The Gospel: The Power of God
The Gospel: The Power of God
B. The Gospel Defined (1:16, 17)
1:16 Paul was not ashamed to take God’s good news to sophisticated Rome, even though the message had proved to be a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, for he knew that it is the power of God to salvation—that is, it tells how God by His power saves everyone who believes on His Son. This power is extended equally to Jews and Greeks.
The order for the Jew first and also for the Greek was fulfilled historically during the Acts period. While we have an enduring obligation to God’s ancient people, the Jews, we are not required to evangelize them before going to the Gentiles. Today God deals with Jews and Gentiles on the same basis, and the message and timing are the same to all.
1:17 Since the word righteousness occurs here for the first time in the Letter, we will pause to consider its meaning. The word is used in several different ways in the NT, but we shall consider only three uses.
First, it is used to describe that characteristic of God by which He always does what is right, just, proper, and consistent with all His other attributes. When we say that God is righteous, we mean that there is no wrong, dishonesty, or unfairness in Him.
Secondly, the righteousness of God can refer to His method of justifying ungodly sinners. He can do this and still be righteous because Jesus as the sinless Substitute has satisfied all the claims of divine justice.
Finally, the righteousness of God refers to the perfect standing which God provides for those who believe on His Son (2 Cor. 5:21). Those who are not in themselves righteous are treated as if they were righteous because God sees them in all the perfection of Christ. Righteousness is imputed to their account.
Which is the meaning in verse 17? While it could be any of the three, the righteousness of God seems to refer especially to His way of justifying sinners by faith.
The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. First the gospel tells us that God’s righteousness demands that sins be punished, and the penalty is eternal death. But then we hear that God’s love provided what His righteousness demanded. He sent His Son to die as a Substitute for sinners, paying the penalty in full. Now because His righteous claims have been fully satisfied, God can righteously save all those who avail themselves of the work of Christ.
God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith. The expression from faith to faith may mean: (1) from God’s faithfulness to our faith; (2) from one degree of faith to another; or (3) by faith from start to finish. The last is the probable meaning. God’s righteousness is not imputed on the basis of works or made available to those who seek to earn or deserve it. It is revealed on the principle of faith alone. This is in perfect agreement with the divine decree in Habakkuk 2:4, “The just shall live by faith,” which may also be understood to mean “The justified-by-faith ones shall live.”
In the first seventeen verses of Romans, Paul has introduced his subject and stated briefly some of the principal points. He now addresses the third main question, “Why do men need the gospel?” The answer, in brief, is because they are lost without it. But this raises four subsidiary questions: (1) Are the heathen who have never heard the gospel lost? (1:18–32); (2) Are the self-righteous moralists, whether Jews or Gentiles, lost? (2:1–16); (3) Are God’s ancient earthly people, the Jews, lost? (2:17–3:8); (4) Are all men lost? (3:9–20).
1:16. Paul’s eagerness to evangelize sprang also from his estimate of his message, the gospel. (This is the fourth of five times Paul used the word “gospel” in these opening verses: vv. 1, 9, 15–17.) Many consider this the theme of the letter, which it is in one sense. At least Paul gladly proclaimed it as God’s panacea for mankind’s spiritual need. He identified it as the infinite resources (dynamis, “spiritual ability”) of God applied toward the goal of salvation in the life of everyone who believes regardless of racial background. He recognized, however, a priority for the Jew expressed in the word first, which has sufficient textual support here and is unquestioned in 2:9–10.
Because the Jews were God’s Chosen People (11:1), the custodians of God’s revelation (3:2), and the people through whom Christ came (9:5), they have a preference of privilege expressed historically in a chronological priority. As the Lord Jesus stated it, “Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). In Paul’s ministry he sought out the Jews first in every new city (Acts 13:5, 14; 14:1; 17:2, 10, 17; 18:4, 19; 19:8). Three times he responded to their rejection of his message by turning to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46; 18:6; 28:25–28; cf. comments on Eph. 1:12). Today evangelism of the world must include the Jews, but the priority of the Jews has been fulfilled.
1:17. The theme of the letter is expressed in the phrase a righteousness from God is revealed. The subjective genitive (lit., “of God”) identifies this as a righteousness that God provides for people on the basis of and in response to faith in the gospel (cf. 3:22). (NIV‘s by faith from first to last renders the Gr. ek pisteōs eis pistin, lit., “out of faith in reference to faith.”) Such a righteousness is totally unachieveable by human efforts. This righteousness is not God’s personal attribute, however, since it comes “from God,” it is consistent with His nature and standard. Robertson happily calls it “a God kind of righteousness” (A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1943, 4:327). In response to faith this righteousness is imputed by God in justification and imparted progressively in regeneration and sanctification, culminating in glorification when standing and state become identical. “Righteousness” and “justify,” though seemingly unrelated in English, are related in Greek. “Righteousness” is dikaiosynē, and “justify” is dikaioō. Paul used the noun many times in his epistles, including 28 times in Romans (1:17; 3:21–22, 25–26; 4:3, 5–6, 9, 11, 13, 22; 5:17, 21; 6:13, 16, 18–20; 8:10; 9:30; 10:3–6 [twice in v. 3], 10; 14:17). And Paul used the Greek verb 15 times in Romans (2:13; 3:4, 20, 24, 26, 28, 30; 4:2, 5; 5:1, 9; 6:7; 8:30 [twice], 33). To justify a person is to declare him forensically (legally) righteous. “Declared righteous” is the way the NIV translates dikaioō in 2:13 and 3:20 and “freed” is NIV‘s rendering in 6:7.
