(16-17) Paul introduces the theme of his letter: the righteousness of God, as revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
a. After his introduction, Paul introduces his “thesis statement” for his Letter to the Romans. Leon Morris says of Romans 1:16 and 17: “These two verses have an importance out of all proportion to their length.”
b. I am not ashamed of the gospel: This reveals Paul’s heart. In a sophisticated city like Rome, some might be embarrassed by a gospel centered on a crucified Jewish Savior and embraced by the lowest classes of people – but Paul is not ashamed.
c. For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes: This is why Paul is not ashamed of a gospel centered on a crucified Savior. He knows that the gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ – has inherent power. We do not give it power, we only stop hindering the power of the gospel when we present it effectively.
i. The gospel is certainly news, but it is more than information; it has an inherent power. “The gospel is not advice to people, suggesting that they lift themselves. It is power. It lifts them up. Paul does not say that the gospel brings power, but that it is power, and God’s power at that.” (Morris)
ii. In particular, the city of Rome thought it knew all about power: “Power is the one thing that Rome boasted of the most. Greece might have its philosophy, but Rome had its power” (Wiersbe). Despite all their power, the Romans – like all men – were powerless to make themselves righteous before God. The ancient philosopher Seneca called Rome “a cesspool of iniquity” and the ancient writer Juvenal called it a “filthy sewer into which the dregs of the empire flood.”
iii. For salvation: In the Roman world of Paul’s day, men looked for salvation. Philosophers knew that man was sick and needed help. Epictetus called his lecture room “the hospital for the sick soul.” Epicurus called his teaching “the medicine of salvation.” Seneca said that because men were so conscious of “their weakness and their inefficiency in necessary things” that all men were looking “towards salvation.” Epictetus said that men were looking for a peace “not of Caesar’s proclamation, but of God’s.” (Cited in Barclay)
iv. The gospel’s power to salvation comes to everyone who believes. God will not withhold salvation from the one who believes; but believing is the only requirement.
d. For the Jew first and also for the Greek: This is the pattern of the spread of the gospel, demonstrated both by the ministry of Jesus (Matthew 15:24) and the initial ministry of the disciples (Matthew 10:5-6).
i. This means that the gospel was meant to go first to the ethnic and cultural Jew, and then to the cultural Greek. “At this time the word Greek had lost its racial sense altogether. It did not mean a native of the country of Greece… [a Greek] was one who knew the culture and the mind of Greece.” (Barclay)
e. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed: Simply, the gospel reveals the righteousness of God. This revelation of God’s righteousness comes to those with faith, fulfilling Habakkuk 2:4: The just – that is, the justified ones – shall live by faith.
i. It is essential to understand exactly what the righteousness of God revealed by the gospel is. It does not speak of the holy righteousness of God that condemns the guilty sinner, but of the God-kind of righteousness that is given to the sinner who puts their trust in Jesus Christ.
ii. Righteousness: William Barclay explains the meaning of this ancient Greek word dikaioo, which means I justify, and is the root of dikaioun (righteousness): “All verbs in Greek which end in oo… always mean to treat, or account or reckon a person as something. If God justifies a sinner, it does not mean that he finds reasons to prove that he was right – far from it. It does not even mean, at this point, that he makes the sinner a good man. It means that God treats the sinner as if he had not been a sinner at all.”
iii. “It was the happiest day in Luther’s life when he discovered that ‘God’s Righteousness’ as used in Romans means God’s verdict of righteousness upon the believer.” (Lenski)
iv. This declaration is even greater when we understand that this is the righteousness of God given to the believer. It is not the righteousness of even the most holy man, nor is it the righteousness of innocent Adam in Eden. It is God’s righteousness. “The righteousness which is unto justification is one characterized by the perfection belonging to all that God is and does. It is a ‘God-righteousness’.” (Murray)
v. This faith (trust) in Jesus Christ becomes the basis of life for those who are justified (declared righteous); truly, the just shall live by faith. They are not only saved by faith, but they live by faith.
f. From faith to faith: The idea behind this difficult phrase is probably “by faith from beginning to end.” The NIV translates the phrase from faith to faith as by faith from first to last.
i. “He saith not, from faith to works, or from works to faith; but from faith to faith, i.e. only by faith.” (Poole)
ii. “Perhaps what it conveys is the necessity of issuing a reminder to the believer that justifying faith is only the beginning of the Christian’s life. The same attitude must govern him in his continuing experience as a child of God.” (Harrison) This is an echo of Paul’s message in Galatians 3:1-3.
