WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.580 So we're in our Roman series this semester and this is the third sermon in the series. 00:00:08.580 --> 00:00:13.220 Romans is an important, a very important letter from the apostle Paul in the first century 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:20.660 to the church which is in the city of Rome and many commentators, theologians of the 00:00:20.660 --> 00:00:26.980 past have said that these two little verses that we just read, they're the thesis statement 00:00:26.980 --> 00:00:31.280 of the book, of the whole book which is why we're slowing down and focusing on them. 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:33.640 They're the point of the book in short. 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:40.480 It's what Paul is trying to say really in the rest of the chapters of this book and 00:00:40.480 --> 00:00:46.359 this is the text even that God used to spark the Reformation. 00:00:46.359 --> 00:00:52.439 This is the text that Martin Luther grappled with so much when he was provoked and renewed 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:56.439 to see the gospel afresh in the 16th century. 00:00:56.439 --> 00:01:02.000 He writes just a year before he died a little book called Table Talk and in it he writes 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:09.200 of his tower experience which was his experience from his earlier life of grappling with these 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:15.479 two little verses in Romans and he said that he at first and the first part of his life 00:01:15.479 --> 00:01:23.200 hated these verses more than anything else in the whole Bible but at some point in his 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:26.640 life he had a change and this is what he writes about that change. 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:35.240 He said, when I realized what Paul meant here, here I felt that I was altogether born again 00:01:35.240 --> 00:01:39.280 and I had entered paradise itself through open gates. 00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:45.400 There a totally other face of the entire scripture showed itself to me and I saw a different 00:01:45.400 --> 00:01:52.520 face than the one I had thought of God himself, the face of grace. 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:56.799 He was born again, he broke through is what he says. 00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:00.439 He had entered paradise, he had seen a whole new side of scripture that he had never seen 00:02:00.439 --> 00:02:07.679 before from understanding what Paul meant here in Romans 1, 16 and 17. 00:02:07.679 --> 00:02:14.879 He came to feel the power that the text talks about here, the power of the gospel understood. 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:21.960 So this, these two verses are a brief summary of the gospel and they're heavy and they're 00:02:21.960 --> 00:02:25.840 pregnant and there's been entire books written about them, many, many books about these two 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:33.360 little verses and Paul as much as been written, as much as been talked about, as important 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:38.280 as they've been, the point here is actually really simple and it's actually really very 00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:44.640 much on the surface of the text and that's that Paul simply saying, I'm not ashamed of 00:02:44.640 --> 00:02:47.640 the gospel. 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:52.679 I wanna, he said in verse 15, I'm eager to come to Rome and talk to you about the gospel, 00:02:52.679 --> 00:02:56.679 preach it to you, to Jew and Gentile, to all ethnic groups. 00:02:56.679 --> 00:02:59.879 I'm not ashamed of it because I think it's powerful. 00:02:59.879 --> 00:03:02.279 I think it actually has changing power. 00:03:02.279 --> 00:03:06.399 I think that God works through it to turn people around to help them break through to 00:03:06.399 --> 00:03:11.799 be born again as he put it in his tower experience. 00:03:11.800 --> 00:03:18.760 So we have to ask Paul, why would he need to say here at the beginning of Romans that 00:03:18.760 --> 00:03:21.480 he's not ashamed of the gospel? 00:03:21.480 --> 00:03:25.320 Why would he even need to come out and tell the Romans he's not ashamed? 00:03:25.320 --> 00:03:29.680 And the reason is because there were people who were ashamed of the gospel and there were 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:36.760 people who had even accused Paul of being ashamed of the gospel at times in his ministry. 00:03:36.760 --> 00:03:40.560 But in order to ask and really answer what it means to be ashamed or unashamed of the 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:46.599 gospel, we first have to ask, we have to see what Luther saw. 00:03:46.599 --> 00:03:48.319 He broke through. 00:03:48.319 --> 00:03:51.599 We have to understand the gospel. 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:55.719 So first, we have to understand the gospel in order to know what it means to be ashamed 00:03:55.719 --> 00:03:58.080 or unashamed of the gospel. 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:02.039 And so that's the two things we're gonna do this morning, the gospel, its definition, 00:04:02.039 --> 00:04:08.199 its content, and then what it might mean to be ashamed or unashamed of that gospel. 00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:13.959 And so you may be here this morning and you need to actually hear what the gospel is for 00:04:13.959 --> 00:04:15.839 the first time, perhaps. 00:04:15.839 --> 00:04:20.759 It's never really been clear to you or you come from another religion or a different 00:04:20.759 --> 00:04:24.639 background or have never believed before, maybe. 