The Gospel Obligation Lent 2019 Series: The Greatest Letter Ever Written Romans 1:14-17 Rev. Michael D. Halley March 10, 2019 Suffolk Christian Church Suffolk, Virginia First Sunday in Lent ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Is Paul s letter to the church at Rome the greatest letter ever written? 1 Well, possibly not. But let s not get hung up in a debate, let s look at this remarkable book. As one commentator put it, The great contribution of this letter to the body of New Testament inspired revelation is its reasoned explanation of how God s righteousness can become man s possession. 2 Another said, The Epistle to the Romans is the first great work of Christian theology. 3 And, yet another scholar said, It is the only part of Scripture in which there is found a detailed and systematic presentation of the main features of Christian doctrine. 4 So. Whether it is the greatest ever or not, it is required reading for all Christians. Saint Paul. Great story of his conversion to the Christian faith (Acts 9). A well-trained, well-educated scholar, he took advantage of wonderful opportunities to improve himself, not realizing at the time that God was preparing him for his great life work: To take the Gospel to rich and to poor alike, all over the world. By the time Paul wrote this letter to the Romans, about the year 55, fifteen or so years after the Resurrection of Jesus, he had already completed several missionary journeys. And as he wrote to the Christians at Rome, he was looking toward Spain as a place where dear souls also needed to hear the
Page 2 Gospel of Christ (mentioned in Romans 15:24-28). Paul was always looking for an opportunity to invest his life carrying out the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ: to go and make disciples of all peoples. So, let s stop a moment and think about that. How committed am I... how committed are you... how committed are we, as the Body of Christ that we call Suffolk Christian Church to carrying out this Great Commission, as did Paul? For Paul, it was his very life. He told the Roman church, in chapter 15, verses 17 and following, Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done -- by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum [a Roman province across the Adriatic Sea, in the area of modern day Croatia], I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. Paul makes three comments I would like to focus on, comments that reveal his own heart for the Gospel obligation. In verse 14 of our text, notice that Paul says right up front: I am obligated. To be obligated is to be in debt to another, doesn t it? You are obligated to pay your mortgage each month, are you not? That s because you are in debt. There are two ways we can be in debt, or obligated. 5 First, if I borrow a dollar from you, then I am under obligation for that dollar until I pay it back. But, let s say you gave me a dollar and said you want me to give it to someone else. Now my obligation shifts from you, the giver, to the intended recipient. In this case, I am simply the messenger or the deliverer of the dollar. It is this second kind of indebtedness that is the obligation of Paul. Paul
personally owes nothing to the Romans, but he is under obligation to bring the Gospel to them because that is what God told him to do. Another way of putting it is that the church has been given the Gospel to pass on to the unchurched. But I have a very keen sense that we 21 st Century Americans do not like that word obligation. Am I right? Do we not chafe and squirm and become annoyed when we believe anyone is putting an obligation upon us? Page 3 Yet, we happily walk into the bank and sign a document that obligates us for the next 30 years to make a payment each and every month. And surely the Gospel obligation is more worthy than that! Every one of us here who claims the name of Christ upon us knows that the Gospel itself is a gift: For God so loved the world that He gave his onlybegotten Son (John 3:16). And we also know that... the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). We have received this gift and there are a lot of people yet who have not received this gift. They re here in Suffolk. They are in Haiti. They are next door to us. A word of caution here: We are under no obligation whatsoever to convert anyone. We can t do that. Only God can. We are only to pass on what we know and believe. We, like Paul, are under obligation. The second thing Paul says in verse 15 is this: I am so eager. The Message 6 puts it this way: I can t wait. What are you eager for? When I was a young boy I was always eager to be older than I was at
Page 4 that moment. When I was 8 I wanted to be 10. When 15 I was eager to be 18. And, of course, my mother told me the universal thing all mothers tell their children: Don t wish your life away! Now is the day. Now is the time. If we do not have a certain eagerness to come together as the body of Christ, a certain eagerness to learn and to serve and to share, then maybe a time of fervent prayer is at hand. We are under obligation and we are eager to fulfill that obligation to the Gospel. Paul also said, I am not ashamed. To be ashamed is to be embarrassed or guilty because of our actions, our characteristics, or our associations with others. Other words we could use are sorry, shamefaced, sheepish, guilty, guilt-ridden, remorseful, or regretful. Paul is none of these. He is proud of the Gospel and of his call to share it. The phrase I am not ashamed is in a literary technique known as litotes (lye-toh-teez) 7. L-i-t-o-t-e-s. This is the use of a double negative that makes it a positive statement. So, when Paul says, I am not ashamed, he means I am proud of the Gospel. But Paul is not an idle boaster of those things of which he is proud. He put it this way, May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14). Think with me for a moment. Is it possible that Paul would ever be ashamed of the Gospel? One commentator 8 suggests this might be a possibility. After all, Paul was a sinful human. He was redeemed from that sin, but he was weak in his own flesh. Paul was always under pressure and subject to criticisms from all sides. The Jewish scholars assailed him, as did the Greek philosophers. And it is possible that Paul had to constantly go to God in prayer to ask for God s help in resisting the temptation to be ashamed and not speak out. Ok. So Paul is obligated, Paul is eager, and Paul is not ashamed.