C. Why man must be justified by faith: the guilt of the human race in general.
1. (18a) The greatest peril facing the human race: the wrath of God.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
a. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven: The idea is simple but sobering – God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against the human race, and the human race deserves the wrath of God.
b. The wrath of God: We sometimes object to the idea of the wrath of God because we equate it with human anger, which is motivated by selfish personal reasons or by a desire for revenge. We must not forget that the wrath of God is completely righteous in character.
i. “It is unnecessary, and it weakens the biblical concept of the wrath of God, to deprive it of its emotional and affective character… to construe God’s wrath as simply in his purpose to punish sin or to secure the connection between sin and misery is to equate wrath with its effects and virtually eliminate wrath as a movement within the mind of God. Wrath is the holy revulsion of God’s being against that which is the contradiction of his holiness.” (Murrary)
ii. In Romans 1:16, Paul spoke of salvation – but what are we saved from? First and foremost we are saved from the wrath of God that we righteously deserve. “Unless there is something to be saved from, there is no point in talking about salvation.” (Morris)
c. The wrath of God: In this portion of the letter (Romans 1:18-3:20), Paul’s goal is not to proclaim the good news, but to demonstrate the absolute necessity of the good news of salvation from God’s righteous wrath.
i. The wrath of God is not revealed in the gospel, but in the facts of human experience.
2. (18b-23) Why the human race is guilty before God: demonstrations of our ungodliness and unrighteousness.
Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man; and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
a. Ungodliness: This refers to man’s offenses against God. Unrighteousness refers to the sins of man against man.
b. Who suppress the truth in unrighteousness: Mankind does in fact suppress the truth of God. Every truth revealed to man by God has been fought against, disregarded, and deliberately obscured.
c. His invisible attributes are clearly seen: God shows us something of His eternal power and divine nature through creation, by the things that are made. He has given a general revelation that is obvious both in creation and within the mind and heart of man.
i. Clearly seen: The universal character of this revelation and the clarity of it leave man without excuse for rejecting it. “Men cannot charge God with hiding himself from them and thus excuse their irreligion and their immorality.” (Lenski)
d. Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God: The problem is not that man did not know God, but that he did know Him – yet refused to glorify Him as God. Therefore, mankind is without excuse. Instead of glorifying God we transformed our idea of Him into forms and images more comfortable to our corrupt and darkened hearts.
i. “Will you kindly notice, that, according to my text, knowledge is of no use if it does not lead to holy practice? ‘They knew God.’ It was no good to them to know God, for ‘they glorified him not as God.’ So my theological friend over there, who knows so much that he can split hairs over doctrines, it does not matter what you think, or what you know, unless it leads you to glorify God, and to be thankful.” (Spurgeon)
ii. We can’t seem to resist the temptation to create God into our own corrupt image, or even in an image beneath us. Tragically, we inescapably become like the god we serve.
iii. It is absolutely essential that we constantly compare our own conception of God against the reality of who God is as revealed in His Word. We can also be guilty of worshipping a self-made god.
iv. Image in Romans 1:23 is the ancient Greek word eikon. It is a dangerous thing to change the glory of the incorruptible God into an eikon (image) of your own choosing.
e. Nor were thankful: Man’s simple ingratitude against God is shocking. “I cannot say anything much worse of a man than that he is not thankful to those who have been his benefactors; and when you say that he is not thankful to God, you have said about the worst thing you can say of him.” (Spurgeon)
i. “But when you glorify God as God, and are thankful for everything – when you can take up a bit of bread and a cup of cold water, and say with the poor Puritan, ‘What, all this, and Christ too?’ – then are you happy, and you make others happy. A godly preacher, finding that all that there was for dinner was a potato and a herring, thanked God that he had ransacked sea and land to find food for his children. Such a sweet spirit breeds love to everybody, and makes a man go through the world cheerfully.” (Spurgeon)
f. Professing to be wise, they became fools: Our rejection of God’s general revelation does not make us smarter or better. Instead, it makes mankind futile in their thoughts, and makes our foolish hearts darkened – and we become fools.
i. The fact is once a man rejects the truth of God in Jesus, he will fall for anything foolish, and trust far more feeble and fanciful systems than what he rejects from God.
ii. This futility of thinking, darkening of the heart, and folly must be seen as one example of God’s righteous wrath against those who reject what He reveals. Part of His judgment against us is allowing us to suffer the damage our sinful course leads to.