The Glory of the Gospel

Imagine yourself living on a third floor apartment in
a big city. It’s mid-morning. You’re enjoying
the start of a new week. All is quiet, except for the
faint noise of the bustling street below. You have your coffee. Soft music is playing. It’s a
great day. But suddenly there’s a strange
thump at your window and commotion with it. As you move to investigate,
the firefighter is just making his way to the top of the ladder.
Your building is on fire. Under normal circumstances, there’s
likely no way you’re climbing out onto a three-story ladder. that this is life or death. There’s
a raging inferno below you and you had no idea. Most people
in the world are in just such a state. They don’t even know
that they’re in peril. They don’t know what jeopardy
their sin has put them in or their need of a savior. You may
offer them help and hope, But until they know their desperate
condition, they are indifferent to any assistance that is offered. The Apostle Paul knows this.
And rather than simply offering help, like the good firefighter,
he also tells of the disaster that we are facing. He tells
of the good news, the gospel, but he also informs of the urgent
need. We resume our overview of Romans
in chapter one this morning. And so if God’s people would
begin to turn their Romans chapter one. And as we reviewed the early,
the introductory portion of this letter last week, I’d like us
to pick up this morning in verse 13, where we left off. Paul,
as you know, has long desired to minister in this large and
important city. And thus far, God has had other
plans for Paul. He has repeatedly redirected
his steps. And it is against that backdrop
that we take the remainder of chapter one. And I do not want you to be unaware,
brethren, that often I have planned to come to you and have been
prevented thus far, in order that I might obtain some fruit
among you, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under
obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise
and to the foolish. Thus, for my part, I am eager
to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome, 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. 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. For the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness because that
which is known about God is evident within them. For God made it
evident to them. For, since the creation of the
world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine
nature, have been clearly seen being understood through what
has been made, so that they are without an excuse. For even though
they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but
they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory
of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible
man and of birds and of four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Therefore, God gave them over in the loss of their hearts to
impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them, for
they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. and worshiped and
served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.
Amen. For this reason, God gave them
over to degrading passions. For their women exchanged the
natural function for that which is unnatural. And in the same
way also, the men abandoned the natural function of the woman
and burned in their desire toward one another. Men with men committing
indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty
of their error. And just as they did not see
fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved
mind to do those things which are not proper, being filled
with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, malice. They are gossips, slanderers,
Haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil,
disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy,
unloving, unmerciful, and although they know the ordinance of God
that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they
not only do the same, but give hearty approval to those who
practice them. Well, Paul’s desire to visit
Rome was a noble one. He didn’t intend a sightseeing
adventure. His desire was to go to this
massive, diverse, spiritually needy place to preach the gospel. That’s who Paul is. That’s what
Paul does. And he begins the first section
of his letter by declaring his intentions. His soul and passionately
held aim is to preach the gospel there, to proclaim and to teach
the good news about salvation in Christ. What Paul lays out
in the opening paragraph of this section is the glories of the
gospel, magnificent features of the good news of salvation.
Paul had good intentions, verse 13, he planned, But the Lord providentially redirected
his steps. He has prevented Paul from going
to Rome. In verse 14, Paul reiterates
his goal clearly enough. And as the apostle to the Gentiles,
Paul desires to impart good news to them in Rome. And then in
verse 15. In verse 15, Paul expresses a
positive hope that the Lord will allow him to fulfill this dream.
Even in spite of God’s repeated challenges to his plans, Paul
sustains his desire to minister there in Rome. Far from letting
go of his plan, His enthusiasm for the desire is not dampened.