Paul’s closing words in 1:17, The righteous will live by faith, are a quotation from Habakkuk 2:4, also quoted in Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38. As a result of faith (cf. “believes” in Rom. 1:16) in Christ, a person is declared “righteous” (cf. 3:22) and is given eternal life. What a marvelous work of God!
II. God’s Righteousness Revealed in Condemnation (1:18–3:20)
The first step in the revelation of the righteousness that God provides for people by faith is to set forth their need for it because they are under God’s judgment. The human race stands condemned before God and is helpless and hopeless apart from God’s grace.
Romans 1:16–17
I am proud of the good news, for it is the power of God which produces salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek. The way to a right relationship with God is revealed in it when man’s faith responds to God’s fidelity, just as it stands written: ‘It is the man who is in a right relationship with God as a result of his faith who will live.’
WHEN we come to these two verses, the preliminaries are over and the trumpet-call of Paul’s gospel sounds out. Many of the great piano concertos begin with a crashing chord and then state the theme which they are going to develop. The reason is that they were often first performed at private gatherings in great houses. When the pianist first sat down at the piano, there was still a buzz of conversation. The crashing chord was played to attract the attention of the company, and then, when attention was obtained, the theme was stated. Up to these two verses, Paul has been making contact with the people to whom he was writing; he has been attracting their attention. Now the introduction is over, and the theme is stated.
There are only two verses here, but they contain so much of the very essence of Paul’s gospel that we must spend some considerable time on them.
Paul began by saying that he was proud of the gospel which it was his privilege to preach. It is amazing to think of the background of that statement. Paul had been imprisoned in Philippi, chased out of Thessalonica, smuggled out of Beroea and laughed at in Athens, and in Corinth his message was foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling-block to the Jews. Out of that background, he declared that he was proud of the gospel. There was something in the gospel which made Paul triumphantly victorious over all that anyone could do to him.
In this passage, we meet three great Pauline watchwords, the three foundation pillars of his thought and belief.
(1) There is the conception of salvation (sōtēria). At this time in history, salvation was the one thing for which people were searching. There had been a time when Greek philosophy was speculative. Up to 500 years earlier, much time had been spent discussing the problem: what is the one basic element of which the world is composed? Philosophy had been speculative philosophy and it had been natural philosophy. But, bit by bit, as the centuries passed, life collapsed on itself. The old landmarks were destroyed. Tyrants and conquerors and perils surrounded people; degeneracy and weakness haunted them; and philosophy changed its emphasis. It became not speculative but practical. It ceased to be natural philosophy and became moral philosophy. Its one aim was to build a ring-wall of defence against the advancing chaos of the world.
Epictetus called his lecture room ‘the hospital for the sick soul’. Epicurus called his teaching ‘the medicine of salvation’. Seneca, who was contemporary with Paul, said that everyone was looking ad salutem, towards salvation. What we needed, he said, was ‘a hand let down to lift us up’. People were overwhelmingly conscious of ‘their weakness and their inefficiency in necessary things’. He described himself as homo non tolerabilis, a man not to be tolerated. People loved their vices, he added with a sort of despair, and hated them at the same time. In that desperate world, they were seeking a peace described by Epictetus as being ‘not of Caesar’s proclamation, but of God’s’.
There can seldom have been a time in history when men and women were more universally searching for salvation. It was precisely that salvation, that power, that escape, that Christianity came to offer.
Let us see just what this Christian sōtēria, this Christian salvation, was.
(a) It was salvation from physical illness (Matthew 9:21; Luke 8:36). It was not a completely other-worldly thing. It aimed at rescuing an individual in body and in soul.
(b) It was salvation from danger (Matthew 8:25, 14:30). It was not that it gave people a life free from perils and dangers, but it gave them a security of soul no matter what was happening. As Rupert Brooke wrote in the days of the First World War, in his poem ‘Safety’:
Safe shall be my going,
Secretly armed against all death’s endeavour;
Safe though all safety’s lost; safe where men fall;
And if these poor limbs die, safest of all.
And as Robert Browning had it in ‘Paracelsus’:
If I stoop,
Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud,
It is but for a time; I press God’s lamp
Close to my breast; its splendour, soon or late,
Will pierce the gloom: I shall emerge one day.
The Christian salvation makes us safe in a way that is independent of any outward circumstance.
