God's Gospel (1979)

First of a Four-Part Series of Talks from Urbana 79
by John Stott

"We should be "jealous" for the honor of Christ's name, troubled when it remains unknown, hurt when it is ignored, indignant when it is blasphemed and all the time anxious that it should be given the honor and the glory which are due to it. This is the highest missionary motivation."

Paul's letter to the Romans is a Christian manifesto. It is the fullest, plainest, grandest statement of the gospel to be found anywhere in the New Testament. Its message is not that "man is born free but everywhere he is in chains" (as Rousseau put it) but that "man is born in sin and slavery, and everywhere is in chains, but Jesus Christ came to set him free." For here is good news of freedom: freedom from the cramping bondage of guilt and self-centeredness which destroy us as human beings. Once grasp this good news, in your mind and in your experience, and you will want to share it with the world. Nobody will be able to silence you.

The sixteenth-century Reformers understood well the vital importance of this letter. Luther called it "the clearest gospel of all." Calvin said that "if a man understands it, he has a sure road opened for him to the understanding of the whole Scripture." And William Tyndale, the father of English Bible translators, described it as "the principal and most excellent part of the New Testament, and most pure euangelion, that is to say, glad tidings ... , and also a light and a way in unto the whole Scripture.." In his view every Christian should learn it by heart. "The more it is studied," he wrote, "the easier it is; the more it is chewed, the pleasanter it is" (Prologue to Romans in his 1534 English New Testament).

Our task is to study only the letter's first four and a half chapters, but, as we do so, I think we shall come to agree with those Reformers. For we shall discover in these chapters a systematic statement of the main truths of the gospel.

Here is fundamental teaching about man—sinful, guilty and inexcusable; about God revealing his wrath against sin and revealing his mercy in the gospel; about Jesus Christ—seed of David and Son of God, who died for our sins and was raised in triumph from the dead; and about the new community of believers, both Jews and Gentiles, who, having been accepted by God in and through Jesus Christ alone, enjoy an altogether new life characterized by peace with God, a standing in his grace and a joyful expectation of his final glory.

The truths which God has revealed in these chapters are enough to stretch our minds, liberate our consciences, set our hearts on fire and open our lips in praise and testimony. May God himself speak to us through his own Word, and give us grace to listen and respond!

Analysis of Romans 1-5

As a simple analysis of the chapters we shall be studying, I suggest the following:

1. God's Gospel (1:1-17). Paul introduces himself as an apostle, summarizes the good news and tells his Roman readers why he is so eager to share it with them.

2. God's Judgment (1:18-3:20). Nobody can receive the good news of salvation who has not first heard the bad news of judgment. Only against this dark background does the gospel shine with full brightness. Paul's argument in these chapters is that all human beings have some knowledge of God and of goodness, ignorant pagans as well as favored Jews, the depraved as well as the refined, but that no human being has ever lived up to his knowledge. All of us have gone against the truth we have known, and therefore all of us stand before God guilty and without excuse.

3. God's Righteousness (3:21-4:25). In 3:21-31 Paul explains what he calls "the righteousness of God," that is, God's righteous way of putting the unrighteous right with himself. In a single word we call this act of God "justification." Paul elaborates the source from which it comes (God's grace), the basis on which it rests (Christ's death) and the means by which it is received (faith alone, without works). And then in chapter 4 he illustrates these principles from the life of Abraham.

4. God's People (5:1-11). The main verbs of the first 11 verses of chapter 5 are all in the first person plural. "We have peace with God" (v. 1). "We have obtained our introduction... into this grace in which we stand" and "we exult in hope of the glory of God" (v. 2). "We also exult in our tribulations" (v. 3). Above all, "We ... exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation" (v.11.). Who is this we? It is God's people. It is the new community which, God is creating through Christ. Paul associates himself with his readers and with all other believers throughout time and space, and he describes the great blessings which God has given us through Christ. They are "peace," "grace," "hope," "tribulation," "love" and "joy." They are all the fruits of our justification, the universal privileges of the people of God.

