“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.”
This text from Paul’s epistle to the Romans changed a man, and that man in the hand of
God changed the world of his day, and
his influence has been felt to this day. Martin Luther, in his own words :
“I had indeed been captivated with an
extraordinary desire for understanding Paul in the Epistle to the
Romans. But …. a single phrase in Romans
1:17, “for in it ( i.e. the
gospel) the righteousness of God is
revealed,” stood in my way. For I
hated that word “the righteousness of
God,” which, according to the use and custom of all the teachers, I had
been taught to understand philosophically regarding the formal or active
righteousness, as they called it, with which God is righteous and punishes
the unrighteous sinner. Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that
I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not
believe that he was placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated
the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly… I was angry with
God….Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience. Nevertheless, I
desired to know what St. Paul wanted… At last, by the mercy of God, meditating
day and night, I understood the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed,
as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’ ” There I began to understand that the
righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God,
namely by faith… Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had
entered paradise itself through open gates. There a totally other face of the
entire Scripture showed itself to me. [1]
Martin Luther, born in 1483 in Eisleben, Germany, son of a miner was once caught in a horrific thunderstorm. He feared
for his life and cried out to St. Anne,
the patron saint of miners, saying, “Save me, St. Anne, and I’ll become a monk!”
The storm subsided and he was not killed. He kept his vow and entered the Augustinean monastery. He had an astute mind
and had become a theology professor at
the University of Erfurt. At this time
he was a God fearing man, but not a converted man. Luther had understood the nature of sin as few
people in our day would and he had understood the holiness of God in a
profound way, as few people would do today. But he did not know how to deal with his
sin before a holy God. He knew that all his attempts at
justifying himself before God were failing.
As he was studying the letter to the Romans, it was
this text that made him understand for the first time God’s method of justifying
sinners. Until then he had always thought
of justification from the typical Roman Catholic works oriented
perspective. It was this text in Paul’s
letter to the Romans that helped him to see that a person’s justification before a just,
righteous and holy God was not something that a man could achieve in his
own efforts. It was something that
God did for man, and which a man could
only receive by looking to God by
faith alone. When
Martin Luther had understood the basis of the gospel, namely,
that a person’s justification came by the grace and mercy from
God alone, the foundations
for a new mighty work of God were
laid. A Holy Spirit sent revival had begun.
All because of Romans 1:16-17.
These words constitute the theme of Paul’s letter to the Romans. The whole letter to the
Romans is about “the gospel of God”. That phrase
is first used in v.1, in the opening statement : “Paul… called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God”. This is the reason that Paul wants to come to Rome.
The gospel is at the heart of evangelical theology. This explains the
difference between evangelical Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church,
and every other system of religion in
the world which operates on the primary basis of works righteousness rather
than a righteousness from God – a
righteousness outside of ourselves!
VERSE 16
I am not ashamed of the gospel
Why does Paul
say this negatively?
Why does he not say, "I am proud of the gospel”? This form of speech is known as
litotes Litotes
is a figure of speech in which a negative statement is used to affirm a
positive sentiment. We use it often in our conversations e.g. we say,
“I am not opposed to doing this”
when we could have
said “I can do this”. Paul may have said it like this because of the peculiar position in which the Roman Christians had found themselves. It was not easy to be a Christian in Rome. It
still is not easy to speak about Christ
for fear of ridicule or rejection. Looking at the gospel at face value, it would
appear as "foolishness"[2]. Jesus was
the son of a poor carpenter, with little
means, with no formal education and
with no political
ambition or influence. His message
was a stumbling block to Jews and
folly to gentiles (1 Cor. 1:22). He was crucified as a common criminal. Such a
man claimed to be the Saviour of the
world and He claimed to
be equal to God. All this was so
absurd to Jews and Gentiles. With
all these thoughts in mind it is easy to
feel ashamed of the gospel. This is what Paul experienced and yet despite all this Paul
was never ashamed of the gospel.
Here is
the reason, as to why he says that:
“Because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes...”
