“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” (Romans 1:16, 17)
In verses sixteen and seventeen of Romans 1, the word faith is used three times and additionally the word believe, which means four times Paul points to faith.
Furthermore, we are told that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation. The Gospel is the good news of God. We all trust in something or someone as we formulate the philosophy that we carry through life. The Christian is the person who believes and places his faith in the Gospel of God.
In verse seventeen we are told that in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed or the fact that God is right. He is right despite and because of the circumstances that man finds himself. Evil in the world is explained in great detail in the book of Romans. Sin and evil are not failures on God’s part, they are rebellion on man’s. Man, therefore, needs to be saved from God’s righteous anger against man’s sin.
The key that unlocks the door of God’s power unto salvation is faith. Paul concludes verse seventeen with the reality that the righteous man shall live by faith, or by faith the righteous man lives. In his letter to the Colossians Paul wrote, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions” Colossians 2:13
Eternal life, forgiveness for sins, the right reason for living, salvation from dead works toward God, and a delight in God all find a commonality in the door unlocked by faith. However, if faith does not find its culmination in the transformation of a person’s heart and life that produces good works, then it is not saving faith.
“What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” James 2:14-17
THE LIFE LIVED FOR SELF ALONE IS A VERY LONELY LIFE