Listen to part one of this sermon.

Pastor Joe McIntyre continues his introductory sermon to his 8-part study of the Book of Romans.

Learn how you can:

• Move beyond a salvation moment and learn to step into a lifestyle of faith.
• Embrace the fundamental idea contained in the Greek word for salvation.
• Leave your insecurities in the past and let the power of God work through your imperfect self to affect change. 

This episode is pulled from a brand new online store offering, Romans Study – an 8-part MP3 series. 

Additional Resources

Romans Study – an 8-part MP3 series

Full Transcript

In Romans and Galatians, Paul talks about two categories of truth or reality, in the flesh, or in the Spirit. And that will be developed more in the eighth chapter. But right now, he says, Christ is a child of David, according to the flesh, but he’s marked out and shown to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. So Jesus is vindicated. That to the Jews, the idea that a Messiah could be crucified and put to death by the Romans, was the exact opposite of what they thought should happen to a Messiah. They thought he would come and raise up Jerusalem and all of the armies of Israel and they would go to war and they would throw off Rome, and Jerusalem would again be the center of everything as it was in the time of David. They were looking for that kind of a Messiah. So the thought of a Messiah being crucified, that would have been proof he wasn’t the Messiah to the average Jew. But then when God raised Him from the dead, things looked a little different. You see, all of a sudden, Messiah has conquered death, and His Church, which was hiding in the upper room out of fear of the Jews, waiting for whatever was coming. The promise of the Spirit. Had no idea what was going to happen. But then after the Spirit came on them, they came out of the upper room filled with the Holy Spirit and power, and began to duplicate the ministry of Jesus in Jerusalem. And it says in Acts four or five, I can’t remember the exact spot it says, and many of the priests became obedient to the faith. So the resurrection brought in many in Jerusalem.

But what would we have done if we were expecting the Messiah they were expecting, and this Jesus is taken captive and crucified by the Romans. In one of the movies about Jesus, you might remember it. A little subplot about Judas is he thinks, Jesus, if he’s captured, is going to break out as the Messiah King and show his power. So part of his thinking in betraying him is he’s the real Messiah. So they really can’t take him. That’s speculation, and it’s kind of read into the scriptures, but it might have been the way he was thinking. That, well, he’s the Messiah, he’s going to throw off Rome, he’s going to raise up the armies of Israel. There were many factions in Rome at that time that were trying to stir up, many factions of the Jews that were trying to stir up the Jews to fight against the Romans. I just watched a BBC broadcast, taking the writings of the Jewish historian, Josephus, about the destruction of Jerusalem. And there were all kinds of people throughout Judea, that were trying to stir up the Jews to fight against the Romans. So that concept was in the culture right then. When you know that it kind of helps you understand some of the things that they’re saying in the gospels. If You’re the Messiah. And they had certain expectations.

So he says, he’s marked out to be the Son of God with power with dunamis supernatural ability. Now, just a thought about this. When Jesus sat down at the Father’s right hand, he received from the Father, the gift of the Holy Spirit, that he poured out on the day of Pentecost. So Pentecost, in the church, was given to demonstrate the resurrection of Jesus. Just a side thought, that’s why I value apologetics. But the ultimate apologetic is to heal the sick, cast out demons, and prophesy by the Spirit and reveal the hearts of men. Because it’s a supernatural Jesus that we serve.

We have lived in an age where we preached Christ died for your sins, so you can be forgiven and go to heaven when you die. Now all of that’s true. But it’s not the full gospel. The full gospel is Christ died for your sins. God raised Him from the dead and conquered death. And now you don’t have to die anymore. And you will just walk right out of your body into the presence of God, because death has been destroyed. And if you live under the coming of the Lord, you’ll get a new body and you won’t even have to go out and step out of yours. But the gospel involves the resurrection. And when we preach the gospel without the resurrection, we’re preaching half the gospel. Now, people do get saved by hearing that Christ died for their sins because it’s the truth. And they submit to the Lordship of Christ, but Jesus’ lordship was vindicated by His resurrection. And that’s an important part of the gospel.

