thoughts and ruminations while in exile (1 Pet. 2:11)

This is a transcript of the message I preached at Living Word Church.

I'm sure many of you heard about the controversy that erupted in the media back in January when Brit Hume of Fox News advised Tiger Woods on national television to turn to Christ because Buddhism does not offer the redemption that Christianity does. As you can imagine, a statement like that was not well received. A few days after these remarks, Brit Hume was interviewed by Christianity Today. When asked about his comments, Hume said this: “I don't want to practice a faith that I'm afraid to proclaim. I don't want to be a closet Christian.” Similarly, this is what God teaches us in these verses.

We should not be ashamed of the gospel because it is the saving power of God.

In looking at the book of Romans, we search in vain to find out much background information about this Roman church. We know from looking at Acts 2 that there were Jews from Rome that were present on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:10). It seems safe to infer from this that some of them were converted and came back to Rome with a zeal to share the gospel.1

So all these Jews are coming back to Rome and sharing the gospel with their families. And this causes quite a stir as you can imagine. In fact, we know from the ancient historian Suetonius that the Jewish Christians and the Jews practicing Judaism were in a heated debate over a figure by the name of Chresto.2 Of course, they're talking about Christ. The debate gets so heated that the Roman emperor Claudius issues a decree evicting all of the Jews.3 At this point the congregation began to be made up mostly of Gentiles. However, in AD 54, after Claudius's reign is over, the Jews begin to filter back in. This causes quite a bit of racial tension in the church. Why am I talking about this?

Given this background of the church, what should Paul tell them? What is it that would be foremost on his mind? He does deal with the issue of race relations. (Rom. 14:1 – 15:3). He does deal with their responsibility to the government (Rom. 13:1-7). While the exact reason for the writing of this great epistle is much debated,4 I think it can be argued that the gospel is Paul's central concern`. I say this because even when Paul is not dealing specifically with the gospel, what he says flows out of what the gospel produces in our lives—or at least what it should produce.

So Paul is talking about the gospel. Now we come to Paul's central thesis. And in these two verses and in the surrounding context Paul gives us five truths that I'd like to look at with you. Let's look at those together:


1. We Should Not Be Ashamed of the Gospel (V. 16a).

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel . . .

Well, the fact that the verse begins with the word “For,” lets us know that it connects with verse 15. And in verse 15 Paul says I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. So, in essence, if we were to reword this Paul is saying something like, “I'm eager to preach the gospel to you because I'm not ashamed of the gospel.”

But why does Paul feel it is necessary to tell us this? Does he feel like he has something to prove? James Stewart is absolutely right; he says, “there's no sense in declaring that you're not ashamed of something unless you've been tempted to feel ashamed of it.”5 And Paul, just like all of us, faced that temptation. He knew what people would think about the gospel message. He knew that throughout the Roman empire the thought of a crucified Messiah was scandalous; no one would believe that.

He must have known about it first hand, since, in 1 Corinthians 1:18 he said, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing . . . It's considered foolish. Yet he goes on to say in v. 23: but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. Paul knew this is what people thought. And we face that today, don't we? Because of what we know other people will think about us, or how they might treat us, we're tempted to keep our mouths shut, when we should really be speaking up.

And Jesus told us we would face this temptation as well. This is why he said in Mark 8:38, For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Similarly, Timothy must have been struggling with this because Paul tells him in 2 Timothy 1:8, Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord . . . but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

And on and on it goes throughout Scripture. In a lot of the places where we are told this in the Bible, the surrounding context talks about suffering. This shows us that the reason we have the tendency to be ashamed of the gospel is because we have a fear of suffering harm. It may be persecution; it may be isolation; it may be people thinking you're weird; or it may be pity.
This is a true story: One of my college professors, Greg Hartley, told us a story in class one time about when he was attending USF pursuing a PhD in English Literature. When he would have night classes he would leave from his job to go to Tampa, and still be wearing his faculty shirts which said “Florida Christian College” on them. He said people would ask him if he worked for Christian College, and when he would say yes, he said they would look at him with eyes of sadness and amazement. They can't believe that he actually believed this.

