“Four Spiritual Laws in Romans” (Romans 3:10-12, 20-26) - Romans for Everyone IV -

The Elevator Speech

If you had a minute in an elevator to explain to someone how we can be right with God, what would you say? It’s called an elevator speech. You may recite John 3:16. You may share a brief version of your conversion story. I think if Paul had a minute in an elevator, he would recite four key verses from Romans to explain how we can be saved. What are the four key verses?

All Lost

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

(Romans 3:23, NIV)

The first key verse is Romans 3:23. We are all lost. We are all under sin. Verse 23 is an important starting point of the gospel because it tells us who we are and where we are. In this verse God diagnoses our condition – our true corruption, our true need. He says, “No one is righteous. No one is seeking God. No one does good, not a single one!” Imagine three people try to swim from Hawaii to Japan. One cannot swim at all; he sinks as soon as he gets out of his depth. The next is a weak swimmer; he flounders for sixty feet before drowning. The third is a championship swimmer and swims strongly for a long time. But after thirty miles he is struggling; after forty he is sinking; after fifty miles he drowns. Is one more drowned than the others? No! It doesn’t matter at all which swam further; none were anywhere near Japan, and each ends as dead as the others.[1] In the same way, the religious person may trust in morality and the unreligious person may indulge in sensuality, and neither comes close to a righteous heart. Here Paul is not talking about fruits of sin, but about the root, our sinful nature (cf. Eph 2:3). The religious person may not be as sinful as the unreligious person. But both of them are equally lost, equally condemned to perish. We “alike are all under sin” (3:9). By nature, we are not morally good. By nature we are morally bad. You may say: “Paul, I am not that bad. I don't steal, kill, lie much, or swear much, and I give to some charities.” But that is not the main question. The main question is: Do you love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength? Do you love his Son, Jesus Christ? A natural man may search profoundly for the truth, but he does not honor God, love God, or obey God (cf. 1 Cor 2:14; Col 3:6). This is God’s diagnose of our condition: we are all lost.

The Point of No Return

“For the wages of sin is death, 

but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

(Romans 6:23, NIV)

The second key verse is Romans 6:23. There are the consequences of sin. And the ultimate consequence of sin is death. Then, after that, what happens? The Bible says, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” (Heb 9:27) We will all stand before the judgment of God. I remember an awful story where the human condition is like a vulture whose is flying, looking for carrion. And he sees a dead goat on a big ice flow in the Niagara River. And then he sours down and he lands and begins to eat and he watches the waterfall. This vulture has eaten dead animals on ice flows and he knows the right second when he can get off the ice flow. And he knows what is coming. But he is eating and he shouldn’t be there. He should be soaring. But he is eating and just when he sees the waterfall ready to come, he stretches his broad, self-sufficient wings and his talons are frozen solid in the ice and he goes over that waterfall.[2] That’s where most people are today. That’s where we are and where we are going: sin, death, and judgment. The point of Romans 6:23, and the point of this story is: Don’t stay with sin, turn away from sin, flee from God’s coming wrath right now, because when you think the hour is right and you stretch your wings, it would be too late. Esau begged to repent with tears, but he couldn’t find repentance (Heb 12:17). It was too late. He had passed the point of no return. So don’t stay with sin. Flee from sin now. Then, how can we flee from sin?

Jesus, God’s Way of Salvation

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: 

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

(Romans 5:8, NIV)

We can find the solution in our third key verse, Romans 5:8. Jesus is God’s way of salvation. God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. Then, why did Jesus have to die? Could God not found another way for our sins to be forgiven than Jesus dying on the cross? In order to answer this question, let us think about the story of David and Bathsheba. One night Bathsheba is taking a bath. At that time King David was supposed to be on the battlefield. But instead, he is walking on the roof of the palace. And he sees her and he wants her and he gets her because he is king and she gets pregnant and now he is in trouble. He tries to cover his sin by sending her husband, Uriah, to Bathsheba. But Uriah was too loyal to go back home and rest. He slept at the palace with other king’s servants. So David kills Uriah and brings Bathsheba to his palace, and she becomes his wife. Then, God sends Prophet Nathan, who tells the parable of the little sheep. David gets furious at the guy who steals the one little sheep. Nathan says to him, “You are the man!” And David says, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan in the name of God says, “The Lord has taken away your sin.” Yes, God is merciful. But if you were the father of Uriah listening to this thing. The Lord has taken away his sin. You would say, “Just like that? He raped my daughter-in-law. He killed my son!” Any judge on the bench who does that is impeached. God should be impeached except for one thing. God killed his Son to show that he is righteous as well as merciful. God killed his Son to show that he wasn’t scorning the life of Uriah or the sanctity of Bathsheba. So why did Jesus have to die? The holy God cannot let sin go unpunished. He kept his promise to send and sacrifice His Son to bear our sins. Jesus is the only one who can take away the sin of the likes of a David – you and me!

