Two Verses That Shook The World

By John Stallings


Certain verses in the Bible are so familiar to Christians that they require no introduction.
We know them, we love them & their words are etched in our hearts.
They are called “The great texts of the Bible.” Here are a few;

John 3:16
Romans 8:28
Psalm 23
Roman 3:23
Romans 6:23
Psalm 103:1

Now let’s include- “The two verses that shook the world.”

Here they are;

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.-Romans 1:16-17

These two verses describe the most transforming truth ever to grace the ears of mankind. Martin Luther was so shaken by them that he said,

“When by the Spirit I understood this passage-the just shall live by faith- then I felt born again like a new man. I entered through the open doors into the very paradise of God.”

These two verses shook him to the very marrow of his bones & turned his life upside down. It’s no wonder that he could no longer remain a monk at the monastery in Erfurt. Once the blazing truth of justification by faith set a fire in Luther’s soul, it burned so hot that it ignited a fire that eventually spread across Europe & to the ends of the earth.

Indeed these verses were the catalyst for birthing the Protestant Reformation. It was sparked by Romans 1:16-17. If there were no other reason than what these words did to & for Luther, they would be worthy of careful consideration. But wholly apart from Martin Luther, these verses demand our attention because they form the theme of the book of Romans.

If we don’t understand these verses we’ll have a problem understanding the rest of Romans. They constitute the quintessence of Paul’s theology. It is the reason he wants to go to Rome. More than that- the verses epitomize the heart of evangelical theology. As we’ve said, these two verses of scripture launched the Protestant Reformation & most clearly explain the difference between evangelical Christianity & the Roman Catholic Church.

NOT ASHAMED

Paul begins by making the amazing statement…. “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.”

A synonym for ashamed is -embarrassed. Some folk are happy to be a Christian as long as they can be “Secret Service” Christians. They don’t want to be embarrassed by coming out with a clear-cut testimony for Jesus Christ.

There are a lot of things that we can be ashamed of. We all have things in our past we’re not exactly proud of. We are often ashamed of our bodies. Our bodies are too fat, too skinny, too wrinkled, too many freckles, too dark or too light. And don’t those pimples know just when to show up to cause the most embarrassment?

We can be ashamed of our behavior. Most of us have had the experience of being a dinner guest & accidentally knocking over a glass of water on a nice clean table cloth. Or you reach for the gravy & it dribbles all over the table. Or maybe you spill coffee on a recently cleaned carpet. All of us have social experiences where we have felt embarrassed by our behavior.

I went to pastor a church one time in a very prestigious city. As a matter of fact the city was the capital of the state & the church was quite an old church with a rich history. We were invited to have dinner one evening in the home of one of the main families of the church. We expected to be graciously welcomed & treated royalty. We weren’t disappointed. The atmosphere was on the formal side & everything was done “to the nines.”

After a time of fellowship we all sat around a splendidly set table & the sumptuous meal began, served in courses. Half-way through the meal I did something I’d never done before, nor have I done it since. As the meal progressed everyone relaxed & we began to share “funny” stories. Well, something was said that struck me funny. Unfortunately I had food in my mouth at the time & in an uncontrollable spasm, I spat it out on to that magnificent table. There are no words to explain how ashamed, embarrassed, & humiliated I was. The damage was thankfully minimal. I excused myself & cleaned up as best I could, our host graciously cleaned up the mess & the evening progressed undaunted. My wife & three young daughters were sitting at that table & I know they would have loved to disappear if that had been possible. I had recurring nightmares about that incident for years. Oh the burning shame of it all.

Maybe we’re embarrassed by certain aspects of our personalities. Maybe we cry too easily, or laugh too loudly or we can’t remember jokes, or we feel we’re too bland & tend to blend in with the wallpaper. We can be ashamed of our families & families can be ashamed of us.

You may remember a few years back when actor Mel Gibson was arrested for drunk driving. Gibson was belligerent with the police, made anti-Semitic remarks saying things he didn’t mean & acted like a complete jerk. I heard him say some time after this that he’d finally gotten some help for his alcoholism after this incident. He continued; “everyone has their threshold for embarrassment & loss of dignity. Mine happened to be, - to be humiliated on a global scale.”

I’m ashamed that my country who declares “In God we trust” won’t allow prayer in school.