He says he was eager to preach the gospel there to those who
are in Rome. Paul cannot even mention the
subject, gospel, without a heartfelt expression of joy. This is how
he does it here. Truly, he was not ashamed of
the gospel. The statement hardly needed to
be made. Of course, Paul was not ashamed
of the gospel. The gospel, after all, was good
news imparted by God to sinful humanity, news of his wonderful
plan of redemption. The plan was conceived by God
in eternity past. From the moment of God, from
the moment of the fall of Adam and Eve, God has begun implementing
this plan of redemption. God is actively working to save
people. The most glorious element of
this good news is that God sent his own son, who took on human
flesh, ultimately to die on the cross as a payment for the sin
of the world. He was buried and raised on the
third day, and that sacrifice secured forgiveness and eternal
life for all who repent of their sin and place their faith alone
in Christ for salvation. And all of it, this entire gospel
is to the glory of God. This is God’s plan. And so, of
course, Paul was not ashamed of it. And it wasn’t as if Paul
were shy or timid, reserved. or that he was afraid of violating
some social norm. The reason that Paul made this
statement is that he was not ashamed of the gospel because
it was sadly not true for many others who were ashamed of the
gospel. Indeed, it’s true. even today,
that there are many who are ashamed of the gospel. Paul knew that
most people scoffed at the message of the gospel. The gospel, after
all, excludes all human effort. It severely addresses our sin. It demands repentance from sin
and faith alone in Christ alone. It’s not a popular message. And
Paul explained to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 1.23,
to the Jewish nation, the gospel was a stumbling block. And to
the Gentile world, it was foolishness. Those harsh opinions of the message
would cause most people to blush with shame, not Paul. Both then and now, many people
find many things to be ashamed about the gospel. that its Savior
was an obscure carpenter’s son, that the whole idea that mankind
was so sinful in need of a Savior, that Jesus had to come and to
atone for sinners by dying on a cross, that the Savior of this
so-called gospel died on a tree, that salvation is only by faith
in that Savior. Well, elements like that rendered
the gospel rather unpopular in people’s ears. that Paul believed
that God had sent forth his own son to take on human flesh, to
live a perfectly sinful life, to die on the cross in atonement
for the sin of the world, to be buried and raised again on
the third day, that sacrifice was secured by, that sacrifice
secured forgiveness and eternal life for all who repent in their
sin and place their faith in Christ. It’s the glorious gospel
of Christ, and Paul was not ashamed of it. Not only was Paul not
ashamed, but he was so grateful and confident that in the gospel,
he issues here one of the most powerful endorsements of the
gospel in all of his writings. It’s a series here of four explanatory
statements, each of which highlights a special aspect of the gospel
of Christ. four magnificent features of
the good news of salvation. Let’s look at them one by one. Well, I want to look at the glory
of the gospel, these magnificent features of the good news of
salvation, and the first of which is that the gospel displays God’s
saving might. The gospel displays God’s saving
might if you just glance at verse 16. Paul says, for I am not ashamed
of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation in
everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
The first of these four great descriptions of the gospel we
find in verse 16. It’s actually a description of
the initial statement that Paul makes there. It provides the
reason or the explanation about why Paul is not ashamed of the
gospel. The first magnificent feature
of the gospel here is that Paul mentions refers to the saving
energy, if you will, that it presents God’s saving might,
the power of God for salvation. Paul unequivocally declares that
the gospel is no weak or foolish message. It is divinely powerful
to save. God’s good news to mankind is
backed by God’s own omnipotence. No wonder Paul’s not ashamed
of the gospel. It exhibits God’s overwhelming
might, even over a deadened sinner’s soul. Paul, of course, had come
to know this reality in his own life first, but he had subsequently
learned of many others touched by the power of the gospel, a
man named Ananias first, and then Barnabas, and countless
others. But further still, Paul would
begin to witness the power of the gospel in saving others as
well as he preached. Paul likewise assured the Corinthian
believers that While those who are perishing in their sin mock
the gospel as foolish, those who are being saved, it is the
power of God. Writing to the Thessalonian church,
Paul commended those believers because the gospel had come to
them in power and in the Holy Spirit with full conviction. The gospel displays the omnipotence
of God. As the prophet Jeremiah put it
in 32.7, ah, Lord God, behold, you have made the heavens and
the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm.
