Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for if is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith…. 

Romans 1:16, 17

It had been the earnest desire of the apostle Paul to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in Rome. In spite of his many efforts, however, he had not been able to get to Rome as yet. And lest the saints in Rome concluded that Paul’s failure to come to Rome was due to the fact that he was ashamed of the gospel of Christ, Paul unequivocally states that this was not the case. He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For this gospel is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes.

As we survey the church world of our day, we discover to our disappointment that the churches which preach the gospel of Christ are becoming fewer and fewer. Many have long ago become ashamed of the gospel of Christ and consequently replaced it with some other gospel.

May God keep us faithful to the gospel of Christ!

The heart of the gospel of Christ is the righteousness of God. For in the gospel of Christ, says Paul, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.

The righteousness of God spoken of here is not righteousness as an attribute of God. That God is righteous means that all His actions are in perfect harmony with the goodness of His divine being. This truth alone, however, is not the good news of the gospel. For being a righteous God, God punishes man’s sin to the extreme, with everlasting punishment in hell.

The righteousness of God spoken of here and in other passages of Scripture is rather a righteousness that comes from God and that God provides for His people in grace.

In that connection we must bear in mind that, if we will be received into God’s favor and enjoy His blessings, we must appear before God in perfect righteousness. This means that we must stand before God without so much as one sin, in perfect obedience to the divine will.

This is obviously something we can not do in and of ourselves. For we have sinned against God again and again in many horrible ways. Nor are we able to remove our sins from before the face of God so as to stand before Him in righteousness. In and of ourselves we can only appear before God with the filth of our sins to receive eternal punishment in hell.

But God has graciously provided a righteousness for us in Christ Jesus. Through the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross God has made perfect payment for our sins. Through the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ God has also obtained for us a perfect obedience and righteousness.

The question arises, How do we obtain this righteousness of God in Christ so that we may appear righteous before God to receive all His blessings and favors? Is this something of which we must make ourselves worthy? Is this something that we must somehow earn or merit for ourselves? The answer of Scripture is an unqualified, No! The righteousness of God is a gift of God, freely bestowed upon all those whom God has ordained to eternal life.

And therefore this righteousness of God is received by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Faith is a clinging to Christ, a complete reliance upon Christ for all things. Those who live by faith in Jesus Christ rely not on their own works nor on the works of mere men. In all their needs they look to Jesus Christ alone. They also do this when they stumble and fall into sin. With grieving hearts they confess their sins to God, begging God to forgive and receive them on the basis of the perfect work of Jesus Christ. In this way of faith God accounts the perfect righteousness of Christ as theirs.

This is exactly what Paul emphasizes to the church of Rome by saying that the righteousness of God is from faith to faith. This means that the righteousness of God is received by us by faith alone. Contrary to what certain Judaizing teachers were saying, this righteousness and salvation is not begun in faith and concluded with works. It is a matter of faith from beginning to end—from faith to faith.

Such is the gospel of Christ which Paul by revelation from heaven preached.

This gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes—to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Notice, that God has the power to save. The power to save does not belong to man. It does not even belong to the angels. The power to save is God’s alone.

And God saves His people through the gospel of Christ.

When Paul speaks here of the gospel, he has in mind specifically the preaching of the gospel. In verse 15 Paul states that he was ready to preach the gospel to the saints at Rome. Consequently, when in verse 16 Paul speaks of the gospel of Christ as the power of God to salvation, he obviously has in mind the gospel as preached.

The gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation exactly because God uses the gospel of Christ to work faith in our hearts.

Contrary to popular opinion, faith does not find its origin in us. Faith certainly does not arise from the heart of fallen man. Man lost everything in the fall, even the ability to believe in Jesus.

Faith is, rather, a gift of God. Believing on Jesus Christ to salvation is something that must be given to us of God (Phil. 1:29). God brings us to faith in Jesus Christ and keeps us in that faith only through the gospel of Christ.

For in the gospel of Christ God presents Jesus Christ to man as the only foundation of and way to salvation. And in that same gospel God also calls all who hear it to believe in Jesus Christ. When that call of the gospel comes to the ear of God’s own elect, it is accompanied by the inner working of the Holy Spirit, Who irresistibly brings the elect of God to faith in Jesus Christ.

But there is more. God also sustains the elect believer in his faith through the gospel of Christ. For through the gospel of Christ the true believer is directed again and again to Christ as the only way of salvation. And so the believer is led day by day by the gospel of Christ to cling to Jesus Christ to find the salvation of God in all its fullness.

This is true for the Jew as well as the Greek, for the bond as well as the free, for the rich as well as the poor….

It is the gospel of Christ that is God’s power to salvation.

Other gospels there are. There is the gospel of works-righteousness which proclaims that man in his own goodness can work his way to heaven. There is the social gospel which proclaims that through the political process and education we can cure the social ills of the world and make a heaven here on earth. There is the gospel of positive thinking….

But these gospels are powerless to save. For they all lead us away from Jesus Christ and the righteousness of God that is found in Christ alone.

The gospel of Christ alone is the power of God to salvation exactly because it leads us to the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.

For this reason the apostle Paul was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

Many opposed him for the gospel’s sake. He was mocked and ridiculed; he was arrested and beaten; he would one day even suffer martyrdom for the gospel of Christ.

But in spite of all this Paul was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For the gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation!

Sad to say, many churches of our day have long ago become ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For the sake of respectability before men they have, either partially or totally, abandoned the gospel of Christ for some other gospel.

Will you be ashamed also?

Laying hold of the truth that the gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation, unashamedly cling to this gospel. Unashamedly attend a church that proclaims the gospel of Christ without compromise. And unashamedly defend the gospel of Christ.