Romans 1:16

John G. Reisinger

If I were asked to choose one verse of Scripture that best summarizes the gospel message, I would without hesitation pick Romans 3:24. This verse is the 'gospel in a nut shell.' Let us look at it carefully.

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…

Now you may be ready to ask, "Why would anyone choose that particular verse?" If you carefully examine each phrase in the verse, you will have the answer.

First, the Christian faith, or the gospel, is about being justified and the verse begins by telling us how sinners are justified before God. When you read the word justified substitute the words put right with. The justified man is the man who is put right with God. He is a sinner who has come into a state of grace and who stands as perfectly accepted by God.

Next, the verse tells us exactly how poor sinners are justified or put right with God. We are justified 'freely by his grace.' We are not justified by our works, our baptism, or our church membership, but by grace alone. The Greek word translated freely in Romans 3:24 is a very interesting word. The same word in John 15:25 is translated as the phrase without a cause. The text:

But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they hated me without a cause (John 15:25).

When we compare the two verses, we see that the cause of the world's hatred of Christ was entirely in men and not in Christ. The world hated him without a cause. He did not in any way deserve or earn their hatred. When their hatred fell on him the cause of that hatred was totally and completely in the heart of the world. John 15:25 could be translated this way, "They hated our Lord freely," meaning, they hated him for no reason in him.

Now the exact opposite is true of a Christian's justification. If God's forgiving grace in justification has fallen on you, it is without any cause whatsoever in you. You did not earn or deserve it and you did nothing to acquire it. The cause of God's justification was solely in the heart of God and his sovereign electing purposes just as the cause of the world's hatred of Christ was solely in their own hearts. That is what grace means, and this text speaks of the total freeness of that grace. We must keep insisting that the cause, or ground, of God's grace in forgiving and justifying poor sinners is entirely in God and not the sinner.

This, however, presents a problem. This raises a legitimate question, "How is it right, fair, and good for a holy God to forgive sinners when they not only do not deserve to be forgiven, but they in fact actually deserve just the opposite?" They deserve to go to hell. Again, our text provides the answer. God's righteousness in forgiving hell deserving sinners is manifested and magnified when he forgives them through, or on the ground of, the "redemption that is in Christ Jesus." The death of Christ on the cross is the foundation and reason for God justifying sinners.

Do you see how this text tells the whole story? I'm sure you will now agree with me that this one text sets forth the heart and soul of the gospel of God's sovereign grace.

We must realize that the primary question in Scripture is not, "How do we get a sinner to love God?" The real question the writers of the Bible wrestle with is this: "How can a holy God love a guilty sinner like me?" The gospel of grace gives the only valid answer. God loves and forgives sinners purely 'for Christ's sake.' Our forgiveness is the Father's reward to Christ for his suffering unto death. We will see this more clearly as we go along.

I want to mention a text that we will develop in detail later. In I John 1:9 we read that God is "faithful and just" to forgive us when we confess our sins. To whom is God being faithful when he forgives us? Surely, he is not being faithful to us since he owes us nothing but death. We will see that God is being faithful to Christ by forgiving us "for Christ's sake."

God's forgiveness, according to this verse, is also based on his justice. God is not only faithful in forgiving us but he is also just. It has been said that justice was the one thing for which we should never plead. If we ask God to justly give us what we deserve we will perish, but nonetheless, justice is still the attribute of God that gives the Christian his only ground of assurance of salvation. What we shall see is that God is faithful to his own covenant made with Christ, and he is just toward Christ in rewarding him for his atoning work! More about this later.

The book of Romans is the heart of the Bible. In order to understand it pretend you are a juror listening to a prosecutor arguing a case against a lawbreaker. That is exactly what Paul is doing. He is charging, in the name of God, all men with open and deliberate rebellion against God. As you listen to the prosecutor, your first impression is, "Whoever this accused person is, he really deserves the severest penalty." If God the Holy Ghost is pleased to open your heart to the truth, you will realize that the prosecutor has his finger pointed straight at you. You will realize that you are the guilty sinner who is under the wrath of God.

