GOD'S GREAT NEWS for MAN'S GREAT PROBLEM - Romans 1-8

What will you do ...

This morning I want to begin by asking you to place yourself in the following scenarios. Imagine that you are working for a professional firm, and the president has decided to take you and your work group out for lunch. The president prides himself on his scientific background, and he lives a very loud and loose lifestyle. You are the only committed Christian in your work group, and you have been praying for the people you work with for a number of years. With one or two ot them, you have had the occasional good conversation about things of God, but as of yet none of them have shown much interest. It has been a bit discouraging for you to work in that setting. At the lunch, the president starts to scoff at his ex-wife. He says, "She went off and got all religious. She has committed her life to Jesus Christ. She's now 'born again.'" After the last two words, he rolls his eyes as if she had just smilingly pronounced herself an idiot. There is a pregnant pause after he rolls his eyes, and several of your colleagues turn to watch your response. They know you're a Christian. It's the moment of decision: what will you do ... say something in defense of the gospel, or will you just be silent?

Or maybe you have a very close friend you have known for years and years, and that friend used to claim to be a Christian when you were roommates at school, but your friend has concluded that there is no God. After not seeing your friend for sometime, you get together and revisit the places where you grew up together. As you are walking and talking, your friend boldly claims, "I hate it when people speak about absolute truth. The people who claim there is an absolute truth are way too dogmatic for me. They cause most of the problems in the world." Your friend knows as a Christian you belief in absolute truth, in fact, personified absolute Truth in Jesus Christ. Your friend acts cynical, but perhaps he is hoping for you to make a case for truth in Jesus Christ. You can't know what is behind his bold statements. Another moment of decision: what will you do ... talk about the truth of Jesus Christ, or will you just be silent?

Or perhaps you are playing with your children at the park. Most of the other mothers and parents are stressed out over parenthood, vaguely uncomfortable with how much servanthood the whole thing requires. Perhaps one of them is watching you as a mother, being patient rather than sharp with your children. Maybe she observes how your children mind you. As the two of you start to talk, her tone is mostly complaining. But you listen patiently, and don't complain. Soon, she looks at you and shakes her head, saying, "You seem to be so relaxed. You're so patient. How do you do it?" The moment of decision: what will you do ... tell her how your life and peace comes from Jesus Christ, or will you be silent about Him?

Either Blythe or I have been in each of these situations. In some cases the Lord granted me boldness to speak about Him and the great news regarding Jesus Christ, and in some cases I just plain chickened out, as we all have at times. It is good to ask yourself, "Why I have sometimes chosen to be silent?" I know for certain that each time the gospel comes up in a conversation, it is like a skirmish in an ongoing spiritual war. There is a war on, and our enemy does not like us to be emboldened with our message, nor does he like for us to be equipped for that moment of decision. He would rather make us focus on ourselves, so that we might be silenced by shame. We might be ashamed over the seeming foolishness of the message of the cross and resurrection, which the media scorns these days. We might be ashamed because we think others will reject us or perceive us as "unthinking" or "old-school." We even start to feel ashamed at our own fearfulness. We might be ashamed at our own inability to articulate what we believe or defend it logically. We might also erroneously attempt to predict their response, usually assuming they will reject the message and us. At this stage, our eyes shift off of Jesus Christ, and they shift off of the other person whose need for the gospel is glaring. Our gaze thus narrows onto how "I myself" will be perceived, and nine times out of ten we opt out and choose silence.

Just how can we be emboldened to share in that moment of decision? How can the Lord equip us to share more readily and more confidently? Thank God there is a way to be equipped, to be unashamed of the gospel. Paul tells us about the foundations of his boldness in the two theme verses of Romans, Rom. 1:16, 17.

Theme Verses of Romans

I have grown to love these two verses over the course of the last ten years or so. They have a quality about them like a trumpet blowing the clear tones of heaven. They are a clarion call to the truth we all know, but forget at critical moments. Here are the theme verses of Romans, Rom. 1:16, 17: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed by faith from first to last; as it is written, 'But the one righteous by faith shall live.'"

