The True Gospel

Romans 1:14-17 "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one 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."

I would like you to come back with me in your minds to the year AD57 and you are going to come into a room in a house where the preachers have their lodgings.  It's more than likely at night.  In this room there are two men, one is writing, one is speaking.  The man who is speaking is the apostle Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.  God the Holy Spirit is inspiring him to speak the very words of God.  In this room the epistle to the church at Rome is being written.  Paul V16 says "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."     The letter to the Romans, the church at Rome is thought by many people today to be complicated, hard to understand and really only for professors of theology, but that is not the case because the apostle Paul was speaking to the majority of Christians who made up the church of Rome who were uneducated slaves (for the most part) and they understood what it says.  That means that modern educated man is not so smart as what he thinks he is if he finds difficult to understand what uneducated slaves understood in the first century AD. 

What is Romans about?  It is about the gospel. That's it.  V16 and 17 are all about the gospel, the good news.  The gospel is not just the love of God, the gospel is not just the crucifixion, the gospel contained in the bible begins in the book of Genesis with the creator God, man's fall into sin, God's grace and his plan to sacrifice his Son for sinners, and his offer of forgiveness that is given indiscriminately to all and the salvation of those who believe.  The gospel continues on with instructions for Christian life to the final glorification in heaven.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is the whole counsel of God from Genesis to Revelation and its important for us to remember that.  Many churches have a limited view of what the gospel is.  The gospel is not just a little part of the bible.



The gospel is not something you should be ashamed of.  The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, the gospel reveals the righteousness of God, the gospel saves everyone who believes.  When you are ashamed of somebody you would not be seen with them, you don't talk about something you are ashamed of, Paul says he is not ashamed of the gospel, he is not embarrassed about it, he will not cover it up or hide it.  He is not ashamed to believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved.   Paul was executed for his witness of the gospel of Christ.

If in all the world there is one thing we can glory in, it is the gospel.  It is our hope and our glory.  The bible says not to be ashamed of the gospel.   The true gospel has never been popular, and we are encouraged that some churches still preach the old gospel that's ever new.  Be aware that some churches do not preach the gospel as contained in scriptures. They want to find all sorts of ways of getting a weakened message across because they are ashamed of the gospel.  The bible says a true Christian is not ashamed.  Countless millions of Christians have proved this in their own blood because they have died for the gospel.   These were not ashamed.

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.  To the Jew first and also to the  Greek, everybody, it doesn't matter what culture you belong to, what nationality you are, the gospel is (right now, presently) the power of God unto salvation.  The word powerful means it changes things in a powerful way.  God's power to change lives instantly and powerfully.   We have lack of power to obtain salvation, but God's power is unto salvation.  The gospel is the only means of salvation.  We are born dead in sin, born sinners, but God imparts life by his Holy Spirit who blows where he will just like the wind.  There is a spiritual resurrection of those who were dead in sin and God's power makes alive those who were dead in sin and they are saved through the gospel, they repent and believe so your culture and nationality is irrelevant.  The gospel levels everybody.  There are no exceptions.  Teach what the bible says and do not change it, if people don't understand it teach them what it means.  The bible transcends culture and nationality.  But some people don't like this.
The gospel reveals the righteousness of God. V17 "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."  In the gospel  the righteousness of God is revealed.  This is present tense.  Righteousness means justice, fairness, God will not let any sin, ever, go unpunished.  If he did that he wouldn't be righteous.  Justice must be done and the true gospel when it is preached, presently reveals God's righteousness.  Some say it is talking about the righteousness that God imputes to believers and that may be true but the righteousness that every believer has is God's righteousness.  It's talking about the righteousness of God that is revealed. 

The true gospel doesn't just reveal God's love and this is very important because many people have left church services where the gospel was (supposedly) preached and it gave them the opinion that God is a God of love only, that everybody will be OK.  This makes people not worry about their sin and that is a false gospel, not the true gospel.  If you come away from a gospel service and the impression you get is that God is a God of love only, you have just heard a false gospel preached by a false preacher, that is not the message of the bible.  The true gospel is not a revelation of God's love but a revelation of God's righteousness.  

 If the true gospel reveals that God is just and righteous, how can God who is holy forgive sinners and still be a righteous God?  How can he do that?  That is the glorious part of the gospel, the true biblical gospel shows that the demands of God's justice and righteousness were satisfactorily met in the death of his son Jesus.  The demand of God's righteousness is death for sin, and that is why Jesus died.  The true gospel does not tell  you that God loves you so much that he covers your sins up or ignores your sins because he loves you.  That is not the gospel.  The true gospel will tell you that God can't pass over your sin, that no sin ever committed by anybody will go unpunished.  Every sin must be punished.  Either it was on Jesus Christ or it will be on the sinner (who does not believe the gospel).  Anything short of that is false sentimentality.

The true gospel saves everyone who believes.  V16-17  It saves everyone that has faith.  In other words, the true gospel is conditional, and the condition is faith, trust.  You need to trust, believe.  That is a present active word.  Not 20 years ago, it started then maybe, but it is present active trust in Jesus.  Its not universal, it doesn't save everybody, but every single person who believes the gospel and trusts in Jesus.  No exceptions.   Every one who believes the gospel believes they were lost  in sin, believes in Jesus bearing the punishment for their sin, they trust in his sacrifice, and they believe that you obey God by living the Christian life.  The just shall live by faith.  Keep believing every day.  Not only the day you "made a profession"  The true gospel will not tell you to make a decision and then get on with your life as if nothing happened, that is a false gospel.  In the future, the true Christian will keep believing.  The true gospel is a life of faith and trust from faith to faith.
What's the message?  

For the unsaved, if ever you are going to be saved, you are going to have to believe this gospel: that the teaching is nothing to be ashamed of, that the gospel is God's power to save  you, it is this righteous God that shows you your sin.  If you don't trust in the Lord Jesus you won't ever be saved.  It is conditional.  To everyone who believes.  Will you believe? 

Do you believe? If you know you are a sinner and you feel your guilt then Jesus died for you.  IF you won't admit you are a sinner then you are a liar because the bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory.  If you don't believe that you are a sinner you have just added another sin to your life.  The list of sins against you can be all wiped out if you believe the gospel and trust in Jesus before it's too late.  

Christians you need to stand up for the true gospel, we need to declare the whole gospel, that God is righteous as well as that he loves them.  We need to emphasis the necessity of personal faith in Christ.  That is not always the case in churches these days.  Many churches are ashamed of the gospel and don't even mention the word sin.
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The notes above were made by myself from the sermon by Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed) at Sermon Audio.    At the end of this sermon is an account of one who was martyred for their faith.

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=3908183369