#15. Romans 1:16 - Five Reasons Not to Be Ashamed of the Evangel, Part III

 Part II: The Conduct of Humanity

…[the evangel] is God’s power for salvation to everyone who is believing…

Part Five – Who Believe

This takes me to the final point Paul brings: that this evangel is God’s power, into salvation, for everyone who is believing. This is the demand from the evangel, and it is, undoubtedly, the singular requirement on the recipient’s part in salvation.

That being said, it is not expressed anywhere in Scripture that faith is given by anyone other than God. The individual is not said to have to manifest their own faith. You may believe something, but that belief is not your own magical creation.

Read carefully:

“Faith” is not a savior.

Read that again.

Faith is not your savior.

Christ is the Savior.

God explicitly says that this faith is not out of you, and that it is His approach present (Eph. 2:8-9.) The evangel concerns Christ, not your faith.

You did not rouse Christ; therefore you do not decide whether or not you are receiving the blessing that is imparted to you. Without Christ’s action, there would be nothing to believe in. This evangel is not asking you to ‘find God,’ or ‘accept Him.’ It is going to declare something grand, fascinate you with its nature and its glory, and then present you with the same moral dilemma as that of the Israelites when they were delivered from Egypt.

What the Israelites failed to keep front and center (per their own expectation) is that God is goal-oriented. He planned on leading them to their promised kingdom, and establishing them at His promised location. This required a journey across the desert, and unfortunately, they didn’t have planes at the time. They made a major stop at Mt. Sinai for a presentation of the laws that would be established along with the kingdom.

All of this took time. The story, to Israel, looks slow. But it is a much swifter tale on God’s end. His goal, with them, is to establish a nation that will rule all nations, and inevitably reconcile the earth through it. He is speaking the end from the beginning, so this goal has been in effect since before Abraham was given this promise (1 Pet. 1:19-20.)

What does this have to do with you? Well, it takes me back to the shame and humiliation that the Israelites felt they were suffering in the wilderness, and that which Jesus Christ most certainly felt with immeasurably greater force on the cross. The evangel brings with it a shame and a suffering. This is not a trick; it’s a reality check. Just because you are given this good news doesn’t magically mean that life stops being life. In truth, it brings you to an awareness of the lies that are being inflicted on you, spiritually speaking. You see through the ideas of “coincidence” and “probability,” and recognize the deception on the earth. Life’s problems don’t abruptly end, but they are contextualized, through this blessing of belief.

Just as God, even after their deception, is still goal-oriented with Israel (which we will read about later in this letter,) He is also goal-oriented with believers in Paul’s evangel today, who are believing right now.

I believe you have a better idea of the parallel, now. Or, like I said before, you simply may not grasp this immediately! Either is fine with me. If you do not immediately see this (as I didn’t,) it is likely because of the reasons I mentioned before; typically, the pain in our lives, either individually or collectively, blinds us from considering all of this. We initially see what the Israelites saw; a powerful God that, like the rest, will strike you down if you misbehave.

Yet the parallel, for all who are believing, is the same. We (you and me,) are in the wilderness. God is telling us, with this evangel, of His Son. Through this, He will show us the outcome of the story, and a believer’s expectation with it. When we see this outcome, we will look around us, at present, and still think, “Man, but what a mess!” The difference between us, however, and Israel, is that we have Christ to look at. We have an idea of the end-goal, being Christ (the Alpha and the Omega, He is – Rev. 22:13, Col. 1:15-20.)

Notice that the phrase “to everyone who is believing” comes in the middle of the sentence. The thought did not begin with belief, but ends with belief. The evangel is God’s power into salvation, and this is not to be undermined by the idea that we must accept the evangel on our terms, or with our own ideas. The evangel as presented is owned by God, powered by God, and employed by God. Your belief is the effect, not the cause.

This idea blows the religious organizations out of the water. The religious institutions say that the evangel is Christ’s provision on the cross, which leads to your “repentance,” or “confession,” or “acceptance,” or “baptism.” These are all works, according to them, that you must enact, or you are not yet saved. They are, to religious organizations, the proof of your salvation, and you will do one of these things in order to prove that you are saved. Otherwise (they say,) you are not saved yet.

