The Righteousness That God Provides In the Gospel: Part 1

Romans 1:16-17 and the Gospel’s Power and Righteousness

To this wonderful text, Romans chapter 1, a wonderful book, Romans chapter 1, we'll be looking at verses 16 and 17, this Lord's Day morning, and the next, and the next. And I'm looking forward to this, really, it's glorious.

We're talking about the gospel here, and the gospel never ever gets old. The gospel never ever gets old. So hear the word of God with me, as the Apostle Paul, under the breath of God, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that's what it means, as he speaks this wonderful text from verse 16 and verse 17, and we'll look at these two great verses, and we're going to break this down for the next two Lord's Days for sure, and I'm going to kind of swing my text to another verse of scripture from the Gospel of Matthew on the third series, as we look at the righteousness that Jesus provides, that he came to fulfill all righteousness.

So hear God's word. The Apostle Paul says this, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek, and this wonderful verse here, verse 17, that sparked Luther, for in it, in the gospel, in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, and he's quoting from an Old Testament verse that's actually, it's found three times in scripture here, and also in Habakkuk, and Hebrews, shows you how important this verse is.

The just shall live by faith, amen, isn't that great? Let's go to God in prayer, as we ask again his blessing. Our Father in heaven, we come to you to hear your word this morning, and we're thankful that you've given us ears to hear, and Jesus, your son, said it, he that has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says.

And Father, we would pray that your word would so penetrate our hearts this morning that we would be able to understand and perceive, because we cannot do this within ourselves. Father, I would pray also to save us from apathy, Lord, of being cold and familiar, or should I say over-familiar with this glorious truth that we're about to look at.

Father, we've read it so many times, and sometimes we think, well, Lord, we know this, but we would pray, Lord, give us fresh eyes to see Jesus, give us ears to hear what the Spirit would say to us. Father, we've read this text and this word many, many times, we've heard it preached on and we've heard it explained many times, but Father, we would pray, Lord, come in your mighty power today through your holy word, because there is much power in your word, that we would have the fresh eyes to see and behold the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ, because he is the gospel.

Father, it's all about you, it's your person, it's about the Father and it's about the Son and it's about the Holy Spirit. So Father, we would throw ourselves on you as we, within this hour, worship you in your word and to hear it, to be attentive, to give us understanding and give us ears to hear what you would have to say and transform us, Lord.

That's the purpose of hearing your word. As you speak to our hearts, change us, oh Lord, I would pray, change us more to be like.

Jesus.

Transform us, Lord, amaze us, surprise us. Lord, we just sit back as children, as listening to the Master speak to us and Lord, we would just open our mouths and you would feed us. So we pray this in Jesus' mighty name and for his sake and for his glory, amen and amen.

Paul, Luther, and the Righteousness of God

What here in this text before us, the Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, has just greeted the Christians in Rome and he's given thanks to God, you could see this in the first part of chapter 1, he gives thanks to God.

He's told them of his desire to come to visit them. So we see in his prayers, he's giving thanks, what a wonderful pattern that we can see in the Apostle Paul as being one of the greatest Christians that ever lived and no doubt one of the greatest theologians.

And he told them his desire to come to visit them, incidentally that prayer, the Apostle was answered because probably not in the way he thought it would be, he actually came to visit the church in Rome but it was as a prisoner in chains.

So you must always be careful the way you pray, God can't answer those prayers but not always in the way that you think. After all, Isaiah says God's ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts so God's going to do things the way he sees best and he deems best.

Have you testified of that? I have many a time and it's wonderful because I sit back in amazement, God I said your way is always best and Jesus does all things well. Even though we plan it out, God is the one that is, he's marked it by his providence exactly the way it should be.

And sometimes we think, wow, I wouldn't have done it that way but if you look back, God's way is always best, always best. And here, he comes as a prisoner, isn't that amazing? He comes in chains. And now having said in verse 14, notice verse 14, he says, I'm a debtor, I'm a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.

