Romans 1:16-17

THE GOSPEL AND LIFE

‘I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.’

Romans 1:16

‘The power of God unto salvation.’ The words come home to us with a personal and intimate appeal. And many of us must add here also, ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ’; for the old methods seemed to be called in question, the old means of grace, as they are called, pushed on one side for appeals which are of power to men of culture, of recognised worth to men of strong will; which at least cannot be accused of credulity and which will pass muster in times of intellectual progress and general amelioration of the conditions of life.

I. There is no question as to the moral weakness, which we are conscious of, in face of the assaults of evil.—Have you ever paused to realise the strength of those assaults? There are few things more awful than to read of the fall of good men, such as those which Holy Scripture so mercifully portrays. We know, alas! that neither education, nor tradition, nor love, nor fear of consequences avail, in the face of education and in spite of culture, to resist the storm-flood of temptation which creeps up with its triple wave to thunder against the barrier of respectability, and toss about like straws the ethical precepts of human refinement. We know it ourselves, in our own spiritual life; when we have set ourselves in our sphere of business to accomplish some object, by dint of resolution we can generally succeed. But in spiritual matters, in our prayers, the government of the tongue, the control of our temper, to say nothing of other things, how we fail again and again! Yet the Bible never falters in its clear note of encouragement. ‘The power of God unto salvation unto every one that believeth.’

II. In the face of this great news it is surely somewhat lamentable that there should be so much moral impotence among us.—Why should we be for ever going about murmuring sorrowfully, ‘poor human nature,’ when we ought rather to be exultingly proclaiming—‘Strong Divine grace,’ ‘By the grace of God I am what I am?’ This is what we ought to be able to say, instead of ‘by reason of my nature, by reason of my weakness, I am the poor miserable creature which you see me to be.’ There is a great waste somewhere. Look at the churches which stand up dominating the towns and villages in our land. Here, day by day, we stand up and say, ‘I believe in God the Father Almighty,’ when all the time we believe that a habit is stronger than He. Here we profess, day by day, our belief in a Saviour, when we know all the time that every man has his price, and that when the temptation comes we shall fall again. Why do we say that we believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, the Life-giver, if we tamper with His voice, when He speaks in conscience, refuse to hear His Church, and despise His Scriptures?

III. Christianity is suffering not so much from its blatant enemies as from the feeble lives of those who call themselves Christians.—Every time we yield to a sense of moral impotence, or acquiesce in a low or a diseased vitality, we are spreading abroad an atmosphere which, in the end, reacts fatally on the health of the community. It will be a terrible thing if it can be said at home, as it is sometimes said abroad, that Christians are the chief foes to Christianity. ‘The power of God unto salvation.’ Let us exhibit this in greater fullness and in greater strength. For a good Christian is in himself a gospel. ‘They that fear Thee will be glad when they see me, because I have put my trust in Thy word.’ Do you say ‘Too late! My life is shaped by its past. I am what the past has made me to be. My habits are formed. I am too old to alter now, I must do as well as I can!’ The power of the gospel is never exhibited more wonderfully than in the power of recovery. There is, it may be, the Alsatia in our heart, that place where the king’s writ does not run, where for years we have allowed habit to run unchecked, evil to remain unmolested, where passion and impulse have moved in defiance of the will, the dictates of reason, or the pleading of the Spirit. Christ can give us the power to throw this region once more into the ordered and disciplined circle of our heart. The power of recovery is one of the most glorious blessings of the gospel.

Rev. Canon Newbolt.

Illustration

‘In a well-known part of our island the railway is carried along the coast for some distance close to the shore, separated from it by a sea-wall of massive blocks of stone firmly compacted as a barrier against the tide. If you pass along on a summer day when the waves come rippling up to break idly on the beach, it is a scene of peaceful beauty. But look to yourself when the high tides come rushing in, driven by the gales and lashed by the storm. It used to be said that if this wall had been made of gold, it could not have cost the railway company more money, owing to the necessity of constant repairs. It is when the storms of life’s temptations burst upon us that we know at once the strength of grace, and the weakness of nature.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE CHRISTIAN’S FIRST PROMISE

We have all promised not to be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the first promise we ever made—that hereafter we would not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under His banner. It is, or should be, an easier promise for us than for St. Paul.

