The Gospel of God [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. If I were to sum up what the letter to the Romans is all about, it would be those two questions. What went wrong, and how has God made it right?

What's wrong with me, and how can I be made right with God? That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light.

I am Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series we call O Bologna, a study of Romans chapters one through three, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. Now, if you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, we sure want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer, and you can contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Okay, beloved, are you ready for some good news? The gospel invites us into untold manifold benefits of knowing that we're saved, of being assured heaven, of victory in Christ over sin and healing for disease and for peace with one another and for a whole new joy in our lives and on and on and on and on and on. But all of that is not the gospel.

The gospel, the main gift of the gospel, the primary gift of the gospel is God Himself. And so we start today in a series that we're going to be, I said, unhurried. And I really want to just draw your attention to one verse.

I said we'd go slow. Let's just do verse one today. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. That's an interesting phrase, the gospel of God. Say that with me, the gospel of God.

That's what I want to talk to you about today. You ever just pick up the paper these days or listen to the news or see the way people treat each other and just something in you, an exasperated way, it says, what is so wrong with everybody? Or sometimes you see it in your own life and you get honest enough and say, what's wrong with me? What's wrong with this world? People who don't know the Lord are asking that question. What is wrong with this place? What has happened? Which if you ask that question invites a second question, and that is, how in the world could it be made right? If I were to sum up what the letter to the Romans is all about, it would be those two questions. What went wrong and how has God made it right?

What's wrong with me and how can I be made right with God? That's really what this incredible letter is all about. In October of 1999, the A&E network consulted 360 journalists, scientists, and scholars, and they compiled a countdown of the most influential people of the millennium, the top 100 of the most influential people who impacted the world during the thousand years, that thousand years. And interestingly on the list, I was a little surprised. Number one was Johann Gutenberg, who invented the movable type, the printing press, in order to print the Bible. And this list is the number one most influential person of the last thousand years.

Interesting. And second was Isaac Newton, the famous physicist. In third place on the list, the secular list of most influential people, in front of Charles Darwin, in front of Christopher Columbus, in front of Adolf Hitler, in front of Thomas Jefferson.

Third on the list, A&E network listed, was a 16th century monk named Martin Luther. He was overly conscientious monk who had been taught that God required him to live a righteous God required him to live a righteous life in order to be saved. And so Luther confessed even his most minute sins all throughout the day. And he attempted to do everything that you possibly could to live righteously. Of course, he couldn't live without sinning. And he discovered that. He discovered he couldn't be righteous on his own.

And he grew to hate God rather than love him because of this. Until he understood Romans, particularly Romans 1 17, wherein the NIV reads, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. The gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. A righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it's written, the righteous will live by faith.

And Martin Luther wrote this. He said, I labored diligently and anxiously as to how to understand Paul's word, the expression, the righteousness of God, blocked the way because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and deals righteously in punishing the unrighteous. Although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner. Therefore, I did not love a righteous and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him. Then Luther writes, I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us by faith. Thereupon, I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.

I broke through. And as I had formerly hated the expression, the righteousness of God, I now began to regard it as my dearest and most comforting word. If you'll stay with us for a long study of Romans, then the righteousness of God is going to become a dear and comforting phrase to you. That's why after this transformation from the book of Romans, this 16th century reformer said of the epistle to the Romans, it is the true masterpiece of the New Testament and the very purest gospel. And then he says this, a Christian should not only learn it by heart, word for word, but also he should daily deal with it as the daily bread of men's souls.

For it can never be too much or too well read or studied. So I'm taking Luther at his word that we can't read it too much, study it too much or dive too deeply in it. And so we start on Romans one, verse one, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. He starts this opening verse announcing to us that everything you're going to read in Romans is about the gospel of God. It is about the gospel.

It is, as Luther said, the very purest gospel. And gospel as we speak of often means good news. It comes from this beautiful Greek word, euangelion, euangelion, and the prefix of that eu, eu, good, and angelion that means message and angelos, which means messenger. So the word angel actually means messenger. And if you put this in its verb form, it's euangelizo, to announce good news. So euangelion, sometimes when it gets transliterated, it'll be showing a V there instead of eu, which is where you get evangel, which is where you get the word evangelical, evangelism.

It is from euangelion, good news, good news. It is not a new word or concept to the New Testament. And the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, but it was translated into Greek. And that translation is called the Septuagint. And in the Septuagint, it is helpful sometimes to see where they translated something from the Hebrew into the Greek. It helps you understand, therefore, how New Testament writers and New Testament Christians would have taken over concepts that had been around for a long time, like euangelion. So it's interesting to look into the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, and see where do you see euangelion? And it's in places like Isaiah 52 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings euangelion. Or Isaiah 49, go up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news, the messenger of the euangelion. In ancient Rome after a decisive battle had been won, they would send a runner with the message of the victory. And they would sometimes run great distances to carry the news the battle has been won. And so when the announcement would come, the victory has been won at the battle of such and such, that was euangelion.

That's the good news announcement. Interestingly, we find the word euangelion in ancient inscriptions. And this particular inscription that we have found in town in southwest Turkey, just sort of south of Ephesus in a town called Priene, Priene.

It is a place where there is an archaeological dig and ruins that are there. And then this inscription that was found there that translates as, whereas finally the birthday of the God, Augustus, has been for the whole world the beginning of euangelion, good news, concerning him. So the gospel, the euangelion, was even attached to the birth of Caesar Augustus. Good news has come, the transformation of the world because Caesar's been born. So it's hard to imagine that Paul didn't at least in part have that in mind when he began his letter to the Romans and said, I've been set apart for the gospel of God, not Caesar, not of any human being or human institution. This is the gospel of God. And gospel is therefore very simply an announcement. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. We're excited to tell you about Pastor Alan's latest book, Seeing as Jesus Sees.

