Bible Study Romans Part 26-Power of God

Safe religion is easy to sell. A baby in a manger draws smiles, holiday nostalgia, and polite conversation. But say the next part out loud, the cross, the blood, the atoning sacrifice, and suddenly people get tense. We sit with Romans 1:16 and ask the question most Christians avoid: are we actually ashamed of the Gospel when it stops sounding cute and starts sounding costly?

We walk through why the Gospel can feel offensive before it feels like freedom. The message doesn’t flatter us. It calls us sinners and, worse, helpless sinners who cannot rescue ourselves. That truth exposes why so many churches drift toward motivational talks and religious self-improvement instead of preaching Christ crucified. We also challenge the common habit of ranking sin into “minor” and “major” categories that quietly teaches God has wiggle room, and we explain why the good news only makes sense when the bad news is faced honestly.

From there we lean into the heart of Romans: Salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, not mere agreement that Jesus existed, not a sentimental Christmas story, and certainly not universal Salvation. We also begin a pointed look at how different traditions define Salvation and authority, and why we insist on letting Scripture set the terms rather than church systems or popular expectations.

If you care about clear Bible teaching, the meaning of Salvation, and the courage to speak about the cross without apology, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review.

Transcript

Why Scripture Matters Most

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Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel. God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries. We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God. We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day. The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold, and we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture. Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible. It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision. Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us. It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word. We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death. In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death. Never treat what God has said lightly. There's truly nothing more important to you. Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

Not Ashamed Of The Gospel

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And we're also learning about what that actually means, what salvation actually means to us. And Paul is using various methods in this letter in order to get that message across. Romans 1:16. Paul tells us, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. That's what Paul says. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

The Manger Is Safe Talk

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What about you? What about me? You know, it's never very difficult to find someone who's willing to have a conversation with you about the baby Jesus in the manger. People will engage with you on that. No one has any animosity toward that. How could they? It's a cute little baby boy. No one's gonna scowl in your direction disapprovingly for bringing up such a harmless creature. Have you noticed that? They don't mind talking about that. No one minds talking about that. Seems so innocent, so whimsical, and not at all intrusive into my life. But the mistake of taking that conversation past the manger and onto the cross, you're going to stir up some strong emotions. I'm convinced that we've lost listeners to this program because I've said on the air that the obsession with Christmas is unnecessary and unscriptural. The birth of Jesus was hardly spoken of before about the year 400 A.D. That's the that the earliest Christians could not have cared less about what day he was born, but they sure know what know what day he died. They all knew when he died. All of that's changed now. Yeah, I guess we say we celebrate Easter, but let me challenge you to not hide eggs or give out chocolate bunnies or put jelly beans in a basket and see what happens. You know, this year, kids, we're not going to watch Here Comes Peter Cottontail, but instead we're gonna sit down and we're gonna watch the greatest story ever told, or Ben Hur, or The Passion of Christ. Even the wife's gonna give you the stink eye over that one. She's gonna say, come on, honey, isn't that a little too bloody? No, it's actually the right amount of bloody. And that's part of the problem. No one wants to talk about the blood. It's gross, it's terrifying. And listen, this isn't some group of heathens working against this symbol of Christ's sacrifice. This isn't a biker gang out in California trying to rid the world of the gore of the gospel. These are your church leaders taking references to the blood from the liturgy. Hymns that mention the blood, strike them out. Sermons on the sin offerings, skip over them. I'm not a fan, but at least the Catholics have the guts to put a dying