These verses are the theme verses of Romans because they encapsulate the kernel truths of God's great news. They demonstrate the two primary reasons Paul was so empassioned as an evangelist: because the great news synthesized and focused the power of God like a mighty laser beam into the kingdom of darkness, and because the mysterious righteousness of God that had been veiled through all the sad years of the history of the Jews had been unveiled and revealed for all to see in the public display of the cross of Christ. This great news was for Paul the resolution of many enigmas, about both God and man. In this great news was the promised Answer to many of the questions posed in the Hebrew Scriptures. In it the cry of human misery is answered by God's misery on a cross. Oh Lord, may this trumpet call from heaven call us ever closer to You and to Your truth in the great news!!

Paul's Boldness: I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GREAT NEWS ...

As Paul began this introductory section of the letter to the Romans with three self-descriptions in verse one, so he ends with three self-descriptions in vs. 14, 15, 16: "I am one who owes a debt ... I am eager to preach the gospel ... I am not ashamed of the gospel." In a sense, Paul describes more fully in these verses what he said at the end of verse one: "... set apart for the gospel of God." Paul sees the gospel as a treasure directly from God, entrusted to him, but meant for the Gentiles. He is eager to discharge this debt, and deliver the message. But above all, Paul proclaims it loud and clear that "I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GREAT NEWS ..."

Undoubtedly one of the things that compels me most about the apostle Paul is the note of confidence I hear in his writings. Some of the most beloved verses in the Bible come from Paul's bold hand: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus ... For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord ... For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus." Paul was certainly a confident man.

Yet he was just like us. He too struggled with shrinking back in silence. At least two passages reveal this to us. First, in Eph. 6:18-20, directly following his descriptions of the desperate spiritual warfare we are all engaged in, Paul asks his readers to pray for him. This is Paul's chief personal prayer request, a personal area of struggle for him. He asks them in Eph. 6:19, 20: "And pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." Paul needed prayer not to chicken out in silence, just like us. Second, in Acts 18:1-11, we encounter Paul as a missionary in the strange and very debauched city of Corinth. He feels powerless and small, very alone. He feels as if his message will simply be lost in the sinful clamor of the city. Paul must have been deeply discouraged, because the Lord Jesus appears to him in a night vision and comforts him. Jesus tells him, "Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city." Thus, we know Paul struggled in that moment of decision: would he speak, or would he remain silent?

Yet that struggle seems to be resolved in him as he writes Rom. 1:16, 17. Perhaps he is even reflecting on that night vision years before in Corinth as he writes these bold words in Corinth in the winter of 57 AD. Paul had learned truths that had greatly emboldened him, and he wrote these truths in this passage. This is what compels me about these verses: I pray the Lord may fill our hearts with the same boldness He gave to Paul, the foundation of which is found in Rom. 1:16, 17.

But just what was it that transformed Paul from a frightened missionary in Corinth to a confident herald crying out the gospel wherever he went? What had Paul learned that made him so bold in sharing the great news? There are four things Paul tells us, and I will add one more in light of the passage of time since Paul wrote. Thus, today we learn five solid reasons for not being ashamed of the gospel. May they be like David's five smooth stones that slew Goliath, and may these five smooth stones slay our fear and shame when that moment of decision comes.

Why Not to Be Ashamed: IT IS THE POWER OF GOD ... MADE PERSONAL

In vs. 16, Pauls boldly proclaims, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is THE POWER OF GOD ..." Paul has understood that the great news is the focused laser beam of God's power, cutting through the kingdom of darkness with His brilliant light. The great news is a word of power, the very power of God.

This must have gripped Paul's Roman readers. Power is what Rome was all about. Power was the god of Rome more than Zeus, and more than the Emperor. The Roman legions ruled the world militarily, the Roman legal system ruled the world judicially, and the Roman Emperor ruled the world politically. Romans felt that every important decision was made in Rome, and then followed throughout the world. It was the axis around which the world revolved. On an almost daily basis people witnessed awesome displays of power in Rome: the wealth of her great senators and citizens proudly displayed in glorious villas and incredible grounds; the pomp and circumstance of the Imperial court; the political power wielded by the Senate; the intellectual power of the great schools of the Stoics and other ancient philosophers; the trimphal marches of victorious generals or admirals, or arches erected as timeless memorials to their military prowess; the power of gladiators and wild animals prancing around the Coliseum. Rome was drunk with power, breathing the intoxicating air of the capital city of the world.

