In The Master's Service

THE POWER OF GOD

Elder Mark Green

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith" (Romans 1:16-17).

Paul told the Thessalonians that he knew they were God's elect people because his preaching had not come to them "in word only," but in power, in much assurance, and in the Holy Ghost. It had had a powerful effect upon them, and because of that the apostle had strong evidence of their quickened condition. Where we see the power of the gospel, we see evidence of life.

Perhaps the sweetest thing about the gospel to the child of God is the evidence that it brings that he has a part in the work of Christ. The gospel speaks of things that only a child of God can understand and value. How can a man rejoice in salvation from sin if he does not feel himself to be a sinner? The gospel speaks "to faith." Where faith is, there we find the Spirit. If we find the Spirit in a man, then we know he is a child of God, for "ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in> you.” If the Spirit dwells in us, then we have been born again.

If the gospel were "word only," that is, if it involved only men's thoughts and opinions, then we might be ashamed of it. Every man I ever heard talk for very long would sooner or later bring up something of which he should have been ashamed. The effect of Paul's preaching upon the Thessalonians, however, was not just that which grammar and vocabulary might bring forth. There was something more at work; the Holy Ghost was involved in the matter. It was a matter of the Spirit, and not just of words.

Where we find the power of the gospel, we will find faith, for without faith the gospel has no power. To a natural, unregenerate man the gospel is just so much absurdity. "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness." The gospel is the power of God to the man who believes it. That which a man rejects as a fable has no ability to move him. The gospel speaks of the most basic concepts known to man: of God and sin, of life and death, or eternal punishment and eternal life. If a man believes the gospel to be true, then the very weightiness of the subjects of which it treats ought to have a profound impact upon the hearer.

The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. His glorious rectitude of character is not a matter of degrees, but an absolute standard. God is not just righteous, but He is righteousness itself. "In him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" from holiness and goodness. As we see the righteousness of God revealed, we see how our own sinful frailty compares to it, and we can see ourselves as short of the mark – infinitely short. The gospel speaks of God's glory, but mercifully it also speaks of how we poor sinners have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. It tells of how He took our sins and transgressions and put them away, "as far as the east is from the west." That is a wonderful phrase, is it not? In beautifully simple terms it tells us sin will never be placed to our account again, but that we have been washed clean – perfectly, infinitely – in the blood of the Lamb.