Why Churches Avoid The Blood

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savior front and center with their crucifixes hanging above the altar. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Listen to me. Paul doesn't forget, he doesn't mind saying these things to Christians. I can't help but get a sense of sarcasm here. Christians of all people had to be given a gut check concerning their feelings about the gospel. It's pretty obvious to me that at least one or two of those Romans had to be called out for their attitude towards the gospel. The good news. What are we doing being embarrassed by good news? Because it doesn't hit everyone as good news. In fact, sometimes the opposite, as Paul described in the letter to the Corinthians, the second letter to the Corinthians, to the one the savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life. In other words, the gospel is life to some and death to others. No wonder there's enmity between the human, the carnal mind, and God. Hearing that it's all of Christ that saves us is stinging to the person who likes to think they got what it takes. In fact, they hate the suggestion because it's insulting. It was certainly insulting to many of the Jews of Paul's day. Don't forget, so much of this letter is aimed directly at Paul's own countrymen. Now he'll get much more into this later, but the typical Jew found comfort, eternally secure comfort in the notion that he was a Jew. He was special to God simply by way of his genetic makeup, and that's all it took. Throw in a couple of rituals, circumcision as a baby, going to Jerusalem a few times a year, and boom, you're God's favorite. Listen, Paul's sarcasm is no accident. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, he says. Some of those Jews were, even after declaring for Christ. I'll say it again: this isn't a rebuke of some godless communist country. God didn't write, Paul didn't write to the godless nor the communist. Paul is scolding a church. We need that same scolding today, worse than ever. Listen to me.

Popularity Versus The Cross

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If you plan on being a popular preacher, do not preach the gospel. Though you may be popular, they may even knock down the doors to get in, but it won't be because you're a preacher. Unless you're preaching the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross, unless the blood is a typical topic from your pulpit, then you're not a preacher. You're a philosopher. And philosophy is very attractive. Say just the right thing and just the right way. Add in a little somber organ or piano music. No, no, no. Make it violins, and they will fill your building for a while. You'll get interviewed by Oprah. She'll ask you to bring on the family with you, talk about the state of the nation, get you to tell people how they can be happy and equal and successful and stress-free. But look, if you want to get asked back, don't mention the cross. You can mention Jesus. She'll probably expect you to do that. But you know, calm down, water him down a bit. I mean, go ahead and talk about how nice the guy was, mention how much he understood us all, how we he's not really interested in getting too involved in the way we live our lives, all of that. And make sure, for goodness sake, for popularity's sake, make sure you use the past tense when talking about Jesus. Don't be a weirdo and make everyone think you believe he's still alive and relevant. They'll never come to you again if you try to convince them that Jesus is active and watching. Talk about him like he's some character in the Lord of the Rings, you know, really cool, but mostly fiction. She'll eat that up. But then once that's over, she'll likely steer you away from the topic of Jesus for fear you're gonna slip and mention the blood. Do not mention the blood, and the interview will get picked up on the AP wire and Reuters, maybe even a BBC. Then just watch the crowd stream in. They'll fight to be seen with you. They'll want to be your friend, you know, your confidant, you know, so they can brag about you. Sometimes, you know, pastor gets a little down, so he'll call me to, you know, give him a pep talk. So I tell them, you can't have your nose in that holy book all the time. Am I right up top, you know? And then eventually they'll love you so much that you'll have to add a third service, build a child care facility, upgrade the AV, of course. Keep the blood out of the conversation, and they're going to there's going to be book deals and political endorsements and speaking engagements. But let me warn you, once they realize that the things they're saying to them are no different than the world is saying to them, they'll figure, why am I taking up my Sunday mornings at church when I can get this same stuff Friday night in the bar? Talk about a happy hour. A few times over the years, Catherine has suggested we find a building somewhere and start a church. Yeah, it would be a dream for me, but I won't do it because I want to preach the gospel. I'm not ashamed of it either. And let me tell you, this day, these days it's really tough to pay the rent with that kind of attitude. If someone else wants to pay the rent and hire me to be the preacher, then fine. But I will not burden this ministry with constant, unending fundraising just to keep the lights on. And unless I compromise on this, we're gonna be preaching in the dark. This message will not pay the bills. This message will not fill a building anymore. Maybe it will again someday. I don't want to say revival isn't possible, but it's never in the history of the church been so difficult as it is now for a Bible preacher to get anywhere. I'm sure some of you are thinking, well, maybe if you were better at this, you might have a better response. Maybe, but thank God the spread of the gospel doesn't rely on my preaching skills. Jesus is enough. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Helpless Sinners And Fake Scales