And to this city obsessed with power, to these people who knew the vestiges of human power all around them, Paul wrote about true and eternal power. Over and against the power of the Emperor, Paul wrote about the power of God in the gospel. He said, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the POWER OF GOD ..." This concept of the power of God captures all our imaginations. Have you ever sat and considered what the power of God really is? Is it a lightning bolt out of the blue? Is it the rumbling earthquake or the swirling twister? What is the power of God?

For ages, people have been fascinated by the power of God. There is that strange story of the magician named Simon in Acts 8, who was playing all sorts of magic tricks on the crowds of Samaria. We was wowing them, astonishing them with faked works of power, so much so that he earned a certain notoriety. In Acts 8:10, we learn "and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, 'This man is what is called the Great Power of God.'" But the power of God is far more than mere circus tricks. Even in our day and age, we are still compelled by the power of God. I was watching Raiders of the Lost Ark this week, and two times during the early sequences of the film, the ark is cited as containing the power of God. When Indy shows a picture of the ark to a government official, the man asks what is coming out of the ark. Indy replies, "Lightning ... fire ... the power of God." Another man says it is so powerful that it would make any army marching behind it invincible. Then they play that awe-inspiring music when the ark is finally revealed. But the power of God is far more than George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg can imagine. There is something about the power of God that has intrigued humanity since the very beginning.

But here Paul says that THE GREAT NEWS IS THE POWER OF GOD. If we want a Biblical definition of the power of God, here it is: the great news is the power of God. It is God's power to take a man or woman dead in sin and make them alive with Christ. It is the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ unleashed in the dead tomb-like heart of every sinner who turns to respond to the great news in faith. It is the power of God to reverse the terrible effects of the fall of man into the eternal rise of Christ. It is the power of God, making something out of nothing, bringing life out of death. The glory of the great news is that it makes the power of God very personal: it takes my spiritual death and makes me alive in Christ.

Paul explains the power of God unleashed through the gospel on a personal level in Eph. 2:1-7: "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." The power of God is unleashed in the person who was spiritually as dead as a corpse in a tomb, but who is made alive spiritually by the indwelling Christ. This is the power of God, seen in the resurrection of Christ, seen in the resurrection of the believer in Christ.

As exciting as the resurrection of Jesus Christ is, the story of a man or woman resurrected from spiritual death and made alive in Christ today is to me just as exciting. Here is Mickey's story: "This is the story of a woman who needed help. This woman started using drugs and pills at the age of 18. She had four children that she gave up to her family because the dope wouldn't allow her to be the proper mother/parent. She used pills, heroin, and prostituted, and stole to get her drugs. This woman wanted to be a good mother, wife, and daughter, but something inside her kept dragging her to drugs and to the gutter. There were many days and nights this woman desired to go home. But at first her pride wouldn't let her and then she couldn't go home because she had stolen from her family and they didn't want her around while she was still addicted to drugs and the street life.

"On many occasions she had to run for her life, due to dangerous situations that arose while she was prostituting, but still the evil within would not allow her to stop. All the time her mother was praying for her. You see her mother was a Christian and daily she would ask Jesus to save her daughter. But her daughter had to realize that she needed Christ in her life. Finally, with a contract out for her life, because of a long-standing drug debt, she entered into a drug abuse recovery program and surrendered her life to Christ. Jesus accepted her just as she was and slowly began to change her life, attitudes, and behavior. Today, she is happily married to a wonderful husband, she is sober, a drug counselor, and the co-founder of Exodus - a substance abuse recovery home. Christ can make a difference in your life - I know because that woman is me!!" Signed, Mickey Sturdivant.

That is the power of God: to pick up a dying woman from the gutter of prostitution and drug abuse and make her alive in Christ with a vibrant family life and ministry of serving others!!!

So, our first smooth stone to help slay the giant of Shame is this: the great news unleashes the power of God to resurrect the spiritually dead man or woman, making them alive in Christ when they believe. It is the power of God ... made personal. Let's explore more about the crucial nature of believing the gospel in the last half of vs. 16.

