The Power of God to Salvation

It is not an overstatement to say that these verses, the theme of the book of Romans, began the Reformation of the sixteenth century. The understanding of these verses created in Martin Luther the same zeal as we witness in the apostle Paul. These verses were Luther’s gateway to heaven and the spark that lit the fire of the Reformation throughout Europe. Whenever the gospel comes sharply, a new age comes. The gospel is always reformatory. The gospel renews, recreates, reforms, and rejuvenates wherever it is heard. Such was the case in the great Reformation, and such was the case as the apostle Paul traveled throughout the Roman Empire of his day.

We must say a few words about Paul’s lengthy introduction of himself to the Romans in verses 5 through 15.

Paul begins by saying that “we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations” (v. 5). The translation “obedience to the faith” is incorrect. The Greek original means obedience of faith, which is a particularly lovely expression for the gospel’s effect in the context of the theme of the epistle. That expression points to an entirely different kind of obedience than the world had ever known before the gospel proclaimed another obedience. In the law, obedience to the commandment of God was that we love him and our neighbors as ourselves. In the age of sin and death that came about in Adam and held sway from Adam to Christ, obedience was required. Man utterly failed at that obedience. And if he had obeyed, his obedience would have gained him nothing. God will not save a man by man’s own obedience. There is no salvation or hope in law-obedience.

But the gospel announces that there is another obedience, that is, the obedience of faith, which can be summarized as man stops working and laboring for his own righteousness and rests in the finished, perfect, and God-glorifying righteousness of Jesus Christ. If someone says to you, “you must obey,” then you may say, “I have an obedience, and my obedience is Christ’s. I have it not by working but by faith in his name.” That is what obedience of faith means.

For the purpose that all God’s people in all nations might be brought to that obedience, Paul says that he had “received grace and apostleship” (v. 5). As an apostle and slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul had both the right and the obligation to preach the gospel at Rome. So his writing and eventually his coming to the Romans were not his mere personal desires, and he did not write or come to them on his own initiative, but he came as one who was sent by the Lord Jesus Christ. As one who had been tasked by Christ to order his affairs in the world, Paul came to Rome to preach the gospel and to labor there among those who were the “called of Jesus Christ” and the “beloved of God” (vv. 6–7).

Then Paul speaks of his personal desire to see the Romans. The slave of the Lord has a deep love for the church of Christ and is not unwilling to carry out his master’s charge. Paul says that the Romans’ faith was “spoken of throughout the whole world” (v. 8). He confesses that many times he had tried to come to Rome and had besought God continually for that very thing. Paul was so urgent in his desire to come to Rome because he wanted to “impart unto [the Romans] some spiritual gift” and also that he might “be comforted together” with them by their mutual faith (vv. 11–12). When the gospel comes, it brings with it spiritual gifts, and the gospel is always a source of great encouragement to those from different parts of the world who share the same faith.

Paul also acknowledges that he had good intentions to come to Rome but that his coming had not been the will of God. Paul had been hindered, or “let hitherto,” by various circumstances (v. 13). The gospel in its course is always controlled not by the will of man or the worthiness of those to whom the gospel comes but only by the sovereign God, who sends the gospel here and there and to this people and that people according to his eternal plan of salvation. To ward off any slander that Paul was a coward or that his coming was delayed through fear of failure in Rome, he says that he was ready to preach the gospel to those in Rome also.

What explains such heroic and unflinching boldness so that a servant of Jehovah comes into the very heart of the kingdom of Satan and proclaims Jesus Christ? The very nature of the message that the servant brings explains this. His message is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God to salvation. And that gospel is the power of God to salvation because in that gospel the righteousness of God is revealed out of faith unto faith, just as it was written in the prophets: Those who are righteous by faith shall live (Hab. 2:4).

We must not overemphasize the words of the apostle that he is not ashamed of the gospel. Paul’s main purpose in the epistle is not to explain that he is unashamed of the gospel. His main purpose is the explanation of the gospel and its chief points and its most basic implications.

The gospel is the event that happened between the incarnation of Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the dead. In that event God made manifest his eternal counsel, accomplished salvation, and established everlasting righteousness and eternal life for all his elect people. That event was God’s word that he had spoken and established from eternity and that was heard in the world in the fullness of time. God said, “Let salvation be,” and salvation was.