God's Gospel: Romans 1:1-17

Paul has never been in Rome. For ten years he has given himself to the evangelization of four Roman provinces on both sides of the Aegean Sea: Galatia (on his first missionary journey), Macedonia and Achaia (on his second missionary journey) and Asia, based on its capital Ephesus (on his third missionary journey).

Now he considers his work in this whole area completed. There is, he writes, "no further place for me in these regions" (15:23). So his eyes are on more distant horizons. It is probably the winter of A.D. 56-57. He is spending three months in Corinth. His immediate plan is to go to Jerusalem in order to hand over the money he has been collecting from the Gentile Christians of Greece to the Jewish Christians of Judea.

But after this he is determined to visit Rome. For how could the apostle to the Gentiles possibly neglect the Gentile world's capital city? And from there he hopes to push on still further to Spain, the western extremity of the Empire. He tells his Roman readers about these plans in 15:22-29 (cf. Acts 19:21).

But already in the letter's first chapter he announces his desire to visit them, and, because they do not know one another personally, he introduces himself and his message much more fully than usual.

Our first study I have entitled "God's Gospel" since the noun euangelion ("gospel") or the verb euangelizesthai ("preach the gospel") occurs four times. It divides itself naturally into three sections each of which seems to have a key text:

1. Paul and the Gospel (1-5). Verse 1: "an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God."
2. Paul and the Romans (6-13). Verse 15: "I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome."
3. Paul and evangelism (14-17). Verse 16: "I am not ashamed of the gospel."

Paul and the Gospel (1:1-5)

It is always intriguing to see how Paul introduces himself at the beginning of his letters. Here he combines two designations, one of great humility and the other of great authority. First, he is "a bond-servant of Christ Jesus;" for Jesus Christ has bought him and owns him, and he is entirely at his Lord's disposal, as we are also.

Second, he is "called as an apostle," for the risen Lord's appearance to him on the Damascus Road led not only to his conversion but also to his special commissioning as an apostle, by which he was added to the Twelve and in particular appointed "the apostle to the Gentiles." He had not appointed himself to this privileged position, he says, but rather been "called" to it by Christ.

As an apostle, he has been "set apart for the gospel of God." Anders Nygren in his Commentary on Romans reminds us that the Greek verb for "set apart" has "the same root meaning as Pharisee," and he goes on to suggest that the apostle is drawing a deliberate contrast: "Paul, who had set himself apart for the law, is set apart by God for the gospel." Thus, the new age or new aeon has dawned, for "the gospel is the great new reality which God has now brought to us" (pp. 45-46).

Certainly, it was the peculiar responsibility of Christ's apostles to receive, to formulate, to guard and to teach the gospel, or, as Charles Cranfield puts it, "to serve the gospel by an authoritative and normative proclamation of it" (p. 53). This Paul goes on immediately to do, giving us a summary of the gospel for which he had been set apart. He concentrates on six aspects of it.

1. Its Origin. The Christian good news is "the gospel of God" (v. 1). He conceived it. He determined and arranged that there should be a gospel for the world, by sending his Son to be the good news and by sending his Spirit to empower heralds to proclaim it. It is his gospel. Paul and the other apostles did not invent it; God revealed it to them.

This is the first and basic conviction which all of us need. What we have to share with others is not a ragbag of human speculations. It is not one more human religion which takes its place alongside all the other religions of mankind. No, it is "the gospel of God," God's good news for a lost world. Without this there can be no evangelism, no world mission.

2. Its Attestation. "The gospel of God" is a message "which He promised aforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures" (v. 2). Although he revealed it to the apostles, what he revealed to them was no novelty for he had already "promised" it "through his prophets." The apostles insist on this strongly. In this very chapter (v.17), Paul quotes a text from the prophet Habakkuk in which the great doctrine of justification by faith is affirmed. In 3:21 he declares that the good news of justification which has been revealed in the gospel was nevertheless "witnessed by the Law and the Prophets." The apostles were clear about this from the beginning.

