Romans 1:16-17: The Saving Power of the Gospel

Romans 1:16-17: The Saving Power of the Gospel

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Romans 1. If you’re using one of the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 778. Last Sunday, we started working through Paul’s letter to the Romans passage by passage. So this morning, the next passage we come to is Romans 1:16-17. 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.” 

One of the questions people often ask me about our church is, “What kind of a church is Redeeming Grace?” Just this past week, I received a phone call from a woman who was thinking about attending, and she asked me to describe our church to her. And that’s always been a challenging question for me to answer because there are so many directions I could go in answering that. I could talk about our denomination or our beliefs or our size or our style or our somewhat unique meeting space or any one of a few dozen different things people are often interested in knowing. But I think if I could only say one thing about our church—one distinguishing feature that we value above all others—I’d say we are a gospel-centered church. That, I believe, is our church’s core distinguishing feature. And in case you’re not quite sure what that phrase “gospel-centered” means, let me give you the super-short version. Being gospel-centered means that the gospel message—the message of Jesus—is the functional center of everything we do. It’s the lens through which we view everything else. It informs the way we think about all aspects of our lives. We strive to see and approach everything in light of the gospel. 

And there’s a good reason we’re so passionate about the gospel—a reason that’s stated quite clearly here in Romans 1:16. Paul states, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” So why is the gospel exponentially more important than anything else? And why do we want gospel-centeredness to be the distinguishing feature of our church? Because the gospel alone is the power of God for salvation. And I’d like to spend the rest of our time this morning helping you understand just how powerful and how pregnant with meaning that statement is. So if you’re taking notes, feel free to write that statement down as our main idea: the gospel is the power of God for salvation. 

Now before we go any farther, we have to define what we mean by “gospel”—because I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding even in evangelical circles about what exactly the gospel is. So perhaps I should first explain what the gospel’s not. First of all, it’s not advice about how you can start winning in life. God definitely cares about your life and the Bible certainly gives us some helpful principles for living, but that’s not the gospel. It’s not about how you can become a better you in three easy steps. Also, number two, the gospel’s not simply a message of God’s love. Now God’s love is certainly a big theme in the gospel, but the simple fact that God loves us and that we therefore should love others isn’t the gospel. And finally, the gospel isn’t a message of social activism. It’s possible for a person to be amazingly active in their efforts to make a difference in the world and help the poor and fight injustice and do good for others and yet at the same time be completely ignorant of the gospel. Now hopefully the gospel leads us to do those kinds of things, but those things themselves are not the gospel. 

So then, what is the gospel? Well, stated simply, it’s the message of Jesus—both who he is and what he’s done to save us. The Bible tells us that Jesus is God in human form and that he came to rescue us when were in an unimaginably wretched condition. We stood condemned before God because of our sins and were actually sinners by our very nature. That means the core of our being was sinful. But Jesus saw our wretched condition and came to rescue us. Of course, he was under no obligation to do that. He could have remained right where he was in heaven and let us face the consequences our sins deserved. But because he loved us so much, he came to this earth and died on the cross in our place. That’s the very core of the gospel message. Jesus died in our place, as our substitute, suffering the punishment we deserved. And then he triumphantly resurrected from the dead as a way of proclaiming his victory over sin and death. But you and I don’t automatically get to share in that victory. We have to respond to what Jesus did in the right way—namely by renouncing our sins and looking to Jesus alone as our only hope of rescue. Notice how verse 16 says that the gospel is “the power of God for salvation” not to everyone period but rather to “everyone who believes.” You have to believe in the gospel and put your trust in Jesus in order to experience that salvation. So that’s the gospel. It’s a message of salvation through Jesus. And like I said, the primary thing we’re saved from is God’s wrath. That’s the primary thrust of that word “salvation.” 

