Paul writes the letter to the Roman church to mobilize their
support for his mission to Spain. In Romans 15:24 he writes, "I
hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my
journey there by you." He has never been to Rome and has never met
most of these Christians. So he lays out his gospel for them to see
in these 16 chapters.

Oh that all our missionaries would know the book of Romans and
preach the book of Romans. And Oh that those of us who send would
know the book of Romans and live the book of Romans so that we
would send missionaries the way Paul wanted to be sent and
supported from Rome to Spain. The mighty and merciful message of
this book will make rich Americans strip down to a more wartime
lifestyle and pour their resources into the cause of the gospel.
And the mighty and merciful message of this book, in the mouths of
suffering missionaries, will break the powers of darkness and plant
the Church of Christ in the hardest places.

The Multi-Cultural, Global Aspect of This Letter

It’s not surprising then as you start to read this letter,
there is a multi-cultural, global point to it. In Romans 1:5 Paul
tells us the goal of his apostleship: "We have received grace and
apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of
his name among all the nations." That’s why he preaches.
That’s why he is going to Spain. That’s why he writes
this letter: to bring about faith in Jesus Christ and the obedience
that comes from it – "among all nations!" Romans is about the
nations – the people groups who don’t yet believe on
Christ. Who are not justified and not yet sanctified and therefore
will not be glorified if they are not reached with the gospel.

Then in verse 14 he tells us his apostolic obligation again: "I
am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the
wise and to the foolish." And lest we think he has left out the
Jews, he says in verse 16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it
is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the
Jew first and also to the Greek." Jews, Greeks, Barbarians, wise,
foolish! In other words, this mighty and merciful message of the
book of Romans breaks through national distinctions and cultural
distinctions and educational distinctions.

This is utterly crucial to see in our pluralistic time – a
time very much like the first century when the church of Christ
spread so rapidly. Christianity is not a tribal religion, but calls
for faith and allegiance from every tribe and tongue and people and
nation. Jesus is not one among many gods. He is Lord of lords and
King of kings, and there is no other name under heaven by which all
men must be saved. The mighty, merciful message of Romans is not
just one way of salvation among many. It is the way of salvation,
because Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God and Savior.

This claim has always been disputed. And it is especially
disputed today in America, even among professing Christians, and,
of course, among Muslims and Jews. In Friday’s Star Tribune
there was another article rejecting the necessity of faith in
Christ. A joint commission of Catholic bishops and American rabbis
released a document called "Reflection on Covenant and Mission."
The main thrust, the author said, is this: "Efforts to convert Jews
are ‘no longer theologically acceptable’ . . . because
the Jewish people already ‘abide in covenant with God"
(Friday, Sept. 20, 2002, p. A23). In other words, there is one way
of salvation for Jews who reject Christ, and there is another way
of salvation for Christians who receive Christ.

This is a false and heartbreaking statement from Christian
bishops in view of what Jesus said, "Whoever believes in the Son
has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life,
but the wrath of God remains on him" (John 3:36). Therefore,
concerning the Gentiles who accept him and the Jews who reject him,
Jesus said, "Many [the Gentiles] will come from east and west and
recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of
heaven, while the sons of the kingdom [the Jewish people who reject
him] will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:11-12).

So it is utterly crucial that we see the universal claims of the
mighty and merciful message of Romans. We are
not dealing here with a human opinion, or a human philosophy, or a
self-improvement program, or a tribal religion, or something
parochial and limited. We are dealing here with the true news that
the one and only God has acted uniquely in history to save people
by sending his one and only Son to die for sinners and rise again.
To reject this news is to perish.

The Thesis of the Letter: Romans 1:16-17

So Paul states his point in Romans 1:16-17 and then explains and
applies it in the rest of the letter. "I am not ashamed of the
gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who
believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is
written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’" First,
Paul says that his message – his gospel – is mighty and
merciful to save: it is the power of God unto salvation. And this
salvation is through faith. The power of the gospel to save
penetrates to our souls with faith in Jesus Christ.

Then in verse 17 he explains why the gospel has this power: "For
in it the righteousness of God is revealed." The gospel has the
power to save those who trust Christ because it reveals the
righteousness of God. What does that mean?

Romans 1:18 – 3:20: Why All of Us Need to Be Saved

Before he explains what it means, Paul spends Romans 1:18
– 3:19 to show why all of us need to be saved. You see his
summary in Romans 3:9, "We have already charged that all, both Jews
and Greeks, are under sin." And verse 19: "Every mouth [is]
stopped, and the whole world [is] held accountable to God." So we
are all sinners. We are all under God’s wrath (1:18). We have
no righteousness that could commend us to him, and 3:20 makes plain
that we can never save or justify ourselves: "By works of the law
no human being will be justified in his sight." We are sinners. We
are under God’s just and holy wrath. And we cannot save or
justify ourselves by works.

Romans 3:21-31: Revelation of the Righteousness of God by Faith
in Jesus and Its Implications

Now Paul returns to his main point of Romans 1:16-17 and
explains what it means that the gospel is the power of God to save
believers because it reveals the righteousness of God by faith. He
says in verse 21-22, "But now the righteousness of God has been
manifested [here he’s picking up the revealing of God’s
righteousness in verse 17] apart from the law, although the Law and
the Prophets bear witness to it – 22 the righteousness of God
through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe."