Soon after Pentecost Peter could say, "All the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days" (Acts 3:24). Paul in his speeches took up the same theme. He claimed that he was "stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place" (Acts 26:22). In particular, it was "according to the Scriptures" that Christ died, and "according to the Scriptures" that he was raised (1 Cor. 15:3-4).

So the apostles were no innovators. Nor are we. Evangelical Christians are deeply concerned to be biblical Christians, to go back to the beginnings and to keep evaluating the subsequent traditions of the churches in the light of the original revelation of God. Moreover, in so doing, we must not set the Old and New Testaments in opposition to each other.

To be sure, the Old Testament was anticipation, while the New Testament is fulfillment, for what God taught through his apostles he had "promised beforehand through his prophets." But they do not conflict, for both preach the gospel. The gospel has a double attestation, namely the Old Testament and the New Testament. Both bear witness to Jesus Christ, which is what Paul comes to now.

3. Its Substance. Verse 2 is really a parenthesis. If we omit it and bring verses 1 and 3 together, this is what we read: "set apart for the gospel of God ... concerning His Son." The gospel of God concerns the Son of God. The good news is about Jesus, his unique person and work. Here Paul concentrates on who Jesus is; he will have more to tell us later about what he has done.

In verses 3 and 4 he describes Jesus by two balancing expressions. On the one hand, he "was born of the seed of David according to the flesh," while on the other he "was declared with power to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness."

These statements about Jesus are packed tight with theology; and the commentators write pages and pages in their attempts to unpack them. We shall have to be content with the main emphasis, which is plain. There are contrasts between what Jesus was "born" to be and what he was "declared" to be; between what he was "according to the flesh" and what he was "according to the Spirit of holiness"; between the "seed [descendant] of David" and the "Son of God"; between the weakness implicit in his birth and in his "flesh," and the "power" displayed in his resurrection and by the Holy Spirit.

This person, Paul began by affirming, was God's "Son" (v. 3). But the eternal Son of God first "was born" in lowliness, becoming a real human being and so veiling his divine glory, and then by the resurrection he was publicly and powerfully declared to be the Son of God he always had been. It is this person, seed of David and Son of God, Paul goes on, who is "Jesus Christ our Lord" (v. 4).

We could spend days and even weeks meditating on the profound implications of these verses. For here are references, direct or indirect, to the birth, death, resurrection and reign (on David's throne) of Jesus Christ. Here is also a statement of both his humiliation and his exaltation. Here is a claim that he is both fully human and fully divine, his human descent traced from David and his divine sonship demonstrated by the resurrection. And here is the further claim that he is both a historical and a contemporary figure, since the very same person who was once born, killed and raised is today "our Lord;" the Master who owns us as his bondservants, rules our lives and appoints us to his service.

4. Its Scope. Its scope is all the nations. In verse 5 Paul reverts to the commission which he has received from the Lord Jesus. He calls it "grace and apostleship," which probably means "the undeserved privilege of being an apostle." Moreover, his particular apostleship was to be exercised "among all the Gentiles," that is, all the nations.

Thus the apostle's perspective was as broad as it was long. He set the gospel in the largest possible context. Not only had it been promised for centuries of human history, but it also embraces all the nations of the earth, including the inhabitants of the world's capital city, to whom he refers in verses 6 and 7.

Now Paul was a Jew, and had previously been a bigoted, narrow-minded Pharisee. In spite of the Old Testament teaching that in the messianic age the Gentiles would be included within the redeeming purpose of God, he had despised them as unclean, as "dogs." So let us mark well his emancipation from racial prejudice. He retained his patriotic love for his own people and longed passionately for their salvation (9:1-5;10:1). But now he loved the Gentiles also and longed for their salvation.

What about us? We too need to be delivered by Christ from all our pride and prejudice – both racial and national – since nobody is beyond the scope of God's love, and God's gospel is for all the nations, indiscriminately.

5. Its Purpose. The purpose of proclaiming God's gospel to all the Gentiles, Paul writes, is "to bring about the obedience of faith." He uses the same expression in 16:26. It forms the basis of the Urbana 79 slogan "that all nations might believe and obey Jesus Christ."

