The Gospel of Salvation with No Shame
In the beginning…God. In the end…God. For from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things (Rom 11:36). He is the Alpha and the Omega. The heavens declare His righteousness and glory (Ps 97:6).
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1). In the beginning, God said, “Let there be…” and it was so; for He is the architect and builder of all things; and all things are sustained by the Word of His power (Heb 1:3; 3:4).
There was something before the beginning, however. In eternity…God…God in community: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one (Dt 6:4). Blessed is He is from everlasting to everlasting (Ps 41:3). God has spoken through the prophets; and by His Word, He has made Himself known to us (Heb 1:1). The mystery has been revealed (1 Tim 3:16). He has made us, not we ourselves (Ps 100:3). This is His story.
God is the Gospel. He Himself is the Good News. We proclaim Him (Col 1:28); declaring His excellencies (1 Pet 2:9). What can we say? Think infinite. Think perfect. There is none beside Him: in holiness; in wisdom; in power; in goodness; in righteousness; and in glorious majesty.
God dwells in pure, unapproachable light because God is light; and in Him, there is no darkness at all (1 Jn 1:5). Men love darkness because their deeds are evil (Jn 3:19). Here is the great chasm that separates God and man. The origin of this separation takes us back to the beginning when sin entered the world.
The Bible is the written Word of God, brought into being by the Holy Spirit (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20–21), who moved along men of old to write in diverse manners and pieces. With some forty plus writers, over a 1500-year period, one book comprised of many books was formed. It is inspired, infallible, inerrant, authoritative, necessary, clear and sufficient for our understanding God and man, and His grace toward us in bringing about our salvation (Ps 3:8; Jon 2:9; Acts 4:12; Eph 2:8–9).
God saved us (Titus 3:5)…from Himself (Rom 1:18; 1 Thess 1:10). It was the sin of the first man, Adam, that created the separation (Gen 3). Sin is lawlessness (1 Jn 3:4). Having been created by God, in His image, the first man disobeyed God in unbelief (Gen 1:27). God spoke and man did not trust the Word of the Lord. That same Word had warned the man that he would die if he acted in unbelief (Gen 2:17). The devil was there to assure man that there would be no consequences to sin (Gen 3:4).
Man died as the wages of sin (Rom 6:23). First, his soul died to God; then, later, his body died (Gen 3:19). It is appointed once for a man to die and then comes the judgment (Heb 9:27). Men are found guilty of sin; and they are sentenced to eternal punishment in the fiery hell of the lake of fire (Mt 25:41, 46; Jude 7; Rev 20:14–15). This is the plight of man: inherited sin from Adam (Ps 51:5; Rom 5:12); a sin nature (Eph 2:3); and the practice of sin all of his days (Rom 3:23).
With every inclination of his heart being only evil all the time (Gen 6:5), man with his wicked, deceitful heart is a son of disobedience and child of wrath and child of the devil (Jer 17:9; Eph 2:2–3; 1 Jn 3:10). All of sinful man’s works are filthy rags in the assessment of God (Is 64:6). This natural man is without hope and without God in the world (Eph 2:12). There is nothing in him that seeks God (Rom 3:10–12), nor wills to be saved (Jn 1:12–13); nor has the ability to obey God (Rom 8:7). Man is totally depraved.
“But God…” represents some of the greatest surges in hope derived from the Bible. Into the dark night of the soul enters the Light of the world (Jn 8:12; 9:5; 2 Cor 4:6). Man, spiritually dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1), is made alive by the Holy Spirit sent to him by God the Father and the Son (Jn 14:26; 15:26). This life is actually the Word of God implanted in the man’s heart (Jn 6:63; Jas 1:21). It is solely a work of God for one to become a Christian (Eph 2:8–9; 2 Thess 2:13), based on the will of God (Jn 1:12–13). For one to receive Christ and believe in Him is all of grace (God’s work for the benefit of His elect).
