The Wonder of the Gospel
This morning was extremely exhilarating when it comes to preaching. First I love it when a passage of scripture is “pregnant” when it comes to homiletically points. When each sermon point just jumps out from the text! Second when the text provides a harmony of thought; much like a great song or a concerto of sorts. Then there is a great theological compare and contrast. When through the text you see an aspect of good as well as evil. When you understand God and then compare it to man. For the preacher, these are the things that make our heart jump a beat.
Today’s text was Romans 1:16, 17 – “I am no ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation, to the Jew first and then to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, for as it is written “the righteous man will live by faith.”” This is Paul’s defense on why he is not guilty or does he take credit for any part of the redemption found in the gospel. On the contrary, Paul says – “I am NOT guilty of any work that the gospel does – a matter of fact I need what the gospel has to offer. For what it offers, I can not do on my own!!” So why is the gospel – guilt free to Paul:
I. The Gospel is the work of an omnipotent God to a powerless man.
II. The Gospel is the mercy rescue of a helpless man.
III. The Gospel is the revelation of God’s righteousness in a worthless man.
IV. The Gospel is the ongoing work by faith in a useless man.
The fact is we are powerless and we need God’s omnipotent power! We are helpless and we need to be rescued by a merciful God. We are worthless and need the holy, perfect righteousness of God imputed in our lives. We are useless in trying to live the Christian life, we need the on going work of the gospel to sanctify us! When we take a sober view of our spiritual condition and then see what a loving, glorious God we have – we begin to fully understand the glories of the gospel!