Saved through Faith

“That if you confess with your mouth, 
"Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart 

that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” 

(Romans 10:9, NIV)

And now we are closing in on the climax of the gospel. The fourth key verse is Romans 10:9. We are saved through faith. (cf. Eph 2:8) But what is that faith through which we are saved? First, saving faith is to confess, “Jesus is my Lord.” In Jesus’ time the Roman Empire declared that Caesar is Lord and required all the people in the empire to acknowledge it. Many of the early Christians refused to comprise this confession and died a martyr. With this background to acknowledge Jesus as Lord is a life-and-death matter. It requires a serious commitment. It means Jesus is the absolute Master of everything. It means we are not the lord of our life. It means we are His servants. It means we no longer go wherever we like, meet whomever we like, spend time and money whatever we like. Instead, when he says, “Go,” and we go. When he says, “Stay,” and we stay. Trust and obey.

Second, saving faith is to believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. In Romans 3:25 Paul says that we are made right with God when we believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood (NLT). In other words, to acknowledge or admire Jesus as a great man, or as an inspirational example is not saving faith. So Paul proclaims in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified!”

Third and last, saving faith is God’s gift. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (ESV). Faith is a divine evidence and conviction. When the Holy Spirit has the eyes of our soul opened and enlightened, only then we see the spiritual world, we see the eternal world. And we have the assurance that Christ loved me and gave himself for me, as well as he so loved the world. We have the assurance and hear the Holy Spirit himself bear witness with my spirit that I am a child of God. And we have surpassing peace and unspeakable joy. How can this be? With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Repentance is God’s work. Regeneration (born-again) is God’s work. Assurance is God’s work. Salvation belongs to God. Praise God!

In Numbers 21 the people of Israel keeps complaining against God and against Moses, “There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” Then the Lord sends poisonous snakes among the people, and many are bitten and die. And they repent and ask Moses to pray to the Lord. So Moses pray for the people. And God says to him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. Anyone is bitten and looks at it will live.” Verse 9 says, “… Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.” There is no logical connection between the bronze snake and healing. Only one condition here is faith. Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up (John 3:14) … And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself (12:32). So look to Jesus by faith! Look to Jesus as you are! Look to Jesus now! He is ready. He is waiting for you. He is at the door! Let your inmost soul cry out,

Come in, come in, blessed Jesus!

Come in today, Come in to stay,

Come into my heart, Lord Jesus!

[1] Timothy Keller, Romans 1-7 For You: For reading, for feeding, for leading, (The Good Book Company, 2014), Kindle Locations 892-897 of 2850.
[2] John Piper, “The Most Important Paragraph in the Bible,” Desiring God (http://www.desiringgod. /messages/the-most-important-paragraph-in-the-bible).

“15 Minutes” (Outdoor Service)

15 Minutes
Today’s sermon title is “15 minutes,” which means my message will be no longer than 15 minutes. Do you like the title? Another reason why I chose the title “15 minutes” is because I wanted to ask each of you in this place one question today: “If you have only 15 minutes to live, what would you do?” Actually, there is a play, titled “15 minutes.” The curtain rises on a drama and one man appears with a happy smile. He is the man who has a bright future before him. But suddenly, he feels severe chest pain and is taken to the hospital. And the doctor tells him he has only 15 minutes to live. While he is lying in his sickroom, he receives three telegrams. The first telegram says that he will inherit a large fortune by his uncle’s will. But it is no use for him at all because he will die in 15 minutes. About after 5 minutes, the second telegram arrives, and it says that his doctoral dissertation was passed, and he will be the youngest Ph.D. candidate. But it is absolutely no use for him now. About after 5 minutes, the last telegram arrives, and it says that his fiancée accepted a marriage proposal. But even her love was not able to comfort him. Eventually, the time comes, and he draws his last breath, and the curtain falls.