Why Not to Be Ashamed: IT IS GOD'S SALVATION FOR EVERYONE BELIEVING

The second smooth stone Paul gives us is this: the great news is GOD'S SALVATION FOR EVERYONE BELIEVING. This is a statement most of us have heard since earliest childhood: the gospel is God's plan of salvation. But it is very easy to forget how radical this is. It is GOD'S salvation for everyone believing. This is the only plan directly and explicitly given by God Himself as the means by which man's fractured relationship with Him can be healed. It is news about God's salvation from the sin which we cannot erase by ourselves.

This immediately sets apart the Christian message. It is not a creation of the mind of man: in fact, the mind of man would never have conceived of a God who would humble himself to the point of utter obscurity and lifelong poverty, who would come to the world he created by the power of his word for the sole purpose of dying in virtual silence, who knew from the beginning about the wholesale rejection leading up to his death, yet who in love died anyway. Who would conceive of such a seemingly powerless figure as the Creator God? And who could have dreamed that this powerless figure would be raised from the dead by the resurrecting power of God, only to turn and release that same power in the lives of everyone who had formerly rejected Him when they believed in Him?? This whole plan is so full of pathos, drama, irony and victory that it far transcends even the greatest human fiction. And it is historical fact, not fiction. All other religions tout more humanly reasonable ways of getting to God: by obeying the Law (Orthodox Judaism), by obeying the Koran (Islam), by following ethical principles (followers of Confucius), by spiritual meditation (Buddhism), or by reincarnation into ever higher spiritual states (Hinduism). These have no scandal attached, no apparent human foolishness. But the wisdom of God is the foolishness of men, so the word of the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ causes men to stumble. Jesus predicted it would. It causes the stumble precisely because it is not of this world. It is of God.

The most scandalous thing about this great news is that it requires no human effort to apprehend. It is God's salvation freely given to the one who believes. There are no racial or cultural distinctions: it was given first to the Jews historically, but is also available to the Greeks (i.e. the Gentile world). It is for rich or poor, strong or weak, cultured or uncultured. This is so scandalous because it erases all false human distinctions, equalizing everyone at the foot of Christ's cross, where salvation is humbly received by faith alone. Riches cannot buy it, family history means nothing in receiving it, racial background is a moot question when believing it, and gender barriers are of no consequence. God's salvation, His resurrection power to make us alive with Christ, is made available to everyone who believes. No questions asked, no background checks required, no credit reports necessary. Only faith.

Let me illustrate how the gospel brought salvation to an intellectual, by faith. This man is one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. He was getting his Ph.D. in Geology at Stanford at the time of this story. His name is Roy. Here are excerpts of Roy's testimony: "I grew up an atheist. By the time I was in high school ... I would arrogantly tell anyone who asked my beliefs, 'There might be a God. There might also be a giant ice cream cone on the edge of the universe. They are both equally probable.' ... This is where I was when I came to Stanford in 1990, where over time I got to know a group of friends. These friends were not just any friends, but people whose lives were saturated by a living force that I could see and feel, but that I couldn't comprehend. This group of people loved and laughed and were living life in such a contagious way, THE WAY, that I couldn't help but wonder what was behind it. It got me very curious. Where did their JOY come from? Why weren't they CYNICAL like so many other people I knew? What was the source of LIFE they had? These friends, and one dear friend in particular, Tim Green, opened my eyes to the Lord, the Lord who is the source of all that is life. ...

"Many of you are probably asking, 'But wait - how were those atheist doubts overcome?' Although no one could prove in a 'scientific' manner that God exists, I discovered that I couldn't DISPROVE that God exists. Frustrated by this, I reluctantly decided to look into the Christian faith. ... It was a big surprise to me to find out that the whole controversy about God's existence has nothing at all to do with science or scientific evidence. In fact, science tells us very little about who God is or His purposes. The evidence for the resurrection and for the power of God in our lives today is more of a legal sort. That is, the argument relies on witnesses, on testimonies. If I wanted to find the truth about the resurrection, I had to look to the witnesses of those people who were there, the contemporaries of Christ, to find out what they said and how their lives were changed. ...

"One of the key pieces of evidence regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the life of Saul of Tarsus. ... Paul had access to all the necessary information to know ABSOLUTELY and WITHOUT QUESTION that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Paul knew the truth and his life reflected it. Paul's life spoke very loudly to me. I could only conclude from the facts of Paul's life and other eyewitness accounts that Jesus Christ was resurrected - Jesus was who he said he was; that is Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, he is still alive, today, HERE, and that if I receive Jesus Christ, I receive God and eternal life. ... In July of 1992, I gave my life to Jesus Christ." And that month we baptized him in the Pacific ocean. This intellectual seeker came to God's way of salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ.