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:31.439 Or you need to come back and to see the gospel afresh and to feel its renewing power, as Paul 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:35.879 talks about, through your very bones, through your very core. 00:04:35.879 --> 00:04:40.719 Or maybe for some of us, we need to fight this morning the real temptation of being 00:04:40.719 --> 00:04:45.639 ashamed of the gospel, which is an actual temptation that Paul had to address in his 00:04:45.639 --> 00:04:47.000 ministry here. 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:50.120 And so in all these ways, this text is really important. 00:04:50.120 --> 00:04:53.399 So let's look at the gospel and then let's look at what it means to be unashamed of the 00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:54.399 gospel. 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:57.240 So first, the gospel. 00:04:57.240 --> 00:05:04.560 We use the word gospel a lot and all over the place, really, and that's because the Bible 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:06.079 uses it a lot. 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:11.519 Paul uses it here in Romans more than any other book in the New Testament. 00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:14.399 The word gospel is mentioned more in Romans. 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:19.079 It's already been mentioned twice before we even get to verse 16 and 17. 00:05:19.079 --> 00:05:22.720 You'll see it if you look in verse one and verse nine. 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:30.199 And it's root word and similar words like the word we translate gospel appear 134 times 00:05:30.199 --> 00:05:32.120 across the New Testament. 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:35.160 And so we talk about the gospel here at St. Colombo's a lot because the gospel is really 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:38.439 important and all over the place in the Bible. 00:05:38.439 --> 00:05:43.280 And the Greek word that stands behind this word gospel is a really common word that most 00:05:43.280 --> 00:05:47.560 people will have some familiar, familiarity with. 00:05:47.560 --> 00:05:49.959 It's the word evangelion. 00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:55.639 And you hear it when we use words like evangelical, which just means gospel-centered, evangelion. 00:05:55.639 --> 00:05:59.819 And in the middle, the shorter term for it is evangel. 00:05:59.819 --> 00:06:05.319 And if you listen to the word evangel, gospel, you'll hear even in that word a word like 00:06:05.319 --> 00:06:09.399 angel, evangel, evangel, angel. 00:06:09.399 --> 00:06:12.519 And that's because what's an angel? 00:06:12.519 --> 00:06:20.639 Well, really, an angel, in its most basic sense, is a messenger, a herald, as the King 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:22.439 James might put it. 00:06:22.439 --> 00:06:28.480 Someone who comes and runs over the hills with a message, a proclamation from the King 00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:33.640 to read something that's been happened or stated like a victory in war. 00:06:33.640 --> 00:06:36.640 That's an angel, someone who brings a great message. 00:06:36.640 --> 00:06:41.520 And so evangel, it means simply good news. 00:06:41.520 --> 00:06:44.000 And this is, of course, very simple. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:48.879 And many of us know this, but we need to make it fresh for us. 00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:54.640 And the simple point is this, the gospel, the evangel that Paul is talking about here, 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:58.979 it's not advice, it's news. 00:06:58.979 --> 00:07:03.079 The gospel is not good advice, no matter how good it is. 00:07:03.079 --> 00:07:05.240 It's good news. 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:11.240 It's the messenger coming over the hill to say something has happened. 00:07:11.240 --> 00:07:12.680 It's not good advice, it's good news. 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:14.279 It's hearing the gospel. 00:07:14.279 --> 00:07:20.959 If you're hearing the Christian gospel, it's not like going to a guru or a yogi or a clinical 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:25.199 psychologist and being told how to make your life better. 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:26.639 It's not any of those things. 00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:28.519 It's not advice at all. 00:07:28.519 --> 00:07:32.519 It's entirely a message about something that's happened. 00:07:32.519 --> 00:07:36.719 It's news, it's proclamation, it's heralding something forth. 00:07:36.719 --> 00:07:43.199 And that means that Christianity is utterly unique. 00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:48.519 Christianity is unlike any other system or religion or philosophy because at its core 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:52.279 is not good advice but good news. 00:07:52.279 --> 00:07:58.759 And Christians even speak about false gospels sometimes, but even that notion doesn't really 00:07:58.759 --> 00:08:06.159 work because other religions and other philosophies don't actually put forth false gospels because 00:08:06.159 --> 00:08:07.759 they're not gospels at all. 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:08.759 Gospel is news. 00:08:08.759 --> 00:08:11.279 They put forth advice. 00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:16.719 They tell you to pick yourself up and tie up your shoes and get to work and be a better 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:25.840 person and sober up and be kinder and follow these rules and be committed in whatever religion 00:08:25.840 --> 00:08:28.520 you follow or some type of moral conformity. 00:08:28.520 --> 00:08:30.560 But that's not a gospel at all. 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:31.680 That's advice. 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:32.879 But the gospel is news. 