The Apostle Paul, in Romans 15, is very explicit about what his role in the kingdom of God is.

Romans 15:15-19

But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ;

Paul was called by Jesus to be a minister of the gospel to the Gentiles, people who in Paul's own words from Ephesians 2:12 were "separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." It was Paul's goal to preach the gospel to those who had not had the chance to hear.

Romans 15:20-21

and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written,

“Those who have never been told of him will see,
      and those who have never heard will understand.”

In terms of ministry, Paul was a pioneer. It was his burden to take the gospel to new horizons. That is why here in chapter 15 he is eager to go to Spain. It was a new adventure for Paul. A new land with people who had yet to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul was a trailblazer through parts of Asia and Europe, and now wanted to push the boundaries of the known world even further by heading west.

Ministry needs pioneers. There are people in our neighborhoods, cities, state, country and world who have not heard the message of the gospel. Paul is clear in Romans 10:14, "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" There was a need in Paul's day - and there continues to be a need in our day -  for new works of the Lord to go into places where the gospel has not penetrated, so that men and women, boys and girls can hear and believe.

However, ministry is not just about pioneers, it also includes builders. Paul did not simply blaze new trails, make converts and leave them to fend for themselves. He left builders in place. He left elders like Titus and Timothy behind to build the church in particular areas - to evangelize and disciple. He charged believers like Priscilla, Aquilla, and Apollos and others to do ministry - equipping the saints for the Lord's work. Churches in these various areas began to grow and thrive and multiply because of the work that many had done building upon the pioneer efforts of Paul.

So what about us? The question is not if you have been called to ministry. The question is: what type of ministry have you been called to? Every believer is a minister. All believers are called to live out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. 

Are you a pioneer? Is God calling you to start a new work in this city, in this country, in this world? Is God calling you to take the gospel, the light of the world, into places that have been dark for a long time? 

Or, are you a builder? Are you ready to plug into the work of God in an existing location? There are countless places to serve in your church, in your community and in your city. Is God calling you to serve with kids, with the widow, with the orphan, the homeless?

Paul had no question whether he was called to ministry. He was sure of his calling and it refreshed and rejuvenated him constantly. Serving the Lord out of your gifts will not burn you out! We should not question our call to ministry either. If we are in Christ, we have been given gifts by God's grace to serve and lead in the church. Some will be builders. Some will be pioneers. All will be ministers.

Brian Tryhus
FBC Family Pastor

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1-2 ESV)."

Our study in Romans has led us down a path of conceptual building blocks. Our knowledge of our own depravity (SIN) gives us eyes to acknowledge our desperate need for a Savior (SALVATION). The beautiful picture of rescue gives us a proper perspective on suffering, trial and blessing (SANCTIFICATION). Understanding that sanctification will not always, or even often, be an easily understood process helps us to accept and understand that God is accountable to no one, for He is all powerful and all consuming (SOVEREIGNTY).

The cumulative understanding of these truths leads us to a decision point. If we believe the Gospel, we understand that our lives are not our own. They have been bought by Christ with His blood. In light of this knowledge, the idea of “sacrificing” (going above and beyond) one’s life becomes almost laughable. Rather it becomes obvious that true Christian service is not a matter simply for the “super Christian” to undertake but the only logical and reasonable response for a disciple of Jesus Christ.

“Spiritual worship” sounds like a nice, ethereal and somewhat lofty goal. It can be easy to tell ourselves that we’ll achieve this someday or when we really get spirituality figured out. Or, we think we can only have “spiritual worship” when we’re in FBC’s building at 10th and Urish, or doing something outwardly “selfless” that others might see.

The Greek translation of this phrase shows that the intention of it is perhaps different than we might think. Logikos is used, which can mean logical or reasonable. Read 12:1 again while inserting “reasonable service” or “logical response” for “spiritual worship” - interesting how it moves the spotlight from us to God, isn’t it?
What this translation means is that our worship isn’t some “above and beyond” response to God - rather if we believe and know that we are sinners covered by the blood of Jesus - any response other than complete and total surrender to Him is insanity...it is illogical!

Our Christian sacrifice isn’t really a sacrifice at all. If we are to follow the greatest commandment to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:37) - then our “sacrifice” is really the only reasonable response.

The only logical response to God's sovereignty and loving payment for my wretched sin is 100% commitment to Him. The resultant Christian service is an authentic effect of salvation, not an affecting agent that can bring me to Him.

