Romans 1:16, 17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first… Why should he be ashamed? The great metropolis of a world-empire, with its wide-reaching power and permeating law; and he and his gospel! What a contrast it might seem! and how the supercilious Romans might overwhelm him with contempt! For they were not, as the Athenians, ever desirous to hear some new thing. And his gospel? it would be their laughing-stock. Nay, he shall not be ashamed. He will take his stand in the very centre of Rome's power, and at her fountain-head of righteousness, and there present his gospel. For it was a power, and in it was revealed a righteousness - the power of God, the righteousness of God. Let us regard these two aspects now. I. GOD'S POWER. Man plumes himself with pride on the possession of might, but how impotent he is in the grasp of the great God! So, too, the "great powers" of the world's history: Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's vision (Daniel 2:31 45). And "the powers that be are ordained of God." God's power is manifold. The governance of nature, the control of the affairs of men, the influence on the heart. And of this manifold power of God the gospel of Christ is a pre-eminent display. 1. Its aim. "Unto salvation." Life narrow restriction of this term; coextensive with the loss: the man, the life, the world. See ch. 8. for this wide meaning of the word. Man's very self: ignorant, enslaved, corrupt, and withal estranged from God, and under condemnation. The gospel of Christ works light and liberty and love; it brings pardon and God. Man's life-history: the gospel of the resurrection. Man's world: the gospel of the new creation. What splendid visions were these! and how, in comparison, the splendour of Rome's power paled! 2. Its condition. To him "that believeth." (1) A reception of the power. Man's power of resisting God's grace, through sin; the humble acceptance of God's grace, through faith. (2) A realization of the power. God's grace not merely accepted by the obedient will, but transfused through the whole consciousness. 3. Its range. "To every one;" "To the Jew first, and also to the Greek." God's large love, whether there had been privilege (the Jews) or non-privilege (the Gentiles), polity or non-polity (ver. 14), culture or non-culture (ver. 14). And all had been prepared of God. Oh, if he might but help towards making the potential into the actual! Rome's cosmopolitanism was as nothing to this. Was it not a "power of God" that he might be proud to preach? II. GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS. The imperial law of Rome. It could not command all the complexities of social intercourse, nor the governance of the man's self; much less could it lay its grasp on the heart. Nor can man himself make himself righteous; he lacks the heart and the power. But what an empire's laws can never do, what a man's own strength can never do, is done by the gospel of Christ: "For therein is revealed," etc. 1. The Divineness of the righteousness. "Of God." (1) Divine in its origin. All true good from the Creator to the creature. Especially for recovery from a fall. (2) Divine in its inspiration. Only as having God with us can we be right with God, (3) Divine in its aim. God the supreme end of all thoughts, desires, purposes, and works. 2. The distinctions of the righteousness. To be brought out more fully in the sequel of the Epistle. (1) A status: by the atonement of Christ's redemption. Objectively. (2) A state: by the constraining love of the redemption. Subjectively. Man seeks to work out his righteousness in the reverse order; from a state to a status. Whole Epistle combats this false principle. 3. The reception of the righteousness. "By faith unto faith." (1) Of the prerogative of righteousness through Christ: acceptance pure and simple. (2) Of the power of righteousness through Christ: assiduous, increasing, strong. So all is of faith: the beginning, the progress, the perfecting. "As it is written, The righteous shall live by faith, by believing with all his heart in the saving love of God. Was it not a "righteousness of God that he might be proud to preach? What is God's gospel to us? A name? so many words? so many truths? Or a living power, already healing, and working towards the perfect life? "Not in word only, but in power" (1 Thessalonians 1:5). Again, is it a veil, covering our deformity, and a cloak for our sins? Or a purifying power, making us right that it may make us righteous? "In power, and in the Holy Ghost" (1 Thessalonians 1:5). Yes; a gospel of holy power, so shall it be a gospel of "much assurance;" and, as Paul was not ashamed to preach it, we also shall learn what those words mean, "Whosoever believeth shall not be ashamed" (Romans 9:33). - T.F.L. Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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