I'm sure some of you have your own stories like this as well. Because things like this happen to us, we're tempted to become passive in sharing the gospel. But the implication of what Paul says here teaches us that we can't let this happen to us.

That's important to notice in light of what I just said. To be sure, at points in Paul's life he no doubt was tempted to be ashamed of the gospel. I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't have been tempted to do so at certain points in his life considering that preaching the gospel had landed him in jail on more than one occasion. He had been beaten, stoned, received 39 lashes on five occasions. Why do I mention this? Because it lets us know that, by God's grace, Paul had overcome his fear.

And the same God that strengthened Paul is the same God that can and will strengthen you. God told Joshua in the midst of his fear, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Josh. 1:5; cf. Heb. 13:5). While our circumstances are different from his, I think we can apply that truth to our lives for this occasion. We need not be ashamed of the gospel. The last words of Jesus before he ascended to the Father, were that he would be “with” us; and he sends to Holy Spirit to came up residence in us and to empower us for service.

So Paul says, “I'm not ashamed of the gospel.” But this leads us to ask the question, “What is the gospel?”

The first thing we need to see is that the gospel has objective content. First and foremost, the gospel is about who Jesus is and what he has accomplished.6 This point cannot be missed, because in light of this truth, we cannot say that giving our personal testimony is the gospel. And when we are trying to witness to someone, and we tell them about how we became a Christian, that does not necessarily mean that we have shared the gospel.

So what is the gospel? It is the announcement that though we humans have sinned, and thus rightly deserve God's wrath and condemnation, God has acted and came in human flesh in the form of his Son, the second Person of the Holy Trinity; he lived a perfect life, thus positively fulfilling the demands of the law, and died on our behalf, thus bearing the punishment we deserved, and rose from the dead on the third day. He ascended back to the Father where he now lives interceding on behalf of his people. And he will return to judge all people.

That's the objective content of the gospel. Secondly, however, we must explain how those benefits are applied to us. How do we receive those benefits? This is of critical importance as well because if we get it wrong we are guilty of believing a false gospel. As we take all of Scripture into account, the Bible teaches that we receive the benefits of Christ solely through faith. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 is instructive: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
It is this gospel, this message, of which Paul is not ashamed. Why is he not ashamed? Let's look at the second thing Paul mentions about the gospel:

2. The Saving Power of God is Revealed in the Gospel (V. 16b).

. . . for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

So, why is Paul not ashamed of the gospel even though people ridicule him and make fun of him and tell him that it is a weak message, he'll never grow a church if he preaches that? Paul says he doesn't care what the world thinks; he doesn't care if it sounds weak, or if some people think it's boring, or if some people think it's offensive. Paul will not be ashamed of this message because, as he says, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

I have worded it by saying that the saving power of God is revealed in the gospel. By which I mean that in the gospel message—the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, the saving benefits of which are received through faith alone—God demonstrates his power by revealing to us the only way sinful men and women are delivered from the wrath of God.
And it is this message, Paul says, that has the power to save. That message was not considered believable in Paul's day just as it isn't today. “You mean the message that saves is a message of a crucified Savior? Believe that and I'm considered righteous?” “Come on Paul, tell me you've got something better than this,” people must have said. But this is why Paul writes to the Corinthians, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Now, how is the gospel message powerful? It's power is seen in its effectiveness to draw people to Christ.7 This is why Paul is not ashamed of the gospel; this is why he preaches the gospel; this is why we preach the gospel. Because preaching the gospel is God's appointed means through which the Holy Spirit works to effectively draw people to Christ (note the Trinitarian nature of the work). This is why we preach the gospel.

Turn to Ephesians chapter 2:1, 4-5: And you were dead in the trespasses and sins . . . But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.