Aaron Catlin

This week, our L3 journals covered Romans 10:5-17, where Paul explains how people come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. In this passage, we hear more about what it means to believe in Christ, how any of us have come to believe in Christ, and why it is important that we tell the world about what Jesus has done. These are some very critical teachings, and we need to pay close attention because our response will have an eternal effect and consequence.

First, Paul reminds us that the righteousness we need is that which is "based on faith (Rom 10:6 ESV)." We are not made righteous to God by anything that we can do for ourselves. It is only through the work of Christ that we are saved and made right with God. Paul explained this fully in Romans 3 through 5.

Next, in Romans 10:9-13, Paul gives us a portrait of that kind of faith by which God makes us righteous - confession and belief. For "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved (Rom 10:9-10 ESV)." These two aspects are tied together in our faith, as we will see.

Confession means agreeing with God about something. In this case, we are agreeing with God that "Jesus is Lord (Rom. 10:9 ESV)." Jesus is Master, King, Ruler, Authority, and Lord over creation. We confess the truth of who He is when we truly believe it. Those things that we sincerely believe are also the things that we will proclaim to others. 

Belief (the same word that Scripture uses for "faith" in the original languages) means complete trust and dependence on something or someone. Here, Paul says we need to believe "that God raised [Jesus] from the dead (Rom 10:9 ESV)." Jesus is alive! The tomb is empty, and Jesus has conquered sin and death. He is the victor. We completely depend on what He has done, and trust that He has done this. We were dead, and now we are live together with Him because of His resurrection.

Paul continues to explain how this is connected with our salvation, quoting from Joel 2:32: "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." We call on the Lord to save us when we recognize that we cannot save ourselves - when we realize that we are helpless without Him. It is essentially a "crying out" for help. When we confess and believe the truth about Christ, we trust that He is able, and therefore we will call out to Him to save us and do what we cannot do. Paul also states here that "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame (Rom. 10:11 ESV)." He will not disappoint those who have trusted in Him. Whoever calls out to Him will be rescued, not from their own works, but from trusting in the one who is able. He never fails, and He always keeps His word.

In Romans 10:14-17, Paul then shares why it is so urgent for us to share the news about Christ. Here is his argument (my paraphrase):

• How can someone call on Him if they do not believe in Him?
• How can someone believe in Him if they haven't heard about Him?
• How can someone hear about Him unless someone else tells them about Him?
• How can someone be told about Him unless someone is sent to tell them?

If we reverse this, and put the the ideas into statements rather than questions, the logic of the argument is more clear:

• We are sent to tell people about Jesus.
• When we tell people about Jesus, they can hear about Jesus.
• When people hear about Jesus, they have the opportunity to believe in Him.
• When people believe in Jesus, they will call on Him to save them.

Here, the urgency is clear. How will anyone hear about what Jesus has done, unless we tell them about it? We have been sent, as His Church, to tell our world the good news of Christ, and if we don't do it, people may not hear about Him. If they don't hear about Him, they don't have the opportunity to believe in Him. If they do not believe in Him, they will not call on Him to save them.

The bottom line? We need to tell people about Jesus. You and I have contact with people that may never have another friend who is believer. We may be the only person to ever tell them about Jesus. If we don't do it, who will? As Pastor Joe often says, "There is no Plan B." We need to be the ones who tell our friends and family the truth about Jesus. It doesn't need to be fancy or formal. Just share with them like you would share anything else that is incredibly important. Just tell them what Jesus has done, and how you have been changed because of it.

We are sent. Let's tell our world about what Jesus has done, that they may come to trust in Him and call on Him as their Savior!

This week our L3 Journal reading plan takes us through a passage of scripture that can be difficult to understand and potentially difficult to swallow.

Romans 9:13 - "As it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'"

Romans 9:17 "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.'"

Romans 9:21-22 - "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction..."

These verses trigger all the churchy buzzwords of election, foreknowledge, predestination, hardening and will; however, we will be best served framing the argument as Paul, the author of Romans, frames it.  The question does not revolve around salvation history, but it revolves around God.

What do we believe about God?

When the question first comes up about choice, Paul responds with verse 14: "What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means!"

For Paul, the argument begins not with fairness, but with whether or not God is just.  We would absolutely affirm the righteousness of God.

Exodus 34:6-7 - "The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and fourth generation.'"

Romans 3:24-26 - "and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

These passages illustrate the holiness of God who does not overlook sin, but has provided a way out for sinners through the cross of Jesus Christ. To this point there is probably very little confusion, but the point we need to take away is huge.  God is a holy (set apart), righteous, just God who exemplifies all of these attributes in every action, judgment, and revelation.  Every movement of our God toward man in human history exemplifies His justice, His righteousness, and His holiness.