I. St. Paul laid down the lines upon which the struggle of the Church against paganism was carried on.

(a) No compromise whatever was permitted with idolatry.

(b) The bond which was to keep society together was proclaimed to be affection, confidence, and kindness, and this principle was acted upon in a way which impressed even the pagans.

(c) A most strenuous campaign was instituted against all the vices which poison a wholesome family life.

In all these three campaigns the Church boldly stood forward in opposition to the social practice of the day. The world was on one side, the Church on the other. Compromises—lamentable comprises—were made in some directions, but on the whole, and especially in the earlier periods, before the alliance with the secular power, the Christian Church made a very brave protest against the accepted standard of social morality, and, by steadily inculcating views which the man of the world regarded as impracticable, conferred signal benefits on the human race.

II. Is the Church’s battle, then, over?—Was it fought out and won when Europe accepted Christianity? Has the offence of the Cross ceased now that we see it glittering on the breasts of heroes and emblazoned on the banners of princes, instead of being regarded with loathing as the hideous emblem of a ghastly punishment? Compare the standards which are avowed and acted upon all around us with those which we find in the New Testament.

III. Do we not, then, need a public opinion among religious people, a standard of conduct avowed, professed, acted upon, expected of each other, which shall be quite unmistakably different from that of the world? Is it not chiefly to maintain such a standard that a Church exists? Ought not all who wish to lead the higher life to be able to feel that there is among them a society which exists for this very thing, a society which is pledged to witness in every way to the truth of those ideals and to their possibility under existing conditions, and to support and encourage all who wish to follow Christ? This aspect of Church life is, I fear, more often remembered in some other religious bodies than in our own Church. But those especially who attach great value to primitive tradition should remember that the Church began its career as a society closely united in the attempt to live in a different manner from the world around it.

IV. Evils can only be met by manfully opposing to them another way of living—the gospel of Christ. Christianity is a Divine life, not a Divine science. We were all baptized into a death and into a life—a death unto sin and a life unto righteousness. And we who have been ordained are ordained into a life—a life more immediately dedicated to that witness, that protest which the Church still has to make against the world. We need your prayers that we may never be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. But remember that you, too, have promised to renounce all that we have promised to renounce, and to perform what we have promised to perform. God grant that none of us who are here to-day may ever be ashamed of our Master and His words, lest He also be ashamed of us when we pass to our final account!

—Rev. Professor Inge.

Illustration

‘It required some moral courage for a Jew of Tarsus to write an Epistle to the Romans, even if the “Romans” were mostly Roman Jews. Rome was then the one centre of civilisation as no modern capital can claim to be. Even the Jews residing there must have felt some contempt for their brethren in the provinces, and some reluctance to accept teaching which came from parts so much out of the world, so far from the centre of culture and intelligence, as Eastern Asia Minor. Christianity had as yet made few conquests in high places. Not many wise or noble or mighty had been called. Although it was as fashionable at Rome to play with new religions as it is in London now, Christianity had not even won this doubtful kind of recognition from the upper class. It was too uncompromising a creed to be taken up as a craze. St. Paul’s message was no ingenious philosophical theory, no new and quaint cult, with mysterious or picturesque ceremonies. His gospel, he knew well, was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness. It offended the Jew by repudiating all that was left to him of his national inheritance—his fanatical pride and exclusiveness; and as for the pagan, the tremendous passage which follows my text shows how little intention the Apostle had of conciliating pagan prejudices.’

(THIRD OUTLINE)

THE POWER OF GOD

I. Those who receive it will know its power within themselves.

II. It will also become manifest to others that it is no form of godliness without its power which they possess. They will have the knowledge which comes to those ‘who will to do God’s will’; the precepts of the gospel will become as precious to them as its promises.