Thus far, we have seen Mickey the drug-abusing prostitute made alive by faith in Christ, and we have seen Roy an arrogant atheist come to Christ by faith. Surely this is God's salvation to everyone who believes, the Jew first and also the Greek, including the drug-abuser and the intellectual. This is the second smooth stone to slay the Goliath of Shame: the great news is God's salvation for everyone, by faith.

Why Not to Be Ashamed: IT IS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD REVEALED

The third smooth stone is somewhat mysterious at first. It is found in vs. 17: "In it the righteousness of God is revealed ..." This brings up one of the hardest terms to define in the Bible: the righteousness of God. This term is so huge it beggars the imagination, and makes any definition seem woefully inadequate. Finding out what it means is also very important, because one of Jesus' most famous commands makes it our first priority: "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:34). Jesus said to seek it in the Sermon on the Mount. At that point in time, it was veiled in mystery, as it had been obscured all throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.

But suddenly, the veil is lifted and the mists of ancient history rolled away. The righteousness of God has been displayed in history for all to see at the cross of Christ. If you want to seek, understand and discover the righteousness of God, look at and contemplate the cross of Christ. Paul develops this theme of the righteousness of God in Rom. 1:17 in his section outlining the cross of Christ in Rom. 3:21-26. There Paul tells us the righteousness of God was manifested and demonstrated at the cross of Christ. To understand the righteousness of God, look to the cross of Christ.

But what is a good definition of "the righteousness of God?" Scholars have argued over this for centuries, some seeing it as God's attribute, some as God's activity, and some as God's allowance given to sinners. But I think it is all three as displayed at the cross. I formally define "the righteousness of God" this way: demonstrated at the cross, it is God's holy yet loving character, judging sin yet saving sinners by giving us His righteousness when we believe. Look to the cross to see God's righteousness displayed in history, for all humanity to see. Look to the cross in faith and discover God's righteousness infused into you, making you like Him!!

Whew! What a difficult term to define. And we are not the only ones to grapple with this tough concept. Here is a story about a young German man who stumbled over this phrase. Martin grew up in a middle-class German home, his father managing some iron foundries, and he was a religious young man: he feared God, believed in Jesus, and religiously went to church. At age 7, Martin went away to school and distinguished himself over his school years, so that he was asked to attend the greatest university in Germany. After completing his M.A. at age 21, Martin then went to Law School. However, after only two months of Law School, Martin decided to enter a monastery. This sudden turnaround came as a result of being struck by lightning, almost dying, and under great terror of death swearing an oath to become a monk if he survived. To Martin, the hard life of the monk was the path to avoid death and earn your way to God. However, his life as a monk was a nightmare, as he almost killed himself with trying to change his heart and make himself right with God through fasting for days on end, lying on stone floors for hours confessing his sins, studying, etc.

One day, while poring over a red Latin Bible in his tower cell at the monastery, Martin stumbled on Rom. 1:17: "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed by faith from first to last; as it is written, 'The one righteous by faith shall live.'" The verse stuck in his mind, and puzzled him. Several years later, Martin was asked to represent his order before the Pope in Rome. Martin was thrilled ... surely in the holy city he would find out how to be right with God. While in Rome, he went to the famous Sancta Sanctorum, in which there was a flight of 28 steps reputed to be the very same steps Jesus went up to be judged by Pilate. The Pope had promised nine years less in purgatory for each step climbed on one's knees when the correct prayers were said. Martin began inching his way up the steps, but suddenly that phrase he had read in his tower cell came back to mind: "the one righteous by faith shall live." He was struck by the power of that statement, and he promptly got up and walked down the stairs. A light was beginning to dawn in Martin's heart ... a change was beginning to occur. Martin was discovering the righteousness of God for himself, as it was revealed in the gospel described by Paul in Rom. 1:17.