The gospel, then, is also God’s message concerning that event—God’s word that goes out into all the world.

That gospel is good news.

It is a message full of joy, hope, and glory.

It is a message concerning God’s Son and salvation in his Son. That gospel always includes the proclamation of two things: Jesus Christ is the true seed of David, and Jesus Christ is declared to be God by the resurrection from the dead. The gospel declares that Jesus Christ is very man—the man—and that he is very God.

In Romans 1:1 Paul refers to the gospel as “the gospel of God.” This means that the gospel is wholly God’s. God conceived it in eternity. God manifested it in time. The gospel is God’s word. The gospel is not man’s word. The one who speaks in the gospel is always God and never man, for your faith cannot stand on a word of a man. The gospel is God’s word in order that your faith stands in the power of God.

In verse 16 the apostle adds that the gospel is “the gospel of Christ.” This means that in the gospel Christ speaks of himself. He is both the speaker in the gospel and the content of the gospel. He speaks about the promise of his coming in the Old Testament, which means that the Old Testament, the holy scriptures and the prophets, had Christ in view. And Christ speaks about the fulfillment of that promise in himself so that all God’s promises are yes and amen in him. Christ speaks about his incarnation, his lifelong suffering, his many mighty miracles and works, his cross, and his resurrection. The gospel always is God’s message about Christ and Christ’s message about himself. The gospel does not have to do with you or your works, wisdom, and ways. The gospel is about Christ, and in that gospel Christ himself comes and speaks.

The power of the gospel in its preaching is precisely that the glory, saving power, and efficacy of the gospel as an event goes forth in the preaching of the gospel. Jesus was made the seed of David. Jesus Christ was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. And that message goes forth and is the power of God unto salvation because that message carries with it the saving power of the event. All that Christ accomplished in the event of the gospel comes in the preaching of the gospel.

There is no if in the gospel, for the gospel is a power. A power is the virtue by which something is accomplished. The wind is a power. Steam is a power. So the gospel is a power that accomplishes an effect. The gospel is not an offer, a set of propositions, a system of doctrine that is superficially apprehended by man, or a philosophy; nor is the gospel a potentiality or possibility that is realized only when man does his part. The gospel is a power.

The gospel receives its power from Christ and the saving power of the work of God that he worked in Christ when he raised Christ from the dead. The same power by which God accomplished the incarnation and salvation on the cross and raised Christ from the dead is the power of the gospel. It is a saving, transforming, glorifying, and resurrecting power.

Always you must understand too that where the gospel is the law stands in the background. What the law could not do, God did in his Son, Jesus Christ. The law could not save; forgive sins; open heaven; or deliver from sin, hell, death, and the grave. This God did in his Son, Jesus Christ.

The gospel, then, is God’s power. The gospel does not stand in a man or in the power of a man. The gospel is God’s power. A man can speak about Jesus, but he will never by his word accomplish anything. Man’s word is not a power. But when God speaks in the gospel, then God speaks in power and his word always creates what it speaks. The gospel does not speak merely about God and God’s power, but the gospel is God’s power to salvation. The very power of God comes with the gospel, and the very power of God works salvation through that gospel.

The power of God is that virtue according to which God carries out his will. The power of God is no mere impersonal force, no random act, and no undirected energy. The power of God is God himself as he comes to carry out his will. Behind the power of the gospel and the work of the gospel stands God himself and his eternal will for the salvation of his people. So David speaks of the power of God when he says, “Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased” (Ps. 115:3). The power of God may never be separated from the will of God, and the will of God may never be separated from his power. The power of God comes to carry out and to unfold God’s eternal will and infallibly to make known and make manifest his will so that all he wills, he does.

God by his power made the world. God by his power upholds the whole creation and every creature in that creation. God by his power sovereignly governs the whole creation and every creature in creation to its appointed end. Yet the power of God to salvation is another kind of work of God. It is the act of God to lift up the creation that has fallen in sin and lies under the curse and to bring that creation to its highest and most glorious form in God’s eternal covenant. The creation and everything in the creation are under the power of sin and death that came on the world through the rebellion of Satan and the fall of Adam. The creation and everything in the creation are ravaged by the forces of sin and of the devil.

