The Gospel is the ‘Power of God to Salvation’

Editor’s Note: The following article is adapted from the closing sermon of the European Congress on Evangelism, held May 27-30 in Berlin, Germany.

In Romans 1:16-17, we find two verses from the Apostle Paul that anchor this entire Congress—“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek,” and then, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘the just shall live by faith’” (NKJV). Some consider those two verses to be the most important verses in the entire Book of Romans.

In fact, James Montgomery Boice said those two verses are the most important in all of literature itself. Why? Well, first, the theme of Romans is the righteousness of God. And second, those verses are at the very heart of Biblical Christianity. They tell people on Earth how they can have a right relationship with God in Heaven—that is, through the righteousness of God by faith.

In verse 16, Paul makes quite a statement—“I am not ashamed of the Gospel.” Think of all that Paul had been through up to this point because of the Gospel. After all of that, Paul is still eager to preach the Gospel in Rome, a city that would intimidate most people. Why was it that Paul was so bold and so unashamed of the Gospel?

The Gospel Is Good News

The first reason is because the Gospel is Good News. The very word Gospel means Good News. So why would anybody be ashamed of good news? I can think of a couple of reasons.

First, it would be easy to be intimidated by Rome itself. If you were living anywhere in the Roman empire, for you to go to Rome and look around, you would think these people don’t need anything. They have it all. Also, even though it means good news, not everybody saw the Gospel as good news. It was identified with a poor Jewish carpenter who had been executed, and there was no glory in that. And the Gospel is not good news to the unregenerate mind when it is first heard because it exposes man’s sin.

But when the Gospel penetrates a heart, it transforms the heart. It changes a life. If you once suffered with cancer and you are now in remission, you would tell people. If you were involved in a war and the war was now over, you would broadcast that—because it’s good news.

The Gospel Is the Power of God

The Gospel is also “the power of God to salvation.” Now, why on earth would anyone be ashamed of power? Rome loved power. Rome exuded power. But with all of that power, Rome was powerless to save one soul. They were militarily strong. They were morally weak.

But Paul writes to the Romans and says the Gospel is the power of God. Paul doesn’t say that the Gospel is about God’s power or that the Gospel is a source of power. No, the Gospel is power. The very Gospel is power. It is powerful enough to accomplish God’s purpose in a fallen world polluted by sin.

The Gospel Is Freely Given

There’s a third reason Paul was not ashamed: because the Gospel is given freely. It is a free gift.

In this great Congress we’ve heard some impressive testimonies from national leaders, prime ministers, from prisoners and former atheists, all of whom were transformed. No matter what background people come from, the Gospel is given freely. It is for everyone who believes. The Gospel was promised through the Jewish prophets who wrote Jewish Scriptures to a Jewish nation in a Jewish context predicting a Jewish Messiah—but it’s for the whole world, not just the Jew but also the Greek. What Paul is saying is: our Gospel is a non-discriminatory Gospel.

The Gospel is good for Greeks, it’s good for barbarians. It’s good for the educated, the uneducated, the high class, the low class. It’s for everyone who believes.

The Gospel Gets Us Right

There’s a final reason Paul was not ashamed: because the Gospel gets us right. Precisely, it gets us right with God. In verse 17 we see in the Gospel “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘the just shall live by faith.’” That’s the theme of the entire Book of Romans.

In Romans, the word righteousness appears either as righteousness or righteous or just or justified—the same word group—60 different times. So the theme of the book is the righteousness of God or “How to Get Right with God.” The righteousness of God is the one phrase Martin Luther, 508 years ago, struggled with, and it was this very text that set him free and changed his life. It finally dawned on him that what Paul is talking about is that the perfect, righteous standard of God isn’t just God’s own attribute. It’s something God freely imputes to anyone who believes. As soon as Luther made that connection, it changed his life.

The Gospel was powerful enough to change Saul of Tarsus into Paul the Apostle. It was powerful enough to save 3,000 in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. It was powerful enough to convert thousands in the First and Second Great Awakenings, and it was powerful enough to move 2.2 million people to say yes to Jesus Christ under the ministry of Dr. Billy Graham, of which I’m one. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

Skip Heitzig is the senior pastor of Calvary Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His preaching and teaching is heard on radio and online through the Connect with Skip Heitzig multimedia ministry.