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:36.600 It's proclamation of something that's happened. 00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:45.360 So the gospel, it's not a call to moral conformity although it creates moral change in the person 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:47.000 who believes it. 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:52.960 And it's not a call to religious commitment although it causes people who believe it to 00:08:52.960 --> 00:08:58.519 be committed religiously to their local body. 00:08:58.519 --> 00:09:05.399 It's like picking up the newspaper and reading about what's happened, what's taking place. 00:09:05.399 --> 00:09:09.519 Now just think about it before we talk about its content. 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:16.879 If the gospel was advice, if the gospel was advice about moral conformity, if it was something 00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:23.679 like if you want to be loved by God and accepted by God then you have to act like God in every 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:28.519 way before you can truly be accepted by God then the same thing that happened to Martin 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:33.639 Luther would happen to all of us and that's that we would hate it because we would try 00:09:33.639 --> 00:09:36.980 and we would try and we would feel like failures. 00:09:36.980 --> 00:09:41.600 We would never have any assurance, never any hope that we could be truly accepted and that's 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:45.080 exactly what Luther struggled with as he wrestled with these verses. 00:09:45.080 --> 00:09:51.279 And so the first thing to simply see is the gospel is the heralding of good news of an 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:53.480 event that has taken place. 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:59.840 All right, so now we have to ask of course, what's its content? 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:00.840 What is the news? 00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:03.480 What's the news about? 00:10:03.480 --> 00:10:11.000 And Paul tells us here, if you look at verse 17, he says, in the gospel the righteousness 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:13.759 of God is revealed. 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:19.279 So Paul says that the content of this news is that in the gospel the righteousness of 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:21.800 God is revealed. 00:10:21.800 --> 00:10:25.560 Now what's the righteousness of God? 00:10:25.560 --> 00:10:30.320 A very tricky and difficult phrase when you just read through it to grab, what is Paul 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:35.120 saying here when he says, in the gospel, in the news that's being proclaimed, the righteousness 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:37.720 of God is revealed to you. 00:10:37.720 --> 00:10:43.080 And to get at it I think it might be helpful to go back to Luther's story because this 00:10:43.080 --> 00:10:48.440 is the exact little phrase that he so struggled with before he finally broke through to see 00:10:48.440 --> 00:10:50.360 what it meant. 00:10:50.360 --> 00:10:56.280 And for him, Luther, he had a really sensitive conscience. 00:10:56.279 --> 00:11:01.679 So he was really aware, probably more than most of us, of all the things he did wrong 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:02.679 in his life. 00:11:02.679 --> 00:11:07.159 Now, if you're a Christian, whether you're a Christian or not this morning, all of us 00:11:07.159 --> 00:11:12.159 feel and know times that we do things that aren't right. 00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:14.959 We feel the times that we stick our feet in our mouths. 00:11:14.959 --> 00:11:20.839 We send a text message to the wrong person that was actually gossip about that person. 00:11:20.839 --> 00:11:25.199 Whatever it might be, even things that we might not actually act out, sometimes for 00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:30.800 all of us, thoughts slip into our minds, perhaps, about something and we're thinking, how could 00:11:30.800 --> 00:11:32.000 I even think that, right? 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:35.080 Even though you know you'll never act on it and you feel dirty. 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:39.440 Every human has these experiences, these guilt experiences. 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:47.400 But Luther, he was a monk and a very devout man and he actually lectured regularly on 00:11:47.400 --> 00:11:51.680 this book, Romans, and he was a good person. 00:11:51.680 --> 00:11:54.120 He was one of the best people. 00:11:54.120 --> 00:11:58.480 He was rigorous and he obeyed all the rules. 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:03.159 But he constantly struggled, the fact that he couldn't stop doing things that he felt 00:12:03.159 --> 00:12:06.759 were wrong, even no matter how much he tried. 00:12:06.759 --> 00:12:12.000 And for that reason, this text scared him. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:16.919 That's why he said in the quote, printed the bulletin that he even hated it. 00:12:16.919 --> 00:12:22.159 And the reason is because he thought it meant, he thought the righteousness of God meant 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:30.240 this, revealed in the Gospel meant this, that when you believe in Jesus, when you have faith, 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:34.799 as the text tells us in Christ, and believe in Jesus, that at that time, and for Luther, 00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:41.000 it was the time you were baptized, your slate, your sins are wiped away, you're forgiven, 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:42.000 right? 