However, there are other facets of salvation as well. One scholar writes in response to Paul’s use of the word “salvation” here in Romans 1:16 that “‘Salvation’ is a broad concept. It includes the forgiveness of sins but involves much more….It promises the restoration of all that sin has marred or destroyed.” So this word “salvation” deals with rescue from a lot of different things. Even though it deals primarily with us being rescued from sin and judgment, there are also other things we’re rescued from as well. Kind of like a good meal consists of several different elements. Of course, the main entrée is the center of it all, but you might also have an appetizer before the main entrée, a few sides along with the main entrée, and if you have a sweet tooth like me, some dessert afterwards. So the main part of the meal is the entrée, but you often enjoy several other things along with it. And likewise with salvation, the main thing we’re saved from is God’s wrath. But there are also a few other facets of salvation as well that I’d like to take some time this morning and explore. I believe you’ll find these quite helpful. So here are five other facets of the salvation brought about by the gospel. And these are all really practical. 

Salvation from Guilt & Shame

Number one, salvation from guilt and shame. I think a lot of people have done things in life that they deeply regret. They’ve made decisions that have hurt other people—often people they care about. Maybe they haven’t been the parent they should have been for their kids. Or maybe they’ve physically harmed somebody by driving drunk or other irresponsible behavior. Or maybe, if they’re a woman, they’ve had an abortion. Or maybe, if they’re a man, they’ve deeply hurt their spouse through a pornography addiction. And so, for all these reasons and more, a lot of people carry around within them a heavy sense of guilt for what they’ve done. It’s like a heavy burden they’re carrying around on their shoulders that sometimes seems unbearable. But the gospel rescues us from that—because the gospel is a message of forgiveness and cleansing through Jesus. In Isaiah 1:18, God promises his people that “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Then Paul writes in Romans 8:1 that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation! So no matter what you’ve done, who you’ve hurt, or what kinds of messes you’ve made, there’s forgiveness for you through Jesus. Now you may also need to ask forgiveness from some people and make restitution where appropriate, but if you’re a Christian, you don’t have to go through life plagued by guilt or shame any longer. Through Jesus and through the gospel, all of your sins have been washed away. As the words of the old hymn go, “My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”

Salvation from Bitterness

The also, another facet of the salvation the gospel brings us is salvation from bitterness. Salvation from bitterness. Bitterness is in many ways the opposite of guilt and shame, because instead of having done wrong, you’re the one who’s been wronged. And because you’ve been wronged, you’re consumed with bitterness against the person who’s wronged you. You can’t stop thinking about what that person’s done to you and feeling so angry and resentful against them. And that resentment—that bitterness—is eating you up from the inside. But the gospel can deliver you from that bitterness. As you begin to grasp how gracious God’s been in forgiving you, you’ll find yourself much more able to forgive others. After all, that’s the only proper response to God forgiving your sin. In Matthew 18, Jesus makes this point quite persuasively by telling the story of a servant owing his master a debt of millions of dollars. But the master, out of compassion, forgives this servant his entire debt. So you’d think the servant would be inclined to show that same kind of compassion toward others, right? But instead, the servant finds one of his fellow servants who owes him a much smaller debt of a few thousand dollars and prosecutes him to the fullest extent of the law. That’s pretty messed up, isn’t it? So the point of the parable is that receiving forgiveness should naturally make you more inclined to grant forgiveness. And in the case of life-dominating bitterness, it might be the only thing that makes you able to truly forgive. So if you want to be free from the bitterness that’s eating you up inside, remember the gospel. Regardless of how grievously you’ve been sinned against, the gospel can rescue you from your bitterness and give you the ability to forgive.