The point of the play is to show the futility and finitude of life. This play condenses our life into “15 minutes” and shows us what it looks like in a nutshell. Many of us have been pursuing successful life and happy life at breakneck speed. Then we lose control of ourselves. And then, we realize that we have already reached the very last stop of our lives. So the Bible says, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them." Thankfully, today I don’t see any elderly people here! It’s never too late. This is the day of salvation. This is the day to remember our Creator.

Death and Bucket List
And this is the day to remember and think about one more thing: “DEATH.” Many people don’t want to talk about death. They don’t want to even think about death. In fact, we live in a death-denying culture. Have you seen the film, “The Bucket List”? Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman starred in this film. Both of them are announced they have lung cancer. They decide to do everything on their bucket list before they die. They go skydiving together. They drive a Shelby Mustang. They ride motorcycles on the Great Wall of China. They attend a lion safari in Africa, and so on. They do lots of fun and interesting things together. But at the end the time comes. Although they did everything they wanted, nothing changed. Eventually, Morgan Freeman dies on the operating tables, and Jack Nicholson dies at the age of 81 in the film. This film is entertaining. It relieves our fear about death. But it never solved anything. Nothing changed. Both of them died in the end anyway. “What is on your bucket list?” You may have one or two, or hundreds of them. But the Bible says at least you must have “one thing” on your bucket list. That is to remember your creator. You must get acquainted with God before you die. And today I want to tell you how to get acquainted with God.

Repent!
First, you must repent your sins. Our sinful and wrongheaded lives cause the split between God and us. The Bible says, “It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore” (Is 59:2 NLT). Then, how can we restore our relationship with God? The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1Jn 1:9) When you admit and confess your sins, God will clear all the obstacles between you and him. Today if God reminds you of your sins during this hour, particularly “deliberate sins” and “unconfessed sins,” please do not hesitate to confess your sins before God. And if you are not sure what kind of sins you must confess, I want you to hear from Romans 1:28-32, saying, “Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God's justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.” (NLT) If we commit just one of these, we still deserve to die. Our real status is not a student, nor teacher, nor housewife, nor retiree, but “a sinner who deserve to die”!

Pastor Gordon McDonald, who used to be a senior pastor at Grace Chapel in Boston, once took the following example about repentance. It was a story about John the Baptist. The curtain rises on a drama, and one by one, people come and confess their worst sins to John. John writes down the sins on a sign and hangs it around the neck of each person. Gordon said because he himself actually committed adultery, he confessed that it was written “adultery” on his sign. Everyone has his or her own sign. At the very moment, Jesus appears to be baptized. He takes all the signs off their necks one by one and hangs them all around his neck, and he is baptized. This is repentance and forgiveness of sins. This is the very first step to get acquainted with God. Confess your sins!!

Believe!
The second step to get acquainted with God is to receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord. If you grew up in the church, this phrase, “Jesus is Savior and Lord” might be very familiar. But, do you know Jesus Christ? One time Moravian pastor Spangenberg asked John Wesley, “Do you know Jesus Christ?” Wesley replied, "I know he is the Saviour of the world." Spangenberg countered, "True … but do you know he has saved you?" Wesley answered, "I hope He has died to save me." Spangenberg pushed further, "Do you know yourself." Wesley said, "I do" but confessed in his diary, "I fear they were vain words." When I visit shut-ins and the homebound, I often ask this question after our small talk: “Do you know Jesus? Do you have assurance?” Their typical answer is “I hope so.” I don’t know about you, but I didn’t have that assurance of salvation for a long time. I was born to pastor’s family. I always grew up in the church, but not necessarily in Christ. I believed in God, I believed in Christ, but I did not experience living Christ in everyday life. I lived my way, not His way. In other words, I received Jesus as my Savior, but not as my Lord.

