Romans 1:16-17
16 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 for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
Paul declares that he is not ashamed of the Gospel, in fact, he is eager to preach to them the Gospel. He gives a few reasons why that is.
First, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. I will argue in my message on Sunday that salvation is more than just a one-time declaration that God has indeed forgiven the person who through faith turned to Christ for salvation. While this is indeed true of a follower of Jesus, the righteousness of God that is revealed in the Gospel is at work in the life of a believer to transform him or her into the image of Christ. This is why the Paul uses present tense language in other letters to describe God present work in saving the believer (1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 2:15). There are two reasons I argue that Paul has this extended understanding of salvation in mind. 1. The purpose of this book is to bring about an obedience that springs from faith (Rom. 1:5). So Paul is not just writing this letter so that people will be converted, but that their practice would come from a right understanding of the Gospel of God, which reveals His righteousness. 2. Paul clearly speaks of his eagerness to preach the Gospel to these believers in Rome and that their faith would be strengthen by that preaching (Rom. 1:11-15). If salvation only meant the onetime declaration that their sins were forgiven through the death and resurrection of Christ, then why is Paul eager to preach the Gospel to believers? However, it does make sense why he would be eager to preach the Gospel to them, if in fact, salvation meant more than just a one time declaration. I want to be clear. The Gospel clearly teaches that at the point when a person places his or her faith in Jesus, he or she is declared righteous by God based on the merits of Christ's death and resurrection alone. In other words, we do not start a journey toward salvation, but are in fact declared to be saved. Yet the righteousness of God is at work in the life of a believer. It is transforming us into the image of Christ. This is why Paul says in Philippians 2:12-13 that believers should "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." This means that the Gospel is very relevant to us who are believers because it reveals a righteousness that ultimately transforms our lives.
Second, it reveals a righteousness from God. I want to explore two phrases in this verse that are critical for you to understand if are to grasp what Paul is going to argue throughout the rest of the book. First is the phrase, “righteousness of God”. What is the meaning of this phrase? Some argue that it is a reference to an attribute of God, namely his justice. God is righteous in his character and therefore righteous in His dealings with people. This is what some would say is the meaning of this phrase. This is how Martin Luther initially understood this phrase, and I want to read you what he said as he wrestled with this verse.
“At first I clearly saw that the free grace of God is absolutely necessary to attain to light and eternal life; and I anxiously and busily worked to understand the word of Paul in Rom. 1:17: The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel. I questioned this passage for a long time and labored over it, for the expression ‘righteousness of God’ barred my way. This phrase was customarily explained to mean that the righteousness of God is a virtue by which He is Himself righteous and condemns sinners. In this way all the teachers of the church except Augustine had interpreted the passage. They had said: The righteousness of God, that is, the wrath of God. But as often as I read this passage, I wished that God had never revealed the Gospel; for who could love a God who was angry, who judged and condemned people?”
-Martin Luther
Is it true that God is righteous? Yes! Indeed in His righteousness we see our own condemnation but that is hardly good news. Luther recognized this. Is there another way that this phrase can be understood? Yes! As a matter of fact, most scholars understand this phrase to mean that the Gospel has revealed “a righteousness of God”. Meaning that God has revealed to humanity in the Gospel a righteousness that He graciously bestows upon them through faith. This is how Martin Luther finally understood that phrase, and here is what he wrote about that discovery.
“Then finally God had mercy on me, and I began to understand that the righteousness of God is a gift of God by which a righteous man lives, namely faith, and that sentence: The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel, is passive, indicating that the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ Now I felt as though I had been reborn altogether and had entered Paradise. In the same moment the face of the whole of Scripture became apparent to me.”
- Martin Luther
I agree with Luther, but I think both are true. I believe that the Gospel implicitly reveals the righteousness of God but explicitly reveals a righteous of God. Here is what this means. It means the righteousness of God’s character must condemn unrighteous people, unless there is a way for unrighteous people to be somehow made righteous. Unrighteous people cannot make themselves righteous, that is clear from the Scriptures, so God sent His righteous Son, who satisfied the wrath and justice of God through His death and resurrection, so that unrighteous people can be declared righteous people. Hear what Paul says in
2 Cor. 5:21 “For our sake he made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
This is why the Gospel is worth preaching to others and it is worth preaching to ourselves!
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