Such also is the state of man in that creation. He is under the power of sin and death and is worthy of eternal destruction and damnation. The power of God to salvation is the power of God to bring the eternal and everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ in the new heavens and the new earth out of that sin and destruction, death and damnation. The power of God to salvation is the power to perfect God’s covenant in the new and eternal age when the tabernacle of God will be with men.

The power of God to salvation not only saves individuals, but the power of God to salvation also totally transforms the whole creation, brings a whole new creation, brings about his promise, establishes the kingdom of God in creation, and glorifies and blesses the creation in himself in the covenant of grace and reconciliation.

As part of that, God saves men. He causes them to participate in the covenant; he brings them into fellowship with himself and gives them citizenship in his kingdom; he translates them out of darkness into God’s marvelous light; he calls them his sons and daughters; he transforms them after the image of his Son, Jesus Christ; and he gives to them everlasting life, a life that is incapable of sin and beyond the possibility of death. Such is the work of God by the gospel. He builds heaven. He gathers his own. He perfects his covenant. He glorifies his name and wonderful grace.

And the gospel is a power precisely because it is God’s. God conceived it. God accomplished it. God declares it in all the world.

And God brings by that gospel a whole new order of things. He brings life from death, righteousness from unrighteousness, holiness from corruption, and justification from condemnation.

It is God’s power to salvation because the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel.

The word “revealed” in Romans 1:17 means that God makes known in the gospel what man cannot know apart from the gospel. The word implies that what is revealed was hidden in the counsel of God. From all eternity God conceived of what is revealed. Revelation implies also that God himself makes known that which was hidden in his counsel. Further, in light of the context, revelation means that the gospel makes known God’s word about the events of the gospel.

Man, of course, could see the gospel taking place. He saw Jesus Christ and heard him speak. Man witnessed or participated in Christ’s crucifixion. Man has a word about that. Man’s word about that is always wrong and is always a lie. If you listen you can hear those lies echo down all through history. Every false doctrine is really man’s word about the events of the gospel. The Arminian says that Jesus Christ died and made salvation possible for all men if they will believe and accept that offered salvation. So the Arminian says that Jesus Christ actually accomplished nothing in the gospel but a possibility or a potentiality that is made actual only by man’s work or man’s faith.

The Protestant Reformed man says that Jesus Christ is not enough; you must also come to him. The Protestant Reformed man says that God cannot and may not forgive you until and unless you repent. In that the Protestant Reformed man has a word about the cross of Christ and the events of the gospel, and his word is essentially no different than the Arminian’s, for the word of the Protestant Reformed man is also that Jesus Christ made salvation possible and that salvation comes into your possession by some act of yours. And that is what false doctrine always does. False doctrine always makes the cross of Christ and the events of the gospel vain and of none effect unless and until man does something. False doctrine says that because those who teach that false doctrine never have been touched by the revelation of God.

But the gospel reveals and speaks the truth about the events between the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The revelation of God in the gospel is not a mere objective showing of Christ as though God uncovers and reveals a statue. If that were true, then it would be up to man to will what to do with the gospel. Rather, revelation always involves a divine disclosure to the heart of man. Revelation puts the effect of that revelation in the power of God and not in the power of man. Revelation is controlled by God’s purpose. So God makes known in a world what could not be known by man’s own power, wisdom, might, or understanding. The gospel always speaks of the things that “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

What God makes known in the gospel of Christ is the righteousness of God. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation because in it God reveals the righteousness of God.

Understand that this is not the reason that the gospel is a power. The gospel is a power because that gospel is God’s word. God’s word is always a power—an irresistible, effectual, and sovereign power to accomplish all that God wills wherever he sends the gospel. The gospel is a power because it is God’s word.

Verse 17 of Romans 1 gives the reason that the gospel is a power unto salvation. The gospel is a power unto salvation because in the gospel God reveals the righteousness of God. The “righteousness of God” in this verse does not refer to God’s perfection or attribute of righteousness. God is righteous in himself. He is unchangeably and perfectly righteous. He always thinks and acts in harmony with the perfection of his own being. That is certainly behind what the apostle says about the righteousness of God. In everything he does he is always just.