III. It will further be shown in self-denial, in taking up the Cross, in patience under tribulation, in requiting good for evil, in courtesy, in kindness, in preferring others to ourselves, in eschewing all self-seeking.

Where such things as these accompany a Christian profession, there is proof that a power greater than human is at work transforming and transfiguring character.

IV. There is much indeed that is lovely which natural religion may work in men’s characters, but there are supernatural graces which the Holy Spirit dwelling in those who have received the gospel of Christ can only produce. These are known as ‘the fruits of the Spirit,’ and where they grow the wilderness and the solitary places of human life are glad for them: they rejoice and blossom as the rose. And the Christian character, that is, the salvation of which St. Paul speaks in the text, cannot be realised elsewhere, however fair may be the approximations to it.

Rev. F. K. Aglionby.

Illustration

‘There was a fitness for St. Paul writing to the Romans, to speak of the “gospel” as a “power.” Power would be the leading idea of the Roman. He would measure everything by its “power.” Therefore, on the same principle, that when he addresses the most learned people of the earth, he called “the gospel” “the wisdom of God”—so now, in his epistle to Rome, he exhibited it under another of its aspects, and says, “it is the power of God.” ’

(FOURTH OUTLINE)

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

The gospel which St. Paul preached was the gospel of the Cross, and we are here to tell you that it has still its ancient power. The Cross has:—

I. A captivating power.—‘I,’ said Christ, ‘if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.’ Yes, ‘The Cross is the attraction.’ When we get a vision of the Cross, when we see that

Love eternal, free and boundless,

Forced the Lord of Life to die,

Lifted up the Prince of princes

On the Throne of Calvary,

then our hearts are drawn, in spite of self and sin, to gaze and trust and live.

II. A convicting power.—It is at the Cross that there is borne in upon us the heinousness of our guilt, the demerit of our sin. If men would but fix their gaze in real earnest on the Cross, then they would see there is indeed a mystery there. There is sin there, there is guilt there, but the guilt and sin are not the Sufferer’s own, they are yours and mine. The Cross of Christ convicts us of our sin. When nothing else will do it that will.

III. A consoling power.—It tells us that out of that very death our sins procured, our life and pardon spring.

While His death my sin displays

In all its blackest hue,

Such is the mystery of grace,

It seals my pardon too.

His death secures our life. Blessed comfort of the Cross, which tells me that in that death my sins are dead!

IV. A conquering power.—it tells me not only that my sins are pardoned, but that they are crucified. It shows me that those evil lusts that lurk within my soul, that wickedness which was the cause of all my woe, has been nailed yonder to the accursed tree. It was crucified with Christ, and now I am to reckon myself free from its power.

V. A constraining power.—It teaches me that I am not my own; that I am His, Who has bought me with His blood. Henceforth I live not to myself but to Him Who died for me and rose again. The nails are driven into my selfishness and hatefulness and pride, and I must live henceforth a crucified, and yet a risen life, in union with Him, in Whom

My bands are all untied.

What do we know of this conquering and constraining power of the Cross? Has it changed our lives as it changed St. Paul’s? Are we living close enough to it to experience its power?

Rev. E. W. Moore.

Illustration

‘The Moravian missionaries laboured in Greenland for five years without result. In the beginning of June, 1738, Brother Beck, in speaking of the redemption of man, enlarged on the sufferings and death of our Saviour. He then read to them the history of our Saviour’s agony in the garden. One of the company, named Kagarnak, exclaimed, “Tell me that once more, for I desire to be saved.” These words, which were such as had never before been uttered by a Greenlander, filled the soul of Beck with joy. Kagarnak became a sincere Christian, and was the firstfruits of a happy harvest. The missionaries now determined to preach Christ and Him crucified in the literal sense of the words.’

(FIFTH OUTLINE)

HAVE WE POWER?