Faith is not the catalyst for one’s salvation; faith is the manifestation of one’s salvation. Faith is granted by God and received by the one born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:17; Rom 8:9, 11; Phil 1:29). Faith apprehends all the illumination of God’s Word given by our divine Teacher (Jn 14:26). The Holy Spirit cannot deny the Son of God; rather, He makes Christ known through the Gospel call.
The Gospel call is issued through Spirit-filled preaching of the Bible (1 Cor 2:4; 1 Pet 1:12). The man of God, himself called by God to steward the mysteries of the Gospel, boldly preaches Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 1:18, 23; 2:2, 4). He must rightly handle the Word of truth (2 Tim 2:15), calling all men everywhere to repent of their sinful rebellion and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31; 17:30). There is no other name, under heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
Our Lord Jesus Christ has the name above every other name (Eph 1:13; Phil 2:9). He is the Savior of the world (Jn 4:42), that is, people from every nation, tribe, and tongue (Rev 5:9; 7:9). Jesus came to save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21). He was conceived by the Holy Spirit to avoid the original sin of Adam passed down to all his posterity (Mt 1:23). Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, as prophesied by Isaiah (Is 7:14). He enfleshed and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). Jesus was like us, yet without sin (Heb 4:15).
Jesus Messiah perfectly fulfilled the requirements of the Law (Mt 5:17). This positioned Him as the unblemished Lamb of God (Jn 1:29), who died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried in the tomb of the rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, and who was raised from the dead in the power of God and according to the Scriptures (1 Cor 15:3–4). Many witnessed the resurrected Christ before He ascended into heaven and was enthroned at the right hand of Majesty.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the King of glory, who rules and reigns over all, as the Lord of all (Acts 10:36). Jesus, the Son of God, our great high priest (Heb 4:14), ever lives to make intercession for His beloved, His bride, His church, the Israel of God (Heb 7:25). We are a chosen people, a holy nation of royal priests, who serve the living God as ambassadors of Christ, in the kingdom of this world (2 Cor 5:20; Heb 9:14; 1 Pet 2:9).
Our adversary, the devil, is the ruler of this world of sin (Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). The world lies in the power of the evil one (1 Jn 5:19), who blinds the minds of the unbelieving so they might not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Cor 4:4). Satan poses as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:4), being the bad company who corrupts good morals (1 Cor 15:33). The father of lies has been a deceiver and a murderer from the beginning (Jn 8:44). His domain is darkness (Col 1:13); and his dominion is this perverse generation in this present evil age (Acts 2:40; Gal 1:4; Phil 2:15).
Jesus Christ, the God-man, king and priest has overcome the world (Jn 16:33). He defeated sin, death, the devil, and this world system at the cross (Col 2:15). We follow in His triumphant parade (2 Cor 2:14), as our one Leader (Mt 23:10), who gives us the victory (1 Cor 15:57), which is our faith (1 Jn 5:4), which is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Heb 11:1), except with the eyes of the heart enlightened by Him (2 Cor 4:6).
There is no shame in our association with Him who is our Good Shepherd (Ps 23; Jn 10; Rom 1:16; 1 Pet 5:1–5). He alone is faithful and true in a world of deceit and deceivers. We have no right standing with the Judge of all the earth (Gen 18:25), unless we have been declared “not guilty.” Knowing that we are all guilty before God, it was the Just one who has justified the ungodly (Rom 4:5). Christ died for us, the Just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God (1 Pet 3:18). We who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Eph 2:13).
God’s elect, redeemed, regenerated, adopted sons, have been justified by the blood of Jesus, by the grace of God, and by the faith manifested in us (Rom 3:24, 28; Rom 5:9). It is no longer the Christian who lives but Christ who lives in the Christian, by His doing (1 Cor 1:30), and the life one lives in Christ is by faith in Him who loved us and gave himself for us (Gal 2:20).
Believers believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ; unbelievers do not believe this report. Jesus told the Jews gathered to Him on one occasion, “You do not believe because you do not belong to Me (Jn 10:26).” If you believe the Gospel of your salvation, today, rejoice and again I say “rejoice!” If you do not believe it then cry out to God for more Gospel light and for your eyes to be opened to see it and live.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
April 17, 2024
Romans 1:16–17