The “righteousness of God” in verse 17 is not God’s demand of perfection either. The perfectly righteous God demands perfect righteousness. He cannot love the unrighteous. He curses the unrighteous and sets himself against them.

Further, if the verse does refer to the righteousness of God as his perfection of righteousness, then the demand of perfection is also included in that thought. Then the apostle means that in the gospel God reveals that he is a righteous God and that as a righteous God, he demands that the creature love and serve God with all its being in perfection unto salvation. Then there can be no salvation in the gospel, for man is unrighteous. Man became unrighteous in Adam, who brought upon himself and all mankind misery and a curse. Righteousness is an impossibility for man. Everything in the world is unrighteousness. With that unrighteousness the whole world must perish.

However, when the gospel comes into that world of unrighteousness, God comes with a righteousness that is utterly foreign to the world, the righteousness of God. When the apostle calls righteousness “the righteousness of God,” then he means too that it excludes everything that is of man. It excludes everything that a man can do, does do, or might do. There is in that phrase the great antithesis between man’s righteousness and God’s righteousness, between works and grace, and between labor by man and rest in God.

Do not ever mistake the thought of the book of Romans as stated in its theme text. The antithesis is not merely between God’s righteousness and man’s sins, but also the antithesis is between God’s righteousness and man’s righteousness. Man can have a righteousness. The Jew had a righteousness. You too have a righteousness. Do you not love your wife, and do you not hate sin? Do you not love the church and the gospel? And do you not repent and believe? Yes, you do. Now that is the contrast. God’s righteousness excludes all that. You must count all that as loss and dung for this righteousness that is of God.

This righteousness of God is the righteousness that God conceived for his people from all eternity. It is the righteousness that God accomplished for them in Jesus Christ through his incarnation, perfect obedience, and atoning suffering. It is the righteousness of which God approves. It is the righteousness that is worthy of eternal life and of every blessing of salvation. When that mighty and irresistible word of the gospel comes to you and declares to you the righteousness of God, then that word lays hold on your heart and saves you. That word of the gospel saves you not by your act of faith, your act of repentance, your consenting to a proposition, or your accepting an offer. But the word of the gospel saves you by revelation, that divine act of God to bring to the consciences and experiences of his elect in the world the knowledge that through Christ they are righteous before God and have peace with the living God.

With righteousness comes salvation. Those two belong together, and they never can be separated. The gospel is God’s power to salvation because it reveals to the hearts of God’s people the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ through his obedience and cross. When you have that righteousness, then you are saved.

Salvation consists in this: You are by faith righteous before God and worthy of eternal life. All misery and damnation come because of unrighteousness. Salvation is the gift from God through the righteousness of God. We say that God gives righteousness, and so he does. He constitutes his people righteous so that they appear before him as perfect. Yet verse 17 says that the gospel is the power of God because it discloses and makes known that righteousness of God. As soon as you know that righteousness, you are saved in your own conscience and experience and all your guilt is taken away. It is like a light that shines out of darkness. It reveals the righteousness of God, and as soon as that righteousness shines in your heart, you are saved.

And it is this to everyone who believes.

Oh, do not make believing the condition. Do not say that God has this righteousness, and now man on his part must believe. The thought of the apostle is not that the gospel is the power of God to salvation to everyone who has faith. Faith can also be conceived legalistically. Faith can be construed as the condition that makes the gospel a power of salvation. That is not the thought of verse 16 at all. That thought is utterly foreign to all that the apostle writes in the book of Romans. Faith is not what man does to be saved. Whoever says that faith is what man must do to be saved must also add repentance and obedience, and he becomes a liar against the gospel.

The gospel as the power of salvation does not depend on man at all.

Rather, when the gospel comes to God’s people in the world, the gospel reveals the righteousness of God out of faith and unto faith.

Out of faith and unto faith!

This means that when the gospel comes, then the gospel first works faith. It is unto faith. When God speaks his powerful word in the world concerning the righteousness of God, then that word lays hold on the hearts of his elect people and works faith. The revelation of the righteousness of God in the hearts of his elect works faith. So little is faith in man’s power to do that faith is ascribed here as the work of God himself by the revelation of his righteousness.

And then out of that faith, it justifies too. As it is written, the one who by faith is righteous shall live!

Yes, you live now, and you will live forever because of the righteousness of God!