The contingency here is clearly on the individual’s act, not the power of God on the cross. This subtle shift in focus prioritizes you and your act, setting Christ and Christ’s act in the background.

In truth: faith creates nothing. It doesn’t do anything. There’s nothing that a faith deserves. There’s no value in faith. Faith is a channel, a concept. There’s nothing special about faith – apart from its Object.

“Faith” is not a savior.

Read that again.

Faith is not your savior.

Christ is the Savior.

Thus, even when speaking of believers, the emphasis is entirely on God. Paul is declaring you a gift; not challenging you. If it were not a gift, then hey! Boast away! Congratulations are in order! You managed to believe completely of your own free will! This congratulatory effort on man’s part operates opposite the evangel that Paul presents.

George Rogers puts it best, saying, “If I entrust myself to an elevator that I may reach the tenth floor, I contribute nothing to the power that raises me, nor does my ignorance of the mechanism prevent my being elevated to that floor.” I find this thought very powerful. The analogy is clear; it’s not “God’s sacrifice plus my belief = salvation.” It’s “God’s sacrifice = salvation.”

With this, Scripture flips religion on its head. In church, “the big decision” is for you to choose God. In Scripture, however, “the big decision” becomes God choosing you. Whereas religion says, “It’s up to you to decide where you want to spend eternity,” God says, “It’s up to Me to decide where I want you for eternity.” It is not the act of “confession” or “baptism” that saves you; “belief” is itself an assumption of things which are not being observed. This belief is crafted by God, for only God could create such a magnificent truth such as Christ, the Word of God.

*   *   *

In summary, these are the five reasons Paul gives to explain why He is not ashamed of an evangel that has inevitably caused him so much shame and suffering:

1.    The Origin – God

2.    The Means – God’s power

3.    The End – salvation

4.    The Scope – to everyone

5.    The Qualification – faith

The evangel concerns shame, but it does not cause shame. It considers shame, but is not subject to shame.

This is what sets the evangel of God apart from the rest. Unlike man (who, as we considered already, can only truly comment on death in this flesh,) God is able to comment on life, for it is all He perceives, being Spirit. To grasp life, God has graciously granted us the opposite experience first, being death (Ecc. 1:13.)

My conclusion? Do not misconstrue Romans 1:16; Christians love to do this. They spend all this time focused on the words “who are believing” in the middle of the verse, leading them to forget the One that causes the belief. Paul is saying that the evangel’s function is God’s power into salvation to everyone who believes. Salvation is of God. It does not come from some teary-eyed confession, your explanation, or admittance; God already knows everything you’ve done ‘wrong’ anyway (hence the term all-knowing.) Nor is salvation some magical switch that you choose to turn on one day. It is God’s decision to determine who is justified, and He performs this by admitting some individuals into an understanding of His Son (1:3.) Those that believe you must accept this faith on your own terms implies that God can only provide an option, which is, undoubtedly, a significantly weaker plan (“I can’t save you without your help!” said God.) The reality is that the statement above, right there before everyone’s eyes, could not be clearer! To display the idea that we are in control of our salvation is blasphemy, plain and simple.

If you are reading this relatively unknown blog, then I can only conclude (since there has been little to no advertising,) that every single thing that has happened in your life has led you to this backwater place on the internet, where the evangel of God is being unfolded to you. Salvation is the cause, and “all who are believing” is the effect. This is another idea (the “cause” and “effect,” that is,) that we’re going to be seeing throughout God’s evangel. Belief is second to salvation, because, if you’re honestly seeking truth, you cannot believe something unless it is first shown to be true. With this understanding, faith becomes a relative term. You see billions of people regarding faith in <insert thing here> today. A person, a religion, a community, Cookie Monster, etc. Yet here, Paul points out that God’s power is the Object of the faith within Christ.

Throughout this study, I will implore you to grasp God’s authority and superiority, which are two core aspects of the “power” revealed in the theme of Romans, as opposed to relying on your faith in something to save you, as faith itself is revealed here not to be a savior. Our experiences in death are now being contrasted with Christ’s life, to educate us on the Deity of God.

As we proceed, we will be given hindsight – by, in, and for the grace of God. Only His power can truly turn men to Him; not the determination or will of man. Our unrighteousness must be considered in order to be contrasted with this righteousness, and, in a couple of verses, this is where God will begin.

- GerudoKing