No Shame: Standing On Gospel Truth | For The Gospel

Paul was preparing to travel West with the Gospel, all the way to Spain. From Corinth, he wrote to the church in Rome, a mix of Jewish and Gentile Christians. The letter was to introduce himself and his ministry in hopes of eliciting support for his future missionary travels, but if he could not carry that mission out, at least the letter would travel and share the full truth of the salvation won by Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the good news of an event. We have been saved by Jesus. Now we are set apart for the Gospel in the world. 

Transcript

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. –Laozi” That’s an ancient Chinese proverb. I think it applies today. Today we start a study of the book of Romans. Not a thousand miles, but 433 verses. It starts with verse one. James Montgomery Boice at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia preached on Romans for twelve years. John Piper, eight years, Martyn Lloyd-Jones spent 366 sermons on it. So don’t complain! From now until November we will take on Romans, and I tell you I’m coming at this with a spirit of deep anticipation. God has used Romans in the life of the church to spark revolutions, reformations and revivals. The more we understand the gospel, the better we can live it, believe it and share it. At the beginning of the Hobbit, the wizard Gandalf had to convince Bilbo Baggins to take up the journey and the adventure. “You will have a tale or two of your own to tell when you come back,” Gandalf said. “Can you promise that I will come back,” asked Bilbo. “No. And if you do, you will not be the same.” A journey through Romans is epic. High mountains, low valleys and perilous battles. We will not be the same. Let’s do it. 
 
 The journey is deeper into the Gospel of God, deeper into the story and truth of how God saves—you, me, this whole world. No Shame: Standing on Gospel Truth. That’s our first series, and the first message, today, is For the Gospel. If you are just visiting today or maybe if you have been here a long time, it’s easy to ask: why do Christians talk about the gospel all the time? What’s so important about that? The gospel is the story of how God saves, the good news about what God has done through Jesus Christ. The gospel changes everything. It introduces an intervention from another dimension. If you’re like me, January is a time to reevaluate everything. What happened last year? Where am I with career, with family, with friends? What’s coming next in 2026? It’s the post-holidays blahs. The lights are coming down, but the nights are still long. The holiday magic didn’t fully deliver, family challenges were harder than you thought, the credit card is maxed out, and it is easy to just feel a little, bleh. What is life all about anyway? We need to get the gospel right. This is not a place to achieve; this is a place to receive. God has done it. Jesus has done it. Life is not an exercise in seeking pleasure, promoting self-satisfaction or even self-discovery. No gift or holiday will satisfy; no measure of success will obtain. You need a big purpose for life, a reason why. Rise to the truth of the gospel. You have been saved by God through Jesus Christ and now you have a purpose: to receive that salvation, to share that salvation with others, to enjoy your eternal relationship with God, all to the glory of the name of Jesus. 
 
 “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.” (Romans 1:1) Paul was his Roman name. Saul was his Hebrew name. Saul had been a servant of a religious order, the Pharisees, a word that means “set apart.” As a Pharisee he considered himself set apart to destroy the Christian church. Before his conversion, he chased Christians down, ripped them from their houses, shut down their businesses and even directed executions. Now Paul is set apart for something else. Did you see it? Set apart for the gospel of God. For the Gospel. Now he is a servant of Christ Jesus. The word he uses is the same word for slave, doulos, but “slave” would imply he was unwillingly bound. No, his whole heart now is freely bound to serve Jesus fully, body and soul. An Apostle. That means he is sent by the one he represents, an emissary, a trustee, a messenger. That is his identity. “Gospel” is also a word Romans were familiar with. Emperors and Generals posted gospels, good news announcements, proclamations. But the author of this gospel is God, and its subject is Jesus Christ. 
 
 We need a little context as we get started. You could spend the rest of your life debating these details, but I’ll just give you the predominate view. Paul wrote this in 57 AD in Corinth on his way to Jerusalem to deliver money he collected from wealthy Gentile churches to support the Jewish churches suffering persecution. This is his third missionary journey. The church in Rome emerged in the Jewish Quarter. We don’t know how, but there it was, led by Jewish-background Christians mixing with Gentile believers. Now, in 49 AD, the Emperor Claudius got upset and expelled all the Jews from Rome, a pogrom, as Jews refer to these antisemitic moments. Not a massacre, but a pogrom of exile, and all the Jews, including Jews who had become Christian, were expelled from Rome and scattered across the empire. The non-Jewish Romans who had become Christians got to stay back; they ran the church in Rome on their own. When Claudius died in 54 AD, Jewish Christians and Jews filtered back into the city. Who’s in charge now? Gentile, Roman believers? Jewish background Christians back from exile? Do you see some of the dynamics? Church is messy, isn’t it?  
 