Notice in this verse that because of God's great love for us, he made us alive with Christ when we were dead in our trespasses. So this is why we preach the gospel; because through the gospel God acts upon the sinner while he/she is dead in sin and unable to believe and he creates faith. And this faith/trust results in salvation, that is, it results in deliverance. This word “Salvation,”as Paul uses it, has to do with being saved from the judgment that is coming. So, not only are we saved by God, we are also saved from God. Paul says in Rom. 5:9, Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

And so it is this great news which causes Paul to not be ashamed of the gospel. And this great news is available, as Paul says, to all who believe. Those who believe have experienced the saving power of God in their own lives. And it knows no limitation by race.8 This is what Paul means when he says to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The Greek or the Gentile is anyone who is not a Jew. This goes back to the racial tension I mentioned before. The Jews are finding it a bit surprising that God's promises are being fulfilled among the Gentiles.9 Paul will go on to explain this in chapters 9-11. But it's also no secret that the Jews have played a special part in God's plan; and it's true that the gospel came to them first. And if you look throughout the book of Acts, when Paul comes to a new city, he always went to the Jews first. Nevertheless, the point here is that the gospel is for all people; it is the only way of salvation available to people.

I would encourage you to let this drive your evangelism. This is the great message that we bring to the world: God saves sinners. The God of the Bible is the sovereign God who rules and reigns over all. Yet he saves sinners. He does not simply make us savable; no, he actually saves us. The idea that God helps those who help themselves is not biblical; God helps those who cannot help themselves. And he does this for sinners. Remember, while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Let this thought drive our evangelism.

3. God's Righteousness is Revealed in the Gospel (V. 17a).

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith . . .

Two things are at work here: 1) God's righteousness/justice is revealed in the gospel because we see that God does not allow sin to go unpunished; he dealt with it in his Son. God's Son is the sin-bearer/substitute. He took the punishment that we deserved, and Christ's death shows us how God feels about sin. Yet because Christ died in our place, when sinners place their faith in Christ, God declares those sinners righteous. The best place to see this is in Romans 3:21-26. 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.


Verse 25 shows that the gospel reveals God's righteousness because he did not pass over the former sins, that is, he did not sweep them under the rug.10 Some might think he does this because he does not punish people at the moment of their sins. For example, God told Adam, “The day you eat of the fruit, you will die.” Yet, after Adam ate the fruit he did not die immediately. Because of this, some might be tempted to presume on God's kindness—that is, mistake his kindness for weakness (Rom. 2:4). The death of Christ demonstrates God's justice. And why did God deal with Christ the way he did? Verse 26: So that God might be seen as just, since he has dealt with sin, and that he might be the justifier; that is, because he has dealt with sin in Christ, now sinners can be declared righteous.


Both of these aspects are dealt with in this text. That act of God declaring sinners righteous is what we mean by the term “Justification.” And by “Justified” we mean not only that we are forgiven of our sins, but also considered to be in full conformity with the law of God. That is, not only are we forgiven, but God says we are righteous! He does not look at us and say, “You are a sinner, I forgive you, go your way.” He says, “Righteous!”

And this righteousness that we have is not ours; it is Christ's. Please listen to me here because this is where a lot of people go wrong. We are not considered to be righteous because of anything we do; we are righteous because of what Christ did for us. The gospel is about what Christ did for us. We are not not even counted as righteous because of anything Christ does in us. That is to say, after God declares us righteous we say we are justified. And from that moment we are in the process of sanctification, which is the process whereby God makes us righteous and conforms us more and more into the image of his Son. In justification God declares us righteous; in sanctification God makes us righteous.

But here is the critical thing to see: We are not justified because we are sanctified. That is to say, in God's eyes we are not considered to be righteous because we have lived morally righteous lives; we are righteous because of what Christ has done FOR us. Now of course, God is working in us and making us righteous; and unless we see a decreasing pattern of sin in our lives, along with the fruit of the Spirit, and a change in our desires, we have reason to question whether or not we have been born again. But let's say we have lived a great Christian life and we have the fruit of the Spirit, and we love God and neighbor as the Bible instructs us; and all of those things are the work of the Spirit in our lives; truly God gets the credit for all of that.