 I’m ashamed that most any religion can get a fair hearing in America, but Christianity is constantly minimized, dismissed & derided. I’m ashamed of leaders who seem to be ashamed of this great country. I’m embarrassed by a Speaker of the House who this week told people; “now that we have health-care, they could leave their jobs & pursue their dreams knowing that the government was providing health care.” My question to the Speaker is—“Don’t people have to eat too & pay their bills as well as deal with the tax tsunami that’s coming?” I guess she’d answer that the government also has some other very fine give-away programs to feed those who don’t prefer to work. All I can say is - this woman has a very bright future behind her.

There’s a commercial on television getting a lot of airplay lately sponsored by iamnotashamed.org. It features young & old, black & white, American & International, who joyfully proclaim, “I am not ashamed of the gospel.” It’s one of the few commercials that I don’t tune out but instead give it my full attention from beginning to end. It puts a smile on my face each time I hear the Gospel proclaimed right down to hearing the Scripture reference from Romans 1:16.

As much as I love this, realistically, the world as a whole is & has always been hostile to the truth that is in Christ Jesus. I was watching Fox News recently & a panel of folk, most of whom I like very much was discussing the latest Obama pick for The Supreme Court. I believe her name is Kagan. I have no idea what the sexual orientation of the women is, but the panel was discussing it. The conventional wisdom seemed to be that Americans didn’t have the right to ask that question of the woman who will be a lifetime appointee. Even Obama has to answer to people every day of his administration but if this woman is elected, she’ll answer to no one until the day she dies. It’s very likely that someday before long this court will be asked for a ruling on “Gay marriage.” If this happens, in all probability the definition of marriage will be changed for the first time in our history.

It’s interesting that we who hold to the historic, traditional, Biblical position on morality in regard to the homosexual agenda are quickly labeled “Homophobic.” Franklin Graham who has courageously addressed the issue of violence as the means to a goal in the Islamic religion has been called “Islamophobic.” If you want to know the truth, the problem with our nation is - people are “Truthophobic.”

Paul’s pride in the gospel he preached is even more amazing when you think what the gospel had done to him. Paul had been imprisoned in Philippi, chased out of Thessalonica, smuggled out of Berea, ignored in Athens, laughed at in Corinth, & stoned & left for dead in Lystra. Paul, how can you even dare to come to Rome with a record like that?

Rome! The heart of the empire.
Rome! City of philosophers & poets.
Rome! Home to every conceivable idol.
Rome! Seat of emperor-worship.
Rome! Center of intellectual arrogance.
Rome! City built on war.
Rome! The Greatest city in the world.

Paul, what makes you think you can survive in such a place? The answer to that question is wrapped up in these two verses. When we get through with this piece, hopefully we’ll have a better insight into why Christianity is so feared in our time.

THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL
PAUL SAID, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for Salvation….

I’m reminded of a story of a vacuum cleaner salesman who went to a farm house to demonstrate his cleaner. A lady met him at the door but was hesitant to allow him to come in. The confidant salesman brushed by her, talking a mile a minute. The lady said….well, wait a minute…but the man was determined to demonstrate his cleaner. He dumped ashes out of his bag in the middle of the floor, & garbage & junk & everything. He said- “mam, if this vacuum cleaner doesn’t suck this all up in two minutes I’ll eat this trash with a spoon.” Finally the lady got a chance to speak & she said— “Well, you’d better start eating, we ain’t got no electricity.” No power!

The Apostle Paul wasn’t ashamed of the gospel because he knew it had power. After all, look what it did to him on the Damascus turnpike.

What does this powerful gospel do? It saves sinners. What else will save sinners? Not science, not education, not moral reformation, not fame & fortune or money. Think about it; the gospel & only the gospel saves sinners.

We sometimes think of salvation as past tense but here Paul is thinking of salvation in all three tenses—past—present & future. The Greek word salvation is SOZO, translated “saved.” SOZO means “to save, to make whole, to preserve, or make safe. Thus the word salvation is an all-comprehensive word & it includes all the benefits of the cross & the operations of God’s grace.