I realized this truth only after I had the following experience. It happened in the year 2000. At that time, I was 21 years old. I was young and healthy. I made a good salary from the army because I was working for the UN Peace Keeping Forces. They gave me generous proficiency pay. I was proud and stiff-necked. In February 2000, God led me to East Timor where civil war broke out. There was no church, of course, no Sunday worship service. At first, I felt freedom from religious duty. I skipped Sunday worship services. I wanted to live a free life, and East Timor was a perfect environment for that. I drank just like others, I watched pornography just like others, and committed sins just like others. God kept giving me a burden for keeping the Sabbath holy, but I ignored it. At first, I felt freedom, but later, I felt restrictions by something. Something was the sin. I became a slave of sin. Around that time, I fell ill with an endemic disease, called “Dengue Fever.” I had a high fever and red rashes all over my body. I went to a military medical center. The army doctor misdiagnosed and gave me aspirin and ointment on the bite. My condition got seriously worse that night. I could not eat anything. I could not even lie down, nor sleep. I became delirious from a high fever. Intuitively, I felt I was going through the valley of death. I knelt down on the cot and repented my sins before I died, and I prayed, “God, if you save my life, I will serve you with all my heart with humility for life.” I fell asleep in peace. I woke up in the early morning. The fever was gone, and red rashes were also all gone completely. And I heard God speak to my soul, “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.” (Mal 4:2) Literally, I went out and leaped like a calf. My stiff neck was broken, and I did receive Jesus Christ as my Master, my Lord, as well as my Savior. Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:6). Jesus is the only way to get to know God fully.

Last Call
Every time I go to the airport, I often hear “last call” for passengers: “Please proceed urgently to gate right now.” For some of us today’s service and this message can be the last call from God for you. If this is your last day, are you ready to die? Are you ready to stand before God? Now is really the right time! Today is the day of salvation. Repent your sins and receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord right now. If you are willing, please repeat the following prayer after me:

Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and need Your forgiveness. I believe that You died for my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I now invite you to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as the Lord and Savior of my life. In Your name. Amen.

“The Evidence of Faith” (Romans 2:1-11) - Romans for Everyone III -

Pastor’s Daughter

When controversial book Pastor’s Daughter was first published in Korea in 2014, people had different reactions ranged from rapture to outrage. The author’s father was a well-respected pastor and theologian among Korean churches. He wrote many excellent books and taught many students. He was a pillar of Korean Christianity in the 20th century. In the book the author reveals the shocking truth that from a daughter’s perspective her father was different at home. He was legalistic, authoritarian, and hot tempered. He was cold and loveless to his wife. And he deeply hurt his children. When her father became old, the author sent a long letter because she wanted to reconcile herself to her dad before he died. She wanted to hear him say “I am sorry. I love you.” But her father’s answer was “Repent.” And he quoted the scripture, Exodus 21:17, “Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.”

Context of Romans 2
It’s a sad story. I shared this story because it is all relevant to today’s scripture, Romans 2. Romans 1 is about unreligious people. Paul says that they are lost. Now in Romans 2 he comes as a bucket of cold water to the religious people, saying, “You are the same! You’re lost too!” The main theme of Romans 2 is to demonstrate that Jews and Gentiles (the religious and the unreligious) are equal in sin and equal in salvation. In Luke 15 Jesus tells us a parable about two sons. It’s often called “The Parable of the Prodigal Son.” But in fact, the title of this story should be plural – prodigal sons. There was a man who had two sons. A younger son, as we know, was debauched, materialistic, disobedient to his father. He committed a sin, the kind of sin everyone thinks of as sin. But then there was an older son. He was obedient and compliant with everything the father said. But listen to what he said to his father when his brother came back. He said, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat to celebrate with my friends…” (29). He thinks his father owes him because he’s better. The point of the parable is this: both the younger and older sons are lost, both alienated from the father, and they both need salvation. In Romans 2 Paul is speaking to religious, law-keeping, legalistic, self-righteous, self-confident Jews. Paul says that a self-righteous person will acknowledge the existence of God, but sees no need for him. They are doing well enough themselves. They see no need for repentance, because they think they are doing good. But in today’s passage Paul is showing that religious people need the gospel as much as unreligious people and that religious people run from the gospel as much as unreligious people.

