“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 for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:16-17).Paul is expressing confidence in God’s saving message. He is saying that it is everything it claims to be. He wants these Christians to know, not only that he is proud to proclaim this gospel, but that this powerful plan of God’s can save all who put their trust in Him. This saving message of faith has been confirmed by Scripture all along; and its message is that the person who puts his or her faith in God REALLY lives as God desires His people to live. In other words, for God’s righteousness to be bestowed upon us, it begins and ends with our faith.
I stated in a previous post that Romans 1:16-17 is somewhat of a transitional statement because it seems that Paul is introducing a concept—righteous living by faith—which will eventually lead us to the actual theme of this letter—justification by faith, apart from law. One can also refer to this as a transition statement because Paul makes a drastic shift from talking about the goodness of God’s gospel and grace at the beginning of this letter to suddenly talking about God’s wrath, beginning in Romans 1:18. This section appears to serve as that proverbial “spring board” utilized by Paul to make this shift.
I really like Paul’s description of the gospel here as being the “power” of God. The Greek word for “power” is dunamos. This is actually where we get our English word for “dynamite.” The gospel is powerful in its ability to accomplish something so tremendous as salvation, which is so far from what we actually deserve. I like to harmonize this principle with Jesus’ words in Mark 10:27, which in the very context of being saved, reminds us that what is impossible for us, is indeed possible with God. We cannot save ourselves. Only God can do this. Notice here also in Romans 1:16-17, nothing is said of my power or righteousness, but rather God’s power and His righteousness. For so long, I thought I was a false teacher bound for hell if I did not give credit to myself. Now, I cannot in good conscience give credit to myself. My salvation is through the righteousness of God; not my own. Trusting in God’s righteousness as opposed to our own is the only way (John 14:6).
Jack Cottrell, in his commentary on Romans offers what I think is an excellent 6-point sermon on Romans 1:16-17:
1.) The glory of the gospel---God
2.) The power of the gospel---It saves
3.) The scope of the gospel----For everyone
4.) Faith and the gospel---faith is the means of salvation
5.) The heart of the gospel---God’s righteousness, not our own
6.) The golden text of the gospel---Habakkuk 2:4. The gospel of God’s righteousness is able to save all who believe and put their trust in it.
There is one other thing I wanted to mention here. There is going to be a lot of opportunity throughout this study for us to talk about the faith vs. law/works distinction. And we will. I still want to at some point address what some think is a contradiction between Romans 3:28 and James 2:24. In the past, I have argued that Paul is referring to the Law of Moses when talking about this law vs. grace contrast. I no longer believe that this is exclusively what Paul is talking about, however. I think Paul’s point is that God’s grace overshadows law in general—the idea of law in and of itself. Is he making reference to the Law of Moses in some sense throughout Romans and Galatians? Yes, because of who he is speaking to. But it doesn’t matter what law exists, whether the patriarchal law, Law of Moses, or law of the heart (Romans 2:14-15), no law trumps God’s grace. This is Paul's point. I will provide some more thoughts on this next time.
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