So Paul's in debt because of what Jesus has done for him. And then in our text before us, verses 16 and 17, he goes on to express the gospel of Jesus Christ that he so desires for them to believe. He had such a passion, don't you love Paul's passion?

He had such persuasion to proclaim the gospel to those that needed to hear it. We need that kind of passion, that kind of persuasion. He was constrained, he says the love of Christ constrains him but he's persuaded because of the terror of the Lord, that's what he said.

So he desires for them to believe the gospel. Now, as I was studying this, I'm indebted to Derek Thomas for this. Derek Thomas said this, now Martin Luther, we'll go a little further down the ages of Christian history, the German reformer that was so aware of in the year 1545, he, Luther was to die, by the way, in 1546.

So this is a year before he died, at the end of his life. He is writing a preface to the publication of the Latin works that he wrote. And as he thinks about this preface, he's thinking back over 25 years or so of how God used him and how God employed him in changing the face of Europe and the world eventually with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And as he begins to write this preface, he begins to remind himself and his readers that it all began in this chapter of Romans, chapter 1, with the verses of scripture that I've read to you. And because as Martin Luther read these verses, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed, or as Luther would read it in his translation in the Latin Bible, the justice of God is revealed.

It's really interchangeable, it's the same thing. God's righteousness is God's justice. So the original would read the justice of God. And it is revealed in the gospel. And as he writes in his preface, he came to hate the righteousness of God.

You wouldn't think that, but this is what he says. The righteousness of God, God's justice was something that he hated. He hated it because for Martin Luther it was something that condemned him. Now I want you to know he's on the right path.

Because first of all, he saw God's frown constantly. No matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried, no matter what self-denial that he would engage in, he even tormented his physical body, he wanted to please God but no matter what he did, he could not please God.

All he could see was God's frown. And still, a lot of people need to be in this position because you don't have people now mocking God and scoffing God. But here Luther had a desire, as the Apostle Paul did too, to please God in everything that he did.

So the righteousness, the justice of God would always condemn him. No matter what he did, he always saw this. His concept of God, as he learned in the early Roman Catholic Church and as he studied as a monk, his concept of God was always seeing God as a judge, dark, condemning him to hell.

And as he says this, and as he writes this, I quote his exact words here. He says, I began to hate, these are his words, I began to hate the righteousness, the justice of God until, until he saw for the first time that the righteousness of God, now listen to this, the righteousness of God demands a righteousness that he provides in the Gospel.

That's the transition. That is the, but now, the righteousness of God. We saw that last week. That was when God broke through. That's when the light broke through. And that is when he saw for the first time, it was like, as he says this, he pens this word, quote, it was like the opening of the gates of paradise.

Luther was born again. He was a religious man all those years under the Augustinian order as a monk, studying to be a monk, a priest. And they gave him, one of the fathers says, well, we want to send you away to study the word of God.

And this is when he, when he started studying God's word. In Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, the Holy Spirit broke through supernaturally. Isn't that the way it is? We don't know how it happens, but as Jesus said, it's like the wind blows.

You can't see it, but you can see, eventually, the effects of it. The wind is effective, but you can't see the wind. We just had a hurricane in Panama City and Mexico Beach, and it was devastating, wasn't.

It?

Powerful wind. Well, let me say this. That power of the hurricane is nothing compared to the power of God's word. Because the breath of God is right here. It has the power to transform a hard, sinful heart, transform it where everything becomes.

New.

All things become new. Even the power of creation cannot compare to what God can do in the human heart. Isn't that amazing? But the Apostle Paul, his supreme passion was to see men born again, to see men saved, to see men repent.

And he cared nothing for his personal comfort. He never cared for his own popularity. Unfortunately, a lot of preachers care more about their popularity than getting the gospel.

Out.

And also, Paul did not care about his own reputation. And I love this about the Apostle Paul, and that should be a great example for us. His example was the Lord Jesus Christ, the master. Look at the life of Jesus.

