Romans 1:16-17 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. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from
faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
We are like in the fourth or
fifth week of the Study series with our Wednesday night middle-sized Bible
Study group at church going through the Bible Fluency lessons from Kenneth
Berding, a biblical scholar and college professor at Biola
University in Southern
California . We are currently being taught through the overview
themes of the books of Acts & Romans in terms of the gospel message. In
that we should not just talk about God, the Bible, the gospel of Jesus Christ
and Christianity, but let’s go do something about it for the advancement of the
kingdom of heaven. We should ask people about their attitude towards heaven, in
hopes of getting into a conversation about what they believe and be courageous
about sharing the “Good News” of Jesus Christ. Berding states that the main
theme in these two books (Acts and Romans) is that they both focus on the
gospel. The Book of Acts continues Luke’s account from his gospel, where Jesus
promises that He would send the Holy Spirit and we see the power of boldly proclaiming
the “Good News” is simply the power of the Holy Spirit in us. The Holy Spirit
is a powerful witness, for the powerful life, for overcoming sin. The gospel is
so valuable that it is worth suffering for; even dying for. No one is
unreachable by God; not even one who persecutes Christians is outside the realm
of who God can reach. The gospel is for everyone and the message of the gospel
needs to be taken to everybody. The world mission of reaching everyone for
Christ matters immensely, so we take the gospels to the ends of the earth.
Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All
authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have
commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to
the end of the age.” Amen.
The gospel is the power of God
that brings people to salvation. The way we get in is by faith. Ephesians
2:8-9b “For by grace you have
been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works.”
What if you want to share the gospel with someone else? What does the gospel
mean? If someone wants to believe in Jesus Christ, what do they believe in? What
is the gift of God? Everyone knows that nobody is perfect. All of us have
sinned. The gospel shows God’s righteousness. In Christ, God will justify everyone
who believes in Christ as Savior and Lord; we, who died and rose and live in Christ. The Holy Spirit helps us
overcome sin. Romans 3:23
“For all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God.” The gospel is “Good News” that
counters the “bad news” of our sin.
Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness.”
God is holy and be nothing
other than holy. So, if people sin, God must punish sin someway, and that
punishment is referred to as the wrath of God against us. Romans 2:5 “But because of your stubbornness and your
unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of
God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed.”
If God did not punish sin, He would not be holy or just. For God to
maintain His justice and holiness, he must punish sin. And how will that
happen? Death. Romans 6:23a
“For the wages of sin
is death.” How is this good news? It’s good news because there is a
solution to the whole thing. Until we learn how to repent of this sin problem,
and we actually deal with what is wrong, we’ll never get to what is right. That
is the solution and it starts with the Cross. Romans 6:23b “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 5:8
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Let’s
continue this great study of the gospel of Jesus Christ tomorrow.
In
Christ, Brian
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