Is your faith real? Here’s how you can tell

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God –  2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures –  3 concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh 4 and was appointed to be the powerful Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. 5 Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles, 6 including you who are also called by Jesus Christ.

7 To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 1:1-7

Introduction

Kids today have it far too easy. When I was a kid, I used to go to school barefoot. Now, I’m not saying that as a joke—I actually literally went to school barefoot as a kid. It’s a true story. It wasn’t a hardship; it made playing soccer before the first bell so much easier. I loved it.

We went to school from Monday to Friday, and then we went to school on Saturday as well. Saturdays were the best day of school. We got to do arts and crafts, learn life skills, and watch the first team play sport in the afternoon.

The boarding school that I went to—all the boarding school children on a Saturday would write letters to their moms and their dads. My dad kept the first letter that he received from me. I was in *Sabii* (which I think many of us can remember is grade two, I guess), and he sent it to me recently. This is how it went—my letter to my dad at the tender age of around seven:

*Dear Dad, thank you for the card you sent me. I saw a film on weasel, minks, otter, and skunks last night. I stayed up watching Terror of the West—it was hilarious. Lots of love, Mark.*

Now, I remember writing the note. I can’t remember the films that I speak about here—it was 40 years ago—but I actually remember writing this particular note. The letter might not be a masterpiece (although my mother says that it is), but it makes the following point that I want to make to you: letters have a structure. Even though my letter isn’t the best letter, it was my first letter; it has a format. I’m guessing that you learned a similar format of letters when you went to school.

The format of my letter: there’s a recipient (“Dear Dad”), and there’s an introduction (“Thank you for the card that you sent me”), and there’s a body—a story about those two movies that I watched—and there’s a closing (“Lots of love”) and a signature (“Mark”).

New Testament letters have a format too. They have an introduction identifying the writer and his audience and giving a general greeting or a blessing. They have a body, and they have a conclusion, often with a general blessing or a benediction at the end.

So in Romans 1 from verse 1 to verse 7, we see the introduction of this letter to Rome. I want you to briefly scan through it with me in your own Bibles. I want you to see something of this structure.

First, the answer to the question: who is this letter from? That’s from verse 1 all the way to verse 6—this letter is from Paul.

Second, who is this letter to? That’s at the beginning of verse 7: the called saints in Rome who are loved by God.

Lastly, Greek letters have a blessing in the introduction, and you can see that at the end of verse 7: “Grace to you and peace which comes from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now, even as you look at that structure of the letter in your Bible, I want you to notice that a portion of this introduction stands out. It’s not just “Paul to Rome and a blessing”—it’s Paul with a long section (six verses) to Rome and a blessing. There’s a reason why Paul spends so much time describing himself and then going on a bit of a rabbit trail to describe something about the gospel and something about Jesus.

That is what I want us to consider this morning. That’s the main idea of the sermon this morning, friends:

**The gospel is a call for all to believe in Jesus Christ—in his death and in his resurrection—and this results in a life of obedience.**

That’s the main idea: the gospel is a call to believe in Jesus Christ, his death and his resurrection, and this results in a life of obedience.

Here’s the road map of what we’re going to take as we look at this passage of Scripture:
1. We’ll look at the first three verses and ask: **Who is the gospel about?**
2. Then we’ll look at verse 4 and answer: **How is the gospel made possible?**
3. Then we’ll look at verses 5 to 7 and answer: **What does the gospel achieve?**

Who Is the Gospel About?

First point: who is the gospel about? Romans chapter 1, verse 1 to verse 3. The answer, I’ll tell you right up front: **the gospel is about Jesus.**

Let’s read that section together in our Bibles:

*Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh.*

Let’s step through these three verses together.

First of all, “Paul, a slave”—that doesn’t sound fantastic in our ears today, but it’s important that we understand the English meaning of that word. Paul didn’t see himself as a coworker together with God, a coworker together with Jesus. He understood rightly who he was in relation to God and in relation to Jesus. The Greek word is *doulos*, and it carries with it the implication of total submission. Paul is totally submitted to Jesus Christ and God.

Then he says, “Even though I’m a slave of God, I’ve been called as an apostle.” Paul has been given the mandate. He is a delegate, a messenger, one that has been sent forth with orders. Specifically, it is applied to the twelve apostles of Christ. Paul references those twelve apostles elsewhere in his writings and says that he is one that has been added, that he is an apostle with a specific mandate—and that mandate is to take the good news of the gospel to Gentiles.