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:43.879 And that sounds familiar, that sounds true, doesn't it? 00:12:43.879 --> 00:12:46.439 You're familiar, you're clean. 00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:54.320 But after that, Luther thought that when you believe, God actually, and the old word is, 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:59.680 infuses righteousness into your very bones, into your core. 00:12:59.680 --> 00:13:06.360 He actually gives you his own righteousness, his own goodness, his own perfections, that 00:13:06.360 --> 00:13:09.560 it actually becomes literally who you are. 00:13:09.560 --> 00:13:13.880 So much so that after you believe, after you've been infused with the righteousness of God 00:13:13.879 --> 00:13:22.039 here, revealed that you're able to be perfect, to live a life without sin, that you can actually 00:13:22.039 --> 00:13:27.679 walk in true righteousness and actually deserve to be in God's presence. 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:29.000 And that's what he thought it meant. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:35.399 And so, every time he would sin and stumble, even as a monk, even as a teacher of the Romans, 00:13:35.399 --> 00:13:39.720 he said, how can it really be that God has given me his own righteousness in every way 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:40.720 that I'm perfect? 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:42.600 I can't, I don't feel perfect. 00:13:42.600 --> 00:13:47.240 I mean, I believe in Jesus, but I keep on sinning, and I keep on stumbling, and I keep 00:13:47.240 --> 00:13:49.000 on falling. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:54.279 And so, when he came to this text, it felt to him like slavery, that if I've really been 00:13:54.279 --> 00:13:59.120 given the righteousness of God in every way, how is it that I keep acting like this and 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:00.120 struggling? 00:14:00.120 --> 00:14:03.279 And it's something that every Christian can, even as a Christian and believer, we can all 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:07.800 see and admit to, that we still struggle after we believe, right? 00:14:07.800 --> 00:14:09.080 And that's what Luther was wrestling with. 00:14:09.080 --> 00:14:11.279 And so, this is what he said. 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:17.519 I did not love, yes, I hated the righteousness of God, who punishes sinners. 00:14:17.519 --> 00:14:24.639 And secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God. 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:30.000 And I said, God, as if it is not enough that miserable sinners eternally lost their original 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:35.559 sin, are crushed by every kind of calamity by the law of the Ten Commandments, without 00:14:35.559 --> 00:14:40.879 having God add pain upon pain by the gospel. 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:44.159 And also by the gospel threatening us with his righteousness and wrath, you see, he thought 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:47.679 the gospel was a threat. 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:52.439 Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled consciousness. 00:14:52.439 --> 00:14:59.039 But then, he read these verses and lied to the whole book of Romans, and he writes about 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:03.000 his breakthrough. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:04.000 What was it? 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:05.799 What does this mean? 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:09.279 What is Paul saying here that the gospel reveals to us? 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:10.279 What is its content? 00:15:10.279 --> 00:15:12.319 What is the righteousness of God revealed here? 00:15:12.319 --> 00:15:19.319 And look, it cannot mean that if you believe in Jesus Christ, you become righteous just 00:15:19.319 --> 00:15:23.000 like him in every way, all the way through. 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:25.519 Because as soon as you sin, that can't be true of you. 00:15:25.519 --> 00:15:26.519 That can't be true. 00:15:26.519 --> 00:15:28.279 What's Paul saying here? 00:15:28.279 --> 00:15:30.679 And it's this. 00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:33.399 That first, the gospel says this to you. 00:15:33.399 --> 00:15:36.959 God forgives you your sins. 00:15:36.959 --> 00:15:39.240 But even more. 00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:44.600 The salvation, it doesn't stop at the forgiveness of sins. 00:15:44.600 --> 00:15:46.000 It goes, it's more. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:49.759 It's greater even than just the forgiveness of sins. 00:15:49.759 --> 00:15:54.120 What he's saying here is that the righteousness of God given to you in the gospel when you 00:15:54.120 --> 00:16:01.879 believe is that God looks at you and gifts to you, counts you as righteous just like 00:16:01.879 --> 00:16:08.759 Jesus Christ is righteous even though you aren't and never will be in this life. 00:16:08.759 --> 00:16:14.000 It's not that he makes you perfect, that he infuses the righteousness into your very bones. 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:19.960 It's that he looks at you and says, despite you, I'm going to count you righteous like 00:16:19.960 --> 00:16:21.639 my son. 00:16:21.639 --> 00:16:27.399 He gifts to us the righteousness of God and counts it to us. 00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:33.799 Another metaphor for this throughout the whole Bible is that God looks at us despite our 00:16:33.799 --> 00:16:41.679 filthy garments and clothes us in a robe that is not our own. 00:16:41.679 --> 00:16:44.240 This is all over the Old Testament even. 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:46.399 Just listen to Isaiah 61. 