this gospel multiplied and increased.

I mentioned in our first weeks of introduction to this series …

… that about a decade before this letter was written, all the Jews (including the Jewish members of the church) were expelled from Rome by the persecution of the pagan emperor.

They were allowed to return only a matter of a few years before Paul wrote this letter.

When the Jews returned, its not difficult to imagine how it may be been difficult to reintegrate a unified church following such a long absence.

It is a major theme of Romans that the church is one church.

There is one gospel of grace, and one faith, by which everyone may be saved.

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IN LIGHT OF EVERYONE

Looking at our passage again …

… the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone

… precisely because there are none who are not in need of the rescue the gospel brings.

Neither Jew nor Greek have any hope apart from the gospel.

It is as though Paul is saying:

You, Roman believer, in your glorious city and your high Greek culture …

… remember, you have been saved through a gospel that was first revealed among that scorned people, the Jews.

You worship this Messiah and you have been saved by the power of this Lord.

You have no reason to boast, so only believe.

And enter into fellowship with your Jewish brothers and sisters.

And you, Jewish believer, with all your scriptures and redemption history …

… remember, you have been saved through a gospel that is for everyone who believes.

Your messiah has come and he is the one Lord and God of all creation.

You have no reason to boast, so only believe.

And enter into fellowship with your Gentile brothers and sisters.

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APPLY: THE GOSPEL

For everyone, whether Jew or Greek, or any other ethnicity or heritage or culture.

There is One Gospel:

And this gospel is the power of God.

There is One Way:

This gospel must be received with faith.

There is One Hope:

This gospel is salvation to everyone who believes.

APPLY

This gospel power remains true for Christ’s one church today.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

We are not ashamed because the gospel is powerful to save all peoples!

1) Therefore, take hold of this grace through faith.

2) Are you eager and bold to proclaim this gospel?

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