Romans 1:16-17 -- "Righteousness From God"

A Twentieth theologian wrote that this passage from Romans 1:16-17 — “are the most important in the letter and perhaps in all literature. They are the . . . essence of Christianity.”

Martin Luther wrestled with and finally came to understand verse 17 that transformed his life and led to the Reformation. So these verses have had an incalculable effect on world history and they will have a profound effect on your life, provided that your eyes are open to the truths in them.

Paul’s main message focused on the need of every human being, whether the most religious Jew or the most educated, worldly, immoral Greek—the need to be reconciled to the holy God. How can I be right before God? Paul’s theme in Romans is God and the good news that comes from God, how sinners can be delivered from His righteous judgment and reconciled to Him. This is called salvation. Here Paul tells us…

Because the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, we must believe it and proclaim it boldly.

1. The Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation to Everyone who Believes.

To proclaim the gospel boldly or unashamedly, we must believe it. The gospel is all about salvation.

So I want to explore five statements about salvation that stem from our text.

A. Salvation is the main need of every person.

This anticipates the point that Paul makes from 1:18 through 3:20, where he shows that all have sinned and thus fall under God’s righteous condemnation. Because all have sinned, whether the religious Jew or the worldly Greek, every man, woman, and child are need God, who is absolutely righteous. This is due to what we inherited from Adam and Eve in the Garden; the very reason why they were expelled. As a result we all are under God’s wrath, as Paul immediately explains (1:18), “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”

Salvation refers to being rescued from God’s wrath and judgment that we deserve because of our sin. It means being delivered from the penalty of sin, which happens the moment we believe; being delivered from the power of sin, as we grow in godliness; and, being delivered from the very presence of sin when we stand blameless in His presence in glory (Jude 24).

But if we think that we need to “sell” the gospel by glossing over the negative aspects of salvation and focusing only on the positive side of it — even if we are timid about sharing the gospel because we don’t want to offend or lose someone’s friendship— we fall into the sin of being ashamed of the gospel. If we think we’re basically good people who need a little encouragement to be right with God, then what we’re saying is “We do not need God’s salvation and Christ did not need to die on the cross.” We do not need a crucified Savior if our main need is to polish our self-esteem and learn some helpful hints for happy living.

But we need a Savior who was crucified for our sins because we all by nature are ungodly rebels who are under God’s righteous wrath. This is offensive to the natural man, but if we pull our punches on this point, we miss the very heart of the gospel. The gospel is only good news to the person who realizes that he needs to be saved or he will eternally perish.

B. Salvation requires the very power of God.

The gospel does not tell people about the power of God. Rather, it is “the power of God for salvation.” This means that salvation is not something that sinners can attain by their own efforts or good works. If that were so, Christ did not need to die on the cross. Salvation is not a joint project, where God has done His part and now you must contribute your part. But saving faith, which includes repentance, is not something that sinners can produce on their own. It is the gift of God, so that we will not boast (Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 1:29; 1 Cor. 1:30-31; Acts 11:18; 13:48).

It is crucial to see that salvation does not depend on a human decision, but on the very power of God. It requires that God impart new life to a dead sinner, something that is impossible for men to bring about. When Jesus cried out, “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43), the bystanders may have thought, “Is He crazy? He’s speaking to a dead man who has been in the tomb for four days!” But the power of God through the word of Jesus imparted life to a dead man. The gospel is like that.

C. Salvation demands that the righteousness of God be upheld and applied to the guilty sinner.

In verse 17, Paul explains why the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed….” Note St. Paul does not lead off with the “love of God” in the gospel, but rather with the righteousness of God. Certainly, the gospel displays God’s love for sinners (Rom. 5:8). But the love of God is not a stumbling block or foolishness to sinners (1 Cor. 1:23). They rather like the idea! If God is loving, then it’s easy to view Him as our good buddy in the sky. But the righteousness of God presents a problem, because we all know that we have sinned. If God is righteous and we are not, then we are in desperate need.

God’s righteousness is revealed in the gospel in that He can grant right standing to sinners because His Son met the righteous requirement of His perfect Law and died to pay the penalty that sinners deserve. Thus sinners are not justified by their own righteousness by keeping the Law (Gal 3:11), but rather by God imputing the righteousness of Christ to them by faith. Salvation upholds God’s righteousness by applying it to every sinner who believes. That leads to the fourth point about salvation:

D. Salvation is by Faith from Start to Finish.

Paul mentions believing or faith four times in these two verses: “to everyone who believes”; “from faith to faith”; and, “the righteous man shall live by faith.” If salvation comes through faith plus good works, then it is not good news, because you could never know whether you have piled up enough good works to qualify. But if God declares guilty sinners to be righteous or justified the instant they believe, that is good news!

But, we need to be clear on several things here. Saving faith in Christ is not a general belief that He is the Savior. The demons believe that, but they are not saved. Rather, saving faith includes commitment to Christ, where we trust in Him and His death on the cross as our only hope of eternal life and we follow Him as Lord. Saving faith is not a work that we do, but rather simply receiving all that God offers to us in Christ. It is the hand that receives the free gift of God.

Faith means to “believe”, and this word in verse 16 is a present participle, bringing out the fact that saving faith is not a single event, but rather an ongoing, lifelong process. We are justified the instant we believe, but as we go on believing — trusting — the gospel, God keeps revealing to us the fact that we have right standing before Him on the basis of Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross. Faith applies the imputed righteousness of Christ to us so that we increasingly rejoice in Christ alone as our only hope of eternal life.

E. Salvation is individual and personal, not corporate and national.

Paul says that the gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” He could have said, “for the Jews [plural] first and also to the Greeks [plural],” but he put it in the singular. Salvation is an individual and personal matter. Being a member of the Jewish race will not get you saved, even though the Jews were God’s chosen people. Being an American, a member of a Christian family, or a member of Christ Lutheran Church will not get you saved. You must personally believe — that is, trust — in Christ.

And here’s the great good news: this good news is a universal offer of the gospel. It is for everyone who will believe. Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight. This good news of the gospel, and only this good news, has the power to fix what ails our communities and country today.

But let me ask, “Are you ashamed of the gospel?” Do you dodge warning people about the wrath of God, because that isn’t a popular idea? Do you avoid telling them about the shed blood of Christ as the only remedy for sin, because it sounds kind of primitive? Do you put a positive spin on the gospel, so that it sounds like a positive plan for how to have a happy life here and now? I ask because:

2. Because the Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation to Everyone who believes, we Must Believe it.

And that is where you and I come it. First, we must believe; that is, abandon all our self-righteousness and good works and place all our trust in Christ. Then, we must proclaim this good news boldly to everyone we come into contact.

In the gospel God now invites every sinner to accept Christ’s righteousness as His own. And when sinners in faith accept Christ’s merit, God looks at them as though they are just and holy. God declares the sinner innocent of all wrongdoing. It is like a judge in a courtroom pardoning a convicted offender. This marvelous exchange whereby Christ takes our sin on himself and in exchange, gives us His righteousness called justification. As Paul tells us, this way of receiving righteousness from God is “by faith from first to last.” It’s purely by grace, without any merit on the sinners part. As Habakkuk said centuries earlier, “The righteous will live by his faith” (2:4).