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What does the gospel say? It says you're a helpless sinner. That is an outright insult to the natural man. I mean, the accusation of being a sinner is bad enough, but the gospel says you're a helpless sinner. Now that's more than most can take. Of course, no one's going to claim to be perfect. They'll say, well, you know, I've made my mistakes. I'm no angel. They'll admit that, but they don't see that sort of thing as rising to the level of sin. And listen, I don't think it's very often their fault. The church is to blame. We've been peddling this nonsense about the degrees of sin for a thousand years, and it's done nothing but satisfy the fleshy man, and that's why we do it. I don't know when it happened, but the moment the church decided to categorize the severity of different sins, the start was the start of it all. When I was a kid, there were venial sins and mortal sins. I suppose there still are. Just as a side note, whenever I talk about this, I can never remember venial sin. Everyone knows what mortal sin is, but most people don't even give venial sin a second thought. Obviously, I never did, or I would remember what they were called. I had to Google it just to remind myself of the name. Venial sin means minor sin. Mortal sin, as you know, as we all know, means severe sin. Venial minor, mortal major, or severe. This is but one outcome of the outrageous practice that no one can remember what venial sin is. You see, the minute you start telling people that some sins are okay, but others aren't, you create in the mind a sense that God has some measure of tolerance for our poor behavior, that there's some wiggle room in our questionable choices. Of course, that probably wasn't the intention of those who came up with the system. They didn't want people to get the impression that God's going to allow certain things and not others, but that's what you get when you cater to the flesh. When you try and soften the effect sin has on our relationship with God, any sin, then you risk instilling a sense of permissiveness. When we think that there's some sliding scale in sin, only the sinner benefits. And listen, none of it is scriptural. In God's word, the only thing we're told is that we're all sinners, and a miss is as good as a mile. But that's not a popular message. It's a message that some preachers are ashamed of preaching. It's gonna hurt the people who hired me to be their preacher, and I can't afford for them to be hurt. But as difficult as it is to tell people that we're all sinners, the true heart of the gospel, the reason we have the gospel, the reason it's good news is that we're all sinners who can do nothing about being a sinner. Again, you may be able to convince people that they're sinners, but you'll never get them to admit that they're unable to change that. So what's supposed to be good news only goes into the ears as something to be ashamed of. And I've gotten to the point where I can tell whether or not that good news is getting preached in any given church just by driving by on Sunday mornings. First of all, in America, I can almost guarantee that in most churches it is not. But I can say with almost certainty that if the parking lot outside the church is full, then they are not preaching the true gospel. There may have been a time, actually, there was a time when the gospel filled churches, but it doesn't now. And I'm not sure it ever will again. You know why? Because most preachers are ashamed of it. Listen, you have to have guts to say that we were lost before Christ came to save us, that we would have had no hope had He not died for us, that I had no chance of getting to know God in any way other than as a wrathful king who's had enough of me, and that little or big, my sins would remain unforgiven forever. Telling anyone that, telling anyone that they're vile and useless and hopeless in any context, is only going to get your ears boxed. And the gospel is not the gospel. The good news is not the good news, unless you include all of that. I can't help but to think that Paul's other rebuke, the one he gave over in his letter to the Galatians almost 2,000 years ago, is just as applicable to us today. I marveled that ye are so soon removed from him that called you under the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Listen to me. Most modern preachers don't have the commitment to Christ to honor him by preaching the gospel. The one that says, He died for us lousy sinners, because that message would clear out their churches. They like packed pews, even if with me first, don't you dare call me sinner, sinners. They're ashamed of the gospel of Christ, and that doesn't seem to bother them. And listen, if I'm wrong, show me. Okay, here and there, there may be exceptions. I can think of a couple of places that faithfully preach the gospel to a packed house, but it's rare. Anyhow, let's keep moving. We're actually not done with this verse yet, not even close. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Faith That Saves And God’s Power