The question then becomes, how do we explain the tension that we feel when we look at passages of Scripture that we would view as unjust (remember the claim Paul is refuting in Romans 9:14)?

To answer this question is in many ways to not answer the question. Isaiah 55:8-9: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."  The reality is that when we feel tension in Scripture, we must rely on the truths about God that we know.  We know that God is good.  We know that He is holy, righteous, and just.  We know that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.

A.W. Tozer says it this way in his highly recommended work, The Knowledge of the Holy, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." In other words in will define how we view the world, the Scriptures and God's actions.  We must believe rightly about God and that will help us when the Scriptures cause tension.

What do we believe about the sinfulness of man?

Well, this section is much shorter.

Romans 3:10 - "as it is written: 'None is righteous, no, not one...'"

Romans 3:23 - "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..."

Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So, when it comes to how we stand before a holy God, every human is guilty and deserving of the ultimate penalty of death and separation from God.

How does all this fit together to help me understand what is going on in Romans 9:11-23?

We now have a clear lens to look through.  God is holy, righteous, and just in every action.  Humanity is wickedly depraved and sinful, deserving of death.  God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.

It is impossible for humanity to earn salvation.  That is clear in Romans 9:15-16: "For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'" So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. Our salvation, the fact that our eyes have been opened to see Jesus, has nothing to do with our goodness, but on the mercy and compassion of God alone. To this end, when it comes to salvation, God is seen as just and the justifier of all who believe, and is seen as lovely.

But what about the rest? What about those whose hearts have been hardened? What about those who are unable to resist his will (verse 19) and are vessels of wrath prepared for destruction and dishonorable use? There is not a great answer except to quote Paul in Romans 9:20, "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?'"

His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. In the end it really does not do any good to look at the Potter and say that He made a mistake. God is at work to make His power known (verse 9:22) and to "make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory." His eternal purposes might not make sense in our 21st-century American culture of fairness, but to be fair, He tells us as much when He says as the heavens are high above the earth so is the difference between His ways and thoughts and ours.

So what do I do with this?

If you have been made to see Jesus and trust in His name and work, you owe Him everything.  From the depths of gratitude for being a vessel of mercy to the heights of obedience in proclaiming His truth to a world who desperately needs Him.

People mistake the doctrine of divine election as an excuse to be selfish with the gospel.  This, however, could not be further from the call of God on our lives.  Eventually Paul gets to Romans 10:13-15, "For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'"

His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts.  Here again is tension. Salvation is the work of God, but He includes human responsibility not only in the believing, but also in the sending.  If you are a child of God, who has been blessed with the free gift of salvation that we could not earn, it is our divine obligation to advance the kingdom of God by making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Brian Tryhus
FBC Family Pastor

In Romans 8:1, we read one of the most beautiful statements in all of Scripture: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (ESV)." What we find throughout the book of Romans is the constant contrast between the words "condemnation" and "justification." These two words are exact opposites, and describe the two states in which we can stand before God. At their root, these words are both legal terms. We either stand condemned or justified in the sight of the Righteous Judge.  

Each of these terms are used throughout the Bible as declarative terms, assigning a status to the object. They do not necessarily speak of the reality of the character of the person, but rather how they are perceived before the court. For example, in the Old Testament, we see many instances where God expresses His extreme displeasure with the one who "justifies the wicked and... condemns the righteous (Prov. 17:15 ESV)." He calls each of these false declarations "an abomination." There are also instances where someone attempts to "justify" God (Job 32:2). Clearly, these statements are not making God righteous, but rather declaring Him to be so.

These statuses of condemnation or justification are a result of the representation or advocate of the accused party. Therefore, whomever we choose to represent us - ourselves or Jesus Christ - becomes a decision of the greatest importance. When we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we are choosing Him to be our representative. He stands for us as our "Advocate (1 John 2:1)", and justifies us, declaring us as righteous in Him. His life, His death, and His resurrection become our own when we trust in Him rather than our own work, because He has substituted Himself for us. When God the Father sees us, He sees us through Christ. He sees us as righteous, not because of anything we have done, but because of what Jesus has done for us. He stands in our place, and we are justified because of Him.

This is the beautiful news here: in Christ, we no longer stand condemned before God. Instead, we are justified in His sight because of the finished work of Jesus, our Advocate, and we now have freedom as a result.