Despite the fact, that the gospel may be resented
by man, it does not deny the fact that
it is powerful! It is clearly seen in
the words and deeds of Jesus. His Word
and His works changed the world. The gospel is the power (Gr. dunamis) of God. Knowing this Paul felt no need to be embarrassed for coming to Rome. He knew
that in the gospel there is a power that would overwhelm proud Romans !
How does this power work? Paul give three answers.
(i)
The Gospel provides the power to save
(16a). What does the gospel do? It saves sinners from the coming wrath of God. And it saves in the fullest
sense of that word, past, present and future. The gospel has the power to
…Forgive sins (past)—Impart new life (present)—Admit into heaven (future).
(ii)
The Gospel provides the power to save those who believe (16b) To “believe”
means to make a personal commitment to the God
who has given us the gospel. It
is not enough to hear and to
pray a sinners prayer. The gospel must be believed in the fullest sense by
hearing it, receiving it and by a
continual walking in its truth.
(iii)
The Gospel
provides the power to save everyone who believes 16c : “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.” The gospel has the power to save all kinds of people in the world without
regard to the distinctions that divide us. That’s why Paul wasn’t ashamed to
preach the gospel in Rome. He knew it had the power to save anyone who would
believe it.
VERSE 17
In verse 17 Paul reveals the second reason why he
wasn’t ashamed of the gospel. “For in it (i.e. the gospel ) the righteousness from God is revealed, a
righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, ’The
righteous will live by faith.’” This is the text that woke
Martin Luther up from the dead
! Why is this such a powerful truth ?
(i)
Because it reveals a
righteousness (17a). The key word here is righteousness, which means to
have a right standing in God’s eyes. Here is where the greatness of the gospel
is clearly seen. It provides for us what we could never provide for ourselves.
Righteousness is what we need but do not have. Therefore God, knowing that we
could never be righteous on our own, has provided a righteousness which comes from Him, given to us as a free gift through
Christ .That brings us to the second reason why the gospel is so powerful.
(ii)
Because the righteousness that is in the
gospel is received only by faith. (17b)
The
key word here is faith. In the Greek,
it literally reads, “is revealed by faith
unto faith.” (ESV) It has the idea
of “faith from first to last.” Everyone who is saved by the gospel is saved the same way: By faith. It is faith
alone and faith always. This answers the great question, How can I be right
with God? The answer is simple: By receiving the righteousness of God that
comes only by faith in Jesus Christ
alone. He is our substitute. He alone has
righteously kept the righteous law
of God in His life. You have
broken the law so many times, and in
God’s eyes you are unrighteous. But God
in His great love gave His Son, the Lord
Jesus, the Righteous One to die the
death that you deserved to die. All that God now requires of you is to have faith in Jesus- to trust Him with your
whole life. He is the object of your
faith.
There is a third and final reason why the gospel is so powerful.
(iii)
Because the
righteousness that is in the gospel,
which when believed in, conveys saving
faith to men and women. (17c) To prove his point
Paul includes a quotation from the prophet Habakkuk
2:4: “The just shall live by faith.” It was this text—quoted by Paul in
Romans 1:17—that ultimately shook Martin Luther to the core and brought him to
saving faith in Jesus Christ.
FAITH ALONE !
From that simple and yet profound truth, came the
Protestant Reformation. It saved the world from the hopeless doctrine of salvation by
a system of works or self-
justification. It restored the biblical doctrine of
“Faith” as the operative principle
by which men and women would be
saved, and so with it the battle-cry of
the Reformation became SOLA FIDE - “by
faith alone.”
So, how much faith does it take to go to heaven?
The answer is this : With whatever you have
you must look to Jesus! Saving faith is putting your trust in Jesus Christ and Him alone. In order to do that you have to stop trying to save yourself.
What happened to Martin Luther can happen to you.
Those who trust in Christ alone will never be put to shame, not in this life nor
in the life to come.
Amen !
[1] Luther's Works, Volume 34, P336-337). cited in http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/8742/when-and-how-did-martin-luther-arrive-at-the-justification-by-faith
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