This is the power that dwells in your hearts—the power of no less a Being than God. You may resist it; you may grieve it; you, alone of all created things, can rebel against that sovereign might which it is your privilege to possess. But if you will receive it, if you really want it, if you cry after it, feel you cannot do without it, then there it is working in your heart, struggling for you, fighting for you against the enemy, and giving you the victory at last. There it is—a power.

Bring, then, your religion to this test. If it will not stand it, it is a thing to be despised, to be ashamed of before the world, to be ashamed of at the last great day.

I. Apply the test to your temptations.—People of some earnestness are wont to speak of their falls in a sad, yet listless sort of way, as if it were absolutely necessary for them to yield, absolutely impossible to resist—and so they go on yielding. But is it needful thus to give way? What! With God’s power working in you, with the power that made the world dwelling in you? With Him to look to Who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think? Surely, with such help, we need not, we must not fall; with such an ally, it is base, it is shameful so to yield.

II. Apply the test again to our prayers.—We try to pray, we are anxious to pray. But then our prayers are so very weak; our thoughts wander. Here, even in God’s house, the prayers go up, but we ourselves join so little in them. Was there any power in them, any earnestness, any deep sense of want? Why is it so? Is it the force of temptation? Is it the power of the enemy? He is certain to molest the man who prays. The man who prays is slipping from the devil’s grasp; and if he can meddle with our prayers, he will put forth all his strength and craft to do it. But, then, there is the power that dwelleth in us, the power which recognises our difficulties: which, taking into consideration the truth that we know not what to pray for as we ought, helpeth, it is said, our infirmities and maketh intercession for us and with us, with groanings which cannot be uttered. Have we worked with that power? Have we co-operated with it with half the energy we have given to some earthly business? Have we given to it half the eagerness which we have thrown into some passing pleasure? Thus these supplications, being destitute of the offered power, are things of which, before the world and before God, we may well be ashamed.

III. Apply the test to our affections.—Is there power in our love to God? Do we love Him with a burning and an earnest love. We do so love when the object is an earthly friend, when it is a parent, a wife, a little one. There is power to such a love as that. We feel it working and reigning within our hearts. Difficulties vanish before such a love, and labour is not grievous, and self-denial is not hard. But when we think of our love to God, to Him Who is indeed our Father, to Him Who has fed us, clothed us, preserved us, sustained us; and, as though that were not enough goodness to show to guilty sinners, did yet more—redeemed us, died for us, shed His precious blood for us, rescued us from sin and death eternal—when we think of our love to Him, to our God, to our Saviour, is there any power, any strength in our love to Him? Is it not, even with serious, thoughtful people, all complaint? We do not love Him. We cannot love Him! Our souls cleave to the dust and will not rise up, as they should, to Him. We grieve over this in a kind of sentimental way, and thus satisfy our consciences that we have offered Him a sufficient substitute for love. But why do we not love Him? Why is not our love strong and fervent? Why is the only thing we can return to Him for all His goodness to us doled out to Him in such pitiful measure?

Religion, if it be worth anything, must be a power; and the contempt into which it has from time to time fallen is the fault of Christians, is our own fault, because we have exhibited it before the world too much as a mere profession.

—Rev. J. H. Drew.

Illustration

‘Sometimes professing Christians are beset by special hindrances to their usefulness—tendencies of speech or action that mar the beauty of holiness most sadly. What are you going to do with the evil habit, or the half-dozen, that are hindering you? Fight them one by one; that is one way. What did you do last winter when the panes of the window were covered with frost, and you could not see out of them? Did you scratch it off with a knife? That would take too long. Heat up the room and the frost goes off the pane. Warm up the soul with the love of Christ and the bad habits will run off. That is what Chalmers calls the “expulsive power of a new affection.” Bring Jesus Christ into the soul, and you will overcome the evil habits.’

