The Gospel of God
Romans 1:1-17
June 6, 2021
Peter Yoo
Sermon Script
Missions Support Letter Illustration
A little over 5 years ago, a few Moody students and I went on a mission trip to Haiti for about 2 weeks. And for those 2 weeks, we led Bible studies, we did VBS, we stayed in a local orphanage specializing in children with special needs, and we visited villages with no access to electricity or clean water. And I honestly hope that I never forget the many things that God has taught me during my time in Haiti.
But I also hope that I never forget the things I learned before going to Haiti. I’m sure many of you are aware, but if you don’t know, prepping for a missions trip isn’t easy. And in some ways, prepping for Haiti was more stressful than being in Haiti itself. You have to coordinate with people there, you have to create an itinerary, you have to create support letters, and you have to raise funds. Actually, our Haiti team was so short on funds, that we thought we were going to have to cancel the mission trip altogether because we didn’t have enough money. But we still kept sending out support letters and pleading with people for donations. And only by God’s grace, the week before we left, we had just enough money to fund everything.
Romans as a Missions Support Letter
And so you’re probably wondering what does this missions support letter illustration have to do with the book of Romans? Well, I’m sure you all have read Romans, and I’m sure you all were taught the doctrines in Romans, and I’m sure you’re all aware of just how difficult yet beautiful all the teachings are. And if you were in youth group with me, then you definitely went through some tough times with me when we were going through Romans. So you probably already know that there really is no other book of the Bible quite like Romans. And the book of Romans had such colossal impact on the church and her doctrines. The church today would look radically different if we didn’t have the book of Romans. It’s completely appropriate to say that Highland church would not exist as such were it not for the book of Romans.
And yet, despite all of its massive effects in church history, if I can be so simple, the book of Romans is like a missions support letter. All of church history has been so heavily influenced by the book of Romans, but in one sense, it’s a missions support letter.
How can I say this? Well, by way of context, Paul was probably in Corinth when he wrote this letter to the Romans. And Paul has actually never met the Roman Christians, but he’s heard a lot about them. And the Roman Christians that Paul’s writing to are both Jewish and Gentile Christians, but he’s probably writing to a majority non-Jewish, Gentile-Christian audience. And this is pretty much one of the last letters that Paul writes in his life. His goal is to go to Jerusalem, then Rome, then Spain, which for him is moving as far west as he possibly can, preaching the gospel every step of the way. And he is asking the Roman Christians for support.
And in this “missions support letter” (so to speak), the apostle Paul is summarizing and teaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, every page of Romans is so thoroughly charged with the gospel. So that even though the context is Paul wishing to go to Spain and asking for financial help, it would be inappropriate for us to say that’s all the letter was and that there was no gospel in the letter to the Romans. And this morning, we will be looking at how Paul begins this letter. And so first, I’m going to talk about the gospel as it relates to Paul, second I’m going to talk about the gospel as it relates to the Romans, and lastly I’m going to talk about the gospel as it relates to all believers.
The Gospel as it Relates to Paul
First, what is the gospel as it relates to Paul? When we think about the gospel, we think about our Lord Jesus Christ, who he is and what he’s done. And in one sense, that’s the answer. So if you were asked, what’s the gospel, and you gave the Sunday School answer, Jesus Christ, that’s a pretty good answer and you can’t go wrong there.
But the apostle Paul doesn’t start here. Look at verse 1. Paul first identifies himself as a “slave of Christ Jesus,” “a called apostle,” “set apart for the gospel of God.” And then starting in verse 2, he begins to locate the gospel in the Old Testament. That’s not really our go-to starting point, is it? For Paul, the gospel is something in the Old Testament that “God has promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,” which by this point in time was primarily the Old Testament. And Paul continues to talk about God’s Son as someone who was “from the seed of David according to the flesh” and that “he was appointed to be the Son of God in power according to the Holy Spirit by his resurrection.” And then finally, Paul identifies for us this mystery figure: “Jesus Christ our Lord.”
This is the gospel as it relates to Paul. Paul, if you remember, was a Pharisee and he was a student of the Old Testament. He lived and breathed the Old Testament. He could recite for you the Old Testament better than the rest of us. And when the Lord finally changed his heart, regenerated him by the work of the Holy Spirit, he finally understood that the Old Testament was most certainly all about Jesus Christ. This is why in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul summarizes the gospel into 3 statements in 1½ verses: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” (1 Cor 15:3b-4) If I can be so simple, the Old Testament is all about Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is all about the gospel.
The Gospel as it Relates to the Romans
Second, what is the gospel as it relates to the Roman Christians? The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ that unites Christians from all over the world and transforms them from the inside out. Look at verses 5 and 6. Paul says that he and others received grace and apostleship through Christ, “to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” What this means is that the gospel transforms people from death to life so that they might live obedient lives to God.
And this transformative work is so clear, so evident, that Paul says in verse 8 that “[he] gives thanks to [his] God through Jesus Christ because [their] faith is proclaimed in the whole world.” Wow, how many churches can actually say that about themselves? This is why Paul prays for them all the time and this is why he wants to visit them: it’s because of the transformative work of the gospel in their lives! And so this is the gospel as it relates to the Roman Christians. It’s this transformative news that the Holy Spirit works into believers to bring about a profound unity between them.
The Gospel as it Relates to All Believers
Third, what is the gospel as it relates to all believers? Lord-willing, I’ll talk more about these 2 verses in two weeks, but I highly encourage you memorize verses 16-17. This is inarguably the thesis for the entire book of Romans. The weight, as it were, of the book of Romans falls on these two verses. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”
But for this morning, the gospel as it relates to all believers is power. It’s God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes. We often talk about the good news of Jesus Christ, but sometimes we make the gospel of Jesus Christ sound like just news. And sometimes the way we talk about our Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection is so lifeless, so that Jesus’s life and death is more like an obituary than power. But the gospel is the very power of God to everyone who believes.
