The Glory of the Gospel, Part Two

We want to consider again the gospel of our salvation from Romans 1:16-17. Previously Paul said he was a debtor to the whole world, meaning he owed the world the gospel (v. 14). Then he said, “That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome” (v. 15). Now he declares, “I am not ashamed of the gospel,” and gives reasons in these two verses.

We have already considered four of these reasons. The first reason Paul was not ashamed was because he had experienced what the gospel promises. It was not a theory for him; he himself was saved by the gospel. Second, the gospel is good news. In the midst of all the bad news of the world, there is good news found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Third, the gospel saves us from God’s wrath. Fourth, it is God’s salvation, not a manmade salvation that promises but does not perform. All religions except Christianity speak of a manmade salvation that cannot save anyone. God’s salvation is revealed only in the gospel. God promises to save us and unleashes his power toward us that it may save us. The gospel is not just making salvation possible; it saves sinners.

There are other reasons why we should not be ashamed of the gospel. Paul says he is not ashamed of the gospel because “it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (v. 16). So the fifth point is that the gospel is “the power of God.” Then Paul says that the gospel is “for the salvation of everyone who believes.” The sixth point is that this powerful gospel does not discriminate: it is for “everyone.” Then Paul says, “For in it a righteousness from God is revealed” (v. 17). The gospel is not the result of man’s research and discovery. It is God’s gracious revelation to us miserable sinners that we may be saved. In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed. When we unpack the gospel, we discover the righteousness of God and from God, a right standing that God alone can give us. We need this righteousness, for we are all unrighteousness. The gospel alone contains what we need to stand before God and enjoy his presence forevermore.

If we are ashamed of the gospel and not giving witness to Jesus Christ, either we are not saved by him or we consider the gospel inferior to what the world can give us, that is, we respect the fallen world and its glory more than the glory of the fullness of the blessing eternal of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we ever be proud of the gospel because of what it truly is!

The Power of God

Let us then examine more reasons Paul is not ashamed of the gospel. He states, “[The gospel] is the power of God” (v. 16). Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because it is a manifestation of the mighty power of God. Elsewhere Paul says, “God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power” (1 Tim. 1:7). Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). God empowers us to declare the gospel, which, in turn, comes with power to save sinners. When told she would bear a child, the virgin Mary asked the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” He answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you” (Luke 1:34-35). In other words, the power of the Mighty God, who created and sustains the universe, would accomplish it.

Paul often spoke of the power of God. To the Ephesians he writes: “I pray also that the eyes of your heart be enlightened in order that you may know . . . his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:18-20; also 2:5-6; 3:7, 20). If the Holy Spirit is in us, then God’s power is in us, and we are powerful people who are able to resist the devil so that he flees from us. When we are tempted, we do not need to yield to temptation, but can put up a fight by the power of the Holy Spirit who is in us.

Wherever the gospel is proclaimed, God’s power is unleashed and succeeds in saving his people. He will save us even now. Paul writes, “For the message of cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. . . . to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:18, 24). The gospel is the power of God because Christ is the power of God. Where the gospel is preached, the power of Christ is present to save us. The gospel is not about God’s power; it is God’s power.

Paul later declares, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do, in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son” (Rom. 8:1-3). What our self-righteousness could not do, God did. God saves sinners. Whenever the gospel is proclaimed, the power of God saves and strengthens God’s people. The gospel is God’s saving power that planned our redemption, accomplished redemption in Jesus on the cross, and applies that redemption to every elect sinner by the operation of the Spirit of the living God.

Jesus himself spoke of this working of God’s power: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). As sinners, we have moral inability. We cannot come to God; in fact, we run away from him. God himself must draw us to him by his omnipotence, and when he does so, we will come and call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Jesus then explains, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him” (John 6:65). The power of God must work in us. And not only does the Father draw, but Christ also draws us: “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). So the Father draws, Christ draws, and the Holy Spirit draws, and we come to be set free, forgiven, justified, and adopted. Christians, we must think about this power of God that can help us as we daily meet with temptation.

In Isaiah the Lord also speaks about this power to save us by the proclamation of his word: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:10-11). When we preach the gospel, God is sending it to us to save, heal, and strengthen us.

