This chapter of the Bible changed history. Sure, other chapters and passages have too, but this one is significant in the history of God’s people because God used it to help his people reclaim the Gospel – the good news that we are saved from our sins by God’s mercy and love through Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection.
Romans 1:16 & 17 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, . . . For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”
This passage grabbed the attention of a German monk in the 1500’s who was struggling with his own righteousness. Martin Luther was constantly aware of his standing before God as a sinner. He knew God’s Law very well, and he saw how he broke it in so many different ways; ways that most of us would dismiss as no big deal! How could he be righteous if he continually sinned? How could he ever go to heaven?
Luther tried to address this sense of guilt by confessing his sins, doing acts of penance, fasting, praying and even self flagellation, beating himself to drive the sinful behavior out of his flesh. He did everything he could to be righteous. None of it worked.
Then one day while preparing to teach on Romans he wrested with this passage. The Gospel is power for salvation. The righteousness of God is revealed, “from faith for faith.” That odd little phrase is way of saying that the righteousness of God is shown to us entirely and only by faith. The only way to see/know/experience/receive God’s righteousness is by faith.
It totally changed Luther’s view on God, himself, sin, forgiveness, and “Justification” – the teaching about how we come to be right with God. He no longer saw righteousness as something he had to achieve, but as a gift God gave in the Gospel that powerfully removed his sin and gave him Jesus’ perfection, and the only way to get it was by faith in Jesus.
His writings on this passage have touched and influenced many, and in a time when people focused on what they did put the focus back on what Jesus had done for us to save us.
It’s interesting that as St. Paul wrote this letter he turns immediately from talking about how we get righteousness to a blistering description of the wrath of God and the sins of man. He had already set the stage that he is talking about the power of God to make people righteous by faith in Jesus. Why turn then to the calamity of rebellion, idolatry, lust and perversion that he records in vv. 18-32, stating that people not only practice evil by approve of others who practice evil? (That statement in v. 32 sounds eerily like today!)
To understand how great the power of the Gospel is and to appreciate how miraculous the message of how we receive the righteousness of God we need to comprehend how far away from God’s righteousness we were. “Amazing Grace,” indeed!
Father, thank you for the good news of salvation in Jesus, and thank you for giving me faith so that I can receive your righteousness from him. I have not always fully appreciated how miraculous this message is! Impress me again with the power of your salvation, and help me share the message of salvation that is by faith from first to last with those you put in my life. Amen.
Romans 1:16 & 17 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, . . . For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”
This passage grabbed the attention of a German monk in the 1500’s who was struggling with his own righteousness. Martin Luther was constantly aware of his standing before God as a sinner. He knew God’s Law very well, and he saw how he broke it in so many different ways; ways that most of us would dismiss as no big deal! How could he be righteous if he continually sinned? How could he ever go to heaven?
Luther tried to address this sense of guilt by confessing his sins, doing acts of penance, fasting, praying and even self flagellation, beating himself to drive the sinful behavior out of his flesh. He did everything he could to be righteous. None of it worked.
Then one day while preparing to teach on Romans he wrested with this passage. The Gospel is power for salvation. The righteousness of God is revealed, “from faith for faith.” That odd little phrase is way of saying that the righteousness of God is shown to us entirely and only by faith. The only way to see/know/experience/receive God’s righteousness is by faith.
It totally changed Luther’s view on God, himself, sin, forgiveness, and “Justification” – the teaching about how we come to be right with God. He no longer saw righteousness as something he had to achieve, but as a gift God gave in the Gospel that powerfully removed his sin and gave him Jesus’ perfection, and the only way to get it was by faith in Jesus.
His writings on this passage have touched and influenced many, and in a time when people focused on what they did put the focus back on what Jesus had done for us to save us.
It’s interesting that as St. Paul wrote this letter he turns immediately from talking about how we get righteousness to a blistering description of the wrath of God and the sins of man. He had already set the stage that he is talking about the power of God to make people righteous by faith in Jesus. Why turn then to the calamity of rebellion, idolatry, lust and perversion that he records in vv. 18-32, stating that people not only practice evil by approve of others who practice evil? (That statement in v. 32 sounds eerily like today!)
To understand how great the power of the Gospel is and to appreciate how miraculous the message of how we receive the righteousness of God we need to comprehend how far away from God’s righteousness we were. “Amazing Grace,” indeed!
Father, thank you for the good news of salvation in Jesus, and thank you for giving me faith so that I can receive your righteousness from him. I have not always fully appreciated how miraculous this message is! Impress me again with the power of your salvation, and help me share the message of salvation that is by faith from first to last with those you put in my life. Amen.
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