Jesus could care less about his own personal comfort and his popularity or his reputation. As Paul followed Jesus Christ, he offered no compromise of the gospel. He never compromised it. Read that many times.

Even when the Apostle Peter could not see it. In Galatians, the Apostle Paul rebuked Peter publicly because the gospel was jeopardized. And Paul lovingly, lovingly, think of that, and Peter was an older Apostle.

He was the one that walked and talked with Christ for three years. And when the gospel was at stake, Paul knew how to handle it. I love Paul. He's definitely one, he's probably my, along with Jesus in this order, John the Baptist the second, because Jesus said of John the Baptist, there was no man greater that was born of woman than John the Baptist.

Because he was the forerunner of Jesus Christ, and then I say the Apostle Paul. Those are the top three heroes in my book. Jesus, John the Baptist, and Paul, but Paul is right up there. Paul is one of the greatest men that followed Christ.

And here in verses 16 and 17, Paul uses four key words that are crucial to understanding and believing the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I pray that this will warm your heart, it has warmed my heart, with these words, and I would like to use them as four headings, and we're going to only look at two today, and Lord willing we're going to look at three next week.

But today we're going to look at the power of God unto salvation. So we're going to look at power, and then we're going to look at salvation. Lord willing, next week we're going to look at faith, what the scripture says about faith and righteousness, and we'll connect that with believing.

But believing kind of goes all together, because that's what it's all about, it's believing,.

Right?

But we cannot believe apart from the Holy Spirit, I assure you of that. When I first came into the kingdom, I thought, oh wow, it's my faith that takes hold, and it's my believing, and God's not going to believe for us, or God's not going to repent for us, but I assure you of this.

There's no way that any of us can believe, or repent, or have faith, or trust in Christ apart from the Holy Spirit. And that's why we say it's of grace alone, right? And that is the crucial point of believing the gospel, and Luther got that.

The Gospel as the Power of God

So let's first of all look at this wonderful word, power. Power is the first word that goes with the gospel. The gospel, which is the good news, the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. He is the gospel.

Jesus is the gospel. Everything about Jesus is good news, unless you're not in Christ. It's bad news, because he will judge one day every soul. The scripture says that it is appointed for once man to die, and after that, the judgment.

And unless we have the blood of Jesus and his righteousness covering us on that day of judgment, we are in serious trouble.

Why?

Because man is condemned already. But the gospel comes to give us hope, right? A living hope. And Jesus is that living hope. Jesus says he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by.

Me.

No other way.

So after Paul, let's look at Paul now, after he proclaims that he personally is not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he says, for the gospel, for in it, it is the power of God. Now what is the gospel?

As I put it in a nutshell, it is Jesus Christ. It is the message that Paul delivered to the Corinthians as of first importance. And you don't have to turn there, but 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 -4, says and tells us and identifies what the gospel is.

I guess, let's turn there. How about that? I don't think it's harm to turn there. As a matter of fact, I think it's a great thing. 1 Corinthians 15, 1 -4, he gives us a definition of what the gospel is.

Now, this is the resurrection chapter. You know, I like to, it helps me break things up in my little mind because I get confused. As we read Psalm 119 and Psalm 19, that's all about the word of God. That's God's word about the word.

Chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians is the resurrection chapter. Chapter 13 is the love chapter. It tells you all about God's love, of God's love. Hebrews chapter 11 is the faith chapter. It's all about faith.

Well, here in 1 Corinthians 15, it is about the gospel. It's the resurrection chapter. And it goes in great detail about what the resurrection is, but notice he gives us a clear crystal, clear definition of what the gospel is.

And what does Paul say? Moreover, brethren, he's speaking to the church, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you, which also you received and in which you stand. They received it and we are to stand in the gospel.

It's just not receiving it, that's part of it, but then we stand in the gospel. We take a stand and we stand in the gospel. The rock of ages, Jesus Christ and his works and who he is. And then he says in verse 2, by which also you are saved.