 This is the church Paul writes. This is the church Paul hopes to visit. This is the church Paul hopes will support him on a great missionary journey to the farthest reaches of the world! Well, Spain. They don’t know Paul. He has never been there. So he writes, in God’s inspiration, this book Romans, outlining everything he understands the gospel to mean. The Gospel of God. “The gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 1:2-4) The mess and struggle is the occasion for a full, inspired, complete account of God’s work of salvation in Jesus Christ. 
 
  The Gospel of God. The author of this proclamation is God, and the subject is Jesus. Jesus was promised beforehand. The prophets foretold his coming. The Holy Scriptures attested to him. Jesus was Son of David. He was fully human, a man as I am a man. A human being born in the genetic line of David, who had been promised by God to be the father of a king who would reign forever. Jesus was Son of God. His resurrection was a proclamation: this Jesus who was born, lived, taught, pointed to the Kingdom, and who was arrested, unjustly tried by Jewish leaders and crucified by Roman authorities and buried, this Jesus rose from the dead. Now we know, by the Spirit of holiness, we know who he truly is, not only Son of David, but also Son of God. Holy and divine. God in the flesh. God incarnate. The only one with the power to live a holy and faultless life and offer that life as a sacrifice for all of us who are unholy and faulty, and return from death to life in glory to God the Father opening up forgiveness and eternal life for all who call on him in faith. Jesus. Son of David in weakness; Son of God in power. Jesus Christ our Lord.  
 
 Do you see this? Actually, the whole gospel is contained in this little introduction. That’s how it ends: “Jesus Christ our Lord.” Jesus is Lord. Higher than Caesar. Higher than Claudius. Higher than Rome. Jesus Christ our Lord. Jewish, Gentile, we all belong to him. “Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:5-6) And here I say, that is us. Most of us are not Jewish by descent, of the genetic line of Abraham, but we are included in God’s promises through Jesus Christ. They were called in Rome to be God’s children. You are called to be God’s children in Colorado Springs. Belong to Jesus Christ here and now. 
 
 That is just the greeting! From me, Paul, “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:7) Rome promised peace. “The Carthaginians are conquered, good news! The Gallic tribes are defeated. Good news! The uprisings in Egypt are subdued. Good news! Pax Romana! Roma Victor!” Paul announces a different gospel, the Gospel of God. Grace and peace, true grace and true peace, are from one place, one source. Where does peace come from in this disturbed world? Many are reeling from the tragic death of Renee Good, who grew up here. Many in our church knew her. People are rising up in Iran; military strikes against ISIS, there’s so much to contend with each day. Where is our peace? Where does it come? Our peace is from God our Father and from the true Lord, Jesus Christ. 
 
 Now the letter begins. “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.” (Romans 1:8) This is the amazing providence of God that turns even bad things into great progress for the Kingdom. The pogrom against the Jews and Jewish Christians served to scatter the gospel of God, and the news of the Christian church born in Rome, the greatest city in the world, the seat of the cultural, governmental and economic universe. Everyone has heard. Jesus is at work right there. Paul, to summarize, wants them to know they are loved by God (verse 7), they are celebrated by the whole church (verse 8), they are remembered by him, constantly held up in prayer (verses 9-10), and Paul cannot wait to be with them (verses 11-12), to see them, to strengthen them, and to enjoy the mutual encouragement of faith in Christ. 
 
 Okay. Phew. That’s a lot. So what do we take from this today at the launch of 2026? “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.” (Romans 1:1) What if you put your name in there? Tim, Matt, Anne, a servant of Christ Jesus. A slave, not by force, but by willing obedience. Sent by God. Maybe not an apostle in the formal sense, but certainly under the authority of the Great Commission, sent with a message, a proclamation to the world. Set apart. Church, we are meant to be set apart. We are meant to be living in a way that provides a contrast. Set apart. “You guys aren’t like the other Romans. You guys aren’t like the other Jews. You are not like the other Gentiles. You’re different.” That’s the church in Rome. The whole world knows about you because stories of your faithfulness to Jesus resound. Stories about how you have a higher, dominating, primary allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ in the middle of Rome, the seat of the Empire, the middle of the most powerful empire the world has ever known, and you live with Jesus as your Lord. You live in the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Set apart. Are we that? A community of contrast to the community of Colorado Springs. A visible witness of the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Set apart…for the Gospel of God.  
 
 The new year brings new questions about the meaning of it all. The year behind and the year ahead, it always brings a moment of, “What is this all for? What am I doing?” The new challenges, the promise of another year of life in a broken and violent world. Imagine if all you planned for 2026 you planned as a servant of Christ Jesus, set apart for the Gospel of God. What would that look like for you? What would that look like for our church? Life is not about filling our time with the greatest pleasures, figuring out what pleases us the most and filling our calendars with it, or even this great, much ballyhooed human errand—finding myself. The journey of self-discovery. The journey we are invited into is a journey for the Gospel of God, and the peace of Christ; the good news published and authored by God himself, the subject of which is this: Jesus Christ our Lord. We live, we struggle, we journey for him. In this is our purpose; in this is our meaning. For the Gospel.