Romans: The Glory of the Gospelಮಾದರಿ

Rock Bottom

The good news of the gospel is rescue. When we place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we’re rescued from sin and from ourselves, and our unrighteousness is covered by the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. We can know these gospel facts and believe them, but only a realistic look at the terrible, horrible awfulness of sin enables us to understand why the gospel is such very good news. We need to see what exactly we’ve been rescued from in order to rejoice in what we’ve been rescued to. A closer look at this portion of Romans is exactly what we need. Here we see just how sinful sin truly is—our very own sin. That’s what Paul shows us. Glimpsing this awfulness gives us a better understanding of God’s righteousness, which is something we’re given in the gospel. And as we see the horror of sin, the way it poisons us in mind, body, and soul, God’s wrath begins to make absolute sense. After diving deep into these early chapters of Romans, we can’t help but come away with brand-new wonder and awe about what God has done for us in Christ.

No sooner has Paul encouraged us with the good news of the gospel than he seems to unnerve us with God’s wrath. But the truth is, we can’t really grasp why the gospel is such good news if we don’t understand God’s wrath and the reason for it. Paul makes it abundantly clear as he describes human beings in their natural, unsaved state (Romans 1:18–23).

Unrepentant sinners may joke about the wrathful strike of divine lightning, but God typically judges unrepentant sin, not by lightning strikes, but by the sin itself. In other words, to those who persistently reject God and seek to replace him with things in creation, God will eventually say to them, “Have it your way.”

Here is Paul’s summary of all he’s been saying to the recipients of his letter, both Jews and Gentiles:

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:19–20, ESV)

Reflection: Paul tells us in 2:7 that our good works matter: “To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.” We know now that our good works don’t earn our salvation, but those works do prove whether or not Christ has saved us. Consider why good works inevitably accompany salvation. You might want to take a look at James 2:14–17.