The gospel saves us if you hold fast that word which I preached unto you unless you believed in vain. So I love that because there is a continuing. The gospel saves us and holds on to us, but we have to continue in it, right?

And even in the continuing is grace. I like to put it this way, we're saved by grace and we are kept by grace and we continue in grace. That's the way that the scriptures tell us to do. And then in verse 3, and then I delivered, for I delivered to you first of all, first of all, that which I also received.

He received it first, he experienced it on the road to Damascus, right? And that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, don't you love that? Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.

He didn't say according to my experience on the road to Damascus, according to the scriptures. And then in verse 4, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according.

To the scriptures.

And then he talks about the testimony and that he was seen, that Jesus was seen by Seth, speaking of Paul, not Paul, I'm sorry, Peter, and then by the 12 apostles. These are the eyewitnesses that saw Jesus after he died and was buried and then he rose.

Again.

And then after that he was seen by over 500 brethren. That's a pretty good testimony. That's a pretty good witness at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present but some have fallen asleep. And he uses the language that Jesus uses there, but they actually died.

But that's what he means by falling asleep, and I love that terminology he uses because even though they died, they're just sleeping. In other words, there's going to be a resurrection, and that's where he goes from there.

Jesus is going to raise him up. So that's the gospel. That's the definition of what the gospel is. That's the good news, right? The gospel is the power of God. It is God's power. And that message is God's power, and it has the power to save to the uttermost.

It's not about necessarily just the power of God, it's about the righteousness of God as well, but it is the living and powerful word of God, as powerful as the word God spoke when he said, let there be light, and there was light.

That's what kind of power there is, even greater power. You go out there and look at the sun. God spoke that sun into existence. He said, let there be light, and there was a sun that was light. He created the sun.

He created the star. And by the way, the testimony how he created the stars, I love it. It goes on. He says, and the stars also. It's like, no big deal. God spoke them into existence.

Wow!

There they are. And then scripture tells us, even in Psalms, he knows everyone by name. The stars have a name. God is in total sovereign control of the whole universe, and it's his universe. Aren't you glad?

This is his world, not our world. Not the devil's world, it's God's world. So he said, let there be light, and there was light. Now consider each of the crucial terms in the description of the gospel, and keep in mind that the word power, going back to Romans 116, the word power is the Greek word dunamis.

It's the word dunamis, and it is the Greek word in which we get our word dynamite. That's where the word dynamite comes from. It is the gospel, in other words, is the dynamite of God. It is the power of God.

It's the dunamis of God. And in that gospel, it carries with it the very omnipotence of God. Now this is staggering to us to think about, but when I'm saying omnipotence, omni, the word omni means all.

And potence is potential, that's where we get the word potential. Potence, all potential, all power, we're not talking about some power. You know, you think of angels of God have tremendous power, but they don't have all.

Power.

Even the fallen angel, Lucifer, who is now Satan, has great power. He has more power than us in a sense, but Jesus, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the triune God carries within his person all power.

Now take that word all, how much is all? It's infinite. And we doubt him. It's so sad, isn't it? And I'm speaking to myself, I doubt him at times. And shame on me, but God has all power. Now folks, think of this.

When the scripture says that the gospel has the power, it's all powerful. When the word goes forth, and not my suggestions and not my word, but when the word of God goes forth, it has all power to save to those who believe.

So God is all powerful. His word is all powerful. Whose power alone is sufficient to save men from their sin and give eternal life. Isn't that glorious? It's glorious. God does not proclaim the gospel and then sits back hoping that some might believe it, but unable to do so, anything to ensure that any will, he doesn't do that.

No, by proclaiming the gospel, God actually generates faith. Now get me, he generates the faith. It's not a faith of ourselves, it's a faith outside of ourselves. It is the faith that comes as a gift.

And God gives you that gift by his grace and that by faith we lay hold. You know, faith is the instrument we can lay hold of Jesus. Grace comes to us in the gospel and is the love of God that has sent Christ to us, but then by grace he gives us the favor and showed us favor and mercy and compassion, but faith is given to us in salvation to lay hold of him.

