Sermon: Sunday, 8th September, 2024
Speaker: Geoff Murray
Scripture: Romans 1:8-17
1. The Gospel makes us family
Paul, as he usually does in his letters, gives thanks for the people he’s writing to, he prays for them.
‘First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times…’ (Romans 1:8-10)
His love for them is so evident. Not just that he thanks God with such joy for them but that he’s constantly remembering them in prayer. The love that he has that he is frequently and often bringing them before God. Paul as we know had great suffering, he could have been completely consumed with his own worries and cares, but he isn’t, he is praying for the church in Rome often.
His love on that level is remarkable, but it gets even more remarkable in that he doesn’t know these people. He prays that the way at last may be finally opened to him to see them, having planned to come but not managed yet.
So he prays for them regularly and gives thanks for them regularly even though he’s never met them. But he wants to meet them. Why?
‘I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong – that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.’ (Romans 1:11-12)
So that, as they meet for the first time, as Paul shares the good news of the gospel, as he shares his life, as he hears first-hand what God is doing in Rome that they may be encouraged.
And it is one of the things which makes the gospel powerful is that it turns strangers into family. Paul, as I said, has never met these people before, yet he speaks to them as ‘brothers’ or ‘brothers and sisters’, he prays for them and gives thanks for them often, he longs to be with them. How can this be so seeing as they have never met?
It’s because all of a sudden when we meet Jesus and have lives transformed, we’re united to him and as we’re united to him, we’re also united to brothers and sisters the world over. We’ve all been adopted into God’s family. We all share the most important thing in common: faith in Jesus Christ.
Those we were once separate from; we are now inextricably bound together with. We may be separated by geography, we may be separated by language, we may be separated by culture, we may be separated by church tradition or background but despite that, we are united together, bound together as family through faith in Jesus Christ.
This that Paul is speaking about, of being mutually encouraged by one another’s faith, that is genuinely the opportunity that is before you, that as you go the church should be so glad to meet you and your presence among them will be an encouragement, and you will be encouraged as you see what God is doing in another part of the world.
When you meet Christians from other parts of the world, you’re able to hit it off immediately because you have the most important one in common, Jesus Christ. So, I don’t know if/when you are going to go on holiday next, but if you are going, look ahead to what church you’ll go to. Bless and be blessed.
2. The Gospel makes us debtors
Paul (in chapter verses 5 and 6) tells us his calling as a believer was as an Apostle to the Gentiles among whom are the church in Rome. And even as he has prayed for them and longs to be with them to minister to them and that has to do with his calling.
‘I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.’ (Romans 1:13-15)
I suppose there’s two ways you might be in someone’s debt. The first would be that someone gave you money as a loan and you owed them it back and the second would be if someone gave you money to give to someone else. You’d all of a sudden be a debtor to the person you’re due to give the money to.
It’s the second that is in view here. God has given the Apostle Paul this task of going to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and now all of a sudden, he is a debtor to the Gentiles, he is obligated to the Gentiles to go and share the good news with them.
That’s why he’s so eager to go to the church in Rome. That’s why he’s tried multiple times before to get to Rome to go and share the gospel, to have a harvest among them as he has the other Gentiles.
God has given him this calling to go to the Gentiles and he has. He’s been a fruitful evangelist and church planter among Gentiles but he is yet to make it to Rome.
God has given Paul this calling on his life and he goes after it with great enthusiasm, with great prayerfulness, with great intention. He isn’t indifferent whether this is fulfilled or not, he isn’t passive, he’s eager, he’s keen, he is on the front foot as it were.
This gospel message that is powerful, that brings salvation to all has come to Paul, more than that God has revealed it to him that it brings salvation to all, even Gentiles and that has propelled him forward in a cause greater than himself for God’s glory.
And I get that we’re not Apostles like Paul, I get that we don’t have this very specific call to go to a very specific people. But we all as God’s people have the call to make Christ known.
What leads us to do this? It is having received this all-powerful gospel and receiving this great task of becoming debtors to the world as Paul was a debtor to the Gentiles. To receive this high calling much greater than ourselves to be called to go and share this good news we have received.
What do you spend your time living for? What is your greatest pursuit? Having been shown mercy and grace in Jesus Christ, having been given new life, is it not telling others of this mercy you’ve received? Pointing to one greater than yourself to point others to him?
Friends, let it be so, and especially as we approach our third and final point.
3. The Gospel makes us righteous
The gospel is powerful because it brings salvation for all who believe, why is that powerful? Because in the gospel a righteousness is revealed, but what makes that so powerful is by ourselves we don’t have it, as Paul will go on to explain throughout Romans, we need it, we desperately need it, we are, in our natural selves, before Christ intervenes, separated from God because we don’t have it.
‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ (Romans 1:16-17)
For something to be revealed means that there was a time when it wasn’t revealed to us, in other words there was a time where we did not possess righteousness, we did not know righteousness, yet it was given to us.
We tend to think we’re pretty good people by all accounts. Assuming I work hard, keep my nose clean, don’t steal, kill, or have an affair what’s the problem? I’m a good person. Well, there are miles apart from a ‘good’ person and a righteous person.
In the Bible, righteousness is ultimately bound up with the fact God is righteous. He does no wrong, he commits no evil, he is perfectly good, just and right in all he does. God is perfect without fault, all that he does is good.
