I want to begin the lesson today by asking an important question. What is the gospel? If someone were to come up to you, could you answer this question? If your neighbor asked you, “What is the gospel?”, what would you tell them? What exactly is the gospel? Now if you have grown up in the pews, you might quickly answer that the gospel is good news. This is what the word “gospel” means. But I want us to think deeper than this. Do not merely provide a definition of the gospel, that is, being good news. What exactly is the good news? What is the good news you have received? What is the good news you proclaim? What is the good news that you put your hope in? What is the good news that you have placed your faith upon? What are the contents of the good news? The book of Romans can seem complicated to the point that we can avoid reading it. But the book of Romans was not written to theologians. The book of Romans was written to everyday people like us. We should understand the gospel and not make the book of Romans so hard that we feel lost by it. So open your copies of God’s word to the book of Romans and we are going to be learning about the glorious gospel from this book.
The Gospel Was Promised Beforehand (Romans 1:1-2)
The apostle Paul begins his letter to the Christians who are in Rome with his longest introduction of any of his letters. You will notice that he does not name the recipients until verse 7. Usually the recipients of the letter are proclaimed in the first or second verse. After stating that he is a servant of Christ Jesus who has been called to be an apostle, Paul proclaims that he was set apart for the gospel of God. The gospel of God is now the subject of the rest of this paragraph. Paul wants to tell his readers about the gospel of God. The gospel of God is going to be thoroughly explained in the book of Romans. Understanding the gospel of God is critically important. If we do not understand the gospel, then we have missed the good news of God to the world. We have missed the good news to us.
Paul begins in verse 2 by telling us that the good news (gospel) is not new. The gospel was promised in the past through God’s prophets in the holy Scriptures. This is very important for us to see. We should be able to go back into the Old Testament and find the gospel message. We should be able to read about the gospel being proclaimed by the prophets. This is one of the many reasons why we spend time studying the Old Testament scriptures and studying the prophets. The gospel is contained in the prophets. The prophets told the good news of what God was going to do. There are many places we could turn today to look at the gospel in the prophets. For the sake of time, I am going to pick one place in the prophets that plainly proclaims what the gospel is. Look at Isaiah 52. The end of Isaiah 52 begins the prediction of the suffering servant which flows into Isaiah 53. As Isaiah prophesies comfort and hope to his people, listen to what he says in Isaiah 52:7.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” (Isaiah 52:7 ESV)
Now we need to think about this picture for a moment. The idea is a person standing on the watchtower, waiting for a messenger to return from the battlefield (cf. Isaiah 52:8). The people want to know if it is good news or bad news coming about the war. So how beautiful are the feet of the person who you can see running on the hills, coming to the city, bringing good news. What is the good news that is being told? Isaiah 52:7 says that it is the proclamation of peace, happiness, and salvation. The messenger is shouting as he runs to the city to be overjoyed because our salvation and peace has been achieved. The victory is won. Look at it at the end of verse 7, “Your God reigns!” The gospel is the proclamation of what God has done. The gospel is the declaration that your God reigns and he has accomplished our peace and our salvation. You see this in Isaiah 52:9-10. The Lord has comforted and redeemed his people. The Lord has shown his power to the nations and the ends of the earth can see the salvation of our God. This is the good news: your God reigns. Your God is victorious. Your God has won the battle and now peace, joy, and salvation are being proclaimed throughout the world.
The Gospel Is About the Son (Romans 1:3-4)
Turn back to Romans 1. How do we know that our God reigns? How do we know that he has achieved the victory? What has happened? Look at Romans 1:3-4. The gospel is concerning his Son, descended from David in the flesh and declared to be the Son of God in power by the Spirit. What is the event that signaled the proclamation of the good news? The pivotal event is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. When did God bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations (cf. Isaiah 52:10)? God did this when he raised the Son of God in power from the dead. The resurrection is the key moment. This is why the apostle Paul could write to the Christians in Corinth in chapter 15 and tell them that if Jesus did not raise from the dead, then our faith is futile and we are to be pitied more than anyone. If Jesus did not raise from the dead, then there is no hope. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is everything! Everything that God promised culminated in the resurrection of Jesus. The apostle Paul proclaimed that all the promises of God have their “yes” in Christ and that is why we say Amen to God for his glory (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:20-21).