Judging Yourself 
In Romans 2:1 Paul says, “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things” (ESV). We often fall into the hypocrisy of the double standard – a high standard for other people and a fairly low and generous one for ourselves. We are often far quicker and harsher in our judgment of others than of ourselves. But the Bible says that God is fair in his judgment. And he will use our own standards as the standards by which we are judged. It is what Francis Shaffer called the “invisible tape recorder.” It is as if, unseen, there is a recorder around each of our necks. It records the things we say to others and about others, about how they ought to live. Then, at the last day, God the Judge will take the tape recorder off your neck and say: I will be completely fair— I will simply play this tape and judge you on the basis of what your own words say are the standards for human behavior.[1] In verse 3 Paul asks: “Do you think you will escape God’s judgment?”

We all face judgment, and all deserve wrath. We, religious people, need the gospel as much as unreligious people. The heart of the gospel is that the righteousness of God has been revealed, apart from the law (our righteousness) – the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe! (3:21-22). We cannot appreciate the gospel and who Christ is unless we have first acknowledged who we are. Charles Simeon put it in this way: “There are but two objects that I have ever desired … to behold; the one, is my own vileness; and the other is, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ: and I have always thought that they should be viewed together.”[2] My sinfulness, and God’s goodness – these are the two things that we must see every day.

The Evidence of Faith 
When we stand before God on the last day, what is the standard by which we will be judged? Paul’s answer is surprising. In verse 6 Paul says, “God will give to each person according to what he has done” (NIV). God’s judgment is on the basis of works. Here Paul is not saying that we are saved by works. Instead, he is saying that works matter – not as the basis for salvation, but as the evidence that someone has the faith that saves. For instance, the apples on an apple tree prove life, but they don’t provide it. For instance, the apples are the evidence that the apple tree is alive, but the roots are what pull in the nourishment to keep it that way.[3] In the same way, faith in Christ alone provides new life. We are saved by faith through Jesus Christ alone. But a changed life, the fruit of the Spirit, is the evidence that we have real faith. Good works of love show we have saving faith.

Paul, then, tells us that there are two kinds of good works: Christ-exalting vs. self-seeking. In verse 7 there are the group of people who are persistent in doing good, living in a godly way. It has become a persistent life pattern. And they seek glory, honor and immortality. These are qualities that are found in life with God. They do good for God’s glory and honor, not for their own sake. But in verse 8 there are another group of people who insist on getting their own way. They do good works with self-seeking and self-glorifying motives. They feel they are better and more righteous. Doing good deeds become their Savior and their righteousness. One time Saint Francis of Assisi had started a 40-day fast with his disciples. On the 39th day one of his young disciples couldn’t tolerate pain from hunger and had some soup. And the rest of the disciples were furious, because he broke the rules. At that very moment, Francis quietly picked up his spoon and began to have soup. Of course, the disciples were dismayed. Francis said to them, “Why are we fasting for 40 days? We are doing all this to be more like Jesus and love more like Jesus. But if we hate and judge one another in fasting, it would be much better to freely eat and love one another.” What separates true good works from false ones is “love.” Authentic saving faith always issues in good works, but not just good works, but good works of love.

True Jews, True Christians
In verses 28-29 Paul concludes today’s story in this way: “For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God” (ESV). These words can be paraphrased for today’s Christians as follows: “So what if you have been baptized? So what if you are a church member? This only counts for anything if there has been a real change in your life, if your heart has been truly affected. Don’t you know that you are not a Christian if you are only one externally, that real Christianity is not about having confidence in external things? No, a Christian is someone who is a Christian inside; what matters is inner baptism, a heart-membership of God’s people. And this is a supernatural work, not a human one.”[4]

One of my colleagues shared this story when he was visiting one church in Abu Dhabi. He was impressed because there are lots of trees there although it’s a desert city. From a distance he saw trees which look like willow trees. They gave him a good impression – warm, comforting, peaceful. But when he came to take a closer look, he was very surprised, because there were lots of thorns on its trunks. In the same way, there are some people who look like good Christians outwardly, but when we come closer to them, really get to know them, we find thorns in them. Especially those who are close – spouse and children, and close friends – know those thorns. But when Christ comes and lives in us, when we walk by His Spirit daily, he takes away our thorns one by one. And our hearts become softened and melted. River of living water flows out of our hearts. And people around us notice this difference. So this morning let us examine and ask ourselves: “Am I a true Christian?” “Is my humility, love in hard situations, grace under pressure, obvious for others to see?” My prayer is that when I die, my wife and four children may say, “He was a true Christian, follower of Christ.” And I pray that you will hear the same complement from those who are close to you and from God. I also pray that our church community would become the most attractive, loving, forgiving place in town where Christ’s love is visible and contagious. Amen.