Nothing is too difficult for you. God can save even you, even
me. God lacks no resources for accomplishing
his will. We cannot add to this power,
nor can we stand against it. We cannot, and by our own resources,
we are powerless to secure our own salvation. But God has the
power. God has the power to create and
sustain, to save and to condemn. He is Almighty God. Who but God
could breathe spiritual life into a dead sinner and bring
them to salvation? If God by his Spirit does not
enliven us and make us mindful of our sin and our need of a
Savior, then we remain doomed. Salvation is a result of the
exercise of divine power. And this salvation is not only
for one people or creed. Paul says that it is as much
for the Gentiles, the heathen, the godless, as much as it is
for the most devout Jews. Every tribe and tongue and people
and nation. As the book of Revelation says
it, as Paul says here, he reiterates it in chapter 10, verse 11, whoever
believes in him will not be disappointed. Whoever will call on the name
of the Lord will be saved. And so the first thing that we
see about the gospel, the first magnificent feature that it displays
God’s power. Secondly, it extends God’s perfect
righteousness. We find this in verse 17, for
in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith
as it is written, the righteous man shall live by faith. The
second magnificent feature this extension by God of his
own perfect righteousness. What Paul is doing here in verse
17 is explaining the illuminating statement of verse 16. Verse
17 tells us how exactly the gospel reveals God’s power. The gospel
exercises God’s power to save because it gives the sinner what
he or she needs most. the righteousness of God. This
righteousness in its most basic sense, we understand, is right
conduct, conforming to a moral standard. But this quality is that which we as sinners lack
most. We read last week, there is none
righteous. We have no righteousness of our
own. And yet this is exactly what God demands in order to
have a right relationship with Him. We are inherently sinful. And in our natural state, we
are anything but righteous, nor do we have any spiritual capability
of developing such righteousness. In fact, if we could be saved
at the earliest age, say two years of age, to understand the
gospel and place our faith in Christ, we could live another
hundred years being sanctified little by little, and still we
would not achieve moral perfection. That comes when we come into
glory. This is a different kind of righteousness here. Paul says
that it is the righteousness of God, the righteousness which
God alone possesses in perfection. It’s the righteousness of which
he is the author and the giver. It is the righteousness that
can only be received by faith. Not by keeping our moral standard
of some sort, nor even the very law of God. This is what Paul
asserts here when he says this righteousness is from faith to
faith. It can only be received by faith,
and begun by faith, it launches the child of God onto a life
of faith. Glance again at verse 17, where
Paul quotes Habakkuk 2.4, the righteous man shall live by faith. Whoever wishes to enjoy a restored
relationship with God does so by the faith that provides God’s
perfect righteousness. God’s righteousness is a gift.
It’s bestowed upon those who seek it by faith. And in that
sense, it is a declared righteousness. And when God bestows this righteousness,
it is instantaneous. It’s complete. It’s final. It cannot be improved upon. It
cannot be squandered along life’s way. This righteousness is a
declared righteousness, an imputed or bestowed righteousness. This is the fulfillment of that
wonderful statement in 2 Corinthians 5 21. He, that is God, made Him, that
is Christ, who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that
we might become the righteousness of God in Him. For the person
who places their faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ, God declares
them righteous. It’s Christ’s own righteousness
that God now sees. Theology refers to this whole
transaction as justification. Justification by faith. And it
is that doctrine which the Reformers referred to as the chief article. This is what the Reformation
was all about. If you will, the main point,
the article by which the church stands or falls. This is it.
This is the foundation. This justification by God comes
only to those who place their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation
and faith alone in Christ alone. And so as we ponder the glory
of the gospel, we see that the gospel not only displays God’s
saving might, it extends to sinners God’s own perfect righteousness. But thirdly, the gospel answers
God’s just wrath. And we find this feature in verses
18 and 19. As I mentioned at the outset,
Paul is providing a series of explanations here. And this explanation
in verses 18 and 19 is the balance, if you will, to Paul’s statement
in verse 17, that the righteousness of God is revealed, made manifest. From this verse we see just how
grand a statement that is. The righteousness of God is revealed
because the wrath of God is revealed. Paul’s intention here in verses
18 and 19 is to remind us of the absolute peril that we are
in by nature. We were born into it because
of the sin of Adam and Eve, and outside of faith in Jesus Christ,
we remain in that sinful condition. Harkening back to our opening
illustration, the building is on fire. We lack that righteousness,
which is essential for a right relationship with God, and we
are exposed to and remain under God’s wrath. The word that Paul uses here
can be translated as anger, indignation, vengeance, or as it is here,
wrath. Wrath speaks of God’s venting
of his anger against sin and sinners. The word only is used
five times in the Gospels, fewer than 10 times outside of Paul’s
writings. But here in Romans, Paul employs
this word 12 times. In a sense, we can think of Romans
as the epistle of wrath. The letter to Romans is Paul’s
most thorough treatment of the wrath of God. And what he pictures
here is that all of sinful humanity is standing beneath the just,
that is, righteous wrath of God. We as Christians, we tend to
shy away from even mentioning this attribute of God as if it’s
unworthy of Him to get angry. We cannot even begin to understand
God’s wrath apart from His holiness. Once we begin to get a glimpse
of how holy God is, how completely separated He is from sin, then
we begin to understand why He would express this character quality of wrath.