"The obedience of faith" is the apostle's definition of the response which the gospel should evoke. It is a particularly important expression coming (as it does) at the beginning and end of the Letter to the Romans. For in Romans Paul outlines more fully than in any of his other letters the good news that God justifies sinners only by his grace (his free and unmerited favor), only through faith (trust in Christ, without any works of our own). Already in verses 16 and 17 the principle of solo fide ("by faith alone") is underlined four times. Yet here in verse 5 our response to the gospel is not termed "faith" but "the obedience of faith." How can this be explained?

Clearly Paul is not contradicting himself. Some commentators are always ready to say that Paul was muddleheaded and confused and did not know his own mind. But that assumption is entirely gratuitous. Paul was an exceptionally clear thinker, illumined by the Spirit of God. We must give him credit for logical consistency. We may be quite sure that he does not destroy his own message by declaring here (what he denies elsewhere) that salvation is by faith plus moral obedience. No, he is referring to "the obedience of faith," not "the obedience of law." He means that a true and living faith in Jesus both includes within itself an element of submission and leads inevitably to a life of obedience.

"By faith Abraham... obeyed" we read in Hebrews 11:8. By faith we obey too. The proper response to the gospel is indeed "faith," but the meaning of "faith" is determined by the Person who is its object. He is "Jesus Christ our Lord" (v. 4) or "the Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 7). It is therefore impossible to accept Jesus Christ as Savior without simultaneously surrendering to him as Lord. For he is one Person (our Lord and Savior) and "faith" is an act of total commitment to him, in other words, "the obedience of faith," or "faith-obedience."

6. Its Goal. God's gospel, promised in the Old Testament and centering on Christ, is to be preached to all the nations to bring about their faith-obedience. Why? What is our ultimate goal in spreading the good news and seeking to persuade people to respond to it? It is "for His name's sake" (v. 5). The "name" of Christ stands for Christ himself, everything he is and everything he has done, and the exalted rank accorded to him on account of who he is and what he has done.

Later, in his letter to the Philippians, Paul will write that God has "highly exalted" Jesus and "bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow ... and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (2:9-11).

If it is God the Father's purpose that every knee and every tongue should acknowledge the supremacy of Jesus, it should be our purpose too. We should be "jealous" for the honor of Christ's name, troubled when it remains unknown, hurt when it is ignored, indignant when it is blasphemed and all the time anxious that it should be given the honor and the glory which are due to it. This is the highest missionary motivation.

It is neither obedience to the Great Commission, nor love for perishing sinners (right and strong as these incentives are), but rather zeal for the glory of Christ. Some missionary endeavor has been a thinly disguised form of imperialism; that is, a hunger for the prestige of our country or our church or our organization or ourselves. Only one imperialism is Christian, and that is concern for Christ's empire or kingdom. "For the sake of his name" is the missionary goal which causes all unworthy motives to wither and die.

Here, then, are six fundamental truths about the gospel. Its origin is God the Father and its substance is Jesus Christ his Son. For the good news is "the gospel of God ... concerning His Son." Its attestation is in all the Scriptures, the united testimony of the prophets and the apostles, and its scope is all the nations of the earth. Our immediate purpose in preaching it is to bring people to the obedience of faith, but our ultimate goal is to glorify the name of Jesus Christ.

Or, to sum up these six truths by six prepositions, we may say that the good news is the gospel of God, about Christ; according to the Scriptures, for the nations, unto the obedience of faith and for the sake of his name.

Paul and the Romans (1:6-13)

Having described himself and his gospel, Paul now describes his readers, the members of the Christian community in Rome. He uses some rich expressions to indicate what they are and should be. The most striking thing about these expressions is that the verbs are in the passive voice.

According to verse 7 the Roman Christians are "beloved of God," while according to verses 6 and 7 they are "called of Jesus Christ" and "called as saints." Similarly, if we are Christians, this is why. Primarily, it is not because we decided for Christ (though we did, and freely) but because God set his love upon us and called us to himself by his grace.

