The great theme of "Romans" is announced in verses 16, 17 of the first chapter: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written, But the righteous shall live by faith."

      The doctrine of the epistle turns upon these two verses. It is necessary therefore, to study the words with special care.

      1. First, he speaks of The Gospel. The word means "good tidings." He had already mentioned it three times--first in verse 1; then in verses 3 and 4 where he tells us that the central theme of the gospel is "Jesus Christ our Lord." Again he names it in verse 9 --"the gospel of his [God's] Son." In verses 14, 15 he declares himself a debtor to men of every race and sort; for which cause he was ready so far as in him lay, to "preach the gospel to you also that are in Rome." Then follows the text given above. If any had thought that perhaps his long delay in visiting Rome was due to a hesitancy on his part, Paul assures them that at Rome no more than anywhere else was he ashamed of the gospel. For in that gospel, he well knew, lay man's one and only hope; "for it is God's power unto salvation"--not to all men indiscriminately but to those who believe; to the Jew first, because he had the first right to it (Acts 13:46), and also to the Gentile. What a tremendous thing must be this "gospel," this message of good tidings from God!

      2. But immediately the apostle goes on to tell us why the gospel is God's power unto salvation to all who receive it by faith. It is because it reveals (unveils) something to man. What does it reveal? "Therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith."

      Now here we must determine what this "righteousness of God" is which is revealed in the gospel. The first impression might be that it is God's own, personal righteousness, the attribute of His character. But that is not a peculiar revelation of the gospel. The fact that God is righteous, and that righteousness is the outstanding trait of His character, is taught everywhere in the Bible, in the Old Testament as well as the New. But here Paul speaks of something that is especially revealed to us in the gospel, the very thing that makes the gospel the power of God unto salvation. He says that special thing is a "righteousness of God, from faith unto faith." The best commentary on this is Paul's own use of this phrase in chapter 3:21, 22--"But now.  . . a righteousness of God hath been manifested,.  . . even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe." And this "righteousness," he says, consists in our "being justified freely [free gratis] by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 3:21-24.) So, evidently, this "righteousness of God" is something God bestows upon sinful, unworthy man, by which such a one is made acceptable and accepted of God. It is a gift from [7] God (Rom. 5:17) which is freely given to us and which we receive through faith in Jesus Christ. This is also stated plainly in Phil. 3:9--"Not having a righteousness of mine own.  . . but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith."

      We shall have occasion again and again to return to this wonderful theme. But now let us look forward into the apostle's explanation of every man's need of this "righteousness of God", which is "revealed" in the gospel.

      The whole necessity is stated in the next verse, Romans 1:18.

      "For the wrath of God is revealed from, heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder [or, hold] the truth in unrighteousness."

      Unrighteousness--all unrighteousness--falls under the wrath of God. That dreadful theme is the warning of all scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. The wrath of God is not like the selfish anger of man, a fit of temper and passion, but God's holy and righteous indignation against sin--only faintly comparable to the white-heat of feeling sometimes aroused in men when some vile deed is committed in their midst. Everywhere in God's word the fierce wrath of the Almighty is represented as that most dreadful and terrible thing the sinner must face. There are those easy-going prophets of our days, who say "Peace, peace, when there is no peace," and who profess not to believe in a God who has "wrath." But it is far better to take God as He is, than to make a god of our own to our own liking. Whatever men may say, thus it is written; and the wrath of God is the whole basis and background of the gospel. For salvation cannot be unless there is such a thing as damnation and perdition.

      The wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness of men. The measure of it is the light men have--who "hold the truth in unrighteousness." The more truth a man knows, the greater the guilt of his wrong-doing; the greater also the wrath of God and the consequent retribution upon that soul. The fact that all men had fallen under this condemnation accounts for God's act in sending His Son into the world, who alone was able to rescue us from sin and the imminent wrath to come.

      With your Bible open now at Rom. 1:18 see the outline of humanity's sin and guilt. See how much light all had--enough, at least, to render them "without excuse"-- verses 19, 20. See what they did with it, verses 21-23; how they began to decline, going down and down in degradation. This is exactly the reverse of the evolutionary philosophy so widely believed today. So far from struggling up from crude notions of deity to ever higher conceptions of God, men began with a knowledge of the true God, and ended in abominable idolatries. Can you trace seven steps in this account of the race's degeneration?

      Now see what God did by way of righteous retaliation-- vs. 24, 26, 28: He "gave them up." See the reason why he gave them [8] up, as stated in vs. 25, 28. And see also the results in human life and conduct of this giving up, described in verses 24, 32. Such were (and are) the conditions in the Gentile world.

      In Romans 2, however, the apostle takes up the case of those who thought themselves superior--most especially the Jew; and shows them that they also come under the same verdict. Then in Rom. 3:9-20 (setting aside vs. 1-8 for the time) see how he sums up both Jew and Gentile, so "that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God." Ponder this teaching in Rom. 1:18 to 3:20. In our next lesson we will look into it a little more particularly and thence go forward in this wonderful, heartsearching message of Paul's Letter to the Romans.

[LOR2 7-9]