I have put there Philips translation of that verse because I thought it added a little light to it. It says the gospel is centered. That’s not a misspelling, that’s a British translation. Centred. They spell it differently. The gospel is centered in God’s Son, a descendent of David by human genealogy, and patently marked out as the Son of God by power of that spirit of holiness which raised him to life again, from the dead. Now, just a thought, the Bible says in Ephesians, that you were raised together with Christ. I wonder what spirit raised you from the dead? Spirit of holiness. That’s right. So the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, raised you. And so your source of holiness is his spirit. Just a thought, no extra charge.

Verse five. Through him, we have received grace and apostleship, for the obedience that springs from faith among all nations for his name. Now, I have a footnote on obedience that springs from faith. Number six, to bring about the obedience that springs from faith. Most of our translations say the obedience of the faith or obedience to the faith. But A.G. Robertson, who is the author of Word Pictures of the New Testament, he said that the best translation of that phrase is the obedience that springs from faith. As we go through this letter, Paul is going to talk about how it’s not works, but faith that saves us, and that we’re to live by faith. But you see, faith will produce obedience. It’s not that faith doesn’t work. It’s that you can’t substitute works for faith. But when you really are living in faith, it will produce obedience. So, that phrase I thought was a key phrase to bring about the obedience that springs from faith. When you really believe God and trust God, you want to please Him. It’s just a natural byproduct.

Verse six, in whom you also are the called of Messiah Jesus. Now most of you will probably know that in Christ or in him, in whom is a phrase we find throughout Paul’s letters, that describes our union with Him, our oneness with him. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. So I’ve marked that phrase. It’s a major theme in Paul. And it’s a very key to the life of faith is knowing who we are in Christ. All right, through him we have received grace and apostleship, to all who are in Rome, beloved of God called holy ones. Now, just for fun. I have translated the word normally translated saints literally, it means holy ones. And I think we need to understand that because of what God has done in us, we are now holy ones. Holy means set apart. And you are set apart to God by the new birth. You are a set apart one. Now does that mean holy in conduct? It means potentially. But holy in nature, and as your mind is renewed and you bring your body into subjection, you become holy, in character as well. But here’s the thing for a person who isn’t holy to try to produce holiness. That’s really rough. But God expects us to be holy. I wonder if he bothered to make us holy first. I think he did. All the holiness you need is in you in the person of the Holy Spirit. What you need to learn to do is walk by faith which is learning to cooperate with the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Messiah Jesus. Let me read this commentary paragraph here. “In this first section Paul gives the heart of the Good News of Messiah. Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament according to the flesh, and inaugurated the new age of the kingdom by His resurrection and enthroning. The death, burial and resurrection of the Messiah is the heart of the good news. I’m translating the word translated Christ as Messiah in these lessons to underscore the fact that Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies, and was the promised King of Israel. But we will see as Paul unfolds his letter that God’s vision for the Messiah was larger than the nation of Israel, and included all nations, the Gentiles.” So I just repeated what I’ve kind of already said there. This is taking a long time and I gotta speed along here. This stuff is rich, I love it.

Paul says he’s making requests to come. He says he wants to impart a spiritual gift, so that they can be established and he can be encouraged by their mutual faith. I’ve got a paraphrase from Phillips there, “I’m longing to see you I want to bring you some spiritual strength. And that will mean that I shall be strengthened by you, each of us helped by the others faith.” That’s why it’s so important to fellowship with one another and encourage one another, by sharing our faith, what God is doing to help us and to bless us and be constantly testifying to the goodness of God.

Moving on to verse 13, I do not want you unaware, brethren, about how he planned and he was hindered, and he wanted to have fruit among them. And then verse 16, I’m not ashamed of the Good News of Messiah, for it is the power of God to salvation, for everyone who is believing, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, The righteous shall have life out of faith. Now, before we comment on that, I’ve given two other translations here, that both kind of add to our understanding. The first one is from Philips, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, I see it as the very power of God, working for the salvation of everyone who believes it both Jew and Greek. I see in it God’s plan for imparting righteousness to man, a process begun and continued by their faith.”

Now, I like Phillips because he actually says, a plan for imparting righteousness to men. And I think that’s a key concept and false understanding of the gospel is it changes our nature. And the righteousness revealed in the Gospel involves the change of our nature. And then Weymouth translates it, “For I’m not ashamed of the good news. It’s God’s power, which is at work for the salvation of everyone who believes the Jew first and then the Gentile. For in the good news, a righteousness which comes from God is being revealed, depending on faith, and tending to produce faith, as the scripture has it the righteous man shall live by faith.”

