I. The Gospel Is God’s Power To Save V. 16
A. The Gospel Is God’s Method To Save People
1. 16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation…
2. God chose to use the Gospel to save people.
3. Not just the spoken message, but the events that the message speaks of.
4. The Gospel could be defined as the comprehensive and overwhelming presence and involvement of God with a person who has accepted God’s pardon through Christ.
4. Power- dunamis- Kenneth Wuest on dunamis…
5. dunamis- natural ability, inherent power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or, power which a person or thing exerts or puts forth. The gospel is the inherent, omnipotent power of God operating in the salvation of a lost soul that accepts it.
6. Power of God- The Gospel is not the creation of man or the church. It originates with God, and is the power of God. Also translated a power of God, power from God.
a. W.H. Griffith Thomas- “(Christianity) is not merely an ideal or an ethic, though it possesses both, but in addition and primarily it is a dynamic which enables us to realize the ideal and produce the ethic. Nothing short of the power of God can suffice to make even one Christian. God’s gift of Christ as the atonement, His love, His grace, His Spirit, are all needed to transform the sinner into a Believer”.
7. Salvation- Includes deliverance, equipping, safety. Covers the past, present, future.
a. Lenski- “The act of delivering from mortal danger and the resultant condition of safety”.
b. Justification before God- a particular event that was/is initiated at a certain point in time. Deals with a past action that places the sinner in right standing with God.
c. “Being saved”- that continued process where salvation in all of its aspects is being worked out in the life of the Christian.
i. 1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
ii. The Christian can say, “I was saved, I am being saved, I shall be saved”.
iii. Saved from the penalty, the power, and the presence of sin.
iv. Includes justification, sanctification, and glorification.
B. Salvation Is Appropriated (Gotten Hold Of) By Believing The Gospel
for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
1. There is only one condition required of man: Man must believe.
2. Believing the Gospel is what allows a person to be saved/affected by God’s power.
3. To believe also means to obey the Gospel, to submit to the Gospel.
4. W. H. Griffith Thomas- “Faith is the acknowledgment of our own inability, and of Another’s ability. Faith includes intellectual perception and spiritual reception, the assent of the mind and the consent of the heart”.
C. Offered As A Universal Remedy For All Peoples
1. “To the Jew first…”- God first revealed Himself to the Jews. (See Romans 3:1)
2. The Gospel message is for all people groups and all people. None excluded.
3. Christianity is not language specific, culture specific, geography specific, or ethnically specific. It holds no prejudices. It is universally offered, and is universally effective.
II. It Reveals God’s Righteousness Through Faith V. 17
A. The Gospel Reveals The Righteousness Of God
17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed…
1. Righteousness- Conformity to right. That which God is, has, and gives. It is the righteousness that God is in Himself, and provides in Christ.
2. The Gospel reveals God’s righteousness, his perfect holiness, and of man’s sinfulness and failure.
3. The Gospel reveals that God is righteous, that He does the right(eous) thing, and that He has a plan whereby people may be made righteous.
4. The Gospel provides God’s righteousness for the believing sinner. Because Jesus went to the cross, sin could be forgiven and right standing with God could be made available
5. The Gospel bestows God’s righteousness, when the sinner comes to God in faith.
6. W. H. Griffith Thomas- “…in all ages, the great controversy has been whether men will endeavor to establish their own righteousness, or submit to God’s; whether they will endeavor to put themselves right, or let God do it for them”.
B. The Righteousness Of God Is Revealed From Faith To Faith
from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
NIV- “…a righteousness that is by faith from first to last…”
1. This can also be translated, “By faith, the just(ified) shall live”.
a. The sinner becomes justified by his initial coming to God in faith.
b. By faith, he receives the righteousness of God. It is credited to him.
c. By faith, all his days, he continues to trust God for all things, and the righteousness (rightness) of God is revealed to him, gifted to him, acted out for him.
d. The sinner is made righteous by faith, only stays righteous by faith; never by works.
2. “from faith to faith”- by faith from beginning to end
3. There is an initial revealing of the righteousness of God when one first believes the Gospel.
4. Righteousness is continually revealed; it is received by faith; it continually depends on faith; it produces faith; it ends in faith.
5. The righteousness of God is far more than justification. It includes this, but it embraces everything necessary replace man in the position, character, and sphere of a righteous person.
6. Throughout the life of the Christian, there are continued revelations of the righteousness of God as we believe and continue to believe throughout out life.
a. 2 Corinthians 2:15, 16 15For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?
b. 2 Corinthians 3:18 18But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.