BIG Idea: The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, calling us to live unashamed and share its transforming truth boldly.
Application: Live with boldness in your faith, unashamed of the gospel, by trusting in its power to change your life and those around you.
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Romans 1:8-17 (NLT) God’s Good News
8 Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world. 9 God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son.
10 One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. 11 For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. 12 When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.
13 I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now. I want to work among you and see spiritual fruit, just as I have seen among other Gentiles. 14 For I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilized world and the rest of the world, to the educated and uneducated alike. 15 So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News.
16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
Faith that is
Strength flows both ways: we
The gospel’s power isn’t just for
1 Corinthians 1:18 (NLT) [see vv.18-25]
18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.
Mark 8:38 (NLT)
38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
“The gospel’s power is seen in its ability to completely change minds, hearts, life orientation, our understanding of everything that happens, the way people relate to one another, and so on. Most of all, it is powerful because it does what no other power on earth can do: it can save us, reconcile us to God, and guarantee us a place in the kingdom of God forever.” —Tim Keller
The gospel is
“It is generally agreed that “the righteousness of God” in 1:17 is not this imparted righteousness, but is rather an imputed righteousness, i.e., a righteousness established by someone else (Jesus Christ) and set down to our account and counted as our own. It results not in a righteous character; this comes from the Holy Spirit working in us. It results rather in a righteous status. This righteous status is the state of being justified. Justification is thus not equivalent to the righteousness of God, but is the result of it.” —Jack Cottrell
“I conclude that Paul isn’t saying that human beings are transformed by faith; he teaches that they stand in the right before God by faith. God will announce publicly to the world the verdict “not guilty” on the last day, though this verdict already belongs to those who are united with Christ Jesus, since Jesus was vindicated at his resurrection as the righteous one. (1 Tim. 3:16). Hence, the declaration that Jesus stands in the right is granted to all those who belong to him, to all those who are united with him by faith.” —Thomas Schreiner