The Gospel: The Power of God to Save

This is the text of a message I preached at Roswell Alliance Church in Roswell, GA. You may watch or listen to it by following the link to the online service. The sermon begins at about the 15th minute.

Video: 35 minutes

Reading time: 8 minutes

Online service — Roswell Alliance Church

Text: Romans 1:16 “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”

We are past New Year’s and its resolutions. We’re either making good on them or have given up.

Now we are in Lent, another time of reflection, and the focus is on sacrifice. What do I give up?

Both seasons are short-lived. Resolutions grow old and sacrifice is temporary. They are hard to keep up and before long, we are back to our old ways.

Is it possible to have lasting change? To be a different person, and have it stick?

Paul answers the question in this opening of his letter to the Christians in Rome. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God to salvation. People indeed can change—not by resolution, nor by sacrifice, but by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

What is this power that Paul saw in the Gospel?

I want us first to hear about this power by contrasting prayers in the Old and New testaments, and then see it graphically. We are going to compare prayers at four milestones in the Old Testament with prayers, especially of Paul, in the New Testament. The contrast is startling.

Milestone 1: the inauguration of Joshua (Moses)

I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD, then how much more after my death?

For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.” —Deuteronomy 31: 27, 29

Milestone 2: The dedication of the Temple (Solomon)

When anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, then hear in heaven, and act… —1 Kings 8:31-33

When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You… —1 Kings 8:33

When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You… —1 Kings 8:35  

Whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men). —1 Kings 8:38-39  

Let’s pause.

Here are Moses and Solomon at significant turning points in Israel’s history. They are high points: Israel is about to enter The Promised Land after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years because of their rebellion, and about 500 years later they are dedicating the glorious temple. These are occasions to rejoice, but hear the foreboding in both Moses and Solomon.

They look out at the crowd before them and are pessimistic. Solomon and Moses expect the people will go back home and back to living just as they have been. No different. No change. These people who have sinned all their lives will go on as they have. No grand entrance into a new land or worship in a majestic temple will change their behavior.

Moses and Solomon know when they are gone, sinning will go on.

Listen, now, to the prayers of two men living in the generations that Moses and Solomon foresaw.

Milestone 3: Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem

Hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. —Nehemiah 1:6-7

Milestone 4: End of the 70-year captivity (Daniel)

And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. —Daniel 9:4-6

We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. —Daniel 9:10-11

Nehemiah and Daniel validate Moses and Solomon. The people acted just as they had foreseen. We can summarize this Old Testament outlook like this.

• Your chances. There is no chance you will be better or do differently because you don’t have it in you.
• Your conduct. You have sinned and done evil and will sin again against your neighbor and God. This is because of
• Your character. You are by nature rebellious, stiff-necked, and corrupt. Solomon diagnoses the problem: each must come to know the plague of his own heart.

We leave this scene hopeless, discouraged, and depressed.

No wonder Israel responded to Jeremiah this way when he told them disaster loomed, but they could repent and avoid it.

“It’s useless! We will follow our plans and each of us will pursue his own evil desires.” —Jeremiah 18:12

Contrast with New Testament prayers

Let’s turn now to the New Testament, and see why Paul brimmed with optimism when he thought of Christians around the known world.

Romans 1:8  First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

1 Corinthians 1:4  I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 1:15-16  After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers…

Philippians 1:3-4 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy,

Colossians 1:3-4  We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints;

2 Thessalonians 1:3-4  We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure…

Why the difference between Paul’s remarks and those of Moses, Solomon, Nehemiah, and Daniel? We have just seen the Gospel of Christ at work, the power of God unto salvation.

When Jesus is preached, and believed, people change

Paul rejoices because people in city after city have changed. Jesus has transformed them. He reminds the Corinthians, 

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, emphasis mine).

Peter wrote in a similar vein.

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

See the power of the Gospel

A picture is worth a thousand words. We have heard the power of the Gospel in the contrast of these Old and New testament sayings. Let’s see the power of God in the Gospel.

This graphic depicts the way Israel lived during the judges and our lives before Christ. It’s a roller coaster. We have good days and bad days, our highs and lows.

When we live doing what’s right in our own eyes, as Israel did, these are the slopes.

• Salvation. Israel entered Canaan on a high. They had Joshua leading them, they defeated their enemies and conquered city after city. Israel served God while Joshua and his contemporaries lived.
• Sin. Upon the death of Joshua and the godly elders, the Israelites slipped away from God and turned to the idols of their neighbors.
• Sorrow. Caught in their sin, Israel’s neighbors oppressed them. Israel became depressed and distressed.
• Supplication. In their pit of despair, when they could take it no longer, Israel prayed. They cried out for deliverance, and God answered. He would raise up a judge to save them and they did well as long as the judge lived. Then the cycle repeated, for 400 years.

The lesson here is this: Israel needed a judge who didn’t die. They served God as long as Joshua or a judge was alive, but when the judge died, the people returned to their old ways.  They needed a judge who lived forever.

Here is the good news. We have such a judge in Jesus. Hebrews tells us Jesus “has come according to the power of an endless life” (Hebrews 7:16). Jesus is alive forevermore. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

We have what Israel lacked: a priest who does not die. When their judges died, Israel fell apart. As long as Jesus lives, we can serve the Lord as He desires.

It is in the midst of our roller coaster lives —our ups and downs—when the Gospel calls to us:

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain” (Isaiah 40:3-4).

See how the way of the Lord looks in this graphic.

In contrast to the roller-coaster graphic above, this shows when the lows are lifted and the highs lowered, the path levels. It becomes straight. The Lord smooths the rough and uneven.

To straighten us out like this takes more than resolutions. More than giving up treats for Lent. We cannot cure the plague in our heart. We need the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead.

We have this power in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God to salvation.

How can I get off the roller coaster? How do I start on this straight path of the Lord?

Hear God’s answer. “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).

Call out to the Lord.

It’s as simple as three words, the same words that Peter cried out when he walked on the water to Jesus and began to sink when he remembered the wind and waves.

“Lord, save me!”