May we never cease to thank and praise Jesus Christ for His amazing mercy and grace toward us!

In the Son,

Bill Horn
FBC Worship Arts Pastor

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

(Romans 6:6-11 ESV)

Examine the word translated as “consider” (ESV), “count yourselves” (NIV) or “reckon” (KJV) in Romans 6:11: “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” An important idea, Paul uses it 19 times throughout Romans and a proper understanding of it is necessary for a proper understanding of the book.

Translated from Greek, consider means to “impute (or put into) to one’s account.” In this case, “consider” doesn’t simply mean to think about or even meditate on. Rather, it states that we are to take account and own two things: (1)we are dead to sin (2)we are alive to God in Jesus Christ We aren’t just to think of these concepts in an academic sense; we must recognize that their reality is the only thing that matters.

A true grasp and embrace of our death to sin (through Jesus’s work on the cross) and resurrection through Jesus is a profound game changer for the Christian. No longer bound by the constraints of guilt and shame, we are free to live for that which will truly satisfy.

Many times, our relationship with God is a corrective one, apologizing, confessing and trying to fix what we’ve messed up. Confession is absolutely necessary, but we must do more than just avert our eyes or move our gaze from sin. For transformation to happen, we must not just look away from bad stuff, but actually gaze into the glorious face of Jesus.

In The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis famously said: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”

As Christians, we often realize that we aren’t supposed to continue to play with the “mud pies” of this life, but our simple avoidance of the muddy field doesn’t automatically mean we enjoy the pleasures of the seaside. If you know Jesus, you are dead to sin. You are alive to God. Nothing else matters. Go today and take your eyes off that which doesn’t matter and gaze into His glorious face.

Aaron Catlin

When reading Romans 5:12-21, it is clear that Paul is drawing a parallel between the work of Adam and the work of Christ; however, the two events are as different as they are similar. “In each case, a critical spiritual condition has been introduced into human history through the act of one man” (Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT, 339), but comparing the events is akin to comparing cancer and the cure.

To look at these realities, we will implore the old boxing device of “The Tale of the Tape” to see how they measure up.

While the acts are parallel, the effects of each are polar opposites. The sin of the first Adam brought the grave consequences of death into this world that has infected every being born since. It was the moment that destruction and despair were allowed to rule the day. Whether under the law, or even before the law, the curse of death ran rampant through all men and women as they all willfully chose to partake in the reign of sin. All people, born since that day, have come into this world as enemies of God (Romans 5:6, 8, 10).

But the glory of the gospel is that the story doesn’t end there. God sent the Last Adam, Jesus, into this world, while we were still sinners, to die in our place. Christ, in another singular act in human history, changed the destiny for all who would believe in His name. In place of condemnation, Jesus offers justification. In place of death, He offers life. In place of our unrighteousness, the Son of God offers us His righteousness. Where despair once ruled our existence, we can now live with hope. The reign of sin will not forever increase, but grace will rule the day and forever expand.

The two events are forever intertwined, but are as different as night and day. The act of the first man, Adam, is truly a day that should forever live in infamy. However, the act of the last Adam, Jesus, is a day that needs to be celebrated and declared from every corner. Jesus’ glorious obedience to his Father and the free gift He offer us demands our unbridled worship and undivided loyalty.

Brian Tryhus
FBC Family Pastor

"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it--the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." (Romans 3:21-25a)

This week in our L3 journals, we have been reading through Romans 3 and 4, which together serve as one of the clearest explanations of salvation and justification. These two chapters are preceded by Paul's thorough discussion on sin in chapters one and two. In those first chapters, we see that we all stood condemned under God's righteous wrath against sin, because we have all sinned. This was our hopeless status before God, and where we would have remained if God had not stepped in to alter the course of our lives.

In chapter three and following, we find the solution that God provided for our reconciliation with God. We find that the way for us to "patch things up" with God is not by anything of our own doing--not by "works of the law." It is only by God's doing that we can have a reconciled relationship to Him. It is only because He was so gracious and loving that He sent His Son to be a sacrifice in our place, as a "propitiation by his blood." This word, "propitiation" (Greek, hilasterion) is the word that I would like to focus on today.

The occurrence of this word here in Romans 3:25 is the only time it appears in Paul's writings. The only other use of the word in this form is in Hebrews 9:5, where it is translated as "the mercy seat." This alternate translation of this word gives us some insight into its meaning. By the usage of this word in Scripture, a link is made between the function of Jesus in His death and the mercy seat from the ark of the covenant.