This is the beauty of the gospel to me: in our Christ of the cross, the mysterious promises of God are made real in history, His righteous character is no longer enshrouded in mystery, and He is fully revealed for the believer to embrace by faith. With the gospel of God, His mysterious nature is now revealed in the glory and agony of the cross of Christ, His righteous salvation as foretold in Is. 51:4-8 is unveiled, and His righteousness is offered to all who believe in Him!! This is the third smooth stone to slay our giant of silence with: that in the great news, God's righteousness is revealed!!

Why Not to Be Ashamed: IT IS RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH ALONE

In the last half of Rom. 1:17, we see the fourth smooth stone: God's righteousness is revealed BY FAITH ALONE, as a gift in fulfillment of a promise made to Habakkuk. This is one of the central scandals of the Christian faith: that salvation cannot be bought with money, that it cannot be earned with good deeds, that it cannot be inherited through a family line. God's righteousness is imputed to the believer by faith and faith alone. This is what makes Martin's story to compelling to me: if ever there was a man who would have earned his salvation, who we might consider worthy of earning God's stamp of righteousness, it was Martin with all his religious fervor and activity.

But the problem is that all human righteousness is as filthy rags when contrasted to God's righteousness. Our best righteousness is far beneath His true righteousness. So all our religious activity that is not the result of Christ's work in and through us is utterly wasted. It is wood, hay and stubble. It is filth to be tossed in the trash can. Is. 64:6 tells us, "For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment ..." Thus, all our activity done for God without faith is useless, but His righteousness in us will give birth to His righteous activity done through us. The crucial element is faith; all of Martin's feverish efforts apart from faith were done in vain, no matter how religious they looked.

This message is so radical, especially to Paul's Jewish readers, that he underscores his thought with the promise made to Habakkuk back in Hab. 2:4. Habakkuk is one of the most searching books in the Hebrew Scriptures, because Habakkuk's personal journey of faith and prayerful conversation with God is chronicled in the book. It is so searching because Habakkuk asks God very hard questions: how can God judge His unrighteous nation with the even more unrighteous Babylonians? Habakkuk cannot grasp what God is doing, so he tells God he will go to his watchtower until God gives him an answer. His faithful waiting is rewarded by God, who delivers to Habakkuk the secret of life itself in Hab. 2:4: "Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him; but the righteous by his faith will live." Thus, Paul's contention that the secret to righteousness is revealed by faith is not a new idea; it answered Habakkuk's question. It is a question answered, a promise fulfilled.

Martin also discovered this principle. After Martin descended the steps of the Sancta Sanctorum, this phrase "the one righteous by faith shall live" kept ringing in his mind. Afterward, he returned to Germany and became a Doctor of Theology. But it wasn't until several years later, when he was lecturing on the letter to the Romans, that Martin was changed. All his life, he had hated the phrase "the righteousness of God" because he felt that was the attribute of God that condemned him in his sin. But this time he saw the "righteousness of God" coupled with that familiar phrase "the one righteous by faith shall live." Now the light dawned, and the great darkness of his that even a bolt of lightning hadn't penetrated was taken away in power. Later in his life, Martin Luther said this about his conversion: "I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, he justifies us by faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise." Martin Luther allowed the power of God to completely change him by infusing him with God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ.

Thus, we have four smooth stones to equip us to face our giant when we are in the moment of decision: first, the great news is the power of God made personal; second, the great news is God's salvation for everyone believing; third, the great news reveals God's righteousness, and fourth, the great news is that God's righteousness is by faith and faith alone. But there is one final smooth stone we can discover in light of almost 2,000 years of history since Paul wrote these words. Here is the fifth smooth stone:

Why Not to Be Ashamed: IT WORKS! PEOPLE REALLY ARE CHANGED!

Simply put, THE GREAT NEWS WORKS!! It truly changes people. Listen to what Martyn Lloyd-Jones says about this gospel in The Plight of Man and the Power of God, pg. 84, 85: "[Another] reason for glorying in it and boasting of it is that it works -- it is the power of God unto salvation. ... He, Paul himself, had once boasted of the Jewish Law and of his success in keeping it. But he came to see that all of which he boasted was merely something external. ... All man's efforts to solve the problems of life fail, whether they be along purely intellectual lines, or consist in moral effort and striving, or in painful trudging along the mystic way. But the gospel which he, Paul, now preached, works! It had worked in his own life. It had changed and transformed everything. It had brought peace and rest to his soul and given victory in his life." It worked for Paul in Paul's life and through Paul in Paul's preaching.

