"The Power Of God Unto Salvation"       

Romans 1:16

 

     Paul was never ashamed to preach the gospel of Christ because he knew that "it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Let other men speculate, theorize and argue their points of theology as they will. We recognize that God has only one means by which he is pleased to save his elect - the preaching of the gospel. Therefore we will, as God enables us, preach it to all men everywhere.

     The issue is not whether God can save his people without the use of means. We know that God can do anything he is pleased to do. The issue is what God has told us he will do. And he has told us that he will save sinners only by the preaching of the gospel. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (I Cor. 1:21). "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth" (James 1:18). You who believe are "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever...And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you" (I Pet. 1:23,25). The preaching of the gospel of Christ is the means by which God the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to redeemed sinners, quickens the dead, unstops deaf ears, opens blind eyes and reconciles men to God. "It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." If you now believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, your faith is the result of God working in you by his almighty power through the preaching of the gospel.

     What a privilege we have! God allows us, who have been saved by the gospel to proclaim the gospel for the salvation of others. He could save them without us. But he is pleased to use us. Just as our Lord, when he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, commanded those who stood by, saying, "Take ye away the stone," so he now commands us to "preach the gospel to every creature." Attached to the command is this promise: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."  "And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Our labor is not in vain in the Lord. God will use us, as we faithfully preach the gospel of his grace, for the salvation of his elect and the glory of his dear Son, our Savior.

 

Don Fortner