Salvation from People-pleasing

Number three, the gospel also brings us salvation from people-pleasing. And by people-pleasing, I’m referring to finding personal worth in the acceptance of other people. You can see this tendency in a particularly obvious way in middle-schoolers.  I think I’ve told you before how as a middle-schooler, one of the ways I tried to fit in and be cool was by wearing a ridiculous amount of hair gel. I mean, if you saw me, you would think I just had a bucket of water dumped on my head. And I would spend 20-30 minutes every morning putting that stuff in my hair—because it had to be perfect. The large spikes of hair that came down my forehead had to be formed just right. Because if they weren’t, my coolness factor for that day would be seriously diminished. It would throw my whole day off. Because my life as a middle-schooler centered around what people thought of me. And so did the lives of all of my friends. We found personal worth in the acceptance of others. We were people-pleasers. And even though that people-pleasing tendency might be painfully obvious in that age group, make no mistake: adults do it too. In fact, I believe adults have that tendency just as much as middle-schoolers. You know, if you really start thinking about how much of your life can be traced back to gaining social acceptance and social prestige, you might start to get dizzy. Think about your career. Why did you choose this career? Why do you have your heart set on making a certain amount of money? Or think about your possessions. Why do you purchase the brands of clothes you purchase? Why do you drive the car you drive? And even random things in your life. The way you want your kids to behave, the kinds of pictures you post on social media—whatever it is. How much of that can be traced back to a desperate craving for social acceptance and social prominence? Like I said, you might get dizzy if you really start thinking about it. Yet we all do it. We’re all people-pleasers. 

But the gospel rescues us from that. It rescues us from our desperate pandering after social acceptance. You see, the gospel teaches us that through Jesus, each one of us as Christians is already accepted by only one whose opinion really matters—God. Through Jesus, we already enjoy the acceptance we crave so deeply. In fact, God’s acceptance of us is so comprehensive that the Bible even describes it as him adopting us. Galatians 4:5 states that God sent his Son Jesus to redeem us “so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Also, 1 John 3:1 states, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” So because we enjoy such comprehensive love and acceptance by God through Jesus, we don’t have to desperately pursue acceptance from other people the way we felt the need to in the past. So that’s the third facet of salvation—salvation from people-pleasing.  

Salvation from Measuring Up

Then, closely related to that is number four: salvation from measuring up. Salvation from measuring up. I think a lot of times, we can feel like we have to earn somebody’s love by measuring up to their expectations. A pretty common example of this a young person feeling like in order for their parents to love them or be pleased with them, they have to perform well enough in a certain area. Maybe it’s academics—they feel like their parents won’t be pleased with them unless they bring home a report card with straight A’s every single time. Maybe it’s athletics—they feel like they’re parents won’t be pleased with them unless they make states or win a scholarship. Whatever the area of focus is, they feel significant pressure to achieve in that area. And it’s not uncommon for us to feel that way with God as well. Let me ask you this: have you ever felt like you had to perform at a certain level in order for God to love you? Or have you ever felt like God loves more on days when you perform well than on days when you don’t perform so well? Like if you have a day where you have a great quiet time, tell three people about Jesus, and do something really nice for a coworker, do you feel like God loves you more for that? Or if you have a day when you don’t pick up a Bible, don’t even think about sharing Jesus, and miss an opportunity to bless someone around you, do ever feel like God loves you less because of that? I would guess that most of us struggle with that mentality to one degree or another. We picture God kind of like a teacher in school, constantly examining our work and assigning us a grade. And then we think he loves us more or less based on that grade. And that’s really an impossible situation to be in, because who can ever perform well enough to be accepted by an infinitely holy God? 

But here again, there’s saving power in the gospel. It rescues us from that achievement-based mentality and teaches us that God’s love and acceptance aren’t based on our performance but on Jesus. Jesus lived a righteous life in our place. Then he died in our place, as the atoning sacrifice for all of our many failures to perform. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” That’s what we are through Jesus—the very “righteousness of God.” So that means we don’t have to be obsessed with measuring up to whatever expectations we believe God has for us. And we don’t have to worry that God won’t really love us if we don’t perform well enough. Through Jesus, we’re already accepted in God’s eyes and dearly loved as his children. And all the good things we try to do are just joyful expressions of our gratitude toward God. So in that way, the gospel brings salvation from measuring up. 

