01 The Book of Romans-The Gospel Manifesto Pt 1 The Good News

Unashamed, Undeserved, Unstoppable

Part 1: The Good News

By Louie Marsh, 4-27-2025

 

Four quotes about the book of Romans,

 

10 Little Known Facts About Ancient Rome

 

1. Gladiator blood was recommended by Roman physicians to aid various ailments, including epilepsy and infertility.

2. Purple clothing was a status symbol and reserved only for emperors or senators. To achieve the color, a dye was made from murex seashells. It was treason for anyone other than the emperor to dress completely in purple.

3. Left-handed people were considered unlucky. The word “sinister” was originally the Latin adjective “sinister”/”sinistra”/”sinistrum” that meant “left” but took on the meanings of “evil” or “unlucky” by the Classical Latin era.

4. Emperor Caligula often appeared in public dressed in women’s clothing.

5. In the first century B.C., the poet Gaius Valerius Catullus addressed two of his critics, another poet Furius and a senator Aurelius, in a poem considered so vulgar and obscene that it was not translated outside of Latin until the 20th century.

6. Romans thought the early Christians were practicing cannibalism when they heard about them eating bread and wine as symbolic representations of the body and blood of Christ.

7. People would socialize at communal toilets. Rome had over 140 public toilets. Video slide

8. While Romans were extremely hygienic, they did not use soap. Instead, to get clean they would apply perfumed oils to their skin and then scrape it off with a tool known as a strigil.

9. Not everyone wore togas. Only free-born Roman men were allowed to wear togas (as a sign of Roman citizenship), while Roman women wore stolas.

10. Urine (because of the ammonia it contains) was used to clean clothes. The urine was collected by fullones (the Ancient Roman version of dry cleaners) from around the city.

 

1) Why is the Gospel so important?

 

· The Gospel comes from GOD

 

¹  Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, Romans 1:1 (ESV)

 

· The Gospel is proved by SCRIPTURE

 

²  which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, Romans 1:2 (ESV)

 

· The Gospel’s Substance is JESUS CHRIST

 

³  concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh ⁴  and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 1:3-4 (ESV)

 

· The Gospel’s purpose is OBEDIENCE BY FAITH.

 

⁵  through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith , Romans 1:5a (ESV)

 

· The Gospel’s scope is all NATIONS

 

⁵ the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, Romans 1:5b (ESV)

 

· The Gospel’s goal is to BELONG to Jesus

 

⁶  including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, Romans 1:6 (ESV)

 

Slide:

Summary: The good news of the Gospel is OF God, ABOUT Christ, ACCORDING to the Scriptures, FOR the nations, UNTO obedience of faith, FOR THE SAKE of the Name!

 

2) The Gospel Builds STRONG relationships.

 

⁸  First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. ⁹  For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you ¹⁰  always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. ¹¹  For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— ¹²  that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. ¹³  I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. Romans 1:8-13 (ESV)

 

3) The Gospel is a DEBT I owe the world

 

¹⁴  I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵  So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. Romans 1:14-15 (ESV)

 

Two ways to be in debt – borrow from you, or carry money to you from another person. That’s our kind of debt.

 

¹⁶  For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 1 Corinthians 9:16 (ESV)

 

4) The Gospel Reveals GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS.

 

¹⁶  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. ¹⁷  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17 (ESV)

 

· You get right with God by FAITH in Jesus Christ.

 

Some stress God’s righteousness is a divine attribute or quality.

Others stress God’s righteousness is a divine activity, his saving intervention on our behalf.

Others say it’s a divine achievement. It’s what God has done for us in Christ.

 

I say, yes to all that – it’s all three. Therefore…

 

Summary: The righteousness of God is God’s righteous initiative in putting sinners right with himself by bestowing on them a righteousness which is not their own but his. The righteousness of God is God’s just justification of the unjust, his righteous way of pronouncing the unrighteous righteous, in which he both demonstrates his righteousness and give righteousness to us. All done in and thru Jesus Christ.  

 

· The entire Christian life is lived BY FAITH.