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:52.799 I will rejoice greatly in the Lord for he has clothed me with garments of salvation. 00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:55.759 He has wrapped me in a robe of righteousness. 00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:57.839 It's the same idea. 00:16:57.839 --> 00:16:58.839 Why? 00:16:58.840 --> 00:17:03.960 In Isaiah 64, all of us have become like one who is unclean. 00:17:03.960 --> 00:17:07.279 All of our righteous deeds are filthy garments. 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:12.440 All of us wither like a leaf in our iniquities like the wind blow us away. 00:17:12.440 --> 00:17:18.079 What he's saying here is that in the gospel, in the news, the proclamation, by faith that 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:24.120 God comes out to you like the father running out to his prodigal son, his prodigal daughter 00:17:24.119 --> 00:17:31.079 in the distance, and he throws over you a robe, the royal robe of righteousness. 00:17:31.079 --> 00:17:34.159 It's not a robe that you ever made, that you wove together. 00:17:34.159 --> 00:17:36.039 It's not a robe that you could ever produce. 00:17:36.039 --> 00:17:37.039 It's a gift. 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:39.039 It's entirely a gift. 00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:44.639 He throws upon you who did not deserve it a robe of righteousness and says, you're not 00:17:44.639 --> 00:17:47.959 clean, but I will count you clean. 00:17:47.959 --> 00:17:49.459 That's what Luther saw. 00:17:49.459 --> 00:17:51.519 That's what he broke through to see. 00:17:51.519 --> 00:17:58.000 He says he saw the gates of paradise, that he wasn't accepted by God out of his perfections, 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:01.200 but because God counted him righteous despite himself. 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:03.519 You see? 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:10.759 Now the question is, how can God do it? 00:18:10.759 --> 00:18:15.480 How can God do it? 00:18:15.480 --> 00:18:20.039 It's not just some costless gift. 00:18:20.039 --> 00:18:26.480 It's free to you, but it cost God. 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:34.399 Theodore Dostoyevsky, a famous, very famous Russian novelist in the 19th century, he was 00:18:34.399 --> 00:18:37.440 a Christian Dostoyevsky. 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:44.359 In his novels, he often tried to put the case against Christianity stronger than his atheist 00:18:44.359 --> 00:18:49.959 and Anastasic friends could do it because he wrestled throughout his whole life with faith 00:18:49.959 --> 00:18:55.479 and the struggle of faith. 00:18:55.479 --> 00:19:00.159 Probably his most famous book, The Brothers Karamazov, he has this long chapter in The 00:19:00.159 --> 00:19:08.079 Brothers Karamazov that really focuses on suffering, the problem of suffering, but even 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:15.839 more it focuses on children who suffer and the tragedy of children suffering. 00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:24.279 And Yvonne, who is the main character of the book, the middle son, he sees a family lose 00:19:24.279 --> 00:19:34.919 their baby in another instance of a young infant toddler dying early and he's broken, 00:19:34.919 --> 00:19:37.399 he's broken by it. 00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:44.800 And Dostoyevsky writes, Yvonne says, I don't want to belong to a universe where children 00:19:44.800 --> 00:19:48.360 suffer. 00:19:48.360 --> 00:19:55.040 And it's important to know that Dostoyevsky himself lost his own son when his son was 00:19:55.040 --> 00:19:56.960 only three years old. 00:19:56.960 --> 00:20:04.200 And so he's wrestling with believing in God as a Christian in the reality of sin and misery 00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:08.880 and tragedy and plight and death. 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:12.960 How can these two things be at the same time? 00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:18.720 And so the rest of the book, he gives an answer through fiction and his answer comes in two 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:24.920 ways and that's through Yvonne's two brothers, one older, one younger. 00:20:24.920 --> 00:20:29.080 And at this moment when Yvonne is wrestling with the possibility of faith in the midst 00:20:29.079 --> 00:20:37.720 of children losing their lives, his younger brother comes to him and hugs him and kisses 00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:43.279 him on the cheek and says to him, I love you. 00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:50.279 And Dostoyevsky's answer, love, on the one hand, how can you believe in God and have 00:20:50.279 --> 00:20:55.919 faith and walk through this world in the midst of suffering and plight and sin and death? 00:20:55.920 --> 00:21:01.200 And the first answer he gives is love, it's real, it's expressed from brother to brother 00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:05.560 there, but he gives another answer later in the book through his older brother. 00:21:05.560 --> 00:21:15.000 And that's that his older brother stands trial for a murder that he didn't commit. 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:21.039 But in the trial, the brother decides to confess that he's guilty. 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:26.599 And he does this because he says that if he doesn't confess guilt, then he feels that 00:21:26.599 --> 00:21:29.200 there will never be justice in the world. 00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:37.440 In other words, he says that if an innocent man isn't willing to come and bear the guilt 00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:45.079 of the guilty, then there will never truly be justice or hope in the world where children 00:21:45.079 --> 00:21:46.359 lose their lives in infancy. 