Gospel Driven Life (2)

Who am I? - Josiah Covert (5 min)

Grew up in Williamsport

had the privilege of meeting my wife Tessa at the Ickesburg Carnival

We now have 4 children and live in Williamsport… sorry Brad and Lisa (at least we are still within driving distance :)

Brad and Lisa have the joy of putting up with me.

I have the privilege of being an extended grandchild (by marriage) of Nancy Fauth.

I work of PennDOT has an Engineer.

My wife and I are very engaged at our church and have learned and grown a lot over the last 10 years of marriage. We have grown individually and together as a couple in what it means to walk with God.

Gospel Driven Life (1 min)

Walk away: The belief in the gospel does change our eternity, and it can also change our life here and now.

Romans 1: 16-17 - Gospel Expanded. (10 min)

16 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.”

Build Context: Author and Audience…

The Author is Paul and he is writing to the church (Believers) that are in Rome.

Romans 1:7 ESV

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why is he writing this letter to them?

Romans 1:11–12 ESV

For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

Author and Audience: Why does it matter?

Why is author and audience important? - Love letter to Tess.

(From Josiah to the most beautiful woman ever… somehow Lisa get this, and she assumes that the letter is from me to her, Whoops!!!)

If, she knows who it is addressed to, then she reads it with a different set of eyes or context. She may think it is sweet!

Romans: Author, Audience - Purpose

Paul is writing to the church of Rome to encourage them (These guys are believers, they have already heard and accepted the good news (Gospel of Jesus))

As believer is Christ already Paul…

The very first thing that he starts with is a working definition of the gospel… Why?

Back into it (20 min)

Romans 1:16–17 ESV

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. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Outlining:

Break things up into complete thoughts or phrases that can stand alone. Then look at how the phrases connect with the other phrases before and after it. (Discourse Method)

I hope it helps the passage make more sense.

Passage

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel,

Ashamed = Shy

Opposite: Paul is talking and he is PROUD of the gospel! WHY?

for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,

to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For… it:

Connects to what came before it…. it is building the “why” Paul is not ashamed.

Power:

There is great power and great might!

Everyone

This is only qualified by believers.

The power of God is available to EVERYONE. All you have to do is believer.

17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,

as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

For… it

This connects to something that came before it.

it = gospel

Righteousness

What does this mean??-

right-ness

Def: a status of legal rectitude that satisfies the moral requirements of God’s character.

How does this make sense….. It - The Gospel

So within the gospel, the right-ness of God is shown?

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

God’s requirement is perfection!!! And when we can’t keep that, we deserve to die. So, for everyone’s sin, even every “little” sin, death is required (like eating an apple that you were told not to eat).

So, Jesus took that payment for us, when he live the perfect life, (undeserving of death) and chose to make that payment for us with his eternal life.

Example of payment of debt:

I choose to go an rake up $10 million of debt. I didn’t invest any of it. Just gambled it away and nothing to show for it. This is impossible for me to pay back in my lifetime.

I feel shame, regret, like i let my family down, ect… I have to live with those consequences, and my kids will after I die. Its bad.

I meet a guy named Bill on the street and he hands me a checkbook with all signed checks and says, “Hey, these checks are good for any debt that you have or would get in life. All you need to do is write the check, and the debt will be paid off.”

I think of the possibilities if it were true, life would be so much better for me. I could pay off my debt and start fresh with my family and have a better future.

I have 2 options at this point:

crumple/rip up the check book because i think that it is a scam.

I could choose to investigate this a little more

I go with option 2, turns out the guy I met on the street matches the pictures and description I am finding of Bill Gates…

I then decide to believe that this is true, and i write my first check to start paying the bank off, and it goes through! Debt GONE!

THIS IS WHAT JESUS HAS DONE FOR US.

We screwed ourselves, and we choose to sin. As we do that we are continually building up this record of sin debt that God is keeping track of.

Jesus came and paid that all for us.

Colossians 2:12–14 ESV

having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses… God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Romans 3:21–26 ESV

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested… the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus… to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

6. “From faith for Faith”

The faith that brought us to righteousness is to then spur us on… into “faith” living!

Jesus didn’t do this so that we could continue to live the sinful life that we were living. He chose to do this so that we could live a better life. One of relationship with him!

7. “The righteous shall live by faith”

We saw earlier, that Paul is talking to the believers, so, the “righteous” that he is referring to are all believers. All believer are the righteous ones!

We don’t and can’t’ take this backwards… it does not say in there that living by faith is what makes a person righteous. We know that only belief is what makes a person righteous.

Back to the illustration. (Maybe)

bill gates… did me getting that checkbook change my life at all? Did it change the way i perceived life and maybe what i thought of finances?

Ending

16 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.”

Through belief in the good news comes:

Power

Salvation

righteousness

new kind of living

Principle

The church is to proudly proclaim the gospel because through it comes salvation and a new kind of living!