The Power Behind Gospel Preaching (Romans 1:17)
Why did Luther hate the phrase "the righteousness of God"? See how Romans 1:17 turned his hatred into paradise: righteousness God gives, not demands.
Introduction
We’ve made it! No, we’re not to the end of Romans yet; we’re just to the end of the beginning! In our previous two times through Romans, we went at a decent pace of 2–3 sermons per chapter. This time through, I figured I’ve been preaching for 25 years and I’m finally capable of taking you through Romans slowly, to savor it without regard to how long it takes. As the poet W.H. Davies said,
“What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?
Let’s stand and stare at the end of Paul’s introduction: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith” (v. 17).[i] The medieval monk, Martin Luther, had “a burning desire to understand” the phrase “the righteousness of God.” He said, “I hated that word,” because it was understood to mean the justice that God is and by which he punishes sinners.
“I did not love, no, rather I hated the just God who punishes sinners…I grumbled vehemently and got angry at God. I said, ‘Isn’t it enough that we miserable sinners, lost for all eternity because of original sin, are oppressed by every kind of calamity through the Ten Commandments? Why does God heap sorrow upon sorrow through the Gospel and through the Gospel threaten us with his justice and his wrath?’”
As he meditated on Scripture, he learned that this righteousness wasn’t what God is and by which he judged, but what God gives by grace. “All at once I felt that I had been born again and entered into paradise itself through open gates.”[ii]
Theme
In these words, we learn that the power behind gospel preaching is the gracious God who gifts sinners with his righteousness so we can be accepted by him.
The Logic of the Text
First, notice the logic of the text. Paul wanted to get to Rome to “preach the gospel” (v. 15). Then he says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel” (v. 16). Why would he be ashamed? Perhaps people were speculating that the reason he hadn’t shown up yet was that he was ashamed of being a simple preacher of the gospel and not a powerful Roman rhetorician. But he wasn’t ashamed!
Application: Again, this is so relevant. We’re tempted to give up taking preaching so seriously. The church has adopted the world’s wisdom. We’re told the way to grow isn’t through preaching, but music. Build a stage. Spend on lighting. Pump up the volume. Get a band. We’re told we need to use “the most powerful medium known to man” and include movie clips on a big screen to keep attention. Will you re-commit again as a church with me, that no matter how much ridicule we receive for emphasizing preaching, no matter how little our results, we’ll put preaching the gospel first? Why shouldn’t we be ashamed of gospel preaching? “For [the gospel] preached is the power of God for salvation” (v. 16). That’s the irony. Multi-media shows look, sound, and feel so powerful, but the real power is the preaching of the Word. In multi-media centric churches, man gets the glory; in preaching, God does! Amen? What’s the power behind gospel preaching? In [the gospel preached], the righteousness of God is revealed (v. 17).
The power behind gospel preaching is the gracious God who gifts sinners with his righteousness so we can be accepted by him.
The Meaning of Righteousness
This leads us to the meaning of righteousness. How does Paul prove that the gospel is the power of God to salvation? Children: When I was in school, we had to do vocabulary lists. Every week we had to copy words from the chalkboard onto a sheet, go home, get out a dictionary, and write the definition of each word. We didn’t have dictionary.com or ChatGPT! You need to know the vocabulary of the Bible because it’s the vocabulary of your faith. One of those vocabulary words is “righteousness.” Here Paul speaks of the righteousness of God. John Calvin was correct when he said this is God’s “full and perfect righteousness.” But what is it? The grammar of righteousness of God can mean either God’s own righteousness as the Judge or the righteousness that comes from God. In other words, the righteousness of God is either what he is as Judge or what he gives as Savior.
God’s righteousness as the righteousness that he is as Judge can be found all over the Old Testament Paul knew well. Psalm 11:7 says, “For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.” His righteousness is defined here as his love of righteous deeds. In other words, God is the standard of perfection. If you’re upright like him, you’ll behold his face. Because he’s righteous, the Scriptures say again and again that he’s the God “who will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex. 34:7). Because God is righteous, he must punish unrighteousness or sin. Are you as upright as he is? Have you loved him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Have you loved your neighbor as yourself? Here’s what the prophet Nahum says about God’s righteousness:
The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
and keeps wrath for his enemies.