There is only one word that must be understood in order to grasp the teaching of the book of Romans. That word is not faith, grace, or even justification. The word is therefore. All that you need to do is figure out what each therefore is there for, and you will be able to follow Paul's argument. I am not joking when I say that. The great Apostle is building a case by proving one point at a time. He takes two and one half chapters just to prove one point. The first two and one half chapters of Romans proves that all men, without a single exception, and that includes you and me, are guilty in the sight of God. The Jew, with all his knowledge, is guilty. The pagan Gentile with much less knowledge is nonetheless guilty and under judgment. The great therefore in Romans 3:20 is the conclusion to Paul's first point. All men are justly 'under the wrath of God' only because they are truly guilty and the conclusion is "therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified" (3:20). There is no hope or help from ourselves or from the law. God alone must save the sinner or the sinner must perish.

Paul then sets forth in chapter four the truth of justification by faith. As soon as he proves that point he comes to another great therefore. He will now build on the facts he has just established. Observe, Romans 5:1:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It logically follows that if a sinner is truly justified in God's sight then that man has true 'peace with God.' He is no longer 'under condemnation' but is now fully accepted into the family of God. He also has access into God's presence. These things are the sure results of justification. We do not have time to go through the whole book of Romans and look at all of the 'therefores,' but you can do it yourself. Just underline every therefore and ask yourself these questions: "What has the Apostle proven? What specific doctrine has he put forth? How is he now building on the truths he has just established?" If you do that with each therefore I guarantee you will understand the book of Romans.

The lawyer—Paul—makes his opening statement in Romans 1:16, 17:

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.

A lawyer's opening statement lays out exactly what he intends to prove in his arguments. The rest of his case is giving the facts that prove his original statement to be true. Romans 1:16, 17 is an amazing summary of the book of Romans and the whole gospel message. This is Paul's statement of why he is so eager that all men hear this gospel.

First, the words I am not ashamed is another way of saying, I am very proud. Paul is speaking as Southerners speak. I will never forget asking a brother in Alabama to take me to the mall. He said, "Brother John, I would be right proud to carry you over to the Mall." Paul is proud of this gospel because of what it is and what it does. It is nothing less than the very power of God that can and does change a sinner from top to bottom. This gospel meets all the needs of the sinner and all the concerns of God.

When Paul speaks in this text of not being ashamed, he does not mean he is not ashamed to witness to his neighbor or even on the street corner. That of course was true but it is not his point here. Paul is speaking as a philosopher. He is saying, "I am not ashamed to take this mighty gospel out into the marketplace of ideas. I will argue with the philosophers on Mars Hill, whether they are Epicureans or Stoics. I will take on the disciples of Freud or Skinner. I will stack this gospel up against any cult, movement, false prophet, pseudo-intellectual on any campus, or any place else, and this gospel will always win because the power of God is behind it. This gospel is the only thing that takes into consideration man's true nature of sin and selfishness, and dares to say, in spite of it all there is the hope of mercy and grace. This gospel is the only message that understands man in his predicament of sin and guilt and dares to say, "In spite of all that, God's grace is greater than all our sin."

Romans 1:17 should surprise us if we are reading it carefully. Paul's great confidence in the gospel is because it reveals 'the righteousness of God.' We would expect him to glory in the truth that the gospel reveals the 'love of God,' and of course, the gospel does reveal God's love. However, that is not Paul's primary reason for extolling the gospel. The gospel is not first the revelation of God's love but it is the revelation of the 'righteousness of God.' This is a vital point.

We might expect Paul to be so thrilled with the gospel because it reveals the wonderful grace of God, or that it is a revelation of the mercy of God. As much as both of those things are true and wonderful, they are not the first and most important things about the gospel according to Paul's argument in this text. Paul is thrilled because the gospel reveals the "righteousness of God." We shall see that Paul is amazed at how the gospel justifies God in his act of justifying the worst of sinners. We will work this out carefully. For now, we must see that Paul's gospel is first concerned with demonstrating the righteousness of God in the scheme of grace! He will show how the gospel demonstrates how God can be both 'just' and the 'justifier' of the ungodly.

To repeat, the primary question is not, "How do I get a sinner to love God," but, "How can a holy God love a sinner like me?"