But even after of that, we are not considered to be righteous because of those things; we are righteous because of what Christ has done for us. I'm sure we could go around this room and many of you could give testimonies about how Christ has transformed your lives. And this transformation would be evident in your love for God and your neighbor, and in your desire to please God, and your hatred for sin. And God would rightly receive all the glory for that! It's not wrong that we give God the glory for the work that he is doing in us. But it's wrong if we begin to trust in it and put our trust in our works, and say to God, “Look at what I've done.” Despite all of the great work that God is doing in us, on the last day our only hope is Christ and his righteousness. We all still have to say like the tax collector in Luke 18, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” Our only hope is in Christ and his righteousness. You know like I do that our best deeds are still tainted with sin. And so we must say with the hymn writer, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.”

No, this righteous status is not earned by works, or even because of our sanctification. Rather, it's granted through faith, which is what Paul means when he says that it is revealed from faith for faith. The Greek literally reads, “out of faith and into faith.” NIV says, “from faith to faith.” The best way to understand it is that God is saying we are considered righteous by faith from beginning to end; from the beginning of our Christian walk to the end.
Paul demonstrates this truth by citing Habakkuk 2:4

So, 1. We should not be ashamed of the gospel; 2. The saving power of God is revealed in the gospel; 3. The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. And,

4. Those Who Place Their Faith in Christ are Righteous (V. 17b).

as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

As we heard last week, this quotation comes from Habakkuk 2:4, and the broader context in which this verse is found teaches us that those who are righteous by faith shall live. Paul here is giving us OT proof of what he is saying. Taken into consideration of how he uses this text here and elsewhere he is teaching us that those who trust Christ are righteous—they are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and they will live eternally.11 And knowing all of this we can see why Paul says the gospel is the power of God.

This is good news. Those who are guilty can be forgiven by God and given a righteous status before him. This is why Paul is not ashamed of the gospel. Through this message the dead come to life and are delivered from the wrath of God.

Those of us who have experienced this grace must reflect upon this great truth and realize what Christ has done for us and be grateful for this.

Some of you may know this already but this verse has been very important in church history. It was this very verse that sparked the Protestant Reformation. It happened to Martin Luther, at the time a Roman Catholic priest, living in a monastery, overly zealous, desperately wanting to please God with his life, and never feeling like he was good enough. So much so did Martin Luther believe in the Roman Catholic system that he would be in confession for up to six hours a day, confessing his sins to a priest. He bothered his superiors so much that in order to keep his mind occupied they made him a lecturer in the local university.

It was in the Fall of 1515-1517 that Luther began to lecture on Romans and Galatians. It was during this time that Luther said he was born again. Listen to what he says and see if you can identify with him:

I had indeed been captivated with an extraordinary ardor for understanding Paul in the Epistle to the Romans. But up till then it was ... a single word in Chapter 1 [:17], 'In it the righteousness of God is revealed,' that had stood in my way. For I hated that word 'righteousness of God,' which according to the use and custom of all the teachers, I had been taught to understand philosophically regarding the formal or active righteousness, as they called it, with which God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner.

Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that he was placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God, and said, "As if, indeed, it is not enough, that miserable sinners, eternally lost through original sin, are crushed by every kind of calamity by the law of the decalogue, without having God add pain to pain by the gospel and also by the gospel threatening us with his righteous wrath!" Thus I raged with a fierce and trouble conscience. Nevertheless, I beat importunately upon Paul at that place, most ardently desiring to know what St. Paul wanted.

At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, "In it righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live." There I began to understand [that] the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which [the] merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live." Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. Here a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me. Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory …

And I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the word 'righteousness of God.' Thus that place in Paul was for me truth the gate to paradise.

What was it that did it for Luther? It was that guilty sinners can be right with God through faith. It is this great truth that has transformed lives. But not only this, it is this great truth that sustains our lives in Christ. Which brings me to my last point,

5. The Gospel Empowers Us to Live Obedient Lives (V. 1-17).

This point is taken from the entire context. We notice in verse 15 that Paul is eager to preach the gospel to this church, to believers! We learn from this that it is wrong to think of the gospel as, “That's how you get saved, and then from there we move on to the deep stuff.” This thinking is wrong. The structure of the Christian life is guilt, grace, gratitude. We know we do not measure up to God's Law, but we know Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by taking our place on the cross (Gal. 3:13). It is out of grateful hearts that we lay down our lives, and by his grace, live obedient lives.