And it works today. I was struck when I considered how the great news has been at work in Blythe's family, despite all my doubts, over the past eight years or so. I remember back in 1988, how I looked at Blythe's mother's life and declared to Blythe that her mother would be "the last person in the world to come to Christ." She was a self-sufficient overcomer, a woman who raised a family of five children on her own, carving out quite a real estate career in the process. She was a self-made woman. But by Christmas, 1988, she prayed and accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior. I was entirely surprised and utterly delighted. During the early months of 1989, as I watched Blythe's mother's faith blossom and bloom, I had the audacity to say once again that Blythe's strong-willed sister living near Lake Tahoe in Nevada would be "the last person in the world to come to Christ." She had a rebellious streak in her well over a mile wide. But after Blythe's mother passed away from cancer in September, 1989, this sister visited us and came to Christ. Again, I was amazed and delighted at the power of God unto salvation, working to change these women. Some years passed, while I watched the life of Blythe's older sister. She was the true party girl grown up, still partying and drinking, living a wild lifestyle, and scoffing at God and Christians. Again, I shook my head and told Blythe she would be "the last person in the world to come to Christ." But in March 1995, as her marriage was dissolving and she faced her substance abuse, she committed her life to Christ. We took a rose up to her house to commemorate her salvation. And her life is truly changed, as is Blythe's other sister's life, as was her mother's life. The great news works ... even in "the last person in the world to come to Christ."

And it works across time. This may be the most compelling thing to me about the great news. It has been changing people the world over, one person at a time, year-in and year-out, for the last 2,000 years. If it did not really work, if it did not meet peoples' needs, if it was not of God, it would have disappeared long ago. Earlier I read portions of Roy's testimony. Yet I was deeply impacted by how closely Roy's testimony echoes the following testimony from Cyprian, a third-century saint: "This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden, under the shadow of these vines. But if I climb some great mountain and look out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see. Brigands on the high rocks, pirates on the sea, in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds. It is a sick world, Donatus, an incredibly sick world. Yet, in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of this sinful world. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians, and I am one of them." It was the joy and quiet character qualities of those Christians that compelled Cyprian to become a Christian, and it was the joy and quiet character qualities of his Christian friends at Stanford that compelled Roy to become a Christian. The gospel is changing people the world over, as it has for centuries, and those changed people are compelling others to come to the same faith in Jesus Christ. The great news works, across time.

And it has worked to change my life. I remember one day sitting at lunch six months ago with a student who was with me all six years of pastoring at PBC. He asked me all about my family background, about the young man I was growing up before I committed my life to Jesus Christ. After sharing as honestly with him as I could, telling story after story, he shook his head and said, "I can't even imagine you that way. You must have been so different." He only knew me in Christ, after Christ has changed my life; he couldn't imagine me doing the things I was describing to him. It was a golden moment for me to consider the changing work of Christ in my life, through the power of God unleashed in the gospel. The great news works ... it has worked in me.

Now we have five smooth stones. We are now equipped to slay our giant of Shame in the moment of decision to speak or not to speak. Here are the five smooth stones: first, the great news is the power of God made personal ; second, the great news is God's salvation for everyone believing; third, the great news reveals God's righteousness; fourth, the great news is that God's righteousness is by faith and faith alone; and fifth, the great news works ... in whole families, across time, in me.

Conclusion: Speak ... Don't Be Silent!

In conclusion, it is my sincerest prayer that we are all far better equipped to share our faith now than we were when we came in this morning. We have five smooth stones in our hip pockets now, based on Rom. 1:16, 17, the great theme verses for the book of Romans.

But let us move to prayer as we consider what we will do the next time we find ourselves at that moment of decision ... will we speak out about these great truths of the gospel, or will we be silent? Let us not give in to our fears and be silent, but let us breathe a prayer, open our mouths in availiability to God's indwelling Spirit, and speak!! After all, courage is fear that says its prayers!!

Now, let's all rise and recite these two verses together, affirming together with Paul that we are not ashamed of the great news: "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. 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.'"

May we all be as convinced and passionate as Paul, by the power of our indwelling Spirit!! Amen.

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