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 to faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:16-17).

Out of all the books in Scripture, Romans gives by far the most detailed and systematic presentation of the gospel of Christ. Beginning with this post, we start a series looking at the gospel as articulated by Paul in Romans. We obviously won’t cover every verse in this long and deeply challenging letter, but we’ll look at the overall message of the gospel.

Paul wrote this letter as a means of introducing himself to the church of Rome (having not been there prior). He tells them that he is “eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome” (v. 15). You might say his life’s work and passion is “the gospel,” and he would agree.

The Power of God

Why is this? Why should he devote his whole life to declaring the gospel? Because “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Salvation is solely of, by, and through God. It is His power at work in a person’s life. There is nothing that a man can do to save himself. Salvation is more than just the forgiveness of sin, however. Salvation is restoring of all things, setting the believer right with God and making possible the process of transformation into the image of Christ.

Notice the only condition of salvation is faith (“to everyone who believes”). One does not experience salvation apart from saving faith (more on that in a future post). Notice also that salvation is open to all (“to the Jew first and also to the Greek”). Here, Paul’s use of “Greek” should better be understood as Gentiles or nations, that is, all others not of the Jewish race. So, salvation is available to all (which he will show, and we will discuss, later).

The Righteousness of God

Not only is the gospel the power of God, but it also reveals the righteousness of God. The gospel reveals that God is good and holy, and all His ways are just. In addition, the Gospel proceeds because of God’s righteousness–that is to say the way of salvation is in harmony with His very character, as it reveals all that He is (holy, just, merciful, compassionate, longsuffering).

This righteousness, Paul tells us, has been revealed “from faith to faith,” or throughout all history. Righteousness by faith is not a new concept in the New Testament. Rather, it stretches back through all of history, even as far back as Abraham and beyond. A great example of this is found in Hebrews 11, the long list of the heroes of faith. In fact, as Paul reminds us, “The just live by faith.” The sense of that verse is that, “The just have always lived by faith.”

In the very first post of this blog (“What is the Gospel? Good News and Bad News”), we discussed the basics of the gospel. This series will take those concepts and elaborate on them.

The gospel tells us that:

• God is a righteous Judge, and all mankind stands guilty before Him, in danger of His eternal wrath.
• God’s way of salvation is by faith apart from works of the law, since man can do nothing to save himself.
• God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for our sin (the wrath of God).
• One’s only hope of salvation is trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ rather than any form of self-righteousness.
• Those who trust in Christ can be assured of their salvation and eventual glorification.

At the end of this series, you’ll hopefully have a richer understanding of the gospel, why it was necessary, and what it means to you.  It is only by God’s grace that we are saved, and it by His grace that we stand.

[Note: Much of the material in this series has been adapted from my commentary The Righteousness of God: A Commentary on Romans.]