There are two tests that we should apply to our hearts to see if we really understand and believe this gospel that makes Paul so proud. First, there is an intellectual test, and then an experiential test. As I just mentioned, in Romans 1:16 Paul is talking about not being intellectually ashamed of the gospel. If you are intellectually ashamed of the Bible or its clear message of sovereign grace, then I question if you are a Christian. I will agree that we are often ashamed, justifiably, by some things the Church or the preacher does or says, but we dare not be ashamed of either Christ or his apostles. If you think a psychiatrist can understand the human heart and its true needs better than the writers of Scriptures, then you either do not understand the Bible's message or else you really do not in your heart believe that message¾and it is quite possible that you may not have ever heard the Bible's true message. Some people grow up thinking the Bible teaches "don't dance, don't drink, and don't chew, and never go out with girls that do." That is not the gospel. The gospel is Christ himself and being savingly related to Him. If we are intellectually ashamed of the Bible or its message then either we do not believe it or we do not understand it.

The second test is found in Romans 5:3 where Paul says, "Hope maketh not ashamed." Paul is here speaking experientially. He is saying that no person has ever put their faith in Jesus Christ and then been disappointed. I know people who say, "I tried the gospel once and it is not all it claims to be." However, when you press them to explain the actual gospel message they 'tried' you will find they got a false gospel from a religious huckster and not from the Bible. I will agree that if you believe the religious trash that you hear from most preachers today that you will soon be disappointed. When you aren't healed after being told that God will heal you if you have enough faith, you will soon blame God or his promise. Likewise, when the false prophet on TV tells you that God wants you to have a new Cadillac and you can have it right now if you only have enough faith, you will indeed be disappointed.

I say again, if we are disappointed in the gospel then either we do not believe the true gospel, or we do not understand what it actually promises.

Job 25:1-6 sets forth the real problem that the gospel deals with. As you read the following verses, notice two important things. First, notice the description of God's awesome sovereignty and his unapproachable holiness. Then notice man's insignificance and moral guilt in the sight of this sovereign and holy God.

Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places. Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise? How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?

The pertinent question is found in verse 4. "How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?"

When the two great facts concerning God's sovereignty and holiness are set in contrast to man's total insignificance and awful sin, then we may well cry out, "How, in the light of the great distance between the sovereign, holy God and the sinful worm called man can the gulf between them ever be bridged?" How then indeed can man, the guilty sinner, be justified in the sight of a holy God? The stress in verse four is on the word then. It means, in the light of these awesome facts, how can sinful guilty man be justified before God.

Every religion is an attempt to answer to this vital question and bring God and the sinner together. Every religion except the gospel gives a wrong answer. They all fail because they either (1) lower the character of God by disowning his sovereignty or denying that holiness is the center of his being. They all picture God as impotent until man is 'willing.' Or, (2) they all elevate man to a position of less than depraved with the inherent ability to pull himself up by his own boot straps if given half a chance. In other words, all false religions lower God's character as holy to nothing but love and raise man's ability and deny his guilt. However, the moment we accept the Bible's description of both God and man, then the question will be asked, "How then, in the light of the facts, can man the sinful worm be justified in the sight of a holy God?"

By the way, Job 25:6 is the Bible text that inspired that great hymn, "Would he devote his sacred head, for such a worm as I?" Modern hymnbooks change that to, "Would he devote his sacred head for such a one as I?" They refuse to believe they are worms in God's sight. I wonder what the revisionists said when the NIV translated the verse: "how much less man, who is but a maggot?"

Only the gospel can answer that question, and it should be noted, the answer sounds like blasphemy against God to the mind that does not understand God's grace and holiness. Here are Paul's famous words: "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness (Rom. 4:5). Can you imagine a Jew listening to Paul declare that the Holy God of Israel "justifies the ungodly"? The Jew would scream, "That is blasphemy and Paul should have his tongue cut out." If we really understand Paul, we will say, "The objector is absolutely correct in calling this gospel blasphemous if God himself did not hang his Son on a cross as the atoning sacrifice."

Why would the Jew, and other lost people, think Paul's declaration that God "justifies the ungodly" is akin to blasphemy? It is because they clearly understand the true basis of justice and righteousness, that is, that a person should get what he deserves. But, what they do not understand is that Christ has born the full penalty that we deserved. They do understand grace! They do not understand the cross.

