What is the Gospel? – Jesus is King (Romans 1:1-6)

This sermon was preached on 4/8/2011

Paul describes the contents of the gospel in different ways throughout his letters, a reminder that it is such a large reality that in order to express it fully one would need numerous pages. The bigness of the gospel is also seen in what accompanies it, and Paul in our verses mentions two such matters. We can consider each one briefly in order to remind ourselves of important aspects of the gospel.

The first detail to observe is that the declaration of the gospel initially required special representatives and they are described in verse 1: Paul is the servant of Jesus in a particular way in that he was ‘called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.’ An illustration may help us understand this detail. When a president wants to send a message to another country he will arrange for suitable ambassadors to pass on his message. These ambassadors will have been well-trained, yet their importance is not in their abilities but in the commission they have been given. Their presence is a sign that the president has got something important to say to that foreign country.

Jesus has his ambassadors whom he has trained for their role. Paul had a different training to the eleven who had been with Jesus during his life on earth; Paul had been trained by Jesus after he had returned to heaven. As Jesus’ apostle, Paul had a very important message from Jesus to deliver. The fact that Jesus had sent Paul and the other apostles is a reminder that their message, called the gospel by Paul, must be listened to by us. Although there are no apostles alive today, the original delegates of heaven have left that message in their writings. The King of heaven has sent his gospel to us.

The second detail is that this gospel had been predicted beforehand ‘in the holy Scriptures’. Those who predicted it, that is the prophets of God, were similar to the New Testament apostles in that they were messengers from God. Here Paul joins together the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New Testament and informs us that they have the same gospel. The Lord had promised through the Old Testament prophets that the Saviour would come and now, through the New Testament apostles, he declares that he has come. Paul is giving a challenge here. He is saying to those who doubted his credentials that they should examine the Old Testament to see if it did speak about Jesus. It was easy for them to reject the apostles’ message, but it was not easy to explain away the Old Testament prophecies that had their fulfilment in the life and death of Jesus. The promises begin with words addressed to the Enemy in the garden of Eden, recorded in the third chapter of Genesis, and the final one is found in the last book of the Old Testament when God predicts in Malachi that his Deliverer shall come to Zion.

In passing we can note how Paul describes the Old Testament – it is the ‘holy Scriptures’. Holiness obviously points to sacredness, to distinctiveness. The Old Testament is distinctive in its author (God) and in it its focus (the mission of Jesus).

The gospel is about Jesus Christ

The content of Paul’s gospel concerns the person and work of Jesus. Therefore it is not surprising that Paul mentions three details about Jesus, initially no doubt because they provide information about important stages in his existence. First, Paul mentions the pre-existence of Jesus (he was the Son of God); second, Paul mentions the family into which Jesus was born (he was descended from David); and third, Paul mentions the resurrection of Jesus.

In referring to the pre-existence of Jesus, Paul is reminding his readers of the greatness of Jesus. He is the eternal Son of God, one with no beginning of days, who possesses fully all the attributes of God and who has participated fully in all the activities of God (such as the creation of the universe). So the gospel is about this majestic divine person.

But Paul also says that the eternal Son entered into a human family, he was descended from David, the king of Israel who was promised an eternal throne (2 Sam. 7:12-16). The One who has no beginning was conceived in the womb of Mary, a poor descendant of David with no power or prestige. But Gabriel had informed her that the child she would bear would receive from God ‘the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end’ (Luke 1:32-33). Nevertheless, none who looked at her would have guessed that she belonged to a royal line about which God had made great promises. And the same was true of Jesus – he was mocked over his claims to be the King of the Jews after he was condemned at an unjust trial, and even when he was on the cross. So how can there be good news through the divine person who became a real man, a member of the royal line of King David? The answer is given in Paul’s next detail about Jesus.

Then Paul says that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, a statement that obviously indicated that he had died. The apostle does not say here why Jesus died, but we know from other passages, including ones by Paul, that Jesus died as the substitute of sinners, that he took their place on the cross and paid the penalty for their sins. Of course, his work on the cross was a great accomplishment.

Yet Paul does not want us to focus entirely on the cross; he also wants us to remind ourselves what happened to Jesus when he was resurrected. Paul says that Jesus ‘was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.’ Something was revealed at the resurrection which had not been so before, which was that the eternal Son of God, who had lived as the descendant of David in weakness and poverty, was now shown to possess divine power. This permanent display of divine power is connected to the work of the Holy Spirit. In a way that we cannot understand, Jesus was raised from the dead through the working of the Spirit, and that activity of the Spirit was an indicator of the world of power in which Jesus would reign as the son of David. The resurrection was in great contrast to the humiliation of his death, and at his resurrection Jesus entered into the position of universal power (as he claimed in his great commission to his disciples).

Why is this good news? Well, we need a king who can defeat our enemies and give us victories. The gospel tells us that Jesus, the Son of David, does both. By his resurrection, he showed that he had defeated death, and since then he has been displaying his gracious power as his Spirit works in the lives of many people. The particular aspect of the work of Jesus that Paul is stressing here is his kingly office, he is ‘Jesus Christ our Lord’.

Blessings of the gospel

In verse 5, Paul says that he and his colleagues have experienced that power of Jesus. He has given them grace to enable them to function as apostles. What is their goal? Paul reveals the staggering goals of the King through his ambassadors – to have disciples in all the nations of the world. This is the purpose of the King, that sinners from all places would experience the riches of his grace. And, of course, he has the power to bring it about. Throughout the world today the gospel is having success.

The response that Paul specifies here is called ‘the obedience of faith’. Faith has several aspects to it, such as conviction, dependence, delight. Here the aspect is submission. After all, Jesus is the King. Because he is a gracious King, there will be glad submission to him.

One day in the past, those sinful inhabitants of Rome had responded to the gospel message. They heard the call of God to leave their sins and trust in Jesus. Perhaps they were focussed on receiving forgiveness for their sins. It is unlikely they realised all that would come their way through believing in Jesus, of the significance of becoming his precious possession, and of being among those who belong to Jesus Christ.

Belonging to Jesus means that they will be satisfied with his possessions, will be secure in his power, and sharers in his purposes (in the sense that they will be wherever he is). They are joint-heirs with him of all things, they are preserved by him from hostile spiritual powers, and they will participate in all that he has planned. It truly is a great gospel.