The gospel has the power to;

FORGIVE SINS [past]
IMPART NEW LIFE [present]
ADMIT INTO HEAVEN [future]

THOSE WHO BELIEVE

Now Paul tells us how salvation saves sinners;

….the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who BELIEVES!
The word –BELIEVE- means to make a personal commitment, to trust by an act of the will. It’s never enough to just hear the gospel; eventually you have to respond to it one way or the other.

Let’s suppose you weren’t feeling good & went to the doctor to find you had a rare disease with only one cure. The doc was very clear that the disease was absolutely fatal & there was only one medicine that could cure you. So you got your prescription filled & took it home, placed it on the table & forgot about it.

What will happen to you? If you don’t take the medicine you’ll surely die. The bottle of medicine can stay close to you on the table but that won’t help you. The medicine is yours because it was especially prescribed for you & has your name right on the bottle, but that won’t help you either. If you don’t ingest the medicine they’ll be having your funeral in a few days.

The gospel of Christ is the only medicine that can cure what ails us but if we don’t ‘take” the medicine there’s no hope for us. It’s no wonder Paul wasn’t ashamed of the gospel. No wonder he felt so honored to be able to preach about it & write about it.

THIS GOSPEL HAS THE POWER TO SAVE ANYONE & EVERYONE!

This marvelous gospel works on everyone who’ll believe it. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone regardless of, race, education, age, income, skin color, family background, religious preference, or moral standing.

This is the set of verses that turned Martin Luther’s life around, & in the process turned the world upside down. Let’s go further. In the gospel, a righteousness of God is revealed to us, a righteousness which comes only by faith.

If we study this closely, we see that Paul is using legal terms here that come right out of the courtrooms of the ancient world. Righteousness means “not guilty, innocent of all charges.” If we are righteous in God’s eyes we can stand before Him & be declared “not guilty.” Do you see how great the gospel is? It provides for us what we could never provide for ourselves. Nothing or anyone else could provide it either.

FAITH ALONE

When Paul wrote, -The just shall live by faith, he’s saying this great gospel will save if an individual places their faith in it.

Faith alone! Not by works of the law.
Faith alone! Not by keeping a list of rules.
Faith alone! Not by baptism.
Faith alone! Not by good intentions.
Faith alone! Not by sacraments.
Faith alone! Not by penance or almsgiving.
Faith alone! Plus nothing -& minus nothing.

I grew up in a religious environment that stressed the “does & don’ts” of the Christian life. Even as a young preacher, if I preached a sermon that seemed to lean toward grace rather than legalism, I’d be looked at with a somewhat jaundiced eye. The thought was— “if a preacher talks too much about grace that meant he was hiding something in his life. If you as a preacher are really right with God then you can “stand & deliver” & preach it straight.”

They would get off onto an extreme now & again but for the most part I still believe most of what the old-timers believed. Most of it had to do with personal modesty & integrity & walking out the biblical principles of holiness. Nothing wrong with that, as a matter of fact, we need more teaching like that these days. Yes, there’s our part in this salvation. There are things we must do & must not do.

Listen to Titus;

Who gave himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity & purify unto Himself a peculiar people Zealous of Good Works.- Titus 2:14

Does the above verse contradict Paul’s statement? If salvation comes by faith alone, don’t we still have to bring forth good fruit? Don’t we have to have some works to show that we’ve truly been born again? Yes we do!

However, IMHO, here’s where some get off the reservation - “getting the cart before the horse.” Listen to Revelation 14:13;

….Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth; yea saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors: and their works do follow them.

Our good works follow us to heaven; they don’t lead us to heaven.

BAD NEWS-GOOD NEWS

You & I have no hope of heaven outside of Jesus Christ. Good works cannot save us. That’s not the plan. Church membership cannot save us. Baptism cannot save us. Nothing you & I could do would make the slightest bit of difference concerning our eternal salvation. If we are trusting in a good life or a good religion to get us to heaven, someday we’ll be sadly & eternally disappointed.

The good news is; those who put their trust in Jesus Christ have been saved are being saved, & will be saved. Christ’s sacrifice in blood, received by faith, brings salvation to the believing heart, for it alone makes us recipients of the righteousness of God.

Never be ashamed of the gospel. Don’t be ashamed to teach it & share it with those you meet.

The gospel alone has the power to meet the deepest needs of mankind.

It alone has the power to wipe away the darkest stain of sin.
Praise the Lord!


Blessings,


John