00:21:46.359 --> 00:21:48.960 That's what the book's about. 00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:56.400 And so Dostoyevsky's answer, what is the hope of humanity in the midst of sin and suffering 00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:59.200 and death and evil and misery and plight? 00:21:59.200 --> 00:22:02.799 What we all feel and what we all know, no matter what background you come from, and 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:08.120 his answer is twofold, it's the reality of love on the one hand, it's real, it's objective, 00:22:08.120 --> 00:22:14.680 it comes from somewhere, and the reality of justice on the other put upon the back of 00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:20.680 an innocent one, bearing the guilt for people who would never come and fess up. 00:22:20.680 --> 00:22:27.519 Otherwise, you see, it's the meeting place of love and justice in one man, an elder 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:32.080 brother who would put the guilt, who as an innocent man would put the guilt of the guilty 00:22:32.080 --> 00:22:34.759 on his own back. 00:22:34.759 --> 00:22:40.759 Look, this, this, what is the news of the gospel through which you can have the righteousness 00:22:40.759 --> 00:22:41.960 of God? 00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:47.480 This is what the herald comes over the hill to say to you, to proclaim to you from the 00:22:47.480 --> 00:22:56.600 king that at the cross a true elder brother, much better than Yvon's elder brother, the 00:22:56.600 --> 00:23:03.240 true elder brother meets, is love incarnate, meeting justice, the wrath of God poured out. 00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:06.720 In one place, it's what the gospel is about. 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:12.120 Paul's already said it in the beginning of the chapter, it concerns the Son, or as he 00:23:12.120 --> 00:23:16.799 puts it in 1 Corinthians 1.18, it's the word of the cross. 00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:21.680 It's the word of the cross, that's the content of the gospel, the meeting place of ultimate 00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:30.079 love and ultimate justice in one human being, satisfying the justice of God for sin and 00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:34.039 God's ultimate expression for love for us at the very same time. 00:23:34.039 --> 00:23:41.200 That's the news, that's the gospel, that the man of power himself grants power through 00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:48.319 his resurrection because he came for you to be the elder brother who says, I'm innocent 00:23:48.319 --> 00:23:54.119 but call me guilty, you see. 00:23:54.119 --> 00:24:00.720 And what that means is that he got your sin so that you could be clothed in his righteousness. 00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:04.000 That's what Paul means here in Romans 1.17. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:10.400 He got your sin, he got your death so you could be clothed in his righteousness. 00:24:10.400 --> 00:24:21.200 C.S. Lewis calls this the great exchange, him for us, we on him, the great exchange. 00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:31.440 Now just to close this point, it's for whoever would believe, that's what he says here. 00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:37.799 For Jew and Gentile, no matter what background you come from, no matter what ethnicity, no 00:24:37.799 --> 00:24:43.880 matter what you've done, no matter what you've done, you can have it. 00:24:43.880 --> 00:24:48.720 It's by faith, it's just belief, it's looking at the power of the cross, the man on the 00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:53.920 cross resurrected and saying, yes, I believe. 00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:59.880 That's why he puts it in 17, it's from faith to faith or for faith. 00:24:59.880 --> 00:25:05.280 It's just an old way of saying it's faith all the way down, it's faith all the way through 00:25:05.280 --> 00:25:08.560 from faith to faith, it's all faith, that's how you get it. 00:25:08.560 --> 00:25:15.920 And so look, you can never say or if you ask someone, are you a Christian, the answer can 00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:20.360 never be, I'm trying to be. 00:25:20.360 --> 00:25:23.800 You can never try to be a Christian, that's not possible. 00:25:23.800 --> 00:25:27.160 That would mean Christianity is about good advice, not good news. 00:25:27.160 --> 00:25:30.920 But being a Christian, being a Christian is having the righteousness of God gifted to 00:25:30.920 --> 00:25:34.640 you because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. 00:25:34.640 --> 00:25:40.320 And so Paul puts it in Romans 5 that if you were a Christian, you stand in the grace and 00:25:40.320 --> 00:25:41.880 the righteousness of God. 00:25:41.880 --> 00:25:46.240 In other words, he's saying it's a status, it's not an achievement. 00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:50.080 You can never try to be a Christian, you just are one. 00:25:50.080 --> 00:25:51.840 You just are one if you believe. 00:25:51.839 --> 00:25:59.240 It's a status, never an achievement because it's news, not advice, not moral conformity. 00:25:59.240 --> 00:26:02.759 And that makes it unlike anything else in all the world. 00:26:02.759 --> 00:26:06.720 The good news, truly, the only truly good news. 00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:16.439 All right, so let's just briefly point to say, why does Paul say here that he's not 00:26:16.439 --> 00:26:20.119 ashamed of the gospel? 00:26:20.119 --> 00:26:23.719 Why does he feel the need to say I'm not ashamed? 00:26:23.719 --> 00:26:29.679 And in other places in the New Testament, Paul says things like, I glory in the gospel. 00:26:29.679 --> 00:26:35.839 So Paul's the last person on earth that we would think probably was ashamed of the gospel. 