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The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. The theme of this letter is being developed even all the way back here in Paul's introduction. Over and over, the words Christ and salvation and faith, or in this case believe, are appearing together. Actually, in the original, the words faith and belief are practically the same. Believe translates pistu, and faith translates the word pistis. As you can tell by just looking at the words, they share a common foundation. In fact, in many parts of the New Testament, pistuo and pistis seem to be interchangeable. But we are Hebrews 10 39 is an example, but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe. Saving of the soul. You get the point. Before we're through with this letter, you will be convinced that the gospel is salvation by faith or through faith only. That is the gospel. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Salvation belongs to those that believe. Now let's be clear. This isn't just believing that there was a person named Jesus and that some people called him Christ. That's not what's going to save you. That's not what the gospel is. The faith, the believing that leads to salvation is believing that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the sent one. That's what the Christ means, the anointed, the sent one. And he was sent by God to rid the world of our sins. That's the kind of believing that leads to salvation. Not in the historical Jesus, not the Jesus in the manger, the baby Jesus, just believing that's not going to change anything. You have to believe the purpose he came here was not so we could have a party on December 25th, but so that he could die for your sins. There are lots and lots of people who believe that Jesus was a real person, but they do not believe that the purpose of his coming was to die as our substitute. Some believe that Jesus is, you know, such a nice guy that we should all be like him. And if we aren't, well, maybe we should work harder, especially if we want to get to heaven. That's not the gospel of Christ. That's found nowhere in the Bible. The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation. For everyone that believeth, he is the atonement. He is the covering for their failures. Now, Paul will expand on this greatly throughout the rest of this letter, but for now he's just introducing it, and I'm making sure that before we get to the meat of his argument later on, that you're prepared to whatever extent that's possible. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So although he was maybe being a bit sarcastic or even accusatory, he was sincere. He meant it. Paul wasn't ashamed of the gospel of Christ. By the way, interestingly, not all of the manuscripts have these two words of Christ, but it doesn't matter, does it? Do you think that by now those Roman Christians were confused by what Paul was saying? What did he say? I think he's talking about the gospel. What gospel? Even though it had only been about 30 years since Jesus was resurrected, this word gospel had already taken on the only meaning it would ever have for the rest of human existence. He may not have said the gospel of Christ, but even if he didn't, they knew. Especially if he was saying he wasn't ashamed of it, because there's really only one set of good news that could possibly elicit a negative response, and that was the good news of Christ. The world had already turned against that good news. And so referencing shame and good news in the same sentence could only mean the gospel of Christ in this rotten world. Though others may be, though others are. Paul is not ashamed to preach that gospel wherever it may take him. But why? Why aren't you ashamed, Paul? Not that you should be, but what is it about this gospel that makes you say such things about it? Well, can you believe it? It's the power of God. That's why I'm not ashamed. This isn't just some philosophy made up to make you a happier person. This wasn't just something someone discovered like a healthy drink or a new exercise to flatten the tummy or help you sleep at night. This gospel comes straight from God. This is his power. You know, when I hear it put this way, it invokes in my mind intention. This is God injecting himself into our reality and doing something for us himself. He is purposely using his own infinite abilities to facilitate our reconciliation with him. It is, as Paul puts it, the power of God working towards salvation. His power for salvation is directed for everyone who believes in his son's work on their behalf. No, the power is not available for everyone. That's the fallacy of so many in the church. This isn't universal salvation. There is no such thing. All dogs may go to heaven, but all humans don't. That could not be clearer. To believe that everyone gets saved means you have ignored Romans 1:16. God's power for salvation is sitting there waiting for you to believe. If you and I walked into a dark room, me first, followed by you, perhaps you'd ask me, is the power on in this building? I can't see my hand in front of my face. Why so many people are looking for their hands in the dark? I have no idea. Anyhow, I'd respond to you. Yeah, there's power to the building. Just flip the switch. And if you choose to do anything else, you're going to stay in the dark. The power is available, but you have to follow the proper steps to apply it to your situation. If you decide that you're not the switch-flipping type and instead decided to turn on the lights through interpretive dance, well, you may feel good about your abilities, about yourself, but eventually you're going to bump your head, and in the end, you'll never light up the room.

