Paul reveals to us in Romans that he’s never actually been to Rome. He wants to come, but circumstances keep getting in the way. So how does Paul approach this letter in such a way that convinces the Roman Christians to welcome his voice? For starters, he showers the church with praise and affection. He’s thankful for the church in Rome (Romans 1:8), giddy with excitement that there is a church in Rome, right under Caesar’s nose.
He wants to share “some spiritual gift” with the Roman church, but to receive one from them as well (1:11-12), to participate in their life alongside them. He owes his life to the most eloquent of Greek speakers and the most barbaric of barbarians, to the wisest of the wise and the most foolish of fools (1:14). In Christ, it’s all one new thing and Paul is not superior to any of it.
And so, he is eager to share the gospel with the church in Rome. To be sure, these are Christians that have already heard the good news and been baptized, but they, like us, will never be finished hearing the good news. The gospel will never be finished remaking us.
And now, with this mention of the gospel, Paul gets into the denser stuff of the letter. This gospel that Paul is excited to proclaim to the Romans, he is not ashamed of it (1:16). He feels no shame at the ways in which the gospel has remade his life, at the ways in which it has made him different from the world around him. He won’t hesitate to be open about it, nor will he water it down to make it more palatable to anyone put off by it (which gets Paul imprisoned quite a bit).
Why? Because this gospel is power. This gospel, once heard, has a vast effect on lives. Power, in its original Greek, is the word that gives us dynamic and dynamite. This good news is explosive. It cannot exist alongside shame. That would be like igniting dynamite and expecting only a mild, inoffensive explosion.
The gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who have faith. Salvation refers to so much more than one’s stake in the afterlife. Salvation is an Exodus term. Just as God delivered the Israelites from slavery, we are delivered from all that would enslave us and separate us from Christ. Salvation is not something we have to wait for. We experience it here and now. Likewise, faith is more than saying “I believe” as if belief were simply a strong opinion. Faith is the rooted conviction that Jesus really was raised from the dead and really is Lord of the whole world. Once we truly believe that, it changes everything about us.
Through this gospel, Paul says, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith (1:17). Righteousness is more than moral uprightness. It is God’s immovable commitment to setting the world right, something he’s been busy with since the calling of Abraham. God’s faithfulness in doing this is producing that same faithfulness in us. From faith, for faith. It’s all one thing.
The gospel, this explosively powerful good news – that Jesus really was raised from the dead, that Jesus really is Lord, that God really is setting world right – is changing everything about us. It can’t not change everything about us. It is reorganizing everything in our lives around Jesus, casting out shame, creating gratitude and community. May God open up the deepest place in our hearts to receive this good news and be remade by it.
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