Romans 1:16 (LSB) 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 to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous will live by faith.”

How can I be ashamed of the gospel? I cannot be ashamed of the gospel if I am in Christ. The gospel is the good news that God is in charge, holy, and especially how He has arranged to forgive all the sins of those who repent and believe in Him. Whenever the apostles opened their mouths in regions of the world where the people did not acknowledge God as God, they started with creation. The Maker has the right of rule over that which He has made. Then they turn to the fact that everyone everywhere has rebelled against God, especially in the foundational assumption about who defines right and wrong, good and evil. Then they give God's solution: repentance FROM trying to earn their own righteousness or trying to ignore their obligation to be righteous TO depending utterly upon the righteousness of Christ, which He has earned and freely gives on behalf of all who repent and believe. He has done so on the basis of His perfect life, substitutionary death, and vindicating resurrection. All who believe in Him have forgiveness of sins and eternal life, and they have this life because God makes them alive out of their trespasses and sins in order to believe in and depend upon Jesus Christ alone for their being declared righteous.

What could possibly be more powerful than the God Who has spoken all things into existence? What could possibly be more powerful than the God Who has the right to judge all men and women everywhere? What could possibly be more powerful than the God Who has made a just and holy way to extend His mercy and grace upon all whom He has chosen to believe? What could be more powerful than the God Who calls dead sinners to life, gives them forgiveness, gives them His Own righteousness, makes them holy, and gives them eternal life? What can possibly be greater than this salvation?

This salvation is God's saving His chosen bride out of her rebellion against Him from His Own wrath for the sake of His Own glory, which is to the everlasting joy of His bride. God's salvation is greater than you think it is, for the problem is greater than you think it is.

And it doesn't matter your ethnicity, language, lineage, intelligence, or background. If God wants you to come, He gives you the desire to come. My friends, there are a great many conflicts in our day. If you are Jew, you may come to Him. If you are Gentile, you may come to Him. We are all physical descendants of Adam and Eve, of Noah and his wife, and we are all in the same boat before God: guilty of seeking to usurp His throne. All we need do is to stop trying to ascend to His throne, fall at His feet in worship and submission, and He will raise us up into His lap as His children. To put it simply: all who are in Adam will perish. All who are in Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone will live. Skin color, language, lineage, wealth, intelligence, nor anything else by which we differentiate ourselves makes any difference when it comes to God's ability to save us and unite us with Himself and therefore one another. The only way we can have peace with one another in our families, in society, or between nations is first to have peace with God. And we cannot have peace with God without righteousness or holiness.

What is righteousness? It is moral perfection. In order to be absolutely righteous, you cannot ever have violated His perfect moral law. Not once. Is there anyone (myself included!) who has never once gotten angry at anyone, has never desired something that someone else has, or has broken a promise, or has never done something they know they should not have? Paul goes on to say in Romans that there is none righteous, no not even one. You might think that most people are good, but everyone who thinks so has no idea what it is to be truly good. Righteousness is a perfect obedience to God and His moral law. There has been only one who ever did so: the God-man Jesus Christ, and because He was and is intrinsically righteous He perfectly kept the law of God on behalf of all who would ever believe in Him. And all those who believe are given His righteousness and so have eternal life.

How do we live by faith? Simply put, we turn from our own righteousness (which is actually gross, putrid, blood-filled rags) to depending upon God for His righteousness. God gives us the spiritual life necessary to believe, faith in Him that He will keep His promises, His righteousness, and His eternal life. There is no greater gift!

#comeandseeJesus

#comeandlivebyfaith

#comeandworshipHim

#SoliDeoGloria