Scripture Versus Church Authority

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You know, growing up in the Catholic Church, oh boy, here he goes again, bashing the Catholic Church like he always does. I don't always bash the Catholic Church, but yeah, I'm going to do so here. Growing up in the Catholic Church, we never really got a full understanding of what salvation actually is. We got a partial understanding of it, mostly that we needed our sins forgiven, but not much more than that. It wasn't until I started hearing the Bible taught to me instead of church doctrine that I really started to understand the depth of this word salvation. You see, as a Catholic, you're taught that mankind is a race of sinners, but they, and they do acknowledge that, by the way, they do acknowledge the concept of original sin, which large swathes of the Protestant church deny, not the Catholics. They will make you realize, with no uncertain terms, that human beings are sinners, that we're all sinners, except for maybe a select few. They canonize those, but for the rest of us, we need our sins dealt with. But here's where they veer off in the wrong direction. Jesus is taught as the Savior, as the one through whom we've received salvation, but then their doctrine gets a little murky. If you ask how Jesus is our Savior, how he is the one who provides our salvation, the answers actually quickly turn away from him. Well, they say, Jesus came to this earth to show us how to love and live a good life. And then he commissioned the church to enforce his standards. In fact, he even bestowed on the church, you know, the Pope and the Archbishops, all the way down to your parish priest, he bestowed on the church the power to actually forgive sin, thereby becoming the agent of salvation. Now, the reason this is entirely wrong is there's not a bit of scriptural truth in it. Now, John, should that really matter? Now, of course, no one here would ask me that question, but it had been asked by some in the Catholic Church in the early days of the Reformation, for example, when Martin Luther and John Kelvin and those other godly men started challenging the Catholic Church on their stance on salvation. The strategy of the protesters, the Protestant leadership, was to turn to the Bible as the authority on not only this matter, but on all things that pertained to mankind. Well, the Catholic Church did not, well, let me say, fully agree with that. The official position of the church at the time, and not much has changed, was that although the Bible is a blessed resource for humans to develop their relationship with the Almighty and each other, you ready for this? Although that's true, they stated that it was not the only resource. In fact, though the sacred writings are valuable, the true authority is the church. And whatever the church says on salvation, and again, any other matter pertaining was law. And to bring this section back to the topic of salvation, the church decreed that if the sinner did certain things, they would be granted salvation by the church. Now I'm certain that this discussion is starting to make people angry with me. It happens from time to time when I bring this sort of thing up. But I challenge you. Those of you who disagree with me and support the Catholic Church's position on salvation, I challenge you to show me in Scripture where I'm wrong. Now let me warn you, I know all your arguments. Nothing you can tell me from Scripture that I'm not prepared to demonstrate where you're going wrong. You know what? Perhaps the best way to deal with this is to go over what salvation actually is. Let's clear the slate and start over. And this will be my rebuttal to any argument regarding whether or not any other view of salvation is valid. And let me warn you again, I'm going to use scripture for this. I'm going to use scripture as my definition of salvation. That's how we will approach this. You want to call it an argument. But you know what?

Pause Now And Continue Next Time

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We've already been at it quite a while today, and this is a huge topic. So let's stop for now and we'll pick it up right there next time. See you then.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

We hope this study has blessed you. God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption. It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners. Please join us again soon. New content is being added all the time, so make sure you check back often. For more information on Chapel Ministries, including our YouTube channel and podcasts, please visit www.chapelontheweb.com. And if God has laid it upon your heart to share materially with us, we encourage you to follow the links to our secure giving page. Please note, Chapel Ministries is not an IRS registered nonprofit organization, and your donations to this program are not tax deductible. It's our hope that you do not rely on taxing authorities to decide for you who is worthy of your generosity.