Listen to the language of Paul: “Because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. . . . And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe” (1 Thess. 1:5; 2:13). The gospel is God’s omnipotent power directed to save us. I knew an accomplished, highly educated atheist, who would listen to the preaching of the gospel, all the while fuming and breathing out fire, anger, and misery. But in time the gospel saved him. The gospel overcomes all our resistance and inabilities and saves us, as it also saved Paul, the chief of sinners.

The gospel is the power of God to raise the dead. Jesus once was going to the village of Nain and saw a funeral procession for a young man. The dead man had no father and his poor widowed mother was grieving. But as they were taking this man out to bury him, Jesus came by and said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” and he got up (Luke 7:11-15). John also tells us about Lazarus the friend of Jesus, who died and was buried four days before Jesus came. But Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” When he came to the tomb where the body lay, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” The dead man came forth, still bound in the grave clothes, and Jesus said, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go” (John 11:1-44). This supernatural deliverance comes to us from the gospel. God raises the dead-not just those who are physically dead, but us who were dead in sins and trespasses. In Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul speaks about spiritually dead people who are ruled by the evil spirit. They are disobedient and objects of God’s wrath, but God makes them alive, raises them up, and seats them in the heavenly places to rule with Christ. This is what the word of God can do to us. We do not have to continue in our misery, depression, and death. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.

Thus, Paul is not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God. He was ready to go to Rome, this great city that was known for power. Rome, however, was a slave to sin, as we learn when we study its culture and the lives of its Caesars and the senators.

The power of the gospel sets sinners free. It is the saving power of God that regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies, and restores us to God forever. Have you experienced this power? Then be proud of the gospel, live this gospel, and boldly proclaim it. And if you have not experienced its saving power, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who fulfilled all God’s law in behalf of us by his life, death, and resurrection. He will save you fully and he will save you now. Fanny Crosby wrote, “The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.” Christ will set you free of the shackles of sin, guilt, Satan, death, hell, and the world. To you Jesus says, “Look unto me and live.” Do not look to yourself and be miserable. Look to Christ and live, and be not ashamed of the gospel.

For Everyone Who Believes

The next reason Paul gives for not being ashamed of the gospel is that “the gospel [is] . . . for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). Every son of Adam, whether Jew or Gentile, man or woman, wise or foolish, master or slave, rich or poor, civilized or uncivilized, is born a sinner and practices sin. Paul writes, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God” (Rom. 3:10); “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). We all lack the righteousness that God demands, which is perfect obedience to God’s law in its entirety all the time. Romans 1:18 tells us God’s wrath is being revealed against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Self-help salvation cannot help us.

But God has given us his way of salvation, and it is for all the people of the world. The gospel does not discriminate. The children’s song is true: “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world-red and yellow, black and white-they are precious in his sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world.” John writes, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-16). Joel says, “And everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Joel 2:32). The gospel invitation is for everyone: “Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him come and take the free gift of the water of life” (Rev. 22:17). Jesus exhorts, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Isaac Watts wrote, “His blood can make the foulest clean, his blood availed for me.”

The church is an international body of people. We all are brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter what our background is. The gospel does not discriminate at all. Paul writes, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Cor. 1:26-29). Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). Publicans and prostitutes enter into the kingdom of God before scribes and Pharisees.

The gospel is for everyone. No one is superior to another before God. Paul assured the Gentile believers in Ephesus that they were “no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household” (Eph. 2:19). Through the gospel Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. There is no superiority or inferiority, Jew or Gentile. We are all brothers. Paul also says, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26-28).

This idea that the gospel is for everyone is the basis for world mission. Jesus told his disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8); “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). Jesus also declared, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14).

The Righteousness of God

The next reason Paul gives for not being ashamed gets to the very heart of the gospel: “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed” (Rom. 1:17). God is righteous, but we are all unrighteousness. God’s wrath “is being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Rom. 1:18).

Many try to cover themselves with a pretension of self-righteousness, but their efforts are like covering nakedness with a fig-leaf apron. Human self-righteousness cannot stand up against the gaze of the righteous God. It is a stench in God’s nostrils (Isa. 64:6). God is unimpressed by our pretended self-righteousness.

