The Gospel of God
Romans 4:23-25
Back in 2005, John Piper wrote a book entitled, God is The Gospel, which initially caused a stir among some Christian groups who thought the title was confusing and inappropriate in the sense that they had always identified the Gospel with Jesus Christ.
They thought a better title would be, “Jesus is The Gospel or the Good News” rather than “God is the Good News”.
Now, it wasn’t that they denied God the Father—they just did not equate or connect God the Father to our salvation to the degree that they did Jesus Christ, God the Son.
In their minds, the punishment of sin was God the Father’s idea and the providing of salvation from sin’s punishment was God the Son’s idea.
And they are not alone in their thinking. I have found over the years that many Christians have a similar concept or at least express a similar concept when talking about the Gospel.
They see God the Father as the offended deity and Jesus—God the Son, as the Saving, Merciful, Gracious, Patient, and Gentle Savior.
Well, the fact of the matter is that this kind of compartmentalizing of God the Father and God the Son is not biblical in any sense—thus it is not true.
In fact, the Bible makes very clear that God the Father is the One Who ordained the plan of salvation and the choosing of sinners to be saved before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4).
The Bible is also emphatically clear that it was God the Father who ordained and purposed that God the Son would go to the cross to pay the sin penalty of sinners (Acts 2:22-23).
And the Bible is just as clear that God the Father was pleased to crush His Son on the cross of Calvary so that He could be just in justifying sinners who would come to Him for salvation (Isaiah 53:10).
And it was God the Father Who publicly put forth and displayed Jesus as the only One Who could satisfy God’s wrath toward us for our sin (Romans 3:25).
In fact, in His prayer to God the Father in John 17, Jesus—God the Son—says in verse 4, “I have glorified you on the earth having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.”
In other words, the work of going to the cross to die in the place of sinners who would believe in Him and thus be saved from their sins was the very work that God had sent Jesus to earth to accomplish.
And all of this can be summed up by John 3:16, which states that:
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
And we must never forget that the purpose of Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary and thus the Gospel is to reconcile sinners to God—so as to bring them to God—so that they can see Him and enjoy Him and thus glorify Him.
The Gospel is not a way to get people to heaven—it is the way to get people to God. God is the ultimate goal of the Gospel.
And quite frankly, if God is not who we consistently desire above all things…..we have not been converted by the Gospel.
I think Piper was right when he entitled his book, God is the Gospel or translated, God is the Good News.
Because God is the Good News that Jesus died to enable us to experience.
So, turn to Romans 4:23-25 where we will see God the Father’s role in our justification and thus our salvation.
1. The Gospel is God’s Good News Because God is The Object of Justifying and Saving Faith. (23-24a)
In most of the passages dealing with salvation, Jesus Christ is seen as the object of saving faith.
Over and over again in passages such as John 3:16, 36; 6:40; 11:25-26; Acts 16:31 to mention just a few, Jesus Christ is seen as the object of saving faith—the One we are to believe in to be saved.
Yet, here in Romans 4:24, Paul tells us that to be justified and thus saved, we must believe in God and he means God the Father.
So, Who is it we are to believe in if we are to be justified and thus saved from our sins and their due penalty—Jesus Christ or God the Father?
Both. You must believe in Jesus Who went to the cross to pay for our sins and you must believe in God Who sent Him there and then raised Him from the dead.
In fact, you cannot believe in one without the other, which was Jesus’ point in John 14:1 where He said to His disciples:
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.”
Now both usages of the verb “believe” in John 14:6 are in the same exact tense and mood. The two words are translated from the Greek word (pisteuete). It is a second person plural present tense imperative mood or indicative mood verb.
Now, if it is in the indicative mood, the verb is simply indicating that Jesus is stating the fact that to believe in God is to believe in Him. In essence if the verb is indicative in its mood the phrase would read this way:
You all believe in God…..you all believe in me also.
In other words, the indicative moods simply makes the point that to believe in and trust in God is to also believe in and trust in Christ.
On the other hand, if the verb is an imperative then the phrase would read:
You must all believe in God……you must all believe in me also.
In other words, the imperative mood would make the point that the command to believe in God is only fulfilled when you believe in Christ.
Either way you use the verb, as an indicative or as an imperative, it is telling us that to believe in God is to believe in Jesus and vice versa.
This last phrase in John 14:1 is actually in what is called chiastic structure which is equating God the Father and God the Son as the one object of belief that comforts troubled souls.
You see this same thought in John 12:44-45.
It is important to understand that Jesus’ point here is that to believe in Him is not to believe in Him alone but to also believe in God Who sent Him…….
Because the person who sees and believes in Jesus—sees and is believing in God the Father.
Thus, to place saving faith in Christ necessitates placing saving faith in God as well.
Look at John 5:18-24.
No one can honor Jesus by believing in Jesus apart from honoring the Father by believing in the Father because they are One and thus they are the One object of the faith that saves a person form their sins.
Again, you cannot simply believe in Jesus and not believe in God.
To put it another way—you cannot have God apart from having Jesus—in fact, you cannot see God apart from seeing Jesus.
Just as God the Father and God the Son are inseparable in their essence as God—they are inseparable in the Gospel as the object of saving faith as well.
Oh, just as they are different in their functions within the Trinity but the same in their essence as God—they have distinct and different functions concerning their roles in the plan of salvation and thus the Gospel—yet they remain inseparable in their essence as God and thus as the one inseparable object of saving faith.