God's decision for us antedates our decision for him. His loving call liberated us to respond and to come to him. In consequence, we belong to him, which is what the word saints means. By his calling we are members of the holy people of God. So Paul cannot wish for his readers any higher blessing than that they should continue to enjoy the "grace ... and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" which they have already begun to receive (v. 7). After this greeting, which speaks so eloquently of God's attitude toward them, Paul goes on to tell them of his own feelings towards them.

1. He thanks God for them all (v. 8), particularly because the news of their faith "is being proclaimed throughout the whole world." Paul had not himself been responsible for bringing the gospel to Rome or for planting the church there. But this did not inhibit him from thanksgiving that Rome had been evangelized. The existence of a believing community in the capital had become known throughout the empire. It was a cause for much gratitude and praise.

2. He prays for them (vv. 9-10). Mind you, he does not know them personally. But this does not stop him praying for them. "Unceasingly" and "always" he mentions them in his prayers. Nor is his statement merely a pious platitude. No, God himself, whom he serves in his spirit, and who knows the secrets of his heart, is his witness that what he writes is true (v. 9). His prayers for them doubtless cover many topics, but above all he asks God that "perhaps now at last," if it be his will, he may succeed in coming to them.

Notice in passing the humble phraseology which Paul employs (the "if” and "perhaps" and "by the will of God"). Prayer is not a convenient device for bending God's will to ours; it is the divinely appointed way of bending our will to his. Paul's prayer was answered, and in the affirmative. His wish to visit Rome was granted, though neither at the time nor in the manner that he had envisaged. It is a sobering thought that he arrived there some three years later not as a free men, but as a prisoner, awaiting trial by the emperor to whom he had appealed.

3. He longs to see them (11-12). Moreover, he is quite explicit about the reasons for his desire to visit them. To begin with, he hopes to "impart some spiritual gift" to them. His expression is deliberately vague. He does not specify what charisma he has in mind. Since he is an apostle, it seems most natural to suppose that he is referring to his teaching. Or perhaps it is "encouragement" that he has in mind, since this is what he goes on to mention in verse 12 and paraklesis("encouragement") is one of the charismata he lists later in 12:8. Although the nature of the gift may be uncertain, its purpose is not. It would be to strengthen them, "that you may be established."

His reason for wanting to visit them is not only to impart something to them, however. In genuine humility he desires to receive something from them as well. He knows what reciprocal encouragement can be derived from Christian fellowship, and although himself an apostle, he is not too proud to acknowledge his need of it. He looks forward to this strengthening, "each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine" (v.12).

Happy is the modern missionary who goes to another country and culture in the same spirit of humble receptivity – anxious to receive as well as to give, anxious to learn as well as to teach. Paul longs to visit the Christians in Rome.

4. He has often planned to come to them, he adds (v.13). He wants them to know this, although thus far he has been prevented, perhaps simply because he has been too busy elsewhere. He gives now a third reason for wishing to visit them. Beyond the strengthening of the church and the mutual encouragement, he has an evangelistic purpose. He wants to "obtain some fruit" or "reap some harvest" (RSV) among them, just as he has done "among the rest of the Gentiles." It was surely appropriate that the apostle to the Gentiles should hope to do some reaping in the capital of the world.

Paul and Evangelism (1:14-17)

Having told his Roman readers of his desire to "reap some harvest" among them, he goes on to make three statements—plain, personal and positive—of his anxiety to preach the gospel in Rome as elsewhere: (1) "I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians" (v.14); (2) "I am eager to preach the gospel" (v.15); and (3) "I am not ashamed of the gospel" (v.16). These affirmations are immediately arresting because they are in direct antithesis to much of the mood of the contemporary church.

Many modern church members regard themselves as being under no obligation to evangelize. On the contrary, if they engage in evangelism at all, they are very pleased with themselves. They consider that they are conferring a favor upon God. To Paul, however, evangelism was a debt, not a charity.

Next, the contemporary attitude to evangelism is characterized rather by reluctance than by enthusiasm, whereas Paul could say that he was "eager" to share the gospel with others.