What we learn from this is that the means God uses to spur us on to obedience and to live faithfully is the gospel! All that God has done for us in Christ is the source and strength of our spiritual lives. So in order for us to live lives pleasing to God it's important for us to know who we are in Christ and what he has done for us. Then what follows are the moral exhortations. We see this clearly in how Paul structures his letters. His letters are structured, first with the indicative, then with the imperative. First he tells us who we are in Christ, then he issues the commands.

This is exactly what Paul does in Romans. He spends 11 chapters, covering issues of sin, judgment, wrath, justification, sanctification, glorification, election, predestination—all of these weighty issues--at the end of which, in typical Jewish fashion, Paul ends in a doxology, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Rom. 11:33). After all of this, Paul says, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind (Romans 12:2).

We must keep these two issues side by side: It's what Christ has done for us that spurs us on to obedience. If not—if we do not get this right--we reduce Christianity into nothing more than ethics. If all we do is give people moral exhortations, and tell them, “Do this, try this, apply these principles to your life, don't do this, you can't do that,” we make Christianity, as Peter Kreeft says, “an echo of parental imperatives already long known and disobeyed.”12

It's not that giving moral imperatives is wrong, but they must be rooted in the gospel. Christianity is not a self-help program. In fact, it is not that God helps those who help themselves; Christianity is that God saves those who can't save themselves! This is why Michael Horton writes, “Moral and spiritual enlightenment is one thing; redemption by a one-sided divine rescue operation is another.”13

May we remember this truth in our own lives, and may we teach it to others. We are not wiser than God. We never outgrow the gospel, and we shouldn't assume the gospel. People do not naturally know the gospel. As sinners, we are hard-wired for the law, and if left to ourselves, our default position will be to try and earn our salvation. Therefore, let us preach the gospel to ourselves and to others everyday.

Ultimately, it is only the gospel that has the power to transform lives; and this is the message that God uses to call dead sinners to himself, and therefore, we should not be ashamed of it.

The early church father Polycarp, who studied under the apostle John, who was martyred by being burned at the stake. But the interesting story surrounding his death is that when the officers who were to kill him came to arrest him, he fed them a meal and prayed with his friends.The governor told Polycarp to deny Jesus and swear allegiance to Caesar. Polycarp told the governor that he had served the Lord for 86 years and that God had been faithful to him throughout his life. He said that because of God’s faithfulness to him, he could not be unfaithful to him now. Polycarp refused to be ashamed of the gospel, he refused to deny that he was a follower of Christ.

While we may not be in the same situation as Polycarp, wherever we may find ourselves, let us not be ashamed of the gospel.


1Douglas J. Moo. Romans: The NIV Application Commentary. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 17.
2See Moo, Ibid, 18. Thomas R. Schreiner. Romans: Baker Exegetical Commentary on the NT. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 12.
3Schreiner cites a variety of sources noting that not “every” Jew was evicted. See Ibid.
4See, for example, Leon Morris. The Epistle to the Romans. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 7-18; Moo, Romans, 21-24; Schreiner, Romans, 12; William Hendrickson. Exposition of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), 23-26.
5Cited in John Stott. The Message of Romans. (Downers Grove: IVP, 1994), 60.
6R. C. Sproul. Romans: St. Andrews Expositional Commentary. (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009), 28.
7Schreiner, Romans, 60.
8Morris, Romans, 68.
9Schreiner, Romans, 62.
10See J. V. Fesko. Justification: Understanding the Classic Reformed Doctrine. (Philipsburg: P&R, 2008), 203. Fesko writes, “The sin does not drift away into the night but is placed upon the shoulders of Christ on the cross” (203). Also, see the great article by Don Carson, "Reflections On Salvation and Justification in the New Testament," in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society: 40/4 (December 1997): 581-608.
11Morris, Romans, 72; Stott, The Message of Romans, 65.
12Peter Kreeft. Love is Stronger Than Death. (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1992), 23.
13Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 127.