God in His purity and in His complete freedom from sin detests
sin and unrighteousness. He detests it in His very being. So when God exercises his anger,
it is not unjust or shameful. God’s anger is not like our own,
unpredictable, unhinged, capricious, unchecked. God is not unreasonable
or short-tempered. Any anger that God feels and
any wrath that he expresses is completely well-deserved. Paul evenly and directly tells
us that the wrath of God is revealed and there will certainly be one
day a great outpouring of God’s wrath in the future. Scripture,
Paul included, speaks of a day of wrath, an overwhelming expression
of God’s anger at the end of the age, Ephesians 5, 6 speaks
of it as future. The wrath of God comes upon the
sons of disobedience. Colossians 3, 6 is even more
clear. Because of these things, the
wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience. First Thessalonians
1, 10 warns of the wrath of God to come. And in Revelation, it’s
spoken over and over as future. But God has displayed his wrath
in measure since his dealing with Adam and Eve in the garden.
The flood of Noah’s day, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,
the plagues against Pharaoh in the Egypt, even against the nation
of Israel itself, God has displayed his wrath. History and God’s
own prophets speak of a steady, even if intermittent, exercise
of God’s righteous anger. And look, if you would, at the
targets of the wrath of God right there in the middle of
verse 18. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Paul employs two words
here to describe these deserving recipients. Ungodliness refers
first of all to irreverence toward God, just a faulty attitude towards
a holy God. Unrighteousness speaks of sinful
rebellion against God’s laws, kind of an outgrowth. of that
ungodliness. Such sinners are just, deserving
recipients of God’s wrath. And so when Paul says in this
first sentence of verse 19, what is known about God is evident
within them, he means that every person ever born knows without
any doubt that there is a God. You might meet somebody from
time to time that says, I don’t believe in God. It does not matter. It’s not as if God has left humanity
ignorant of himself. He has revealed himself to them. He has made it evident to them,
Paul says, it’s not that sinners are ignorant of God. He has revealed
himself to everyone who has ever been born. They know of His power. They know of His nature. God
has made it evident to them and evident within them. In their
hearts, in their minds, they know. They know that God exists
and they know what He’s like. They know because God has revealed
it to them. The problem is not that they
don’t know about God. The problem is that they suppress
that knowledge. They hold it down. Their knowledge
and awareness of God’s existence and character overwhelms their
conscience. They know right from wrong. And
they know what God thinks of their deeds. They know what peril
they’re in because of it. But instead of looking to the
Savior and repenting of their sin, they do everything in their
power to try to dull or kill their conscience. They suppress
not only God’s standards, but even the very idea and existence
of God. They know about God, but they
suppress that knowledge of him. This is why God expresses his
wrath. They smother the very idea of
God. They repress it to the point
of doubt. And so the gospel is God’s provision,
God’s answer to the outpouring of God’s wrath. As I told you
at the outset, there were four magnificent features of the gospel.
We come to the fourth in verse 20. Not only does the wrath, does, pardon
me, not only does the glory of the gospel display God’s saving
might, extend God’s perfect righteousness, answer God’s just wrath, but
fourthly, it confirms God’s divine disclosure. Would you look at
verse 20? For since the creation of the
world, his invisible attributes as eternal power and divine nature
have been clearly seen being understood through what has been
made, so that they are without excuse. Here in verse 20, Paul
offers an explanation for that final statement that he makes
in verse 19, that God has made the knowledge of himself evident
to all people. Here he says, in defense of that
claim, that God’s invisible attributes, his power and his divine nature
have been clearly seen. And this has been the case for a
long, long time, Paul says, since the creation of the world. How
is it that God does this? How is it that God has made himself
known? How is it that we clearly see
his invisible attributes? Paul tells us plainly that they
are visible, clearly seen, by observing the world that God
has created. From the very opening chapter
of Scripture, we gather that everything in the world was created.
It was already in existence before God even created mankind. Puritan
Thomas Watson put it this way, to imagine that the work of creation
was not framed by God is as if we could conceive a curious landscape
to be drawn by a pencil without the hand of an artist. Creation
was God’s initial revelation of himself. But that divine disclosure
It continues to pour forth every minute of every day. All you
have to do is look. There’s a consistent stream of
testimony by God’s providence in sustaining His creation. Every
person ever born knows about God just by experiencing the
world that He created. Regarding this revelation of
himself, Paul uses an intentional play on words here. This is just
fascinating. He speaks of his invisible attributes
and then says that they’ve been clearly seen. It’s almost an
oxymoron, a deliberate paradox. God has made the unseen visible. God has fully and clearly revealed
himself to creation by his creation. And when Paul says invisible
attributes, he points specifically here to his eternal power and
divine nature. All we have to do is look. The
first of these, eternal power, tells us that God is almighty.