We’re witnesses of this, aren’t we? Some of us, we’ve done some horrible stuff in our lives. For some of us, we’ve lived a lifestyle that more or less reflected excessive worldliness and not godliness. Many of us have done things that other people just can’t seem to forgive us. But I remind you that God has regenerated us, he made us born again so that the obedience of faith might be fleshed out in us. I encourage you to think about this transformative power of God in your lives.
But let me be clear. When I mean transformative power of God, I’m not saying that we should be seeking any kind of radical experience. There are stories of gang members who come to know Christ and are saved and as a response live totally different lives. And I praise God for that! But not everyone goes through those kinds of experiences, and that’s okay. We don’t need those kinds of radical experiences. In fact, the ordinary ways in which the transformative power of God is manifest is through the preaching of the Word. If you’re a born-again, saved believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you’re looking for the transformative power of God in your life, then you need to look no further than the fact that you believe in the Lord. That didn’t come from you. And that’s the gospel as it relates to all believers. It’s the power of God for salvation.
Application
And so by way of summary, the book of Romans is gospel-charged, the gospel has its roots in the Old Testament, the gospel is the transformative work of God, and the gospel is the very power of God for all who believe.
I will conclude with a few application points. First, if it’s true that the gospel has its roots in the Old Testament, then I want to remind you that God is sovereign. I say this to youth group over and over, but if God says something’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen. This is my overly simple way of talking about the eternal decrees of God. For example, God promised in Genesis 3:15 that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. And how did God fulfill that promise? He raised Christ from the dead, never to die again. God promised Abraham a land, people, and blessing in Genesis 12:1-3. And how did God fulfill that promise? By sending Jesus Christ to earn a land, people, and blessing, and by sharing it with his people. We can go on and on about promises made by God and promises fulfilled by God. But in short, remember who your God is. He is sovereign over all things.
You might feel anxious because of things happening in your life and you don’t feel like you’re in control. I encourage you to take comfort in God’s sovereignty. Be reminded that God is in control and he uses unworthy people like us for his beautiful glory.
Second, if it’s true that the gospel has its roots in the Old Testament, I encourage you to read the Old Testament. I know for many of us, the New Testament is a lot easier to understand, and I don’t want to neglect the importance of the New Testament. But I remind you this morning that the Word of God is one unit, consistent in everything because God authored both Old and New Testaments. There’s a famous saying that goes like this: “The New is in the Old concealed, the Old is in the New revealed.” I’ll say it again, “The New is in the Old concealed, the Old is in the New revealed.” We make sense of the New Testament in light of the Old Testament, but we can also read the Old Testament knowing that Christ fulfills the Old Testament in the New Testament. And so I encourage you, read the whole Bible, receive the whole counsel of God, and be blessed by every word that comes from the mouth of God. And if you have questions on how to interpret the Old Testament, please come to the pastoral staff because we love when you come to us with anything, especially if it regards the Word of God.
Third, if it’s true that the gospel is the transformative work of God, then I encourage you to seek reconciliation with one another. One of the issues that Roman Christians were going through was a tension between Jews and Gentiles, and trying to see who has a “priority” over the other. And this caused tensions between the Roman Christians. But what’s amazing about the gospel is that it restores that which is broken. It rebuilds burnt bridges. It seeks forgiveness and reconciliation.
We might think that God’s sanctifying process is slow, but God is no less transforming us by his grace. And God’s doing that in other Christians as well. So if you’re reconciled with God, and that other Christian is reconciled with God, then why can’t we seem to be reconciled with each other? This is not to neglect the damage or the severity of what the other person has done, but all I can say is holding grudges is not a thing in the New Heavens and New Earth. God is making us into who we will be in the New Heavens and New Earth, so I encourage you, seek reconciliation with one another. Let us be prudent and wise with our words and actions, but also humble in admitting when we’re wrong.
Fourth, if it’s true that the gospel is the power of God for salvation, then I encourage you to evangelize. This word tends to have a certain flavor attached to it nowadays, meaning that evangelism is somewhere overseas and I can’t evangelize unless it’s formally organized by the church and so forth. I used to think that, and that was part of the reason why I went to Haiti in the first place if I’m honest. But reflecting on this more, this thought makes me sad, because another word for “evangelize” is “gospelize.” Do we gospelize to those around us? Does the gospel shine forth in our hearts, words, and deeds? Does the cashier at the grocery store know that you carry with you good news? Do other Christians know that you carry with you good news? Is there one person at work who knows that you are glad that salvation belongs to the Lord? Do unbelieving family members envy the joy that’s in you?
I know a pastor who is known to just preach the gospel to everyone, even at the store. And quite frankly, I’m humbled because he admits that he can’t seem to stop talking about Jesus to other people. But he says that it tends to be the case that those who evangelize or gospelize tend to be the ones who really know how much a wretch they are and how beautiful their Savior is. Because if we stop looking to ourselves and start looking at our Savior, then we can personally understand what Paul means when he says that he’s “not ashamed of the gospel.” We have no reason to be ashamed of the good news of Jesus Christ. We live between victory and victory, we have nothing to lose. We have Christ. More importantly, Christ has us. He preserves us and keeps us, and no one can snatch us out of his hand.
I encourage you this morning, remember the gospel. Remember who God is and what he’s done, who you are and what you’ve done, and who Christ is and what he’s done. Gospelize to every one around us. Tell to all people what God has done for you. May God help us and give us a greater boldness for this weighty task before us, until Christ returns.
Soli Deo Gloria