Just a brief word on the difference between Jews and Gentiles. Jesus was a Jew, and Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and all the rest were Jews too (actually Luke was a Gentile, so that doesn’t make sense—the twelve apostles were Jews). But when Jesus came and died on the cross, he didn’t just die for a small people group in the Mediterranean. No, Jesus died for the sins of all mankind, and that included people who are not Jews—we call them Gentiles in Scripture.

For the sake of this morning, let me tell you that each and every single one of us falls into that category. Whether you are pink or blue, black or white, or any color in between, we are all Gentiles. If you were a convert or some of the other folk who have recently immigrated to Israel, you would be Jewish—it’s a nation, a people group. But Jesus didn’t just die for that one nation; he died for us too.

So Paul identifies himself first as a slave and then as a called apostle, and he says that he has been called, that he has been set apart for this reason—for the gospel, for the *euangelion* of God. The gospel is good news. It is glad tidings of the kingdom of God. In particular, the gospel is a message: a message that Jesus died for the sins of man, but he didn’t stay dead. The gospel is good news because the gospel is that Jesus died for the sins of man but he rose from the grave on the third day as the first fruits of salvation. The gospel is the good news that Jesus died for your sin, friend, and that he rose that you might have life.

And the gospel comes with a call—a call to put your faith and your trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior.

It says in our text, in verse 2, that this was promised—this gospel was promised, this person was promised. Jesus Christ was promised beforehand through the prophets in the Holy Scriptures. The Old Testament contains a growing expectation for the Messiah that was to come, the Messiah that would redeem his people, the people of Israel, from bondage. We see that right from the first book of the Bible: Genesis 3:15—a promise is made that from the seed of the woman would come one who would crush the head of the serpent. That promise is extended in Genesis 12, where Abraham is called out of Ur of the Chaldeans and promised that he would have many descendants and all the nations of the world would be blessed through his seed. That promise continues in Genesis 40, where it is promised that through the seed of Jesse would come one who would redeem, who would save, and who would rule with a scepter. That promise continues into the book of Isaiah, where we hear of a mighty counselor, a wonderful Lord and everlasting father, where we hear of a suffering servant in Isaiah chapter 53—one who had come and by whose stripes we would be healed.

The Old Testament contains a growing expectation that the Messiah would come. And now Paul wants the people in Rome to know that that Messiah has a name, and he is Jesus Christ.

We read: “which was promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh.” This promise has a name, and that name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

We learn two things about Jesus in verse 3. First, we learn something of his divinity: he is the Son of God—God from God, light from light, of one being with the Father. Just as God the Father is God eternal, so too is his eternal Son, Jesus Christ, of one essence with the Father.

But not only do we learn of the divine nature of Jesus Christ in this verse; we learn something of the human nature of Jesus Christ as well. It says “descendant of David according to the flesh.” Jesus came into this world, was born of a virgin, and lived a life as a man in this world—fully God and fully man.

Now, because Jesus is fully God and fully man, because the Bible spoke about him in the Old Testament, we can be convinced that he is who the Bible says he is. And that changes everything. This is not just a story; this is a person who demands our attention, who demands our allegiance, who demands our worship.

Who is the gospel about? The gospel is about Jesus.

How Is the Gospel Made Possible?

Now the second point: how is the gospel made possible? Verse 4. The answer right up front is not complex: **the gospel is made possible through the death and through the resurrection of Jesus.**

Verse 4: *“And was appointed the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead.”*

In Acts chapter 2 verse 24, Peter says that God raised Jesus up. In Galatians 1:1 we read that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. And in John 10:18, Jesus says, “I have the right to take up my life again.” In Romans chapter 1 we learn that in addition to the Father raising Jesus from the dead, in addition to Jesus raising Jesus from the dead, the Holy Spirit of God—the Spirit of holiness—raised Jesus from the dead. And he did it in power. The word is *dunamis*—it’s where we get the English word “dynamite” from. He did it in divine power.

“The resurrection of the dead”—you have resurrection and you have dead. The gospel that Paul has spoken about from verse 1 to verse 3 is defined for us even in this short phrase. The gospel is simply the death of Jesus for the sins of man and the resurrection of the Son of God from the grave.