[1] Timothy Keller, Romans 1-7 For You: For reading, for feeding, for leading (The Good Book Company, 2014), Kindle Location 530-533 of 2850.
[2] Ibid., 671-673.
[3] Ibid., 604-607.
[4] Ibid., 789-793.

“God’s Wrath, God’s Righteousness” (Romans 1:16-17) - Romans for Everyone II -

The Essence of Sin 
One time a group of the atheists ran advertisements on buses in London, saying, “Enjoy your life, for there is no God.” This statement presupposes that we cannot enjoy our lives freely if there is a God. The Bible clearly says that the essence of sin is godlessness. Romans 1:28 plainly tells the inconvenient truth that people don’t like to retain God in their knowledge (KJV). They make an attempt to get rid of God. But apparently, it is impossible. So then, they determine to live as if there is no God, as if one had succeeded in doing so. They pursue their own ways, instead of following God’s ways. So Paul, in this letter, particularly in his introduction – Romans 1-3, gives a true diagnosis of our condition in the sight of God before preaching the good news. Because otherwise, we will never respond to the gospel; we would not feel like we need the gospel. John Stott says, “We must never bypass the law and come straight to the gospel… No man has ever appreciated the gospel until the law has first revealed him to himself. It is only against the inky blackness of the night sky that the stars begin to appear, and it is only against the dark background of sin and judgment that the gospel shines forth.” That is exactly what Paul is trying to do in today’s scripture. Sin, judgement, God’s wrath… those themes are unpopular, but they are essential for us to see ourselves before God. They make the good news newsworthy. 

How Is the Gospel Offensive? 
Think about the time when you heard the gospel for the first time. Was it easily acceptable? Or were you offended? How were you? In today’s passage Paul says that he is not ashamed of the gospel. The word translated “ashamed” also means “offended.” When we take the gospel seriously to heart, it offends us. How is the gospel offensive? Regarding this important question, Tim Keller rightly answers in four different ways:[1]

1. The gospel is insulting to moral and religious people who think their decency gives them an advantage over less moral people, because it tells us that our salvation is free and undeserved. It tells us that we are all such spiritual failures that the only way to gain salvation is for it to be a complete gift. 
2. The gospel offends the modern cult of self-expression and the popular belief in the innate goodness of humanity, because it tells us that Jesus died for us. It tells us that we are so wicked that only the death of the Son of God could save us. 
3. The gospel offends the modern notion that any nice person anywhere can find God “in his own way,” because it tells us that trying to be good and spiritual isn’t enough, thereby insists that no “good” person will be saved, but only those who come to God through Jesus. 
4. The gospel offends people who want salvation to be an easy life; it also offends people who want their lives to be safe and comfortable, because it tells us that our salvation was accomplished by Jesus’ suffering and serving, and that following him means to suffer and serve with him. 

So how is the gospel offensive to you? The gospel will always cause offense. 1 Corinthians 1:22-23 says, “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified (Good News!): a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” So we will always be tempted to be ashamed of, offended by the gospel. But we need to remember that the gospel of Christ is the power of God. We need to remember that it reveals God’s righteousness.

The Righteousness of God Revealed 

Romans 1:17 says, “For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed…” Here let us think about the meaning of the word “righteousness.” For instance, what does it mean to be “right” with your company, your government or another person? It is a positional word— it means to have a good or right standing, to have no debts or liabilities that you owe the other person or organization.[2] You are acceptable to the other party because your record is now clean. The other party has nothing against you. The gospel tells us how God makes us “right” in his sight. Not by our morality, not by our good works, not by our innate goodness, but only by the death of Christ, we are able to stand right before God. In this gospel the righteousness from God is revealed (NIV). And it is a “gift” that we receive when we believe the gospel. Many people believe they become righteous by faith through Jesus, but then they try to maintain it through their own self-seeking goodness – religious activities, good works, etc. But the Bible says that a righteousness from God is a righteousness that is “by faith from first to last” (NIV). We are saved by faith. We are transformed by faith. We are sanctified by faith from start to finish.