Now when you start thinking about all these things, you start saying, it's nothing that I've done. It's all of him. Even in election, God elects some to be saved and really in the doctrine of election, really R .C. Sproul, I got this from Sproul and he's so right.

Sproul says this, he says, in the doctrine of election, it's simply that we get grace. God's people gets grace. What about all the rest? Do they get what's unfair? No one gets anything unfair. The elect gets grace and mercy.

That's what scripture says. Read Romans 9. That's right there. I didn't say it. But the rest gets justice and as Keith prayed today, not one of us is deserving and when we really understand that, we'll fall on our face and we'll say, Lord, it's not of us.

It's all of God's grace. So the gospel gives that. First Peter 1 .23 says, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, and that seed is the word of God, by the way, but incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever.

It is the word of God that brings us into the kingdom, yet not by mere vibrations upon an eardrum, not by just something we do.

We know that.

It's nothing we do. Not of works lest any man should boast, but by the word of God, accompanied by the spirit of God. As God explained through the prophet Ezekiel in his vision of the dry bones, isn't that a wonderful understanding of what God does?

Ezekiel 37, verses 3 -10, tells us exactly what happens. Turn with me there to Ezekiel 37. Let's just look a brief word. This is the power of God. This is God's word and demonstration of what He can do.

Ezekiel 37, look at verses 3 -10. Look at what God can do. Let me back up. Let's look at the whole story. Verse 1, the hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the spirit of the Lord. Just like John on the Isle of Patmos, I was in the spirit.

I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, he said. And here, the prophet says, in the spirit of the Lord, He set me down in the midst of a valley, of the valley, and it was full of bones. And God was showing him, here's a valley with literally probably millions of bones scattered everywhere.

And notice how he says, I love these words that are taken there, carefully chosen by the Holy Spirit, and as he wrote, then He caused me, get that word caused, God caused me to pass by them all around.

He didn't choose to do this. He caused, the Holy Spirit caused him by them all around, and behold, that means to look, to look, there were very many in the open valley, and indeed, they were very dry.

An impossible situation before Him. And then, He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? I love the way God always communicates to His creatures. He doesn't have to, by the way. He's not obligated to, but He chooses to in His love and His mercy.

And He's always asking, He did this to Job. He just throws questions out there, Jesus did this constantly. Throwing questions, and notice God throws a question out to Ezekiel, Son of man, can these bones live?

And then He said, so I answered, and one of the greatest answers I think there is in Scripture, oh Lord, God, you know. You know, Lord, that's a good answer, isn't it? God knows. In verse 4, again, He said to me, prophesy to these bones.

In other words, you preach to them, prophesy to them, oh dry bones, hear the word of the.

Lord.

That's what He's to prophesy, not His words, but God's words. That's the only thing that has the power to bring bones to life, and we're going to see.

This.

Notice what He says in verse 5, thus says the Lord God to these bones. Don't you love this?

It's not thus says Ezekiel, thus says the Lord.

The Lord God to these bones, surely I will cause breath, notice that word cause again, cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you, muscles in other words, and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live.

And then you shall know that I am the Lord. Boy, you read on, this is, a lot of preachers have preached this for revival, and I think.

It's a good one.

And then in verse 7, so I prophesied as I was commanded. God commanded Him to prophesy, and He did it. And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling, and the bones came together, and bone to bone, indeed as I looked, the sinews of the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over, but there was no breath in them.

And He also said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, and these may live.

The breath is the Holy Spirit. So I prophesied, and as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and they stood up from their feet in an exceedingly great army. And that's what God can do, folks.

That's what God's did to the church. He's created, God has created not only the family of God, the children of God, but an exceedingly great army. That's the church, that's the church, that's Israel at that time, but that's what we were, we were dead, dry bones in the valley.

