Sermon: “The Just Live by Faith”

TEXT:  Romans 1:16-17 (page 757 of pew Bibles)

REVIEW

1.  Debtors: Paul is a debtor to God by the atoning work of Christ.  By his calling as an apostle and his gifting and preparation as one who teaches and preaches, he has become a debtor to all kinds of people, expressing his duties before God in works of service for the gospelization the world.  His service to God has life-changing implications that make him duty-bound to men.  He is ready and willing to do what he is called to do.  The church is a communion of debtors to God by the atoning work of Christ.  We must all give ourselves in service to men for the gospelization of the world, in accord with our office and gifts.  This begins in the Jerusalem of our own home and church, and continues to the Judea of our immediate community, extending to the Samaria of places nearby where people are different than us, and even to the uttermost parts of the earth.  We are debtors to them all.  Like Paul, our service to God has life-changing implications that make us duty bound to people.  We must be ready and willing to do what we are called to do.

2.  Covenant of Grace: There cannot be much true gospelization, when the message that is proclaimed is something other than the biblical covenant of grace.  It is in understanding the covenant of grace that we rightly understand the gospel.  All other “gospels” tend to exalt man rather than God.

 

 

TODAY’S PASSAGE:

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,

for it is the power of God

to salvation

for everyone who believes,

for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 

17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed

from faith to faith;

as it is written,

"The just shall live by faith."

 

 

1.  Not ashamed of the gospel of Christ

            How can we be right with God?  Can we do it by our good deeds?  Even when we have done all the service to God and humanity that we could possibly imagine, we are still unprofitable servants (Luke 17:10).  We have only done what is our duty to do.  But if we are to be in the blessed presence of God, His holiness demands both a payment for our sin, and some declaration of holiness credited to our accounts, for without holiness no man can see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).

            How can we pay for sin?  How can we provide the necessary holiness that God might declare us to be His children in truth?  The only way is through something called the “gospel of Christ.”  Paul says here that he is “not ashamed” of this gospel.  This is a dramatic understatement.  Of course he is utterly committed to the gospel of Christ.  His entire life has been changed through the gospel of Christ.  Think of the woman who barged into Simon the Pharisee’s home in Luke’s gospel.  Jesus tells Simon that this woman was forgiven much.  Therefore she loved much.  When she arrived uninvited at Simon’s house, she came up behind Jesus, “stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil (Luke 7:38).”  She was forgiven.  She was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

            Note here that the good news that saves us is the gospel “of Christ.”  If you believe that you have heard the gospel, but it was not all about Jesus Christ, then the message that you have heard is not the same one that Paul refers to here.  The Son of God has a central and essential role in the good news.  That central role is as a representative for us.  He has a mysterious but real union with us who have been chosen by God and who have received the gift of faith.  No Christ – No gospel.  In Him we have everything.

 

 

2.  The power of God to salvation

            One of the reasons why it is so important that we hear the genuine gospel is that the true gospel is powerful, as Paul states here.  Nothing else can promise that same power.  Change the gospel – lose the power.  That’s because the power is the power of God, and He has chosen to distribute that power through the message of His Son.  It is the power of God, rather than the power of something less than God.  The beauty of this system is that it looks so pitifully weak to men, but it changes lives in such a way that causes us to boast in God rather than men.

            It is the power of God “to salvation,” Paul says.  What does this mean?  Gospel power is saving power.  It is gospel power that takes care of the debt to God that we owe.  It is gospel power that provides the righteousness that we need.  It is gospel power that gives us hope beyond these mortal bodies.  It is gospel power that causes us to be found in the perfect work and wisdom of Christ.  It is gospel power that gives us something that will last.  It is gospel power that brings about bodily resurrection, calling to a dead man in some tomb the words that demand resurrection: “Lazarus come forth!” (John 11:43)  It is gospel power that brings us to our destiny as children of God and members of His household.

 

 

3.  Content of the gospel

The rest of this passage makes it clear that the gospel has content.  Note here first that faith is absolutely central to God’s plan of salvation, and secondly that the very nature of faith is that it demands content.  Faith is not a feeling.  It is a gift of God that includes believing and trusting.  This  demands something or someone who must be believed in and trusted.

Paul indicates here that in the gospel, a kind of righteousness is revealed that is from faith from first to last.  He then goes on to quote from the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk, “the just shall live by faith.”  In this book of Habakkuk the prophet questions God.  He sees much injustice and sin in and among God’s people, and He wonders when God’s justice against sin and sinners will come.  God answers by saying that He will soon be sending the Babylonians, a fierce and unrighteous people, and He will use them as agents of His justice against His own nation. 

Habakkuk then brings a second question before God.  He wonders how it is that God could justly use a nation worse than his own people to be agents of His justice against His people.  God answers by saying that He will execute His perfect plan perfectly, and that they must trust Him.  He says, “Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.”  God will one day judge the faithless, and will vindicate the true elect, who have his gift of faith.  Through this great gift of faith righteousness will be credited to his chosen ones.  In an appointed time yet to come, the just will live by faith, and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

The prophet ends with these great words of abiding trust in God, a trust that goes beyond any circumstances we face.  “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls – yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.  The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer's feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills.”  Yes, His chosen ones will walk in that place.  There will be a resurrection of the dead.  The just shall live by faith.

Though faith is a gift from God, so that no man can boast (Ephesians 2:1-10), nonetheless, this faith is essential.  This is why Paul went into the synagogues and then beyond the synagogues with the message of the gospel all over the Greek and Roman world.  There is no “power of God unto salvation” for everyone who does not believe.  It is “for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” 

If God credits righteousness to people when they exercise faith through the gospel of Christ, has God walked away from His demand for righteousness?  No way!  He has upheld His righteousness by first performing righteousness perfectly in His Son Jesus and then giving that righteousness to those covered by the righteous acts of Christ.  He has chosen to do this through the preaching of the gospel of Christ.  Far from being a rejection of the righteousness of God, the gospel is an affirmation and fulfillment of the righteousness of God, for in the gospel “the righteousness of God is revealed.”

 

 

APPLICATION:

I urge you then not to be knocked off course by events all around you, and by the urgencies of pain and difficulty, or even of blessing and celebration in your own lives or in the lives of those you love.  You need to stay on message.  You need to live by faith in the solid message of the gospel.  The gospel is about Christ.  The gospel is about righteousness.  The gospel is powerful.  The gospel is about salvation.