The mercy seat was essentially the cover for the ark of the covenant (the Hebrew word literally means, "cover"), which contained the two tablets of the ten commandments, Aaron's budding rod, a jar of manna, and the first Torah scroll written by Moses. This cover (see an artist's rendition above) consisted mainly of two angels with their wings spread out toward one another and covering their heads. The place where these wings came together was called the mercy seat, and this is where God dwelt when His people were bringing their offerings and sacrifices to Him.

The ark was kept in the Holy of Holies, which was the innermost section of the tabernacle and eventually the temple in Jerusalem. This section of the tabernacle and the temple could only be entered on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and then only by the High Priest. This priest would take the blood from the sacrificial bull and enter the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood onto the mercy seat to make atonement for himself, for his family, for the other priests, and for the people of God. The High Priest did this each year to satisfy the righteous wrath of God against sin.

 As Romans 3:25-26 points out, God would not be just if He did not punish sin. In order to be a righteous judge, sin must be dealt with and punished; Jesus bore that punishment in our place, as the perfect sacrifice (superseding bulls and goats) for our redemption. These verses say that God was basically being patient with humanity, and not punishing our sin. Instead, He was deferring punishment of those sins until Jesus would bear them once for all. He could not let them go without punishment forever, and that was never the plan.

As the book of Hebrews says, the blood of bulls and goats was not sufficient to completely cleanse humanity from their sin nor to satisfy the wrath of God. Jesus' sacrifice, however, was sufficient. No other sacrifice is needed now. Jesus is enough. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sin, reconciling us with God by His blood. He did what we could not do, which was to satisfy the righteous wrath of God.

Truly, "justification means this miracle: that Christ takes our place and we take his" (Emil Brunner, Mediator, p. 524). This is the beauty of this word, "propitiation." In our place, He bore our condemnation, taking the punishment of God's wrath against sin. In place of condemnation, Jesus accounts His righteousness to us. This is all a free gift received only by trusting and believing in what He has accomplished for us. The mercy seat and the Day of Atonement of the Old Covenant has been replaced by Jesus--our atoning sacrifice--and the righteous wrath of God is satisfied with His precious blood, that of the spotless Lamb of God.

In the Son,

Bill Horn
FBC Worship Arts Pastor

This week in our L3 journals, we have been reading through the first few chapters of Romans, and came across one of the foundational verses for Paul's entire case for the gospel through this letter, Romans 1:17. In this verse, Paul quotes from Habakkuk 2:4: "The righteous shall live by faith." In this post, I just want to help clarify a few things, which will help us as we set out on our journey through the book of Romans.

In the previous verse, Paul had just finished saying that the gospel is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes," and then continues in this verse by saying, "for in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith." What Paul means in these statements is that the gospel message reveals God's righteousness, which has always been through faith (the unusual phrase "from faith for faith" or "from faith to faith" is most often interpreted as meaning "faith from beginning to end" or "faith from start to finish"), is the power of God for our salvation. The message of Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection reveals the righteousness of God, and is our means for salvation.

Paul then quotes the verse from Habakkuk that we mentioned earlier, "The righteous shall live by faith." There is another way to translate this from the original language, and it is often mentioned in the footnotes of our Bibles: "The one who by faith is righteous shall live." This verse says that life (i.e. salvation and eternal life) belongs to those who are righteous by faith. These are the ones who have been declared righteous by God through our trusting in Him.

What does Paul accomplish by bringing this verse into the discussion? He proves his previous statement. God's way for us to be saved has always been through faith in His work on our behalf. His plan was never for us to think that we could save ourselves by being good enough or by working our way into His good graces. It has always been by trusting in God's righteousness and mercy.

Christ was the perfect fulfillment of God's plan from the beginning. While many religious leaders from the time of exile through the first century had corrupted this message and lost sight of the true way of salvation, God had always intended for His people to be redeemed by trusting and believing in His work on their behalf. In this way, as Paul will soon tell us, God is the one who gets the credit and glory for our salvation; not us.

In these two small verses of Romans 1:16-17, we find the theme that Paul will emphasize throughout his letter to the church in Rome. Salvation is, and has always been, through trusting in the Lord - in His work on our behalf, in His righteousness, in His goodness. In Christ's life, death, and resurrection, it is now clearer than ever. As a result, Jesus Christ is the one who is worthy of all praise and honor and glory. He is the one who has saved us. He is the only one is deserving of our worship.

As it has been written, "The righteous shall live by faith."

In the Son,

Bill Horn
FBC Worship & Arts Pastor