This is not just the power that God exercised at the creation
of the world, but the power that He exercises every minute in
sustaining His creation. The second description, divine
nature, refers to all that God is in His being. If you will,
it’s His godness. It tells us that He is God, that
He is all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing. He is sovereign
and holy. God has made this information
about himself plainly evident to all humanity. Does someone desire to know about
God? All he has to do is open his
eyes. Everywhere he turns and everything he observes presents
to him the glorious self-revelation of God himself. Paul reiterates,
that God’s nature and his character is observable. He says near the
end of verse 20 that it is understood through what has been made. Psalm
19 lays this out very clearly to us. Psalm 19, just the first
two verses. The heavens are telling of the
glory of God. Look up at the stars. Look at the sun, the moon,
the sky. Watch the weather patterns as
they flow through. The heavens are telling of the
glory of God. and their expanse is declaring the work of his
hands. This is God’s creation on display for all to see. Day
to day pours forth speech. Night to night reveals knowledge.
It’s there. There’s no obscurity. God is
clearly seen, understood through what has been made. There’s nothing
left to doubt. There’s nothing mysterious or
unknown. He’s presented himself to such
a degree that every person stands accountable to him. Every person
is without excuse for at least an understanding, a basic belief
that God exists. Even in the most desolate jungle,
missionaries often speak of tribes always have some idea of a God
and an afterlife. No one’s ever told them this
information. This is something that they know intuitively. Anyone
who thinks otherwise is without excuse. No one can ever show
up to heaven and wag their finger at God because he didn’t reveal
himself to them. And speaking to people, we don’t
have to prove the existence of God. Because deep in their hearts,
they know. They know there’s a God. And
they know because he has revealed himself to them in his creation,
in his word, in his son, the Lord Jesus. So the gospel confirms
God’s divine disclosure. A moment ago, we spoke about
the outpouring of God’s wrath And I’ll just tell you, to date,
the greatest demonstration of God’s wrath that the world has
ever seen took place when Jesus was placed on the cross. There, the wrath of God was poured
out in full on our Savior. Jesus Christ bore the full measure
of God’s wrath for you, for me, for sinners. So once again, we
come back to the glorious gospel of Christ. The greatest motive
for sharing the good news about salvation by faith in Jesus alone
is that it displays God’s power. It offers God’s perfect righteousness. It answers God’s just wrath. And it confirms God’s divine
disclosure. The gospel of Christ is the sinner’s
only hope. Would you humble yourself before
him? Oh merciful God, those of us
who only by your grace have been saved, we know this. We remember that moment. Following the regeneration, the
bringing to spiritual life by your spirit, we saw our sin for
what it was and we hated it. And we knew immediately we were
in peril. The building was on fire. Lord, and we knew that
without some help, some savior, that we were doomed. And in that
moment, you showed to us our Lord Jesus Christ, who had already
paid for our sin on the cross. Father, how could we but place
our faith in him, our only help, our only hope? Father, we thank
you for the salvation that we have come to enjoy. We thank
you that it was not of us, it was not by our deeds, not by
our church attendance, not by our giving, not by our sacrifices,
not by our family name. It was only because of our faith
in Jesus Christ alone. Lord God, we humble ourselves
before you and we rejoice in the salvation that you have provided.
Lord God, because of that, we come before you and we plead
for anyone in the room, young person, older person, we plead
for anyone in the room who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ
as their Savior. Father, we pray that you would
so move in their hearts, open their eyes to their sin. Let
them know of the conflagration in the floors below. Let them
know of the only hope for sinners is what Jesus Christ accomplished
on the cross. Father, I pray that you would
have your way with each one of them. Bring them to salvation,
Father, for your glory. Lord, as we draw near to this
Lord’s table, we thank you for what it represents. It is not
the means of salvation. It is not even the means of securing
and sealing grace. It is our recognition and remembrance
of what Christ has accomplished on our behalf. Lord, we rejoice
to celebrate this Lord’s table. We pray these things in Jesus’
name. Amen.