In fact, God condemns human self-righteousness. The publican who prayed for mercy received the righteousness of God and went home justified forever. But we must conclude that the Pharisee who gloried in his own righteousness went home condemned (Luke 18:9-14). The prodigal who confessed his sins to his father received his father’s best robe in place of his dirty rags (Luke 15:21-22). In the parable of the wedding banquet, the king noticed a poor beggar not wearing the freely provided wedding clothes. (PGM) This beggar stands for a self-righteous man who says, “I did it my way.” But he was tied hand and foot and thrown outside into the darkness of everlasting hell (Matt. 22:1-4).

Our own righteousness is utterly reprehensible before God. Paul writes, “Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Rom. 10:3). But in the gospel a righteousness from God, the perfect righteousness demanded by God, a right standing before God, the righteousness of Jesus Christ based on his perfect obedience to God’s law is revealed to meet our need. Away with our stinking, filthy rags, fig-leaf aprons, and dung righteousness! Come to God in Jesus Christ and receive the gift of righteousness from God (Rom. 5:17). So Paul says, “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19). God’s righteousness comes through the gospel as a gift to all naked, sinful, rotten people.

Paul, who understood correctly the difference between his self-righteousness and God’s righteousness, explains, “If anyone else thinks he has reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more.” After listing all his reasons, he concludes that he was “as for legalistic righteousness, faultless” (Phil. 3:4-6). Paul thought he was righteous! But then he had a revelation of God’s Son on the road to Damascus. He writes, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish [dung], that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from [my keeping] the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (Phil. 3:7-9). That is our need and the gospel contains this great gift that we need.

It is also a righteousness by which Abraham was justified. Paul asks, “What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness'” (Rom. 4:3). It was the righteousness by which David was justified: “David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. . . . ‘Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him'” (Rom. 4:6, 8). Our sin is not counted against us because it is counted against another-our mediator, substitute, and representative-Jesus Christ. It is also the righteousness by which the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk lived: “The righteous will live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4), a verse Paul quoted in Romans 1:17. It is the righteousness by which all Old Testament saints lived.

Luther first misunderstood this righteousness of God as revealed in Romans 1:17. He thought it was the righteous nature of God by which he justly punishes sinners that we read about in Romans 2:5: “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath when his righteous judgment will be revealed.” Luther did not see any good news in the gospel because of this misunderstanding. In fact, he hated Romans 1:17 because, he says, it blocked the way to paradise for him.

Yet as he studied the Habakkuk 2:4 quotation, Luther eventually saw Romans 1:17 as the gateway to paradise because he came to understand that it is speaking about a righteousness from God provided to us as a gift. So he writes, “For God does not want to save by our own [righteousness] but by an extraneous righteousness which does not originate in ourselves but comes to us from beyond ourselves, which does not arise on earth but comes from heaven.”¹ It is a iustitia aliena, an alien righteousness. It is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who fully obeyed God’s laws by his life and death. Jesus Christ lived for us, died for us, and lives for us. Paul says Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification (Rom. 4:25). Jesus Christ is our righteousness, sanctification, and glorification (1 Cor. 1:30).

Paul writes about the double transaction between elect sinners and Christ: “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Cor. 5:19). This is what David said: “Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him” (Ps. 32:2; Rom. 4:8). David understood his sins were not counted against him because of the bloody sacrifices offered at the temple. But for God to justify us justly, our sins must be punished because God is righteous. Paul then reveals against whom God counts our sins: “God made him [Jesus Christ] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ took our sins upon himself, not even that we might be righteous, but that we might become the righteousness of God. Here, then, we see the double imputation. The totality of my guilt and its punishment was put on him and into his account, and his perfect righteousness is imputed, put into my account.

Jesus is our atonement. His perfect righteousness is ours. We may have a hard time believing it, because we sin, falter, and fall. But it is a true declaration, that we are the righteousness of God. Believe it! God’s law can demand nothing more from Jesus, so it can demand nothing more from us.

