Devotional talk #1 on the book of Romans given at the Community Hospital of SDA in Port of Spain, Trinidad, July 19, 2010

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Norman McNulty

The Power of the Gospel

Today is actually my birthday, so I'm happy to be here to start off my birthday with the staff of Community Hospital and I guess it's also special for me to be able to share on my birthday a worship talk from the book of Romans which is 1 of my favorite books in the Bible.

How many of you have studied the book of Romans before?

So it's in the for those of you who are studying the Adventist Sabbath school lesson quarterly We are going through the book of Romans as well in that You know it to cover the book of Romans in 5 15-minute talks is very difficult to do, so we're just going to hit some high points, but I think these are the points that are the most important.

There's probably some important points that we will leave out, but we are going to start today in Romans chapter 1.

So we're going to start in the beginning of the book.

And I think there are Bibles scattered throughout.

Does anyone not have a Bible that would like to have a Bible?

There's someone in the back there if we can get her a Bible.

So before we start, I'm just going to say a brief word of prayer and we'll get started.

Father in heaven, thank you so much for the opportunity to study from the book of Romans.

Bless us now as we study your word today.

The book of Romans, if you could distill it down to 1 key concept, The book of Romans is about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And the way I know that is by going to Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17.

And here Paul says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek for therein is the righteousness of God Revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith Now this is 1 of the most powerful passages in all of Christianity And I want to just take a look at a few key concepts today.

And what about the gospel of Christ is the power of God?

And what does it mean for the righteousness of God to be revealed?

So those are the things in the next few minutes we're going to look at.

So first of all, Paul says he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

That suggests that at least at the time that Paul wrote this epistle to the people at Rome, there was something to be ashamed of about the gospel.

The gospel presented a message that Jesus Christ died for our sins and he is our savior.

Well, in the minds of the people at that time, if your God is someone who died, that was shameful.

But Paul says no, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because the fact that Jesus died for us is what brings special power to the gospel.

Now when we talk about the gospel of Christ, Paul makes it very clear that The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation.

The Gospel is something more than a lot of times we give it credit for.

And so many times we as Christians make the gospel into an almost ordinary thing.

It's like, oh praise the Lord, Jesus died for my sins, I can keep on living the way I'm living.

That's not what Paul is talking about here in the book of Romans.

Paul is talking about a gospel that is so powerful that it brings salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

And when you study Romans, the rest of Romans 1 and all of Romans 2, which we don't have time to do today, you will find it quite astonishing that there is any power in the world that could save sinners as wretched as Jews and Gentiles.

You look at the Gentiles in chapter 1 and it talks about how the wrath of God is poured out against the Gentiles for their wickedness.

And then in chapter 2, Paul says, wait a minute, Jews, don't think you're so good.

You guys know the law and you're breaking it anyway.

So by the time you get to Romans chapter 3, Paul says all the world is guilty before God, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And yet in Paul's introductory statement to the book of Romans, he says that the gospel is so powerful that it brings salvation to everyone who believes.

Now this word power comes from the Greek word dunamis, And the other place that you see it in the New Testament is in Acts 1, verse 8, which in a nutshell, the disciples as they see Jesus for the last time before he goes to heaven, he says, you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Algeria and in Samaria and into the uttermost parts of the earth.

So, The same power that allowed the apostles to be witnesses to the whole world and their generation is the same power that is found in the gospel.

Now, Is there a problem if the 12 apostles were able to take the gospel to the whole world in their lifetime?

We have more than 12 people in this room.

How is the power of the gospel working in our lives?

Because it's the same power of the gospel that the power of the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles in the early Christian church.

And they took that gospel as a witness to the world in their generation.

Now does the Bible say anything else about that for the end of time?

Matthew 24 verse 14 says, And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." Now, the apostles in Acts 1 verse 8 received power to be witnesses to the whole world and their generation.

Matthew 24, Jesus says that the gospel will be a witness to the whole world and then the end shall come.

Now if we were to just put on television throughout the whole world so that the whole world could see Jesus died for your sins, Would that necessarily usher in the second coming of Jesus Christ?

Based on Matthew 24, I think we've missed something.

The key word of Matthew 24 is that the gospel will be a witness.

So it's 1 thing to preach the theory of the gospel and say, Jesus died for our sins, we accept him as our Savior, he will come back someday.

If you accept him as your Savior, he will save you.

And then we say, if we can just get that message to the whole world, Jesus will come.

What Matthew 24 is saying is the gospel, the power of the gospel, needs to be demonstrated through the lives of the people who are preaching it as a witness and then the end will come.

And that's what the Apostles did in their generation.

They were living witnesses of the power of the gospel.

So when Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.

And the word dunamis means dynamite, and dynamite means that this power comes into the lives of sinful human beings like you and me, and it's explosive.

It wipes away the power of sin in our lives and gives us the power of God.

And then when you get to verse 17, it makes sense when it says, For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

The righteousness of God is the righteousness of God.

And where is the righteousness of God revealed?

Because it's a revelation of the righteousness of God.

Now, is it possible that we as God's people have a gospel problem?

Is the righteousness of God being revealed as a witness through our lives?

Because that is the power of the gospel that Paul is talking about.

Paul is saying the righteousness of God is so powerful that when it is revealed, it will change the lives of all those who believe in it to their salvation, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, if you believe, if you have faith.

And when it says it's revealed from faith to faith, what this is talking about is that in our faith experience, the more we grow, the more God's righteousness is revealed in us, which helps us to understand the parable of Mark 4 28 when Jesus speaks about the blade, then the corn, then the full corn in the ear.

That plant is perfect at each stage of its growth, but eventually it reaches a point of full maturity where it bears fruit.

And in our Christian experience, the righteousness of God can be revealed at each stage until we reach a point of full maturity.

Now let's get to the heart of the matter.

Paul says, as it is written, the just shall live by faith." Now, just so you know, that verse, that phrase, is the phrase that started the Protestant Reformation.

Martin Luther studied the Bible and realized righteousness is not by works, it's by faith.

We cannot save ourselves in our own strength, but through the power of God, he can save us and transform us.

Now, what does it mean to be just and living by faith?

Well, we've all heard these terms before, but at its most basic level, if you are just living by faith, that means you have the experience of justification by faith, right?

If you are just living by faith, you have the experience of justification by faith.

Now, this word, just, comes from the Greek word, dikaios.

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The Power of the Gospel

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