There are many passages in Scripture which affirm the simplicity of the gospel message. 1 Corinthians 15, beginning at the first verse: *“I want to make it clear to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel—the same word—that I preach to you, which you have received, on which you take your stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message that I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”*

Let me give you one other example from 2 Timothy 2:8: *“Remember the man, remember the person, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and descended from David, according to my gospel.”*

The gospel message is not complex. The gospel message at its essence is a simple message: Jesus died for your sins. Jesus rose from the grave. And we see it again in Romans 1:4.

This passage becomes so important at the beginning of the Book of Romans because the Book of Romans is going to speak about the gospel over and over again. It’s going to speak about how the gospel happened, how on earth we could be justified at all, why we need to be justified before God. It’s going to speak about the practical application of the gospel in our lives. Paul in this book is going to speak about the gospel of God.

So why is the resurrection—often we speak about the death of Christ, but why is the resurrection so central to the gospel message? Friends, the resurrection is so central to the gospel message because Jesus is alive. And because Jesus is alive, you and I can have confidence that God may raise us from the dead. Our future hope is secure because he lives.

Now, this isn’t just a historical fact, something to learn, a note to put in your diary. This is proof of God’s power over sin and God’s power over death. Because he rose from the dead, there can be hope for us.

So the answer to the question “How is the gospel made possible?” is this: the gospel is made possible through the death and through the resurrection of Jesus.

What Does the Gospel Achieve?

Our road map: who is the gospel about? The gospel is about Jesus. How is the gospel made possible? The gospel is made possible through his death and through his resurrection. Lastly, what does the gospel achieve? Verses 5-7. Let me tell you right up front: **the gospel achieves the obedience of faith.**

Read with me together, verses 5, 6, and 7:

*“Through him”—that is, through Jesus Christ—“we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles, including you who are also called by Jesus Christ. To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”*

I want to draw your attention to that phrase “among all the Gentiles.” As I said at the beginning, close to the introduction, Paul has been commissioned by God and he has been sent by a local church in Antioch to go on mission to proclaim the gospel message to Gentile unbelievers—to the whole world. And he did so on multiple missionary journeys. Paul hopes now, as he’s writing this particular book, that at a future date he might go and visit the church in Rome and they might become a base of operations so he can go and preach the gospel even further into Spain.

Now, Jewish believers were given to maintain their cultural identity and their traditions. Gentile believers also had their own cultural identity. In the Book of Romans, over and over again Paul is going to stress that our identity isn’t in the clothes that we wear or the actions that we learned as we grew up. Our identity is in Jesus Christ. The gospel is universal in nature, and it is the basis of our faith.

The “obedience of faith” that it speaks about in verse 5 isn’t about ticking a list of rules to earn favor with God. The obedience of faith is a natural response to a life which has been transformed by the gospel. Because we have been made right with God through faith in Jesus, we can live differently—not out of obligation, but out of gratitude and love for him who saved us.

Friends, this is important: true saving faith leads to a life that aligns with God’s will—not because we have to, but because we want to. Good works spill out of hearts that have been changed and that are given to God.

This passage is written to all who are in Rome. Rome is the center of the empire, the place of political power and cultural diversity. Paul’s audience would have included both Jewish and Gentile believers, because those who had been exiled under the previous Caesar had now returned to Rome. In this letter of Romans, Paul stresses the universality of the gospel, and he is eager to visit. Genuine saving faith always produces fruit. Salvation looks like something—a transformed, obedient life.

So what does the gospel achieve? The gospel achieves the obedience of faith.

We’ve looked at:
– Who is the gospel about? It’s about Jesus.
– How is the gospel made possible? It’s made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
– What does the gospel achieve? It achieves the obedience of faith.

Connect to the gospel

Now, how does this passage connect to the gospel? It should be almost self-evidently clear because there’s an explicit reference to the gospel in Romans 1:4. Jesus Christ was appointed to be the powerful Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. That is an explicit reference to the gospel. Paul even called it “the gospel” in verse 3. So taking verses 1-3 into account, Paul is making the point that he is an apostle for the gospel of God. Then as we look at verse 3, this gospel concerns his Son, Jesus Christ, who is both human and divine. In verse 4, his Son died and rose again. And then in verse 6, the response to this gospel is a call—a call to faith which produces obedience.