00:26:35.839 --> 00:26:37.719 But he feels the need to say it. 00:26:37.719 --> 00:26:41.639 And I think there are, let me just give two reasons maybe, why. 00:26:41.639 --> 00:26:46.559 And the first one, they're both clues that we get from other places in the New Testament 00:26:46.559 --> 00:26:50.039 where he uses the same word, being ashamed. 00:26:50.039 --> 00:26:56.200 And the first one is in 2 Timothy 8, 8 to 12, and he's talking to Timothy, who's a pastor, 00:26:56.200 --> 00:27:01.519 and he says, Timothy, don't be ashamed by the testimony of the gospel. 00:27:01.519 --> 00:27:03.079 So same idea. 00:27:03.079 --> 00:27:10.839 And then he goes on and he says, because I suffer in chains, but I am not ashamed. 00:27:10.839 --> 00:27:18.159 And so Paul's saying there that he's in prison and suffering, and his life is kind of worse 00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:22.680 than it was before he ever believed in the gospel in many ways. 00:27:22.680 --> 00:27:25.080 And he's saying, but don't be ashamed of that. 00:27:25.080 --> 00:27:29.960 Now I heard Jordan Peterson say this week, if you're familiar with Jordan Peterson, the 00:27:29.960 --> 00:27:34.400 kind of up and coming famous clinical psychologist, had a really famous interview on Channel 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:38.279 4 a few weeks ago, all over YouTube. 00:27:38.279 --> 00:27:41.360 You'll see him at some point if you watch the news. 00:27:41.360 --> 00:27:45.960 But I was listening to one of his lectures this week, and he said that something that 00:27:45.960 --> 00:27:52.000 people discovered a few centuries into Christianity after Christ was that Christianity didn't 00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:56.200 actually answer the problem of suffering. 00:27:56.200 --> 00:28:01.960 So he said it took a few hundred years before people realized that you can become a Christian 00:28:01.960 --> 00:28:04.920 and believe, but you still suffer. 00:28:04.920 --> 00:28:10.079 Well, Peterson presented it as if it was new information, I suppose. 00:28:10.079 --> 00:28:15.120 But of course, the Bible teaches us that all over the place, the life of Job, he believed 00:28:15.119 --> 00:28:19.639 he was blameless, but yet he suffered not because of his sin, the witness of the martyrs 00:28:19.639 --> 00:28:21.759 in the first and second and third centuries. 00:28:21.759 --> 00:28:25.079 It came well before Peterson chronicles it. 00:28:25.079 --> 00:28:29.439 But he was doing that to critique Christianity and to say that it doesn't actually deal with 00:28:29.439 --> 00:28:36.279 our biggest problem in life, and that's that we feel pain and we struggle and we suffer. 00:28:36.279 --> 00:28:44.959 Look Paul is saying to Timothy here, do not be ashamed if your life gets harder because 00:28:44.960 --> 00:28:50.920 you believe the gospel, because for some people that was a struggle in the first century, 00:28:50.920 --> 00:28:53.480 and it always has been and always will be. 00:28:53.480 --> 00:28:57.200 And Paul is saying, look, I'm in prison, and you can read the list in the book of Acts 00:28:57.200 --> 00:29:01.240 where Paul talks about all the things that happened to him because he believed the gospel, 00:29:01.240 --> 00:29:02.240 all the struggles. 00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:09.200 And he's saying, don't be ashamed because you should expect this. 00:29:09.200 --> 00:29:13.360 You should know that this was what our Lord talked about, what Jesus Christ talked about 00:29:13.359 --> 00:29:18.559 that believing the gospel in a world of sin and brokenness and misery is often going to 00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:20.879 lead to more suffering sometimes. 00:29:20.879 --> 00:29:25.240 And so we don't want to offer the gospel this morning if you're new without knowing the 00:29:25.240 --> 00:29:27.279 truth about what Jesus says. 00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:33.679 And that's that it's radical, it changes your life, and Jesus in the gospel even calls you 00:29:33.679 --> 00:29:37.519 to lose sometimes. 00:29:37.519 --> 00:29:43.339 So at least being unashamed means this, that being unashamed of the gospel is being with 00:29:43.339 --> 00:29:51.079 you, willing to let the gospel, your faith in the gospel, your belief cost you something. 00:29:51.079 --> 00:29:58.119 You might lose in life, Paul is saying here, but you can because he first lost everything 00:29:58.119 --> 00:29:59.720 for you. 00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:05.879 He lost his father, he lost his home in the heavenly place, he lost the glory of sitting 00:30:05.879 --> 00:30:11.559 on the throne for us, and he says, imitate me after you have faith, wash people's feet, 00:30:11.559 --> 00:30:12.879 go low. 00:30:12.880 --> 00:30:16.440 It might cost you something, and that's what it means to be unashamed, is knowing that, 00:30:16.440 --> 00:30:20.920 coming to grips with that, knowing that there's a hope beyond the horizon of our temporal 00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:28.120 lives, of perfection, of a life without tears, but for now it might cost, it will cost. 00:30:28.120 --> 00:30:32.200 And that's what I think he means here about being unashamed. 00:30:32.200 --> 00:30:38.120 And then secondly and lastly, the last reason I think is this, he listed in 1 Corinthians 00:30:38.119 --> 00:30:45.439 18 through 25 all sorts of people that weren't believers in Christ, that were also ashamed 00:30:45.439 --> 00:30:51.839 of the gospel, or who said, it's foolishness, it's silly, I'm embarrassed by it, I don't 00:30:51.839 --> 00:30:56.479 want to hear it, or it made them angry, they were offended by it. 00:30:56.479 --> 00:30:59.479 He says the word of the cross is foolishness. 00:30:59.479 --> 00:31:04.399 And that was particularly to the kind of the academics of the day, to the wise, to the 00:31:04.400 --> 00:31:09.000 intelligentsia of the day. 00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:10.000 Why? 