Salvation from Anxiety

Then number five, the gospel also brings us salvation from anxiety. I imagine from time to time, we all get anxious about certain things. That anxiety might be related to personal finances or poor health or relationship issues or the welfare of someone we care about or a nearly endless list of other concerns that weigh heavily on our hearts. It seems like some people even live in a perpetual state anxiety. They’re always anxious. But the gospel helps us with that—or at least it can if we’ll let it. You see, the gospel reminds us that God’s already gone to incredible lengths to meet our greatest need—the need for salvation. He’s sent his own Son to die on the cross and thereby rescue us from our sin. So if God’s already met our greatest need, how much more can we count on him to meet all of the lesser needs we have—the earthly needs? Why would we ever think he’s not mindful of those needs or that he won’t take care of us in the midst of them? Of course he will. As Paul writes in Romans 8:32, speaking of God, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” So the more you understand the gospel, the more you can be confident of that God’s gonna take of you regardless of how uncertain your situation may seem. The gospel offers us salvation from anxiety. 

Conclusion

So those are five facets of the salvation the gospel brings. Like I said, the main thing we’re saved from is God’s judgment. But we’re also saved from all the other aspects of our fallenness and brokenness as well. I’ve named five of them, and there are plenty of others we could have talked about. We could have talked about salvation from addiction, salvation from despair, salvation from emptiness, and on and on and on—because the gospel touches every aspect of our lives and heals every aspect of our brokenness. In some ways, it’s similar to winning the lottery. When you win the lottery, it changes just about every aspect of your life in one way or another—though often your life doesn’t always change in ways you’d like it to change. But nevertheless, winning the lottery does touch just about every aspect of life.  And likewise with the gospel, there’s not one aspect of our lives that’s untouched or unchanged—and unlike the lottery, of course, all of the changes the gospel brings are wonderful changes. 

However, none of these gospel blessings or facets of salvation comes automatically. As we’ve seen quite clearly back in our main verse, Romans 1:16, the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” So if you’re not yet a Christian this morning and haven’t yet “believed” the gospel, let me invite you and even appeal to you to do that. Put your trust in Jesus and receive the salvation he offers. And even if you’re already a Christian, I’d actually still like to appeal to you in the same way: believe the gospel! And it might seem a bit odd to call Christians to do that, but you have to understand that believing the gospel isn’t just something you do initially in order to become a Christian. It’s something you have to do every day of your Christian life. And in fact, it’s something you should be growing in. Ideally, you’ll believe the gospel more and more with each passing day. And the more you believe the gospel and understand its implications and reckon it to be true, the more you’ll experience the various facets of salvation we’ve talked about this morning. So that means if you’re constantly struggling with ongoing shame or bitterness or people-pleasing or feeling like you have to measure up or chronic anxiety, those are all symptoms that you have room to grow in your belief in the gospel. You might even say, in a certain sense, you’re not functioning in belief in the gospel during those moments. And I’m not at all saying that you’re not a Christian or that you’re not saved. But I am saying that even as Christians, you and I still regularly struggle with various levels of functional unbelief. To state it another way, the depth of our belief in the gospel is seen in the extent to which the gospel has changed our day-to-day life, including those five areas we’ve discussed. So I pray that you and I would grow to truly believe the gospel more and more. 

And as we grow in that belief, here’s the ultimate goal. You’ve gotta get this. The ultimate goal of everything we’ve talked about this morning isn’t simply that you’d have a more enjoyable life with less stress and greater mental health. Those things are wonderful, but they’re not ultimate. My highest prayer for you, above all else, is that going over all of these different facets of salvation will help you appreciate the gospel and ultimately marvel at Jesus more than ever before. That’s what it’s all about. That’s the end for which we were all created—marveling at God’s glory as displayed in his Son Jesus Christ. If you’re a Christian, think back to the first time the gospel really hit you—the first time you really understood how gracious God had been to you in sending Jesus to die in you place. I know for me, I just couldn’t stop thanking him. I remember walking around my house constantly thinking and praying in my heart, “God, thank you for saving me. Thank you for saving me.” So think about what that looked like for you. Think about the sense of awe you felt that God would display that kind of love toward you even in the face of your rebellion. Now here’s the thing: that sense of awe isn’t supposed to go away. It’s actually supposed to get stronger. The more we grow as Christians, the more awestruck we should be that God would pour out his grace on us the way he has.