Third, Paul could declare that he was "not ashamed of the gospel," whereas our great trouble is that many of us are ashamed of it, often as blushingly ashamed as if we were adolescents.

So the contrast between Paul and some modern church members is complete. We say, "I am under no obligation; I'm not at all eager; in fact I'm rather ashamed." Paul said, "I am under obligation; I am eager; for I am not ashamed."

Now remember, Paul had as many reasons to feel embarrassed as we have. Rome was the capital of the world. People spoke of Rome with awe; it was the symbol of imperial pride and military power. Everybody hoped to visit Rome once in his lifetime, to look and stare and wonder. But who was this fellow Paul who wanted to visit Rome not as a tourist, but as an evangelist? Who believed he had a message which Rome needed to hear? And who expected Rome to listen to him? What folly and presumption was this?

According to tradition Paul was small in size, plain in appearance, awkward in manner and contemptible in speech. He had been weakened and even disfigured by illness. He belonged to a despised minority movement within a despised people. That is, he was a Christian Jew. His message was foolishness to intellectuals and a stumbling block to the self-righteous. What then could he hope to accomplish against the proud might of imperial Rome? Wouldn't he be wiser to stay away? Or if he must visit Rome, would he not be prudent to keep his big mouth shut – lest he be laughed out of court and hustled out of town? Evidently Paul did not think so. "I am under obligation," he writes; "I am eager... I am not ashamed."

Let's investigate the origins of this apostolic eagerness, so that we may come to share it. It is not difficult to discover them because he states the reasons clearly. He writes, "I am under obligation.... Thus ... I am eager.... For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God. …”

His affirmations are linked to one another in a chain of cause and effect. Negatively, he is not ashamed of the gospel. Positively, he is eager to proclaim it. Why? For two reasons. First, because it is a debt to humanity, which he must discharge. Second, because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.

1. The gospel is a debt to humanity.

It is true that most English versions prefer the expression "I am under obligation" (v. 14). But the old King James' version was quite correct to translate it "I am debtor." For this is what the Greek word opheiletes means. It was used of somebody who had incurred financial debts. Now there are two ways of getting into debt to somebody. One is to borrow money from him. The other is to be given money for him by somebody else. For example, if I were to borrow a thousand dollars from you, I would be in your debt until I repaid it. Equally, if a friend of yours in London had given me a thousand dollars to bring to you, I would also be in your debt until I handed it to you. In the second case it is your friend in London who has put me in your debt by entrusting me with money for you.

It is in this second sense that Paul knew he was in debt. He had not borrowed anything from the citizens of Rome which he had to repay. But Jesus Christ had entrusted him with the gospel for the Gentile world. Indeed, several times in his letters he uses this very expression. He describes himself as "entrusted with the gospel" (Gal. 2:7; 1 Thess. 2:4; 1 Tim. 1:11; Tit. 1:3; cf. 1 Cor. 9:17). So it was Jesus who had made him a debtor. And being in debt, he was anxious to discharge his obligation. Moreover, it was a universal debt.

As apostle to the Gentiles, he had a particular responsibility to the Gentile world, "both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish" (v. 14). J. B. Phillips has captured the feel of this statement by translating it "from cultured Greek to ignorant savage."

In a similar way we today are debtors to the world. Has the message of Christ come to us? Has God opened our eyes to see the truth as it is in Jesus? Then we cannot possibly keep the gospel to ourselves. We cannot enjoy a monopoly of it. Good news is news to share, whether it is good news in the family (like an engagement or a birth), or good news of an invention or a discovery (like penicillin or a cure for cancer) or the good news of Jesus Christ.

Moreover, our debt (not as individuals but as the whole church) is universal. Much missionary work has concentrated on peasants in rural areas, while city dwellers, and especially the intelligentsia, have been overlooked. In other countries it is the middle classes who have been reached, while the industrial masses and the urban poor have been neglected. We have no liberty to circumscribe the Christian mission. The debt in which Jesus Christ has placed his church is to all people of all cultures in all countries.