(SIXTH OUTLINE)

OUR RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS THE GOSPEL

If ‘the gospel of Christ’ be this ‘power,’ then:—

I. Honour it in your own heart.—I have no doubt that I am speaking to some one who feels, ‘I am a very great sinner. The power of evil is very strong over me at this moment. The resistance of my own heart is violent. Satan’s influence is tremendous.’ I know it. The honour of a strong thing lies in the strength of the thing it overcomes. The stronger that your sin is, the more will Christ be exalted in forgiving it. Tell Him so.

II. Believe, let the simplest act or thought go forth, and ‘lay hold on God’s strength that you may make peace with Him, and you shall make peace with Him.’ Nay more, ‘He will put His strength into you’; and the power of Christ will be ‘the power of God,’ and He will make you feel quite safe—safe from yourselves, safe from the thing you are afraid of, safe when meeting God, safe from condemnation, absolutely safe, for ever and ever, ‘the power of God to your salvation.’

II. Woe to us if we do not wield the power that is put into our hands!—The Church is in the possession of the engine which can do anything; the lever and the fulcrum that can move the universe; enrich, bless, and save the whole world. And the responsibility is before you. Remember it when you are in Society; remember it when you are talking to a gay friend; remember it when you are speaking to your sister, or to your brother, or to your child. ‘It is the power of God unto salvation’ which you have in your hands.

—Rev. James Vaughan.

(SEVENTH OUTLINE)

WITNESSES TO THE POWER

Let us look at some facts in reference to this power.

I. The Christian religion is the only religion in the whole world which has ever had ‘power’ to set in motion real missionary action.—No other creed ever produced missions. Why is this? The selfishness and the sluggishness of human nature is exclusive, and it requires an immense lever to stir it, and nothing in the world has ever been found equal to do it, except the love of such a God as we have in Christ—a Father through a Saviour. That, and that only, can thrust out—I am using our Lord’s own word in the original—that, and that only, can ‘thrust out labourers into the vineyard.’ We have something to say worth making a mission for—we have a motive which can send us forth to say it. Hence missions. ‘It is the power of God.’

II. See what the gospel of God does in all lands wherever it is planted—what changes, moral and religious—what softening of savagery—what amelioration—what civilisation—what elevation—it carries along with it. True, it may be hindered by adverse circumstances—especially by the inconsistencies, the rapacity, the lust, the sin of Christians. But in itself the gospel always grows into an improvement in every thing. The Christians’ spot is always the bright, green spot in every country. No other means have ever done this—they have been tried, and they have failed. Why? It is because it is ‘the power,’ the appointed ‘power of God to salvation.’

III. Let me tell you the experience of every Christian minister.—It is when he preaches the full, simple gospel—and just in proportion as it is full and simple, that he gets all his success. If he preach morality, or an abstract divinity, or a gospel which is no gospel, or a half gospel, he has no results whatever—never a better life. But Christ, a free Christ, carries everything. It draws, it changes, it comforts, it purifies, it raises, it meets every instinct of nature, it fills every void that is in the soul. What must it be that does all that but ‘the power of God’?

IV. Listen to the witness of your own heart.—What have been the best hours of your life—the hours which give you pleasure in the retrospect, where memory loves to dip? Look back upon them. They are the hours when Christ was most to you, when you had some feeling that you were loved, some hope that you were forgiven, when your heart was made soft and tender by that thought. Those are the happiest and best times of your life—and that was the still ‘power of God.’

Illustration

‘The Rev. Howard Williams, Molepolole, British Bechuanaland, tells the following anecdote of a Christian Bakwena: “Kgasi-nchu was a good man. His life had been equally consistent. I remember on one occasion his daughter was to have been married to a grandson of the chief’s uncle—the leader in all the heathen practices of the tribe. Kgasi-nchu refused, as a Christian man, to receive the bogadi (equal to our marriage settlement, but which is proscribed by the Church, on account of its heathen requirements). A great meeting was held, at which I was present. Feeling ran so high that I was advised not to speak. Kgasi-nchu was present, and I remember how his life even was threatened at that very meeting, but he stuck to his colours, and eventually won. We do thank God for such men.” ’