“The Greatness of the Gospel” (Part 2)
Romans 1:16-17
August 16, 2015
A few years ago an investment company produced a commercial advocating using their services to accumulate enough wealth for retirement — the commercial showed a couple sitting on a couch being bounced up and down from behind by their hosts in an attempt to jiggle loose change from their pockets. The idea was that looking for loose change in one’s couch is not the best way to fund a retirement account. But maybe after a report from last May that idea needs re-thinking.
Three roommates in New York State bought a couch from a charity shop for $20. They took the couch home and while cleaning it found several envelopes stuffed inside it containing $40,000 in cash. The owner of the couch was in the hospital for surgery when her daughter sold it, unaware of the contents of the old couch. Oops.
One of the purchasers said, “The most money I’d ever found in a couch was like fifty cents. Honestly, I’d be ecstatic to find just $5 in a couch.” In an act of kindness, the roommates found the name of the woman who originally owned the couch on one of the envelopes and agreed to return it to her. The woman told them it had taken her many years to save the money — each week her husband had given her some money to put away, and this was her life’s savings.
In a $20 couch (and it looks like a $20 couch) a $40,000 treasure. Who would have thought that? You never know where you might find a treasure.
Believers in Christ also have a great treasure. It is the treasure of the gospel. Now some might yawn with boredom over the gospel and minimize its value and importance. Yet for the apostle Paul writing to the Romans, nothing invigorates him like the gospel. He is passionate for and thrilled by the gospel. And in the key verses of the book (1:16-17), Paul explains the importance of the gospel this way:
The gospel is God’s saving power, revealed through His righteousness.
These two verses contain four declarations of the greatness of the gospel; we looked at the first two last week; this week we consider the final two declarations of the gospel’s greatness.
This message isn’t about something we need to change; it is about how we need to think about our condition without Christ and about our condition with Christ and in the gospel.
- There is No Shame in the Gospel (v. 16a)
- The Gospel is Powerful (v. 16b)
- The Gospel Reveals the Righteousness of God (v. 17a)
- The Gospel is Realized through Faith
Download the rest of this sermon from Romans 1:16-17.
The audio will be posted on the GBC website later today.
Words of Grace 