The Perfect Righteousness of Christ

Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience to God. He told the Jews, “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him” (John 8:29). Then he asked, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” (John 8:46). No one can convict him of sin. When he came to John for water baptism, “John tried to deter him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you. Do you come to me?’ Jesus replied, ‘Let it be so now. It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness'” (Matt. 3:13). He told his disciples, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17).

Jesus came to do the will of his Father: “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: . . . ‘Here I am-It is written about me in the scroll-I have come to do your will, O God'” (Heb. 10:5, 7). He lived for us, he died for us, and he lives for us. Paul writes, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights as sons. . . . Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’ He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (Gal. 4:4; 3:13-14).

Not only did Christ keep the law, but he redeemed us from being under the law of sin and death. God in Christ liberated us. Having died to sin and law, we are no longer subject to them. We can sing, “Jesus thy blood and righteousness my beauty are, my glorious dress.” Arrayed in this iustitia aliena, we now can come into God’s presence. That is what the Lord’s Supper stands for. God demands a righteous standard, which he achieves for us through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.

The heart of the gospel, therefore, is what we really need. As unrighteous people, we need a righteous standing before a righteous God and God provides just that-an infinite, perfect everlasting righteousness of Jesus Christ that God accepts. Jesus is our righteousness.

We find this illustrated in the Old Testament in Zechariah 3, where we find a court scene. God the Father is the judge and the high priest Joshua stands before him. On Joshua’s right hand is Satan, accusing him before God, saying, “This one is unfit to make sacrifices because he is filthy and clothed in filthy clothes. Joshua is sinful, unclean, unrighteousness.” Though Satan is the father of lies, in this case he is telling the truth. But thank God, there is someone else standing by Joshua-it is the angel of the Lord. I believe he is our Lord Jesus Christ, the pre-incarnate Son of God, our advocate.

“Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Take off his filthy clothes.’ Then he said to Joshua, ‘See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you'” (Zech. 3:1-4). Here we see the double transaction. Joshua got rid of his filthy garments-all of his sin, guilt, punishment, and hell were taken off instantly. But that is not the only action. Joshua was clothed with clean, rich, glorious garments, which stand for the righteousness of God and right standing with him.

Then the angel said to Joshua: “Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come. I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. . . . I will remove the sin of this land in a single day” (Zech. 3:8, 9). Who is the Branch? God’s Son, who arrived in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. And on Good Friday, in one single day, by his death on the cross, Jesus Christ removed our sin.

The Lord called Joshua a burning stick snatched from the fire of God’s wrath (Zech. 3:2). God in Jesus Christ plucked us also out of the fire of his own wrath against us, took off our filthy clothes of sin, guilt, punishment, death, and hell, and put on us clean, rich, and glorious garments.

Isaiah 46 also speaks about this alien righteousness given to us in the gospel. The Lord says, “I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed” (Isa. 46:13). Without righteousness, there is no salvation. But whose righteousness and salvation are these? God’s. Look at the rest of the sentence: “I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel.” God grants his splendor, righteousness, and salvation to us gratis, and we have received it. And in Isaiah 62:1 he says, “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.” God’s righteousness in Jesus Christ comes to Zion like a blazing torch. Paul also writes of this: “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy to make her holy, cleansing by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish but holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:25-27). We are radiant, clothed in God’s righteousness and salvation.

The second illustration is found in Luke 18. There we see a Pharisee and a publican. The latter is a very wicked sinner who is convicted of his sin, yet he comes to the temple. Refusing to look up, he beats his breast under conviction of sin, at the same time exercising faith in God’s provision of propitiation. Then he cries out, “O God, be propitiatory to me. May my sins be atoned by a substitutionary sacrifice.” Jesus said he went home justified, clothed in an alien righteousness.

The Pharisee was clinging to his filthy rags and dung of self-righteousness and he went home condemned. But we are like the publican. We go home justified, walking, leaping, and praising God because our ins, guilt, punishment, judgment, hell, and death is gone.

If you do not understand this, ask God to give you understanding. When we open the gospel package, we find the most precious gem-the righteousness of God-which is exactly what every sinner needs. What must we do to appropriate it? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

¹ Martin Luther, Lectures on Romans, translated by Wilhem Pauck (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 4.