For example, God the Father initiated the plan of salvation and thus the Gospel. He also is the driving force behind the Gospel in the sense that He is the One Who delivered God the Son over to be crucified and then punished sin in Jesus and then raised Jesus from the dead because sin was indeed paid for in and by Jesus.
Jesus was the member of the Godhead Who carried out the plan of salvation by going to the cross and paying for sin and rising from the dead.
Yet, both, inspite of their different functions in the gospel plan, are the object of saving faith.
And note, I did not say, “objects” as though they are two different objects of saving faith.
No, I said, “object”. And again what I mean by this is that a person cannot be saved by believing in Jesus apart from God the Father nor can he be saved by believing in God apart from Jesus Christ.
Both together are the object of saving faith.
You cannot believe in One without the other—and be saved.
So, with that in mind the Bible has no trouble speaking of both God and Jesus as the object of the faith that saves a person.
2. The Gospel is God’s Good News Because God is The One Who Raised Jesus From The Dead. (24b)
There are many people who think that they are Christians simply because they have a generic belief in God.
They believe that God exists and that God is the Creator and that one day God will judge the world.
These people sometimes live very moral lives and really do their best to obey parts of the Bible.
But they are not Christians because, they, while holding to a belief in the existence of God, have no concern or interest in His Gospel, which is summarized in the statement—that—“God raised Jesus our Lord from the dead”.
You see, believing in God in the sense that you believe He exists is not enough to save you.
It is not enough to save anyone.
To believe God exists is not to believe in Him.
It is simply to believe a fact of life that according to Romans 1:18-20, everyone, regardless of what they say to the contrary, believes innately.
No, to believe in God so as to be saved by God is to believe the Gospel of God.
So just as you cannot believe in God for salvation apart from believing in Christ—neither can you believe in God for salvation apart from knowing and believing the Gospel of God.
Salvation requires that one believe that not only does God exist but that He has provided a means and a way through Jesus Christ—God the Son—for a person to be saved from the due penalty of his or her sons—which is an eternity in hell.
And Paul goes on to explain and expand this statement that those who believe in God Who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead will be credited with righteousness and thus justified and saved in verse 25.
3. The Gospel is God’s Good News Because God is The One Who Delivered Jesus Over to Death Because of Our Sins. (25a)
If Jesus was indeed raised from the dead—He must have died.
And in verse 25, Paul makes the point that not only did Jesus die but that Jesus died for our sins—that is the sins of all of us who have placed saving faith in Him.
He died to pay the penalty for those sins so that we who believe in Him won’t have to.
And the interesting thing is that this was God the Father’s idea and plan.
Certainly, Jesus went to the cross willingly but it was the Father Who sent Him there and delivered Him over to death on the cross on account of and because of our sins.
And thus the good news of the Gospel is that God the Father deliberately and purposely sent God the Son—Jesus Christ—to the cross to pay the total and full penalty for our sins that we deserved to pay.
Furthermore, it was God the Father Who punished Jesus for our sins while He hung on that cross.
Look at Isaiah 53:4-10a.
And then look at the promise God gives in Isaiah 53:10b-12.
God promises Him that if He (The Savior—the Messiah—the Christ—Jesus the Son of God) will indeed offer Himself as the guilt offering for the sin of those sinners whom God sent Him to the cross to die for—those who would believe……..
That God would raise Him from the dead.
Now, look at the end of Romans 4:25.
4. The Gospel is God’s Good News Because God is The One Who Raised Jesus From the Dead Because Our Sins Were Indeed Paid For By Jesus On The Cross So That God Could Indeed Justify Us and Remain Just. (25b)
Interestingly enough, Paul uses the same Greek word in the second part of the verse that he used in the first phrase of the verse.
It means: on account of or because.
Thus, God the Father raised God the Son from the dead because or on account of the fact that all the sins of all the people who would place faith in Christ for salvation were indeed paid for.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the proof that our sins—every single one of them—have been fully dealt with by God in Jesus Christ as He hung on the cross.
In other words…..when Jesus said…..”It is finished”…….it really is!
The sins of every single person who has placed their faith in Christ and thus in God to save them were exhaustively and completely and comprehensively judged, punished, and dealt with by God the Father as He poured out His wrath upon Jesus who while on the cross was bearing our sin.
And that is why—in Romans 5:1—we are told that the person who has been justified by faith….that is they have believed in God Who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead……that is they have believed with all their heart and are fully assured that God has taken care of their sin problem in Christ Jesus………
This person has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you have peace with God concerning your sin?
Do you have the confidence that if you were to die right now that you would stand before God as one whose sins have been completely forgiven by Him?
Are you trusting in God alone through Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross alone for your salvation?
If you are then you are at peace with God….the war is over…..you have nothing to fear from Him.
CONCLUSION
Paul’s point in chapter four has been to show us that if we are to be saved from the wrath of God for our sin we must have a faith like Abraham’s.
A faith that moves beyond mere human hope that we can somehow—someway avoid God’s judgment for our sin through our own goodness and efforts—and rests in God’s work at the cross.
A faith that des not waver and is not staggered by the seeming impossibility of our situation when we look at our sinful pasts and our sinful struggles right now and wonder how can God forgive us.
A faith that is fully assured of God’s promise of salvation in spite of what we know to be true of ourselves and our own utter unworthiness before God.
A faith that looks to God, believes in God, trusts in God, and takes God completely at His Word and then rests in the promise that God will forgive and save the person, regardless of who they are and what they have done, who comes to Him through Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
Let’s pray.
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