So what is the revealing of the righteousness of God that gives
the gospel its power and saves believers? It’s the
manifesting of "God’s righteousness that comes through faith
in Jesus." It’s God’s righteousness revealed as a gift
to us through faith. It’s what we call justification. So Paul
says in verse 24 that sinners who trust Christ "are justified by
his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus." The revelation of God’s righteousness that makes the
gospel the power of God unto salvation is the demonstration and the
gift of God’s righteousness to sinners who trust in
Christ.

Romans 3:25 explains how God can justify sinners without being
unjust: "God put [Christ] 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."
In other words, God ordained for his Son to die in our place so
that the Father’s wrath and curse would be on him and not on
those who believe. In this way he shows his hatred for sin and his
just dealing with it. So now, as verse 26 says, he can be "just and
the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

So the death of Christ is the foundation of our justification.
If we believe in Jesus, God counts us righteous for Jesus’
sake. We are seen and treated as just. That is justification. And
in verse 28 he makes clear that this right standing with God is not
by works but by faith, "For we hold that one is justified by faith
apart from works of the law."

And right here don’t miss the global, missionary,
multi-cultural implication of this. Paul himself draws it out in
verses 29-30, "Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of
Gentiles [the nations] also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is
one. He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised
through faith." Justification by faith in Christ is the mighty and
merciful global message we have for all the nations and all the
people groups and all the people we
will ever meet. There is one
Savior, one cross, one resurrection and one way to be right with
the one God: having his righteousness imputed to us by faith in
Christ, not by works.

Romans 4: Abraham’s Justification by Faith apart from
Works

In chapter 4 Paul makes the case for justification by faith
apart from works by using Abraham as an example: "Abraham believed
God, and it was counted to him as righteousness" (verse 3). One of
the most precious verses in the book is built off Abraham’s
example (verse 5): "And to the one who does not work but trusts him
who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."
Not work but faith justifies. And not the godly but the ungodly are
justified. This is good news indeed – this is the mighty and
merciful message of Romans.

Romans 5: Hope and Security in the Face of Suffering and
Death

In chapter 5 Paul sums up with verse 1, "Therefore, since we
have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ." Then he opens the reality of suffering and
death for the justified – and anticipates the huge emphasis
on suffering in chapter 8. Verse 3 tells us why we can rejoice in
tribulation – it leads to patience and approvedness and
hope.

Then against the backdrop of this tribulation he argues exactly
the same way he does in chapter 8 – from the greater to the
lesser – if God can do a hard thing, he can do an easy thing.
Recall in Romans 8:32 he says, "He who did not spare his own Son,
but gave him up for us all [the hard thing], how shall he not with
him freely give us all things [the easy thing]?" That’s
exactly the way Paul argues here in Romans 5:9, "Since, therefore,
we have now been justified by his blood [that’s the hard
thing], much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God
[that’s the easy thing]." Same kind of argument in verse 10:
"For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the
death of his Son [that’s the hard thing], much more, now that
we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life [that’s the
easy thing]."

The point is our hope and security in the face of suffering and
death, just like it is in Romans 8. Normal Christianity is
tribulation. "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom
of God" (Acts 14:22). Don’t ever forget that the mighty and
merciful message of Romans is put forth in the context of expected
suffering.

Death is a massive reality in all cultures. If you have a gospel
you must have some explanation of death and some hope in the face
of death. That is what Paul takes up in Romans 5:12-21, and he does
it by comparing Adam, whose disobedience brought sin and death,
with Christ, whose obedience brought righteousness and life. Verse
19 states the contrast most clearly: "For as by the one man’s
[Adam’s] disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the
one man’s [Christ’s] obedience the many will be made
righteous." Adam’s sin and condemnation were imputed to us
because we are united to him by birth; so Christ’s obedience
and exoneration were imputed to us because we are united to him by
faith.

Then Paul sums up the triumph of grace through Christ in verse
21: ". . . So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign
through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord."

Romans 6: Union with Christ Is Death to Sin and Deliverance
from Slavery

Which led to a problem that had to be solved: If we are really
justified by faith alone and where sin abounds grace abounds all
the more, then why not sin that grace may abound? And Paul answers
this in chapter 6 with the teaching that faith unites us to Christ
in a real way so that we actually experience with him a death to
sin and a deliverance from its slavery (6:6, 17-18). All justified
people are being sanctified.

Romans 7: Dead to the Law that We May Belong to Another

Then in chapter 7 Paul argues that it is not an orientation on
law-keeping that sanctifies us – or makes us like Jesus. No,
"you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that
you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the
dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. . . We are released
from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we
serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the
Spirit" (7:4, 6).

The Christian life is lived in the free gift and earnest pursuit
of a relation to Jesus Christ "That you might belong to another!"
(7:4). He is the might and the mercy and the model and the mandate
of the Christian life.

Romans 8: Nothing Can Separate Us from the Love of Christ

This brought us then in these recent weeks to Romans 8 –
the great 8. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ (verse
35)? Do you see the connection between that and Romans 7:4? Dead to
the law so that we might belong to another – to him who was
raised from the dead, Jesus Christ. That is the key to living and
the key to dying. Who then shall separate us from the love of
Christ. Answer: Nothing. Who shall separate us from the love of God
in Christ? Answer: Nothing.

"So whether we live or whether we die we are the Lord’s,
for to this end Christ died and rose again, that he might be Lord
both of the living and the dead" (Romans 14:8-9). Live under his
lordship, die under his lordship. And always sing to the invincible
love of God in Christ.