Four times in his introduction to the Roman letter (Romans 1:1-16) Paul mentions the Gospel. First in his opening words: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God." Again in verse 9, "For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his son." Further on, in verses 14 and 15--"I am debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are in Rome." And once more, in verse 16:--"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."

      A glance at these statements impresses us at once with the fact that whatever this thing is which he calls "the gospel" it must be of the very highest importance. Paul was set apart by Divine decree unto the gospel; in it he served God in his spirit; to give it out to all men and to all sorts of men was his great debt and holy obligation; and for all men it is the prime necessity--for if it is the power of God unto salvation how else but through it could a man be saved?

      What is this thing which he calls the gospel? In the original the word translated "gospel" is a compound word, which carries its own definition--"eu-aggelion"--the first part of which means "good"; the latter part, "tidings," or "news," as we call it. And that is all. The gospel is simply "good tidings," "good news." The word was used to denote any kind of good news--as, for example, when Timothy brought Paul "glad tidings" of the stedfastness of the converts in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 3:6). But here it signifies only the one message of good tidings which comes from God--the only source from which truly good tidings could come. It is therefore called "the gospel of God." We also read of "the gospel of your salvation"--because it brings salvation to us; "the gospel of peace"--glad tidings that peace has been made and is freely offered to the sons of men; "the gospel of the grace of God"--good news of redeeming love, which deals not with men on the ground of their deserts.

      It is needful here to guard against certain common misapprehensions. What I shall say now may seem childish, but nevertheless it must be said--namely that if the gospel is good news it certainly is not bad news. There are hosts of people who consciously or sub-consciously think the gospel is bad news. They seem to think it was sent to damn them--to torment them--to put a yoke and burden on their necks--to deprive them of their liberty--to rob them of every joy of life--to put them into a straight-jacket--and then at last to plunge them into hell. Now if God had wanted to damn us He [16] would not have had to send a gospel to do it. We were all well on our way. But just as "God sent not his son into the world to judge (i. e., condemn) the world, but that the world should be saved through him"--so was the gospel also sent for the same purpose. Spurgeon tells of a poor old woman whom one of the church members visited to bring her a little financial help. He knocked at her door, but got no answer. He went around the house to the back door, but all was still. "Where were you on such and such a day?" he asked her when he saw her again at church: "I came to your house to bring a gift, and you were not at home." "Oh, was that you!" she answered--"I thought it was the landlord to collect the rent." So men think when the gospel comes that God wants to collect something from them, and do not understand that He has come to bring them the most precious of all gifts and blessings. But because they want to "live their own lives" (as the phrase goes) and don't want to be interfered with, and because they prefer the misery of sin and self-seeking to what Christ has to give them; and love darkness rather than light, they hate the gospel, as though it were bad news; and often scowl at the preacher, and execrate the church, and declare they are "fed up" with religion. But the gospel meets man's enmity with purest lovingkindness. It is God's good tidings.

      To be sure there is a side to it which explains in part that hostile attitude. Men must be made to feel their need, they must see their lost and hopeless condition; they must be convicted of sin. That is the difficult part of the preacher's work. If once men see their need they will gladly come and receive the gospel; and this realization must be brought home to them. But this is the setting and back-ground of the gospel, rather than the gospel itself. The gospel is a salvage measure. It assumes our sinfulness and our hopeless estate, and announces the heaven-sent salvation to us. It is pure good news. It was given to make us happy; it was sent to make us free. It is not intended to add to our burden, but to release us and break the yoke of bondage.

      Another quite common mistake is to regard the gospel as a law--the "new law" brought in to supersede the old; yea, a much higher and stricter law than the old one was, going deeper and making more stringent demands than the old did. For if the law which came by Moses was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we obey not the new law which came through Christ?¹ Now if that idea be correct there is [17] an end of all hope. There is no good news; and we may as well say, "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die." The "old law" was all-sufficient to condemn us. Nor was ever anyone saved by it. "For by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin"; and "the law worketh wrath, but where there is no law neither is there transgression" (Rom. 4:15). It was not because the old law was deficient in itself, for "the law is holy, and the commandment holy and righteous and good." Neither is it true that the Law was carnal, for "the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin" (Rom. 7:12, 14). For that cause it became the "ministration of death" and "the ministration of condemnation" to all who were under it; for it gave sin a leverage, as it were, in our lives. For "the sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law" (1 Cor. 15:56); and "apart from law sin is dead" (Rom. 7:8). Now if the gospel is just another law, we are as bad off as ever; and there is no hope for anyone. But the gospel is not a good law, nor is it "good advice"--it is good news.² And that is something different.