The Wrath of God Revealed

In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed. Then, in the very next verse Paul says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven…” (v. 17). The wrath of God is totally different from human anger. It does not mean that God loses his temper. The alternative to ‘wrath’ is not ‘love’ but ‘neutrality’ in the moral conflict. And God is not neutral. John Stott rightly says, “God’s wrath is his holy hostility to evil, his refusal to condone it or come to terms with it, his just judgment upon it.”[3]

Then, how is God’s wrath revealed? God’s wrath is revealed quietly and invisibly. God’s wrath ‘operates not by his intervention but precisely by his not intervening, by letting men and women go their own way.”[4] God abandons stubborn sinners to their wilful self-centeredness. In Romans 1 Paul repeats three times how God’s wrath is revealed. Verse 24 says, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity…” Verse 26 says, “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions.” And again verse 28 says, “… God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” This is the revelation of God’s wrath from heaven. In Numbers 22 Balak, king of Moab, sent his messengers to Balaam. Balak asked Balaam to curse the Israelites for his people. God clearly said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.” But once again Balak sent more honorable people with more money. Balaam asked God again, “Can I go with them?” God said, “Rise, go with them; but only do what I tell you.” Apparently God was not pleased. In fact, God gave him up to his greed and unrighteousness. On the way the angel of the Lord was standing with his drawn sword in his hand and almost tried to kill him, saying, “Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me” (v. 32). God intervened one more time. But unfortunately, Balaam didn’t turn away. He kept going on his way. And eventually, he perished in his rebellion (cf. Jude 1:11).

In Romans 1:18 Paul says, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (NIV). Then he describes all kinds of godlessness in the following verses. He describes in detail against what God’s wrath is revealed. In particular, verses 26-27 are a crucial text in the contemporary debate about homosexuality. Some churches love and welcome homosexual people, but they downplay or deny the clear teaching of Scripture on homosexuality. We might call this the “liberal” approach. Other churches take what the Bible says on homosexuality very seriously, but in a very self-righteous way. They see homosexuality as the sin that matters most. We might call this as a “conservative” approach.[5] Paul isn’t doing either. Paul is not saying: “It doesn’t matter what you do; God doesn’t mind as long as you’re happy.” But he is also not saying: “I don’t want to love you because you are beyond the gospel.” Yes, the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin. In verses 26-27 “unnatural relations” is literally “against nature” – para phusin. This means that homosexuality is a violation of the created nature God gave us – not “my nature”, or “what seems natural to me,” but God’s created order (Gen 1:27; 2:24).

“You’ve Only Got Six Months to Live!”

Homosexuality is a sin, but not the worst sin. In Romans 1 we see all kinds of godlessness. Homosexuality is one of them. We also find greed, sexual immorality, hate, envy, quarreling, gossips, slanderers, arrogant, disobedient to parents, faithless, heartless, ruthless. None of these are more or less serious than the others. And the Bible says that those who practice such things deserve to die (v. 32). So when you read Romans 1, if you think ‘How wicked they are, and thank God for I am not like them,’ you have missed the point. Here Paul is saying, “You are the one who deserve to die. You are the one who is under God’s coming wrath” (cf. 2:1). When the doctor tells you that you've only got six months to live, how would you respond to that? In 2 Kings 20 the Lord said to King Hezekiah, “Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.” Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, remember me.” He wept bitterly. And God did heal his disease. Our response should be the same. “Lord, have mercy on me. I am a sinner. Lord, deliver me from self-righteousness, judgmental spirit, false peace and happiness, and heartless and powerless Christian life!” My prayer is that the Lord may open our eyes to grasp the gospel and to understand, as Paul did, that we are the worst sinner (1 Tim 1:15), so that we will always humbly and joyfully love God with all our hearts and love our neighbors with all our strength. Amen.

[1] Timothy Keller, Romans 1-7 For You: For reading, for feeding, for leading (The Good Book Company. 2014), Kindle Locations 217-227 of 2850.
[2] Ibid., 253-256.
[3] John Stott, The Message of Romans: God's Good News for the World (InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, 1994), Kindle Locations 1177-1181 of 8863
[4] Ibid., 1243.
[5] Timothy Keller, 435-440.