Application

How do we go about applying what we learn in this text—the gospel message which is revealed—into our own lives?

**For those of you who were dragged here this morning by a spouse** (I’m going to assume there’s one or two that fall into that category), maybe you’re in a backslidden state. Maybe at some stage in your life you professed Christ, but maybe you’ve moved far away from him over time. Maybe you’re a child who’s here with a parent, or maybe you’re a friend who’s here with somebody who’s concerned for your soul. The application of this text—the reminder that salvation looks like something, that obedience comes from faith—is to repent and return to the obedience that faith produced by embracing the gospel message that you believed in at first.

**Not everybody here is in a backslidden condition.** Some of you are new converts. You recently got baptized, or you’re planning on getting baptized in the near future. To you, can I say from this passage of Scripture: I’d like you to see that the gospel is not just the beginning of your faith journey, but the gospel is the transformative power which will produce in you ongoing sanctification. It doesn’t matter if you are a child who has recently put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, or if you are older and you’ve placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The reality is that the gospel you have believed has the power to transform you from the inside out. So study the gospel in God’s Word, meditate on the gospel, and apply the gospel into your life daily.

**Believers—those of you who have been walking in Christ for a while**—just like the apostle in this passage, those who have been entrusted with the gospel must share it. You might be a jar of clay, but you are a jar of clay with treasure inside. And that treasure is the gospel message: that Jesus died for the sins of the world and that he rose from the grave. Share that message with your family, with your friends, with your colleagues, with your neighbors, and with the people that you come into contact with.

**Old saint**—this doesn’t mean “old” as in age; it means a saint that’s been walking in Christ for a while. This call to faith and obedience remains vital regardless of your age or your stage. Continue to persevere and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Now, in a church congregation of this size, I’m not going to assume that every single person here is a believer. So for a moment, if you have not placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior, I’m going to ask for you to pay particular attention to what I’m about to say.

**If you are a rebel**, you are running away from God as fast as you possibly can, and you have been doing so for a while. Even as you read in this passage of Scripture, I hope that you see that the gospel makes transformation in your life possible, friend. The call on your life is the same as the call on the lives of the Roman converts: the call is to hear the good news of the gospel, that Jesus died for your sins and that he rose from the grave. And the call for you is to repent of your love for this world, your love for sin, your love for pride, your love for self, and to cast yourself on Jesus Christ who alone can save you.

But everybody who is an unbeliever is a rebel. It might be that you’re sitting here this morning and you are a “goody-two-shoes”—you do everything to make yourself look good, and yet at the same time you have not yet found God. God can be found, and he is found in a man—Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus, friend, is being presented to you this morning as both fully human and fully divine. And as such, the call on your life is to put your faith and your trust in him. He offers you hope, he offers you forgiveness, and he offers you restoration to the Father.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the gospel isn’t just a message. It’s a message about a person, and that person is Jesus Christ—fully God and fully man. The gospel was made possible by his death and his resurrection, demonstrating God’s power over sin and death and offering hope to all who believe.

And what does the gospel lead to? The gospel produces the obedience of faith—a life which is transformed. Not a list of rules, but a heart which is right with God and a life which is being conformed towards the image of Jesus Christ.

So, friend, where does that leave you? The gospel is not an abstract truth or a theological concept. It’s a call to you even today to respond. If Jesus truly is who he says he is, it changes everything. It demands your attention, it demands your allegiance, it demands your worship.

We are called to live out our faith—not out of obligation, but because we have been changed on the inside by God’s grace. Whether you are a believer, a seeker, somebody who just wandered in or found us on Google, this message remains the same: respond to the gospel. Let the truth of Jesus’s death and resurrection transform your life, leading to a deeper, obedient faith.

That’s what the gospel achieves: a life filled with hope, lived out to his praise and to his glory.

As the main idea I tried to convey to you this morning: **The gospel is a call for all to believe in Jesus Christ—his death and his resurrection—and it results in a life of obedience.**

– Who is the gospel about? Verses 1-3.
– How is the gospel made possible? Verse 4.
– What does the gospel achieve? Verses 5-7.

May God add richly to the reading and preaching of his Word.

Amen.