      To illustrate--I read the story somewhere of a convict, who was serving life-sentence (back in the days when a life-term was a life-term), and who after nineteen years in prison received a pardon from the governor; how he hardly dared to believe it was meant for him; what a tumult of emotion came over him when at last he realized that he was pardoned and free. That was wonderful good news! Again, I heard from the lips of a man his experience during the Civil War--how he was taken prisoner by the "Yankees," court-martialed and sentenced along with others to be shot next morning at sunrise; but how in the hour after midnight they heard the glad news that Gen. Forrest had swept into town and had driven the Yankees out. This is what is meant by "good news."--That this was exactly what the Lord meant, is evident from the passage He read in the synagogue at Nazareth. There was handed to Him the book of the prophecy of Isaiah; and He opened it and read: [18]

      Now this--to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind; the setting at liberty of them that were bound; the proclamation of a year of jubilee, in which all debts were remitted, all slaves went free, and every man permitted to return to his old home and patrimony--all that was simple, pure good news. The spirit of this breathes in the old hymn we sing:

      Finally, we learn here what the great central theme of the gospel is. For the gospel has its central theme and subject around which all else that appertains to it revolves. If we should ask the average believer what is that chief theme of the gospel, we would probably get a variety of answers. Some might say that the great theme of the gospel is "the plan of salvation." Well, salvation is a great word, and represents God's first object for us; and certainly He has a "plan," for He does nothing otherwise. But "the plan of salvation" is not the theme of the gospel. Nor is it "the scheme of redemption." Nor "faith," nor "the new birth," important as these are. What then is the great, central, all-engrossing theme of the gospel? We will let the apostle answer. Reading again from the first, we hear as follows:

      "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he promised afore through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning--(and here he tells us the great secret of what the gospel is about)--"concerning his Son," who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord." The great theme of the gospel, then, is God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. That is why to preach the gospel is the same as to "preach Christ." Look at Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost--what was the subject of this, the first sermon preached by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven? It was Jesus--Jesus as [19] a man approved of God by mighty works; Jesus, delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain; Jesus, raised from the dead, as the scriptures testified the Messiah would be, and of which fact the apostles all were witnesses; Jesus, exalted at the right hand of God. And, the great final conclusion was--"Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified." When the conscience-stricken hearers asked "What shall we do?"--the answer was; "Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38.) It is not merely that men should believe, confess, be baptized, but that they were to believe in Him, confess Him, be baptized into His name. All is intensely personal. And so elsewhere. When Philip opened his mouth beginning from the Eunuch's Old Testament scripture, he "preached unto him Jesus." (Acts 8:35.) When Peter preached to the first Gentiles--in a short sermon comprising only ten verses in our Bible he refers to Christ by name or pronoun twenty times, and concludes, "To him bear all the prophets witness that through his name, every one that believeth on him shall receive remission of sins." (Acts 10:43.) In his general statement to the Corinthians Paul sums up the gospel thus:

      "Now I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received (and here it comes): That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures." (1 Cor. 15:1-4.) This is the gospel in its fundamental fact.

      What then is the good tidings? That God did so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that we might live through Him; that Christ came down to be our Savior, and that He loved us and gave Himself for us. That He rose from the dead and is now at God's right hand, able to save to the uttermost all them that draw near unto God through Him; and that He will come again unto salvation to them that wait for Him. It is God's message to. us concerning His Son, to set Him forth to our minds and hearts, and to bring us into personal relation to Him, and to Himself through Him.

      Only God could have originated such a gospel; only His great love could have devised it for us; and in humble faith we accept it and commit ourselves to, Jesus as Savior and Lord. [20]

[SSS 16-20]