(c) It was salvation from life’s infection. It is from a corrupt and perverse generation that we are saved (Acts 2:40). Those who have this Christian salvation have a kind of divine antiseptic which keeps them from infection by the evil of the world.
(d) It was salvation from lostness (Matthew 18:11; Luke 19:10). It was to seek and to save the lost that Jesus came. The unsaved man or woman is on the wrong road, a road that leads to death. The saved man or woman has been put on the right way.
(e) It was salvation from sin (Matthew 1:21). Men and women are like slaves in bondage to a master from whom they cannot escape. The Christian salvation liberates them from the tyranny of sin.
(f) It was salvation from the wrath of God (Romans 5:9). We shall have occasion in the next passage to discuss the meaning of this phrase. It is sufficient to note at the moment that there is in this world an inexorable moral law and in the Christian faith an inevitable element of judgment. Without the salvation which Jesus Christ brings, we can only stand condemned.
(g) It was a salvation which is eschatological. That is to say, it is a salvation which finds its full meaning and blessedness in the final triumph of Jesus Christ (Romans 13:11; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Timothy 4:18; 1 Peter 1:5).
The Christian faith came to a desperate world offering a salvation which would keep men and women safe in time and in eternity.
(2) There is the conception of faith. In the thought of Paul, this is a rich word.
(a) At its simplest, it means loyalty. When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he wanted to know about their faith. That is, he wanted to know how their loyalty was standing the test. In 2 Thessalonians 1:4, faith and steadfastness are combined. Faith is the enduring devotion and loyalty which marks the real follower of Jesus Christ.
(b) Faith means belief. It means the conviction that something is true. In 1 Corinthians 15:17, Paul tells the Corinthians that, if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then their faith is vain—all that they have believed is wrecked. Faith is the assent that the Christian message is true.
(c) Faith sometimes means the Christian religion (the Faith). In 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul tells his opponents to examine themselves to see if they are holding to their faith, that is, to see if they are still within the Christian religion.
(d) Faith is sometimes practically equivalent to indestructible hope. ‘We walk’, writes Paul, ‘by faith, not by sight’ (2 Corinthians 5:7).
(e) But, in its most characteristic Pauline use, faith means total acceptance and absolute trust. It means ‘betting your life that there is a God’. It means being utterly sure that what Jesus said is true, and staking all time and eternity on that assurance. ‘I believe in God’, said the writer Robert Louis Stevenson, ‘and if I woke up in hell I would still believe in him.’
Faith begins with receptivity. It begins when we are at least willing to listen to the message of the truth. It goes on to mental assent. We first hear and then agree that this is true. But mental assent need not result in action. Many people know very well that something is true, but do not change their actions to meet that knowledge. The final stage is when this mental assent becomes total surrender. In fully fledged faith, we hear the Christian message, agree that it is true, and then cast ourselves upon it in a life of total submission.
(3) There is the conception of justification. Now, in all the New Testament, there are no more difficult words to understand than ‘justification’, ‘justify’, ‘justice’ and ‘just’. We shall come across them many times in this letter. At this point, we can only lay down the broad lines on which all Paul’s thought proceeds.
The Greek verb that Paul uses for to justify is dikaioun, of which the first-person singular of the present indicative—I justify—is dikaioō. We must be quite clear that the word justify, used in this sense, has a different meaning from its ordinary English meaning. If we justify ourselves, we produce reasons to prove that we were right; if someone justifies us, that person produces reasons to prove that we acted in the right way. But all verbs in Greek which end in -oō do not mean to prove or to make a person or thing to be something; they always mean to treat, or account or reckon a person as something. If God justifies sinners, it does not mean that he finds reasons to prove that they were right—far from it. It does not even mean, at this point, that he makes the sinners good. It means that God treats sinners as if they had not been sinners at all. Instead of treating them as criminals to be obliterated, God treats them as children to be loved. That is what justification means. It means that God treats us not as his enemies but as his friends, not as bad people deserve but as good people deserve, not as law-breakers to be punished but as men and women to be loved. That is the very essence of the gospel.
That means that to be justified is to enter into a new relationship with God, a relationship of love and confidence and friendship, instead of one of distance and enmity and fear. We no longer go to a God radiating just but terrible punishment. We go to a God radiating forgiving and redeeming love. justification (dikaiosunē) is the right relationship between God and human beings. The person who is just (dikaios) is someone who is in this right relationship, and—here is the supreme point—who is in it not because of anything that he or she has done, but because of what God has done. Such people are in this right relationship not because they have meticulously performed the works of the law, but because in utter faith they have cast themselves on the amazing mercy and love of God.
In the Authorized Version, we have the famous and highly compressed phrase the just shall live by faith. Now, we can see that, in Paul’s mind, this phrase meant: people who are in a right relationship with God, not because of the works of their hands, but because of their utter faith in what the love of God has done, are the ones who really know what life is like in time and in eternity. And, to Paul, the whole work of Jesus was that he had enabled men and women to enter into this new and precious relationship with God. Fear was gone and love had come. The God previously thought of as an enemy had become a friend.