Salvation by the Gospel: Romans 1:1-17

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16, NASB).

When I was a little boy my mother would give my siblings and me castor oil. Castor oil is a laxative; a cathartic, to prevent and relieve constipation. The practice of giving children a laxative was fairly common in those days. By taking a laxative the buildup of stool in the bowel could be prevented. The desirable effect was that by the passing of stool harmful toxins and bacteria was also removed from the body. The walls of the intestine were cleansed allowing the absorption of needed nutrients to be digested more efficiently; enter into the blood streams to be used by the cells in the body for good health outcomes. Thus, castor oil or another laxative could remove undesirable feces so that nutritious foods could be used by the body for good health. In this article it is not my goal to fully explain the benefits of taking a laxative. Rather, I want to draw a comparison between castor oil and the gospel. The gospel is the remedy for the sin in every human being and the consequences of sin that is in the world.

In his letter to the Christians in Rome Paul expresses his desire to preach the gospel in Rome and to territories north and west of Rome. His desire is to preach the gospel to all people that God will make accessible to him. He desires to preach the gospel to both Gentiles (Greeks) and Jews. He says that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Paul states his reason for preaching the gospel. He says, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith” (v.17; See Hab. 2:4; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). The gospel of Jesus shares similar traits with the castor oil. The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Those who have faith in Jesus will live according to the righteousness of God. However, many Christians have not grasped what all of this means because we have limited understanding of the words “salvation” and “righteousness.”

For many Christians the word “salvation” simply means that one is saved from the penalty of sin. God loves them; Jesus died on the cross to pay their sin debt, and they can enjoy life in heaven with God and Jesus for all eternity. They do not have to do anything to be saved from the penalty of sin because they have been made or declared righteous because of the redemptive blood of Jesus. Although these things are true, this is a limited understanding of the words salvation and righteous/righteousness. Let us examine these two words further.

In the Old Testament the word salvation means rescue and safety both physically and morally. It is deliverance from danger and imprisonment. It is to be saved from hostile opposition; to receive good health and enjoy prosperity because of one’s relationship with God. In the New Testament the Greek word “Soteria” means deliverance from sin and the consequences of sin and admission to eternal life with blessedness in the kingdom of Christ. Thus salvation is not limited to forgiveness for the penalty of sins. Salvation also includes deliverance of the power of sin in our lives and extends to the presence of sin in the future kingdom of God and His Christ.

The word “righteous” refers to one’s legal standing with God. Human beings are all guilty of sin, but by simply believing God they are declared righteous before God. We first see this in the story of a discussion between God and Abram. God had promised Abram descendents if he would leave his present life, go to a land unknown, and follow God’s directions. In Genesis 15 Abram ask God about the promise that God had made since he was now an old man and did not have an heir. God showed Abram the stars and promised that Abram’s descendents would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. “Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:8, NASB). God declares Abram righteous even though Abram has not done anything to earn his status before God. Thus, many Christians believe that they can live any way that they want to because God loves them and they are righteous before God. Ultimately, they will live in heaven with God forever.

To be declared righteous before God refers to one’s legal status. If one is righteous before God there are expectations and requirements of those that stand in a righteous relationship with God. Now, I need the reader to bear with me because I am not trying to shame anyone. I just want to tell the truth. I was raised in a large family of fourteen children that included nine girls and five boys. There was one mother and one father. I was legally my parent’s child and a brother to my siblings. From a legal perspective, nothing could change this fact. However, since I was a member of the Myles family it was expected that I live according to the values and morals of the family. All of my teachers in school, the people at the church, and anyone else that found out that I was a Myles child expected certain behaviors of me. I tried to avoid it, but no one would let me get away with it. I was a Myles and I was expected to act like a Myles. Thus, when the prophet Habakkuk says that the just must live by faith, he means that those who have a relationship with God through their faith must live their lives trusting, depending and obeying the righteousness of God. Just as I was expected to live like a Myles child, the children of God are expected to live according to the values and laws that God commands. Thus, Paul says that our righteousness is revealed when we live by our faith (v. 17). So, let us tie some strings here.

At the beginning of the article I talked about castor oil; a laxative and a cathartic to remove unwanted and harmful waste material so that the bowels are left clean and able to absorb needed nutrients to be carried by the blood stream to the cells to promote good health. When we think of the gospel this way we can see that the gospel if it is received will be the laxative used by God to remove the harmful effects of sin. The gospel is necessary because human beings do not have the power to remove their own sins. The removal of sin requires the power of God. There is no other power to deliver us and save us from the danger and death of sin. Those who believe the gospel are made righteous before God, not because they have no sin; rather God imputes the righteousness of Christ to the believer.

The purpose of God to save people is that they might be holy, cleansed and set aside by God to live by God’s laws and commandments in His kingdom. This is what Paul is saying when he writes, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not as a result of works so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9, NASB). It is unfortunate that we often stop with verse nine because verses 8-9 tell us how we obtained our legal status with God. We should read verse 10 also. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk (live) in them” ( v. 10, NASB). Those that have been declared righteous before God are to live for God according to His commandments and the teaching of Jesus Christ that gives us the truth to live by so that we live free from the bondage of the sins in the world.

Since it is the power of God that saves us from sin and its consequences, it is the responsibility of the people of faith to have no other God beside Him. This means that salvation; deliverance and safety cannot be obtained through human ideologies and methods. With human beings there will be no lasting peace. The history of the human race proves this to be true. No peace treaties, alliances, and cease fires has removed the hostilities in the hearts of human beings. Although people may say peace, there is no peace because the way of peace they have not known. We can know peace only when we know the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. No education, politics, and no money can save us.

The gospel is able to cleanse us from sin and the consequences of sin. The gospel puts us into a right relationship with God and our fellow human beings. The peace that we claim to want is obtained when we are made righteous before God. The gospel tells us that God loves us. We receive love from God and we return that same love to God. Since God loves every person, we too will love every person because it is not our love to give. Rather, we become conduits of God’s love.

In Galatians 5 the apostle tells us that we all have the sin nature in us and we live according to the desires of the flesh. In verses 18-19 the apostle gives us the works of the flesh. He says that we should live by the Spirit replacing the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit (v. 22-23). This agrees with what the apostle says in Romans 6. “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4, NASB). It is through the gospel that we are saved from sin and its consequences. Take the castor oil. Receive and believe the gospel. It is the power of God that makes salvation possible.