The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. (Nah. 1:2–3)
“I hated that word…I did not love, no, rather I hated the just God who punishes sinners…I grumbled vehemently and got angry at God.” Do you understand now why Luther said this? Application: Do you know what it means that God is righteous? Do you know what it means that you’re an unrighteous sinner under his righteous judgment? Is the power behind the preaching of the gospel, that it proclaims to us the righteousness of God the Supreme Judge?
There’s another way to understand the righteousness of God. Illustration: If you’ve ever looked at old precious coins, you know that they have two unique sides. A lot of times in coin books, both sides are put side by side in an image so you can see them both. This way you don’t think, “Those are two interesting coins.” No, it’s the same coin; just two different sides. Righteousness of God has another side to it. This same God who is righteous also gives righteousness as Savior. The same Psalms that declare, “The Lord is righteous,” also pray, “In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me” (Ps. 71:2; 31:1). The righteousness of God saves. The Psalms declare, “The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations” (Ps. 98:2). The Lord’s salvation is his righteousness. When we speak of the righteousness the Lord has, we’re speaking of his judgment; when we speak of the righteousness the Lord gives, we’re speaking of his salvation. It’s this saving righteousness that’s so precious to our souls. Amen? Illustration: It’s like a cool breeze in the hot sun. It’s like ice-cold water to your parched tongue. In the words of Calvin, “We can obtain salvation from no other source than the Gospel, since God has nowhere else revealed to us His righteousness, which alone delivers us from death.”[iii] The power behind gospel preaching is the gracious God who gifts sinners with his righteousness so we can be accepted by him.
The Reception of Gospel Righteousness
In unashamed gospel preaching, God powerfully works to present the righteousness of God that saves. How do I benefit from this spiritual blessing? Note the reception of gospel righteousness: for in [the gospel preached] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” How do I receive God’s gift of righteousness? Faith alone in Jesus Christ alone! Paul excludes anything else and everything else when he says from faith for faith, meaning, “the righteousness of God is completely from faith.”[iv] He then cites the prophet Habakkuk: as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Christ: Here is the good news to you, sinner: the righteous Judge gave Christ to the world to satisfy the demands of righteousness against us and then gifts sinners like you with righteousness so that you can be acceptable to God! Embrace God’s gift today! Many years ago, Karajean and I had to walk out of a church. The preacher preached all about faith. That’s good, right? He said you just need enough faith and you can have whatever you want. My friend, if you’re here today and perhaps new to Christianity, I am saying the complete opposite! Paul says the complete opposite! To talk of faith as having enough to get what you desire is to make faith something you do. Faith is your reception of what Christ has already done for you!
Faith is necessary for us unrighteous sinners to receive God’s gift of Christ’s righteousness so that we can be accepted into God’s presence now and see him face to face in eternity. This is what Paul calls “justification.” It’s an act of God’s free grace to us sinners, whereby he forgives all our sins, accepts and accounts us as righteous in his sight; not for anything we do, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to us, and received by faith alone (WLC, Q&A 70). As Martin Luther said,
God certainly desires to save us not through our own righteousness, but through the righteousness and wisdom of someone else or by means of a righteousness which does not originate on earth, but comes down from heaven. So, then, we must teach a righteousness which in every way comes from without and is entirely foreign to us.
The power behind gospel preaching is the gracious God who gifts sinners with his righteousness so we can be accepted by him.
Conclusion: To Know Christ
Let’s close by turning to Philippians 3. Paul contrasts the righteousness that he thought he had by his own obedience to the law with the true righteousness he received through faith in Jesus Christ:
If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Phil. 3:4–11)
Note the benefit of the faith that receives God’s gift of Christ’s righteousness: that I may know him. That’s why our careful understanding of Paul’s introduction to Romans matters—that you may know Jesus Christ!
[i] On this verse and the doctrine of justification by faith apart from works, see John Chrysostom, Homilies of Romans, trans. Panayiotis Papageorgiou (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2013), 37–41.
[ii] “Preface” to his Latin Works (1545).
[iii] See Luther, 151–52. This is also a catholic doctrine. The fathers Haymo and Ambrose said: “That by which he freely justifies the ungodly through faith without the works of the law.” Also, “The gospel reveals this when it gives faith by which a person is justified who believes that God is just and true to his promises.” Glossa, 21.
[iv] Luther, 153.