Verse 17 tells us just how this Gospel works. Paul says that the saving Gospel is a revelation of the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is not just an attribute of God. It is a gift from God that is given to us who have no righteousness of our own. Righteousness in this sense means right relation to God. It comes from God, not from our own efforts or works. Page 5 This good news [or, Gospel] tells us that this righteousness comes down from heaven apart from your [or my] performance. It s the righteousness from God that is by faith. It s from faith and for faith and by faith. This righteousness sets us free from all of our... our deep, dark sins and everything else all of our follies and all of our failures. It sets us free from everything. And not only that, not only negatively [does this righteousness] get rid of our sin and purges our account, but [it] positively gives us the righteousness of Jesus Christ. 9 This means that everything Jesus accomplished with his life is now mine and yours, a free gift from God. When you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, your sins... from yesterday... from long, long ago... the worst things you ever did... they are all purged from the record. By faith in God! I urge you to accept this Gospel. It is life itself. Amen. A personal word as I close. It seems that just about every day I speak with someone who has a great burden. Often the burdens they describe I don t know how they are carrying. They are hurting. Some of them are different from me... different skin... different beliefs... different cultural values... different political parties... different lifestyles. Once again I ask you, will these hurting people find a home here in our church fellowship? Will we welcome the stranger as our own family member? Will we take upon ourselves the Gospel obligation on behalf of our Saviour Jesus? Remember, this is a No Judgement Zone... any judging that has to be done will be done by God, not by me or you. In fact, we, too, are facing judgement for all the things we have or have not done in the name of Christ.
Page 6 Please join me in prayer. Holy and Righteous God, you are not obligated in any way to love us or to accept us into your family. But by your loving grace we have been extended the Good News of the Gospel, that our sins can be forgiven and our name written down in ink that will never fade away. It is by faith, O Lord, and we offer you our faith just now. May we gladly and eagerly share this good news with everyone. We pray this in the name of our Saviour Jesus. Amen. +==+==+==+==+==+==+ All Scripture references are from New International Version, NIV, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc., unless otherwise indicated. +==+==+==+==+==+==+ Sunday Sermons from Suffolk Christian Church are intended for the private devotional use of members and friends of the church. Please do not print or publish. Thank you. Suggestions for sermon topics are always welcome! 1. This was suggested by John Piper in his own series of sermons in Romans, www.desiringgod.org/series/romans-the-greatest-letter-ever-written/messages. John Stephen Piper is an American Reformed Baptist pastor and author who is the founder and leader of desiringgod.org.
2. From Dr. Thomas L. Constable s Notes on Romans, 2019 Edition. Dr. Constable was a Bible professor at Dallas Theological Seminary from 1966 to 2011. He has written notes on all 66 books of the Bible and they can be accessed at https://planobiblechapel.org/constable-notes/. 3. C. H. Dodd, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans (Hodder and Stoughton, 1932), p. xiii. Charles Harold Dodd (1884-1973) was a Welsh New Testament scholar and theologian. 4. S. Lewis Johnson Jr., Discovering Romans: Spiritual Revival for the Soul (Zondervan, 24), p. 20. Dr Johnson (1915-????) was a professor of Bible at Dallas Theological Seminary for many years. 5. This concept is put forth by John Stott in Romans: Encountering the Gospel s Power (IVP Connect, 2008). John Robert Walmsley Stott (1921-2011) was an English Anglican priest and leader in the worldwide Christian evangelical movement. 6. The Message (MSG), copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson 7. Litotes is derived from a Greek word meaning simple. It is a figure of speech that employs an understatement by using double negatives or, in other words, a positive statement expressed by negating its opposite expressions. See https://literarydevices.net/litotes 8. Dr. John Stott, cited above. Page 7 9. Quoted from an excellent sermon by the Rev. Sandy Willson, preached on March 6, 2011, at First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi, found at www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/the-gospel-obligation. The Rev. Willson is currently interim senior minister of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and is Pastor Emeritus of Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee.