Romans 1:16-17 (NASB) - 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. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”
Paul is compelled to preach the Gospel because, as the text says, he is unashamed of the Gospel. Why though is he not ashamed? Where does the boldness like that come from? How is that Gospel so powerful?
v16b - for it is the power of God… It is the POWER OF GOD! The Gospel is the very POWER of God, for what? Unto salvation! Do you not see here how desperately sinful we are and how badly we need the forgiveness of the One who made us! Our situation is so hopeless that is takes the very POWER of God to save us. And the goodness of God is that He manifests that power on us to draw us to faith in Him!
The word power that Paul uses here is the Greek word dunamis. It is the same Greek word that we get the English word dynamite from. The Gospel carries with it the power of God to complete and accomplish God’s purpose for it to save sinners and sanctify them for Himself! All of it being for the Glory and Supremacy of GOD!
How amazing!!! No rational person should be ashamed of this! No true believer is ashamed of this! It is the news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ!
It is because of the manifestation of God’s power demonstrated through the Gospel that we can be brought back into a right relationship with God. We can be restored.
1 Corinthians 1:30 - But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
Paul was not ashamed, and neither should we be, because God showed him that the Gospel was about a REAL DELIVERANCE – from sin and its power and about reconciliation to God so that we could be saved from God’s wrath and God would be Glorifed.
Continuing on about the power of God seen in the Gospel…
v17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”
The righteousness of God is revealed in it! His righteousness is what is revealed. Because that is what is revealed about God it is apparent that righteousness is what is needed. In ourselves we are not the least bit righteous. We are corrupted by sin. To be saved from the wrath we need a righteousness that is of God’s own nature. A righteousness that comes from God and fully satisfies God’s demands for Holiness.
Folks, if you are in Christ, then this is what you have! A righteousness that has been provided by God to you through Jesus Christ as a free gift!
1 John 2:1-2 - My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
JESUS CHRIST IS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD REVEALED! HE IS WHAT WE NEED! Do you get that! Do you see that! Does that move you in any way at all?!? Does it even give you pause to contemplate and rejoice in the mercy of God shown to a wretched sinner such as yourself, such as myself… It should…
No comments:
Post a Comment