Romans 1:16-17

Paul had been condemned as a pest, insurrectionist and cult leader by the Jews (= Acts 24:5) and rejected by many of the Gentiles as a babbler and an announcer of strange gods (Acts 17:18). Still, he was not ashamed of the g= ospel, since he knew what it could do.

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. How powerful is it? Certainly, salvation is powerful to justify any sinner, to bring about the forgiveness of sins. But salvation in the book of Romans includes more than justification. It involves sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, = and glorification. Ultimately, he gospel is powerful enough to take a sinner and full= y turn him into a son of God. <= /o:p>

The gospel is powerful because of the righteousness of God, not the lov= e of God or the mercy of God. Lega= lly speaking, God’s love can change and mercy can change. He has a right not to love if He so chooses. But God can never al= low His righteousness to fluctuate. There are some things that God not only will not do but cannot do. The Bible tells us that He = cannot lie, demonstrating that He cannot do anything unrighteous (Heb. 6:18). This is a great thing, for, once Christ pays for our sins on the cro= ss, He will never ask us to pay for them too.&= nbsp; That would be unrighteous. Thus God’s non-negotiable, unchanging righteousness is the powerful foundation of our salvation.

The righteousness that comes through salvation, however, is only powerf= ul to a person if he believes. Righteousness is imputed to us only out of faith and to faith. Without faith, no matter what we d= o, the righteousness of God will never be counted as ours. The Bible never tells us that the righteous will have life and live by trying. They will have life and live by faith.