The most familiar verses of Romans is 1:16-17: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein is revealed the righteousness of God from faith unto faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.”
The word “gospel” means good news, and Paul wrote that he had “been separated” to the gospel: separated unto the proclamation of it. He told these brethren that the gospel to which he had been separated concerned Jesus Christ who was “of the seed of David” according to the flesh, but who was also “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord” (1:4).
Because Paul was separated to the gospel to preach it, he was a debtor to preach that gospel to those who were in Rome (1:15). To preach that gospel to them had been a long-standing desire of his — a desire from the time in which God had said to him, “Arise, and stand upon thy feet, for to this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen me, and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles unto whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:10-18).
And, because Paul was a debtor to preach the gospel which could save both him and the Romans, he was ready to preach it. The years behind when he composed and sent this epistle to Rome, proved his readiness. Immediately after his conversion he preached to those in Damascus, then he went away into Arabia and spent three years there. He then returned and preached again in Damascus, Jerusalem, Cyprus, Asia Minor, and Galatia. He had crossed into Europe and preached in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and Corinth. From Athens he traveled to Ephesus, spent a few days there, travelled to Jerusalem and then returned to Ephesus where he had spent three years. He was ready to preach the gospel anywhere and everywhere. And, although he planned to visit Jerusalem, he planned to go to Spain and preach, stopping by Rome on his way and preach also to them. Yes, he was not only a debtor; he was also ready.
He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for that gospel was the “power of God unto salvation,” and in that gospel was also revealed “a righteousness of God from faith unto faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17). The word “righteousness” found in this passage could describe the character of God, but it was not that righteousness of which the apostle wrote. The righteousness of God which is revealed in the gospel is a way by which man can be made “right with God.” That gospel is the faith which is spoken of here and of which Jude also wrote when he urged his readers to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). There is only one faith for which we are to contend (Ephesians 4:4).
That righteousness revealed in the gospel is secured “from faith unto faith:” from the faith preached to the faith received. If it is by faith through which righteousness is secured, it is from the faith (the doctrine) that faith (belief) originates. Paul wrote, “Now faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). And it was for the obedience to that faith that Paul worked so tireless and diligently (Romans 16:26).
Jim McDonald