And God came, and we heard the Word. Aren't you glad you heard the Word? You just didn't hear it physically, you heard it spiritually. And there came a great transformation. You see, the gospel of Jesus Christ is like that.

It's sufficient, it's effective, it's transforming, and it has the power of God, and God acting, working on the human soul, imparting life to the dead, giving light and darkness, giving understanding to the ignorant, giving wisdom to the foolish, belief to the unbelieving, all which are aspects of regeneration of the new birth.

And that's the power. You see, it's a supernatural thing. The new birth is supernatural. No one can regenerate themselves. Even before conversion takes place, and let me explain this. There's regeneration, then there's conversion.

A lot of people get this mixed up. But you know what I'm talking about here. But I want to explain it very carefully. Regeneration is an act of God that God regenerates and creates new life. And in that, then something happens.

Conversion then says, I'm going to follow after Jesus. Faith takes place. After God gives us faith, we follow, we take a hold, and then we follow after Him. But first is act of regeneration. Because none of us can be converted and follow Christ until first God transforms us.

See, and we need to hear this, because there are a lot of confusion in the churches today of those two great doctrines. So we must understand, biblically, what it means. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 .18, for the word, the preaching of the cross, is foolishness to those who are perishing.

Go out there and preach about it. You mean to tell people who look at you crazy, you mean to tell me my salvation and my eternal destination lies on one man who died on a cross? Absolutely. One man, Jesus Christ, and who He died for, and why He died.

See, they don't understand this, do they? All they think of is blood and something gory and a man dying on a cross? You've got to be kidding me. To them, it's foolishness.

It's foolish.

It was foolish back then, it's foolish to people now. But it is the power of God. Because Scripture says, but to us, this is what the word says, to us, the elect, God's sheep, who are being saved, or who are saved, depends on your translation, who are being saved, I like that word being saved, because it is, in a sense, He has saved us, but we are constantly in progress in the sense of a work that's done.

The work's been done, but the final salvation will happen when it actually takes place, when we physically arrive in heaven, but we know by faith it's already done, right? You know what I'm saying. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

You mean to tell me that the preaching of the cross is the power of God?

It is.

Preach the cross. Preach the cross. Jeremiah the prophet, Jeremiah chapter 13, verse 23, the Lord said, can the Ethiopian change his skin? No, he can't change his skin color, neither can we. The Ethiopian can't, we can't change our skin color, we're born that way, right?

But guess what? Or can the leopard change his spots?

No.

And then it says, then you also can do good who are accustomed to do evil. So you see, it's not within our man's power and our power to change our own nature. That's what God's saying. No more than you can change our, we can change our skin color.

And I thank God, God has, he loves variety. We have some here Ethiopian, some Asian, some white. Look around the world, there's all kinds. And guess what? We didn't cause that, did we? That's what scripture's saying.

No more than we can cause, we had power in our birth, our first birth, we don't have the power of our second birth. That's what it's saying. We don't have the power to change our skin, but guess what?

The power of God can change the hardened heart. Now if God wanted to, he could change every one of our skin colors.

You see what I'm saying?

But that's the point that the scriptures are making. Only the power of the gospel has the power to change a wicked and condemned heart. Jesus said this in rebuking the Sadducees who tried to entrap him, always trying to trip him up.

Boy, they did not know who they were tangling with. They were tangling themselves up with the wisest man that ever lived, and he was even wiser than Solomon. He's the one that had, he is wisdom in flesh.

And in Matthew 22, 29, he says this to the Sadducees, you are mistaken, not understanding the scriptures or the power of God. Don't you love Jesus' words? You are mistaken. Only the power of God is able to overcome a man's sinful nature and impart spiritual life.

Think of that. Even in agriculture, and Keith has studied this, they still don't know what causes a seed and the life in that seed, and that seed itself from the sunshine and from the rain, a plant, a life coming out of that little seed.

Every tree that we see out there that exists came from a seed. Even the mighty oaks came from a little seed. Isn't that amazing? They cannot explain the dynamics of that, because God's behind it. That's why.