Such was Paul's first incentive. He was eager because he was in debt. It is dishonorable to leave a debt unpaid. We should be as eager to discharge our debt, as Paul was to discharge his.

2. The gospel is the power of God.

The apostle now develops a different argument. "I am eager to preach the gospel," he says, "because I am not ashamed of it. And I am not ashamed of it because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (v. 16).

The apostle's negative assertion "I am not ashamed of the gospel" is rather surprising, is it not? The very suggestion that Paul could have felt ashamed of the gospel sounds ridiculous. But it is not. I once heard Professor James Stewart of Edinburgh preach on this text. He made the perceptive comment that "there is no sense in declaring that you are not ashamed of something unless you have been tempted to feel ashamed of it." And Paul had without doubt been so tempted. For he knew the message of the cross was a stumbling block to human pride.

We experience the same temptation. Did not Jesus himself warn us not to be ashamed of him and of his words (Mk. 8:38)? He anticipated that we would be tempted to do so.

How then did Paul, and how shall we, overcome this temptation? Only by remembering that the gospel of which we re tempted to feel ashamed (because people despise and ridicule it for its weakness) is nonetheless God's power to save sinners. And we know this because we have experienced it ourselves. The gospel has brought us into a new, a right relationship with God. Our sins have been forgiven. Already we have passed out of condemnation into acceptance. God is now our Father. He has adopted us into his family. We are his children. How can we be ashamed of the good news by which God's power accomplishes such a transformation?

The reason why the gospel is God's power for salvation to believers, Paul goes on to explain in verse 17, is that in it "the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith." This expression "the righteousness of God" is crucial for our understanding of the gospel, and much ink has flowed in attempts to elucidate it. Is "the righteousness of God" a divine attribute (our God is a righteous God)? Or is it a divine activity (God coming to vindicate his people)? Or is it a divine gift (God bestowing a righteous status upon sinners)? All three positions have been held, and the most satisfactory solution to the problem is to combine all three.

In Romans "the righteousness of God" is his way of justifying sinners, by which he both demonstrates his own righteousness and gives it to us. It is his righteous way of declaring the unrighteous righteous. He puts us in the right with him, without thereby putting himself in the wrong. He accepts us as righteous in his sight, while at the same time declaring and not compromising his own righteousness. He does it through Christ, the righteous one who died for the unrighteous, as he will explain later; and he does it "by faith," that is, when we put our trust in him or cry to him for mercy. Indeed, what God does for us he does "from faith to faith" (v.17) which seems to mean "by faith from first to last" (NIV).

Moreover, this good news of a free justification God had affirmed centuries previously to his prophet Habakkuk in the words "the righteous man shall live by faith." Or more probably, as in the NASB margin, and as commentators like Nygren, Bruce and Cranfield argue, the epigram should rather be rendered, “He who is righteous by faith shall live," or "He who through faith is righteous shall live." Nygren argues that the structure of the, letter demands this translation, since Romans 1-4 explain how a sinner becomes "righteous through faith," while Romans 5-8 declare how he "shall live."'

It was the enlightenment of Martin Luther to see this truth which sparked off the sixteenth-century Reformation. For a year, from November 1515 to September 1516, Luther expounded the Letter to the Romans to his students at Wittenberg University. As he prepared his lectures, the centrality of justification became apparent to him.

I greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, "the righteousness of God," because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and deals righteously in punishing the unrighteous. … Night and day I pondered until ... I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, he justifies us by faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before "the righteousness of God" had, filled me with hate, now it became inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gateway to heaven.

To sum up, then, what was the secret of Paul's "eagerness" to preach the gospel? It arose from his recognition that the gospel is both an unpaid debt to humanity and the saving power of God. The first gave him a sense of obligation (he had been put in trust with the gospel), and the second a sense of conviction (if the gospel had saved him, it could also save others).

Still today the gospel is both a debt to discharge and a power to experience. We need to meditate on these truths, until in our hearts the light shines and the fire burns. Then and then only shall we be able to say with Paul, "I am not ashamed.... I am under obligation.... So I am eager to share the gospel with the world."

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December 27-31, 2009