In the book of Acts, both the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul proclaim that Jesus raising from the dead was when Jesus was enthroned and began to rule. Peter says that Jesus sat down at the right hand of God after the resurrection (Acts 2:33-36). Paul says that Jesus’ resurrection was the fulfillment of Psalm 2 (Acts 13:32-33), a psalm which proclaims that the Lord has set his Anointed as King while the nations rage against them (cf. Psalm 2:1-7). The gospel is about the reign of God conquering the enemies, proclaiming peace and salvation through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Jesus is our champion. Jesus is the victor. Jesus has taken his rightful place on the throne and rules over all creation and continues to do so until all the enemies are placed under his feet (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:24-25). This is why the apostles point to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead as the gospel.
The Gospel Is To Bring About the Obedience of Faith (Romans 1:5)
Turn back to Romans 1 again and now look at verse 5. Through Jesus being designated the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead, Paul says he has received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for Jesus’ name in all the world. The purpose of the gospel is to bring about the obedience of faith. I want us to think about this for a moment. Please notice that the apostle Paul does not say the good news of God’s reign is to bring about faith. Paul does not want to be misunderstood at this critical moment. The good news is to bring about the obedience of faith.
What does this mean? I believe the apostle Paul is vague because he wants to accept the multiple ways of understanding this point. Paul can mean that the gospel is to be bring about our obedience that comes from faith. The point is that true faith will lead to our obedience. This is absolutely true. God never called for obedience apart from faith. God did not say to just obey him and he does not care if you love him or not. No, the greatest command is to love the Lord so that you will obey him completely. But the other way to read this is important also because the point is stronger than just having a faith that leads to obedience. There is no such thing as faith without obedience. James would strongly proclaim that faith that does not have works is dead and useless (cf. James 2:17-26). Faith and obedience are permanently bound together. You cannot have faith apart from obedience. Obedience without faith is empty and faith without obedience is dead and useless.
Here is the point: the goal of the gospel is to bring about the obedience of faith in all the world. The work of the gospel is so you would faithfully obey the Lord. To put this paragraph together, the good news that was promised by the prophets was that your God reigns over all creation through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead so that you would obey him by faith. His enthronement was to lead to our obedience. Seeing Jesus raised from the dead and take his rightful place on the throne is to lead to the obedience of faith in all the nations. Everyone will obey and serve him as king because he has been designated the Son of God in power. So I want us to hear Paul proclaiming the gospel purpose. I want us to hear the purpose of the book of Romans. The gospel is to bring about the obedience of faith. To say this another way, if you are not obeying Jesus by faith, then you do not know the good news. If you are not obeying Jesus, then you do not have the faith that Paul will talk about in this book.
The Gospel Confirms Our Relationship (Romans 1:6-7)
So what is the point of the gospel? The point of the gospel is to bring us into relationship with God. As the apostle Paul talks about the good news that your God reigns which is seen through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead so that the good news of peace, joy, and salvation can be proclaimed, he does not want us to miss its purpose toward us. The gospel is to bring about the obedience of faith for his name’s sake among all the nations “including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” I simply love those two words, “Including you.” You are not excluded from the work that God is doing in the world. You are not excluded from God’s reign. You are not excluded from the good news that Jesus rose from the dead in power just as the prophets said he would. You are not excluded from the proclamation of peace, joy, and salvation. You are not excluded from his work to bring about our obedience of faith. Look at verse 6. You are called to belong to Jesus.
The gospel confirms our relationship with God. Please listen to the words in verse 7 as now he speaks to the recipients of this letter. They are loved by God and called to be his holy people. The reason there is good news at all is because God loves all people so that he gave his only Son (cf. John 3:16) so that we can belong to Jesus as his holy people. Everyone is looking for the reason for their existence. Everyone wants to know why they are here and what they are supposed to do. The gospel is the answer to the world’s question of purpose. You are called to belong to Jesus. God loves you and calls you to belong to him. You see his love because he proclaimed his love and gave his Son so that we can belong to him. The book of Romans will explain further how this is possible.
But this is an important point that must not be missed. The point of the gospel is to bring us to God. This is not a message of complicated, deep theology. In short, God is the gospel. This is the gospel of God. The good news is all about God, who he is and what he has done in the world. The good news is the message of God’s love for the world and telling the world that God is on the throne, reconciling the world to himself through the Son by his resurrection from the dead so that you are called to belong to him as God’s loved and holy people. The gospel includes you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. Respond to the gospel with the obedience of faith today because your God reigns!