Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him—to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Romans 16:25-27)
One of the reasons that I don’t like to watch the Evening News is because it is filled with bad news. It seems that "news" has been redefined to mean disaster, plaque, cruelty, and tragedy. But I suppose that one of the reasons why so much of the news is bad news is that people want to see it.
Do we really enjoy hearing bad news? It seems that if many people do. Actually, I think that we enjoy hearing bad news about other people. We certainly do not want to hear any bad news concerning ourselves. This is probably why the television talk shows are so popular. They deal with other people’s bad news. None of us would probably want to get a telephone call from Jenny Jones asking us to be on her television show. If we came back to our office and found a crew from 60 minutes sitting there, it might cause us some anxiety. No, what we want to hear concerning ourselves is good news.
We Christians need to understand that we are in possession of the greatest good news ever known to humankind. We call it the Gospel. Gospel means good news. And contained in that Gospel message is an encouraging message of hope for every person. Now, some churches have turned the good news into the bad news, but that is not the Gospel’s fault. The good news is not that we are trapped in a downward cycle of sinful behavior, but that we can be free from both the power and the penalty of sin. The Gospel deals with the problems of our past, gives us purpose and meaning for the present, and provides us a certain hope for the future.
In his closing words to the Roman Christians, Paul presents a beautiful doxology of praise to God in which he presents the heart of the Gospel. Here he summarizes the essence of His message to the Christians at Rome.
In a world of bad news, there is certainly a need for good news. And in a world where people are searching for purpose and meaning to life, there is a need for something that will establish us on a solid foundation. And this is what God does through the Gospel. Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel… — our need is to be established. And this is precisely what God does through the Gospel. God establishes us by His Gospel.
What does it mean to be established? As parents, we all want our children to become established. By that we generally mean we want them to get a good education and become productive people in this society. We want them to be able to find a good job and become a success in life. We want them to experience stability in their lives. These are some of the things we mean when we talk about becoming established.
But it is important to become established in the right way. Someone once said that "many people think that they are established when actually they are simply stuck in the mud." Being established does not mean that our progress has ceased. Being established means that we are doing the right things and standing on solid ground. This is the essence of the word translated establish. The word means to make firm, or stable. In a world as shaky and unstable as ours, we need a message that will bring us stability and give us a solid foundation for life.
Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ…
The Gospel has the power to establish us because it centers in a person. You see, the Gospel is not a set of rules and regulations for living. It is not a set of principles which are ethical and moral in nature. The Gospel is not a religious system but a living relationship with a real person, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the focus of the Gospel. Jesus Christ is the heart of the Gospel.
This is where so many churches unwittingly go astray. They fail to focus on that living relationship with Christ and instead substitute principles for living. It has been said that "the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." And the main thing in Christianity is to keep our focus on Jesus Christ. The challenge for every Christian is to concentrate on his or her relationship with Jesus Christ.
The reason why we substitute principles or rules and regulations is because it is easier that way. Rules and regulations are static, they never change. A relationship is dynamic and living, and requires effort and thought. But that is the key to the Gospel. The beauty and power of the Gospel is that it centers in a person and a personal relationship with Him. This is what makes it dynamic and powerful. God is now personally involved in leading our lives. Jesus Christ can now live His life in you and through you.
Paul talks about the revelation of the mystery for long ages past. In other words, the Gospel is a mystery which has been revealed. It was a mystery because people did not see it and would never have conceived of it. In the Gospel, God did what no human would have ever done. The way that God chose to deal with rebellious and sinful humanity is something that no human being would have ever considered. God sent forth His Son Jesus Christ to die in our place for our sin. And now Jesus Christ comes to live in every person who receives Him and puts their faith in Him. Through the work of Christ on the cross, God has opened the way for all people of all races, Jew and Gentiles alike, to become partakers of His forgiveness.
But the mystery does not stop there. In Colossians 1:27, Paul speaks of "the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." We live our lives by the mystery of Christ living in us and through us. This is the mystery of the exchanged life. How it works, we haven’t got a clue. That is works, is indisputable. As we yield control of our life to Christ, He lives in us and through us so that we can live by the power of His life. We Christians do not live in our own power and wisdom. Rather, we live by the power of Jesus Christ living in us. This is a great mystery. It is an exciting mystery. It is the essence of the Christian life.
This Gospel of Jesus Christ has a powerful result in the lives of those who believe it. Paul says that this mystery of the Gospel has been now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him. This is the object of the Gospel. It has been revealed so that we might believe and obey him.
The result of the Gospel should be faith and obedience. By faith we commit our lives completely to Him. We trust in what God did on the cross as sufficient to pay the penalty for our sin. It is sufficient to satisfy the justice of a holy and righteous God. By faith we receive Christ as our Savior and Lord. By faith we surrender our lives to Him. And as we allow Him to live His life in us and through us, we find ourselves walking in obedience to His word. We delight to do His will. Obedience to Him sets us free to be the men and women God has created us to be.
Where you find the Gospel being faithfully preached and fully followed, you will find that it makes a difference in the lives of people. When you find people who claim to believe the Gospel and there is no change in their lives, what you probably have is religion instead of Christianity. Religion focuses on people trying to be accepted by God. Christianity focuses on God’s grace reaching out to sinful humanity and doing everything that needs to be done to make us acceptable to Him. Religion focuses on us. Christianity focuses on God. One of the most beautiful truths concerning the Gospel is that everything depends upon God. Nothing depends upon us. God is both the author and finisher of our faith. In other words, salvation comes from God, it is begun by Him, continued by Him, and will ultimately be fulfilled and completed by Him.
Some people object to such a strong statement of our salvation being completely from God. They like to think that we have something to do with it. I recall a humorous story of someone standing up in a church meeting and giving a testimony of his salvation. During the testimony this person spoke of how salvation was completely and totally of God. After the service someone came up to the gentleman and asked him why he had not spoken of man’s part in salvation. He asked him why he did not speak of his part in the salvation process. The man replied, "I’m sorry. I should have mentioned that. My part was running away. God’s part was running after me." How true that is. When we come to Christ, we find that God in His mercy fashioned even the circumstances of our lives to bring us to that point. Salvation is of the Lord.
To the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen. These are the closing words of Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians. He ends this great doxology by extolling the glorious God of the Gospel. He is reminding us that we should recognize that it all begins and ends with God. Therefore, He should be the object of our praise. He should be the one to whom we ascribe glory forever.
One of the marks of Christianity and of Christians should be praise. In light of all
that God has done for us we should praise Him. In light of God’s creative power, we
should praise Him. In light of God’s redemptive love, we should praise Him. In light
of God’s compassionate care, we should praise Him. One of the highest callings of
every Christian is to praise God. You see, when we praise God, we are recognizing that God
is behind what is going on in our lives. God is at work. God is accomplishing His purposes
in us and in the universe. And while there are many things we do not understand, things we
can’t explain, things that do not even make sense, we know that there is a personal
God behind it all and that one day it will all make sense. In that day, we will see the
wonderful and marvelous plan of our creator, and we will bow in awe at His wisdom and
goodness. In that day, even the tragedies will make sense. God is working out His plan,
and His plan is wonderful indeed.
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