Let me illustrate the problem. The Bible is quite clear about God's principles of righteousness. They are set out many places. The world understands God's principles of righteousness because our government is based solidly on those very principles.

The innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked (Exodus 23:7).

This verse gives the two foundation stones of justice in God's theocracy as well as the judicial system in America. First, "Do not ever slay the innocent," and secondly, "Don't let the wicked go unpunished." God has not only clearly laid out these two foundational principles, he also informs us that he hates those who violate these principles.

He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination to the LORD (Proverbs 17:15).

I am sure you will agree that every lost man understands and agrees with these two principles. However, many people do not realize that this is why a lost man cannot grasp the meaning of grace. He can only think in terms of works and 'getting what you earn.' He cannot see that the gospel is based on grace and not on works.

Let me give a modern example. Suppose a judge in your town deliberately and knowingly punishes an innocent man with death. Every citizen in town would be upset and say, "That was as wrong as could be." Suppose (and this happens often today) a judge consciously allows a guilty man to go free? Again, people would be upset and claim it was not at all right. The only situation that could be worse would be a judge putting a man to death for the express purpose of allowing a guilty man to go free. Most people would gladly sign a petition to have the judge impeached. They would cry out that this was a miscarriage of justice that dare not be tolerated!

I am sure you know what I am going to say next. God has done both of the things that he said he hated. God has done both of the things that he himself has declared to be unrighteous and unjust! Is that not what the following text means?

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. . . (I Peter 3:18).

Yes, God has done the two things that he hates. He has punished the only righteous man that ever lived, our Lord Jesus Christ, and he punished that innocent man for the express purpose of allowing the worst of sinners to go free. Not only has God 'appeared' to violate his own principles of justice, he has commanded you and me to preach what he did as the 'gospel of sovereign grace'! However, even that is not the most difficult part. We are to preach that what God did in slaying the only innocent man who ever lived was for the express purpose of saving the worst of sinners. This act is that which furnishes the ground for establishing and satisfying the righteousness of God. That which appears to be totally unrighteous is in reality what establishes the righteousness of God. That is what Paul is going to prove.

These two great actions of God constitute the message of the gospel. They provide the answer to the great question raised in Job 25:4. Guilty sinners can be justified without any soiling of either God's sovereignty or his holiness. The cross work of Christ establishes the foundation of the gospel's "righteousness."

Once this is understood, then it is easy to grasp why Paul says, "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness" (I Cor. 1:18). The preaching of the love of God is not foolishness to anyone. People do not get angry when you preach about the love of God. Actually, they get upset if you do not preach the love of God. Most people do not even mock us for preaching the miracles of Christ. There may be some, but not many. Why then do they hiss and howl when we 'preach the cross'?

We must ask, "Exactly what is the 'preaching of the Cross'?" The answer is simple. It is preaching the vicarious, atoning, blood which was shed by Christ. It is preaching that the atonement of Christ alone could satisfy a holy God and a sinner's guilty conscience. Preaching the cross is preaching the doctrine of propitiation—a sacrificial offering made to God to turn away his holy and just wrath.

Why do people hate this doctrine so deeply and complain so vehemently against it. It is because they have both a wrong view of the character of God and a wrong view of the nature of man. First, they do not believe that man is so depraved that nothing less than a blood sacrifice can cover his awful guilt, and secondly, they think of God only as love instead of holy. Love does not need to be propitiated. To even think of a loving God needing a blood sacrifice before he will forgive is a monstrous misrepresentation of God. Love can never be angry. Love never needs to be placated. We would agree if God were nothing but love, however, God is also holy, just and righteous. Those attributes of God must be satisfied and nothing but the blood of God the Son can do the job. God's amazing and wonderful love needs a highway of holiness before it can come to sinful man.

In the next issue we will study what Paul means when he says the gospel "reveals the righteousness of God." We will see that we are not forgiven by act of love. All the love in the world, including all the love in the heart of God cannot forgive one single sin! Sin must be paid for, and paid for in strict justice. The gospel shows how this has been done as well as the inevitable results that must follow.

Copyright 2004 John G. Reisinger