And then one other translation says, “It’s from faith that the righteous man shall find life.” Now there are all three of those concepts that I mentioned, righteousness, life, and faith. They’re summed up in Paul’s theme verse, which is actually a quotation from Habakkuk. But he’s going to tell us that this is what Abraham found later in the book. But this is quoted three times in the New Testament, in Galatians, Hebrews and here. That the just or the righteous shall live by faith.

In verse 17, Paul sums up the good news in one verse. “Those who stand right with God will find eternal life through faith.” As the letter unfolds, Paul will show us who is in right standing with God, how they are in right standing with God. And what are the results of being right stand in right standing with God. Paul is going to develop this powerfully for us in the verses that are to come.

Now, I have footnotes at the bottom of the page there, which touch on the things that I did touch on. For example, on page two, footnote eleven, salvation is more than the new birth. To a Jew salvation was the all inclusive deliverance from Israel’s enemies. The fundamental idea contained in soteria which is the Greek word for salvation, is the removal of all dangers, menacing to life, and consequent placing of life in conditions favorable to free and healthy expansion. That’s a bigger concept than being born again so you go to heaven when you die. It’s talking about life, all of life. So, I put that note there for you. And the Greek word dunamis, keeps reoccurring. He was raised by the dunamis power of God, the supernatural ability of God. But Paul here says that the good news itself is supernatural power. How many of you realize that it was when you accepted the power of the words of the gospel, that the miracle of the new birth took place in you. In other words, once you said yes to the truth of the gospel, your inner person was recreated. New life came in to you and the old life left, and you were born again, or born from above.

There’s a fascinating documentary. I don’t know if it’s still on YouTube. But this guy thought he was going to really prove the gospel wasn’t true. He decided to take the gospel teachings and messages and hold meetings and preach it. And his thought was, you know, these poor people will act as though it’s real, and I’ll deceive them all and I’ll expose the gospel as a farce. Well, the funny thing was, as he kind of imitated preachers and preached all this stuff, people got genuinely saved. And some of them got genuinely healed. Well, what was happening? Well, God was bypassing him and taking those words. And these hungry people who wanted the truth, listening to them actually got saved.

We heard another great testimony recently. It was Steve Stewart. It was at our church that has an international ministry. Kelly’s gonna go on a trip with him shortly to India. But one of the guys he works with went into, he was an Indian, young man. And his mother was a Christian, but he wasn’t. And he was walking back to visit his mother one day. And there was a demonized young woman who was chained up to a post, who was rabid. I mean, she was crazy. And he walked by her, and she was frothing at the mouth, and the demons were talking through it. And they knew what it was, but he just didn’t know what to do with it. But he knew his mother believed that something could be done about this.

And he heard a voice say to him, why don’t you command it to come out in the name of Jesus? Because he knew that’s what his mother believed. And so he hesitated and walked away. And finally he came back and he said, “I command you in Jesus name to come out of her.” And she fell over and was instantly delivered. And the long story short, he now pastors thousands of people throughout India, because after that happened, he just came and fell at the feet of the Lord and just became a tremendous disciple. Now he’s an apostle with churches all over and thousands of people.

But you see, God takes the message. And sometimes we get insecure about sharing our faith. Well, you know, I haven’t done everything right. And I’m not living perfectly I mean, you know, I don’t know if I’m worthy to share. Well, the Gospel’s, the power of God, not you. You see, it isn’t about how perfect you are. Now you want to live the best life you can. And you want to look to the Lord to grow in Christ and to develop your character. It’s kind of like people will say, “Well, I’m still got some sickness in my body, should I pray for the sick?” By all means! Because you see, it’s not you that’s going to heal them. You see, your job is to obey God, lay your hands on them, and commanded them to be healed in Jesus’ name. God is the one who said he would honor that name.

So my point is that the words carry the the power, and God can anoint the words. And when a person receives those words, as James says, in meekness, they they create in them a new birth or faith. What they do is they create faith to receive. Something we want to develop in this course, is that that’s not a one time event. It’s a lifestyle. Paul didn’t say that the just shall get saved by faith. Well, he did say that. But he didn’t say that only. He said, The just shall live by faith. And what we need to do is learn to live the lifestyle of faith, not just the event of the new birth. That should be the first of a long lifestyle of learning to trust God and believe His word and take hold of his promises and that kind of a thing.