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.720 Because it was too simple. 00:31:14.720 --> 00:31:20.320 They wanted a philosophy, a nuanced, intricate philosophy that gives people power, and the 00:31:20.320 --> 00:31:22.320 gospel doesn't do that. 00:31:22.320 --> 00:31:25.640 Actually, why is it so offensive? 00:31:25.640 --> 00:31:29.040 Why do people feel embarrassed by it, or so upset with it? 00:31:29.040 --> 00:31:33.920 So antagonistic against it, and Paul tells us right here, because it is power, it is the 00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:39.519 power of God and to salvation, it's not neutral, it never goes forth without power. 00:31:39.519 --> 00:31:44.440 It has that power to change the whole world, to turn over the Mediterranean Sea as it did 00:31:44.440 --> 00:31:46.080 in just 100 years. 00:31:46.080 --> 00:31:55.440 It's powerful, it's the power of salvation, and it doesn't say that it empowers us primarily, 00:31:55.440 --> 00:31:59.440 or that it is a source of some type of political or physical power. 00:31:59.440 --> 00:32:07.480 No, it, the gospel, is the power of salvation, it's in it, which means when you come up to 00:32:07.480 --> 00:32:12.360 grips with it and see it, you have to wrestle with the fact that it's calling you to deny 00:32:12.360 --> 00:32:20.279 your power, to be humble, to throw yourself before it, to lose, to bow the knee, and the 00:32:20.279 --> 00:32:24.039 philosophers don't want that, and the wise and the Greeks, they don't want that, and 00:32:24.039 --> 00:32:25.039 so many don't want it. 00:32:25.039 --> 00:32:32.519 You'll hear people even today, just like then, say, you worship a savior that came in humility 00:32:32.519 --> 00:32:37.920 and weakness and died at the hands of his own creatures, you say, that gospel, that news 00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:45.119 is too weak for me, or you'll hear, you're telling me that no matter what I've done, 00:32:45.119 --> 00:32:53.039 all I have to do is say yes to this man, this Jesus, and I can be forgiven, that's too easy. 00:32:53.039 --> 00:32:59.759 It's too weak, or in the progressive moderns often, in big cities, like Edinburgh, but 00:32:59.759 --> 00:33:05.240 like London and New York perhaps, or like the Greeks, it's too simplistic, it's not nuanced 00:33:05.240 --> 00:33:10.000 enough, it's not enough philosophy and enough religion and enough commitment to religious 00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:16.399 practices, it's just too easy, it's too simplistic, it's too weak, it's too all of these things. 00:33:16.399 --> 00:33:21.319 And so everybody throughout all of human history has been embarrassed and ashamed and had 00:33:21.319 --> 00:33:31.039 versions and been offended by the gospel because it's exclusive, it's exclusive, it's Jesus 00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:37.799 Christ saying I'm the only way, I claim to be the only hope of the nations, you will 00:33:37.799 --> 00:33:44.679 not have salvation except through me, and the power is that the Holy Spirit comes to 00:33:44.680 --> 00:33:56.480 all of us who are naturally offended by the gospel and changes us, helps us to break through, 00:33:56.480 --> 00:34:01.720 like it happened to Luther to see, to know, to have faith, to be changed, to feel the 00:34:01.720 --> 00:34:05.560 power of its surge right through our very being. 00:34:05.559 --> 00:34:17.239 I'll just close with this, in Mark 8 and Luke chapter 9, Jesus says something very grave 00:34:17.239 --> 00:34:29.159 and he gives a warning and he says, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, I will be ashamed 00:34:29.159 --> 00:34:40.279 of them before my Father, whoa, in other words, whoever publicly says no to me before other 00:34:40.279 --> 00:34:46.440 people, I will say no to them before my Heavenly Father. 00:34:46.440 --> 00:35:00.679 Now he gives that as a warning, but at the same time, read on Peter, Peter was his friend, 00:35:00.679 --> 00:35:08.559 his companion, a man of his own heart, they loved each other dearly, and Peter had seen 00:35:08.559 --> 00:35:15.000 the miracles, Peter had seen bodies raised from the dead in the presence of Jesus, Peter 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:21.679 had seen blind men get their sight, Peter had seen deaf people get their hearing back in 00:35:21.679 --> 00:35:28.079 the presence of Jesus, and when the man of power went to the cross for Peter, Peter said 00:35:28.079 --> 00:35:36.559 three times publicly, I am ashamed of him, I am ashamed of him, I am ashamed of him. 00:35:36.559 --> 00:35:41.599 After Jesus had said, if you say you are ashamed of me before others, I will say no to you 00:35:41.599 --> 00:35:53.799 before my Father, but the power of the cross, just a few days later, Jesus sits down with 00:35:53.799 --> 00:36:02.440 Peter at the beach and says, Peter, take this bread, drink this wine, eat this fish, you 00:36:02.440 --> 00:36:11.119 said ashamed, ashamed, ashamed, and now I say to you, do you love me, love me, love me? 00:36:11.119 --> 00:36:16.119 If you will confess and repent, if you will say, I love you, I love you, I love you, 00:36:16.119 --> 00:36:22.359 then your thrice pronouncement of shame and embarrassment before me, it will be wiped 00:36:22.359 --> 00:36:28.119 away, it will be wiped away. 00:36:28.119 --> 00:36:33.920 He is so compassionate, even to the unrighteous. 00:36:33.920 --> 00:36:34.920 Let's pray. 00:36:34.920 --> 00:36:43.039 Father, we give thanks to you for the gospel, we want to know the power of God unto salvation, 00:36:43.039 --> 00:36:47.159 so we ask Lord for some maybe today for the first time that you would give them faith 00:36:47.159 --> 00:36:52.960 for some, that you would renew them, that they would have their hearts broken maybe 00:36:52.960 --> 00:36:57.680 once more, that for some that we would be strengthened to be courageous and unashamed 00:36:57.679 --> 00:37:04.839 of the gospel, so we ask for these things, in Jesus' name, amen.