And so when we’re thinking about righteousness, we ultimately have to think about God’s righteousness which is perfect, good and right. That’s why, ‘I’m a good person’ doesn’t cut it because next to God as the ultimate standard of righteousness, we all fall short. That’s great that you don’t murder people, but righteousness? You don’t come even close to it.
The great point which Paul brings out time and again in Romans is actually nobody comes close to it. Because we sin and fall short of God’s standard, that declaration of ‘righteous’ is absent.
The level of righteousness that’s required we simply don’t know a thing about by ourselves, it’s alien to us, God’s righteousness, you might as well be speaking a foreign language. None of us have it, none.
Paul will go onto say, the Jews – the people of God of old who God’s great promises through Abraham, who experienced his great rescue from slavery in Egypt in the Passover and the Red Sea Crossing, who received the 10 commandments, who were led to the promised land – they don’t have the righteousness of God. And the Gentiles, the nations, strangers to grace and to God, they don’t have the righteousness of God.
‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’ (Romans 3:10-12 )
Every single person lacks the righteousness of God.
In the gospel, this righteousness is revealed in God, but as that is revealed, it’s revealed we don’t have it and that puts us in somewhat of a sticky situation to put it mildly. It puts us at odds with our creator, the Lord and sustainer of the universe, it puts us under his rightful judgement. He is righteous, we are not, that poses big problems for us entering God’s holy presence. That poses big problems for us in being right before him, accepted and loved. It means we are excluded from him, separated, rejected. God can’t bide with unrighteousness, so holy is he that nobody can go into his presence and live.
Until I am righteous, until you are righteous, that does not look to change any time soon. So how do we become righteous if we aren’t righteous?
‘For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ (Romans 1:17)
And it seems counter to how we tend to work. We tend to think ‘do better’ ‘try harder’ ‘set up a plan in place’ ‘order and structure my life in such a way to make this possible.’
But in God’s kindness, it’s not set up that way. If his righteousness were revealed to us simply in the law, we would be going in circles, chasing our tail in vain, unable to receive the righteousness of God.
Actually, in God’s kindness, he gives us another way, the way of faith. The way of trusting in a righteous one outside of ourselves, the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who came, lived and died, who rose again on this earth and as he did so, he did so as a righteous man. One who lived his life in perfect obedience to God’s law, who did meet the standard we’ve never met.
Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many. That as he lives, he lives as one righteously before God, yet as he dies, he dies as one in the place of sinners. The profound truth is that on the cross, Jesus stands in our place, though righteous, he becomes as if he were a sinner deserving wrath like you and me, yet through faith in his work for us, we stand in his place. We receive his righteousness, we receive his goodness.
It’s the same with us all. Righteousness doesn’t come when we try hard enough or meet our own yardstick measurement of righteousness. It’s a righteousness we do not have, could not attain by ourselves, yet it is a righteousness granted by faith in what Jesus has done for us.
God hasn’t gone soft or left righteousness behind. That righteousness has been fulfilled, it’s just not us that’s fulfilled it. That righteousness has been fulfilled by someone else, by another in our place, by Jesus Christ the Righteous One. The righteous demands are satisfied in him and as our substitute, he is one who takes our sin from us and gives us his righteousness so we can be declared right by God, not by any righteousness in us but by all the righteousness in him.
And notice, the gospel message brings salvation to all, to the Jew, to the Gentile, in short for all peoples. Just as all peoples lack the righteousness of God, so God offers all peoples the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
A word to you here if you’re not a professing believer, first of all I’m so glad you’re here because this is exactly the Bible text that lays all of this out clearly. But second of all, this offer of a righteousness by faith is yours
Whether you would consider yourself ‘religious’ or not, this offer is for you, Whether you would consider yourself a good person or not, this offer is for you
Whatever your nationality, race, gender, or identity, this offer is for you.
Would you take it this morning? The problem is great, all have sinned, none are righteous no not one, but the solution is a righteousness that is by faith in Jesus Christ. Won’t you trust in him and his salvation and receive his righteousness? You don’t have it, nobody on their own has it. Yet, Christ offers it freely when you trust in him. Trust in him this morning and find in him righteousness.
Perhaps you are a Christian and you struggle with assurance that God could possibly still accept you. You trust in Jesus and you try to follow him but keep tripping up the same old ways, “am I really righteous in God’s sight?” the answer is an absolute yes. Absolutely we’re told to press on in our Christian walks and to live godly lives but we are not righteous and never will be righteous in God’s sight because of the things we do, we will only ever have the necesarry righteousness to stand before God with and that is through faith in Jesus Christ alone. You’re not righteous before God today on the basis of what you did because you never were, you are only ever righteous in God’s sight through faith in Jesus Christ. So as you battle your own sin, temptations and experience your own failings, know that your faith in Jesus Christ provides all the righteousness you’ll ever need. Keep pressing on assured of the righteousness that is God’s gift to you by faith in Jesus.
What makes the gospel powerful for all who believe? Well, it drives us to the lowest place as it reveals a righteousness we don’t have and couldn’t ever hope to have in and of ourselves, but then it lifts us to the glorious heights of God providing it for us on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ. Though we deserve, every one of us without exception, to be separated from God forever, cut off, under his judgement, in his Son, he gives us the very best, he gives us the righteousness of God that we lack, the righteousness of Jesus by faith.
Place your faith in him and in him receive the righteousness that is by faith.