It's just been released, and it's the giant secret of real transformation. Now, followers of Christ tend to focus on doing, so we've been told to ask, what would Jesus do? But even our noblest efforts to be more like Jesus ultimately fail for the same reason that pledging to keep the law never works.

There's no gospel power in our self-striving. But what if the secret to personal transformation and victorious living isn't found in doing as much as in seeing? Anyone who has ever had an aha moment or has suddenly discovered the truth of a situation knows that fresh vision changes everything. In his eye-opening new book, Pastor Alan Wright invites readers into a new, simple spiritual practice, a little breath prayer that can be prayed throughout the day. Jesus, how do you see this? It's a prayer that the Savior loves to answer, because after all, Christ came to be the light of the world. Clear away confusion, win over the darkness, and open your heart to wonder and joy by getting your copy of the book right away. And when you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's new beautiful hardcover book. And as an additional thank you for your support, you'll also receive a free six-week Seeing as Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan. Let Jesus take you by the hand and show you a whole new perspective for your life as you learn how to ask Christ for his eyes. You'll start seeing as Jesus sees, and you're gonna love the view.

You're gonna love the view. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. It is the heralding of good news. And this is more than anything else, what I want us to learn from Romans deeply, is that this good news message, just by being announced, has within it power to change everything. It's an announcement like the angel that comes to the shepherds and says, don't be afraid because I bring you good news of great joy.

I bring you a euangelion of megakara. I bring to you the greatest joy the world's ever heard, and I just want to announce it to you. Unto you this day in the city of David has been born a savior. It's Christ the Lord.

And there you have it. It's the announcement. The announcement has in it power for transformation, so much so as we'll see. And when we get to verse 16, Paul says what may be the actual theme of all of Romans, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first and also to the great, to everyone, it is the power of sozo, which means healing and wholeness and peace and well-being and everything of shalom that you could ever imagine. This is the power of God. It's being released in this gospel. If it is an announcement, then you might wonder, well, how does that actually change somebody?

I was in an Uber this week for about a 25-minute ride, and I'm sort of shy, and I don't usually get in the Uber and talk to this person that I'll never see again. You hear all the preachers tell stories about getting on airplanes and leading people to Christ, and I get on airplanes and read books and write sermons and try not to talk. But this lady named Mary, we're riding along, mentioned a grandchild. Well, that just sucked me right in.

I had no choice. I'm in it now, so I'm talking to Mary. And then Mary begins to share that she'd been going through some very difficult times. And I just felt of the Lord.

I don't do this all the time. Just because I'm a preacher, I don't preach to every stranger. But I'm all into Romans, and I just said, well, Mary, there's a place in the Bible where it says that suffering produces endurance as you bear up under all of this, and endurance produces character and character hope.

And it won't disappoint you in the end. And I said, I just think God's making you stronger. Then I look up, and she's grabbing Kleenex. She's driving me, and she's weeping, and she's driving. And she said, I have started praying again, and I've wanted to return to my faith that I once had. And this is the very thing I was asking God for. And so we spent the rest of our trip talking about the things of Jesus.

I didn't do anything for Mary. I just gave her a little bit of good news. John Piper said, imagine that there were American soldiers in captivity in a prison of war camp towards the end of World War II behind barbed wire with little food. And they were hungry, they were thirsty, they were sick, some were dying. And they're about to despair and give up all hope. And then a spy sneaks through and gets a note handed through the barbed wire fence to one of the American captives and announces the war has been won.

They will be liberated very soon. Then word spreads through all the captives, and there's a new joy in the camp. And the captors don't know why, but the captives do. You can imagine a scenario like that, just the word of good news, of the victory. It changes everything, doesn't it? It could be someone who is ready to despair of life itself, maybe fearing upcoming torture, who might not want to endure it, thought of taking his own life, but suddenly he's re-energized.

Someone brought him to the camp, someone perhaps who has been malnourished and might not be able to make it through, but finds himself sitting up in bed and taking the morsels that he can because he's quite intent on living now. And where there once had been nothing but sadness, there's joy. Just because a note got slipped through a fence, an announcement can change everything. And that's what we do. We announce it. We help people see it. And when you see it and you see what God's done in Jesus Christ, it changes you. This is what I want everyone to understand. You don't need more good advice. That doesn't change you.

You need good news. I often refer to, I guess, one of my favorite stories of the Old Testament, David and Goliath, which is such a great illustration of how good news changes you. Because there's a story about the army of Israel that is being taunted for 40 days by a Philistine giant named Goliath.

And they're afraid of him. Now it's a story therefore about people who are living contrary to their identity and destiny. Their identity is that they are the army of the living God.

And their destiny is to conquer and maintain a land, not be overrun by the Philistines. Alan Wright, our good news message, the gospel of God. It's from the series, O Bologna, a series of Romans and specifically chapters one through three. Now stay with us. Pastor Alan is back joining me in the studio, sharing his parting good news thought for us all in just a moment. And we're excited to tell you about Pastor Alan's latest book, Seeing as Jesus Sees.

It's just been released and it's the giant secret of real transformation. Now, followers of Christ tend to focus on doing. So we've been told to ask what would Jesus do? But even our noblest efforts to be more like Jesus ultimately fail for the same reason that pledging to keep the law never works.

There's no gospel power in our self-striving. But what if the secret to personal transformation and victorious living isn't found in doing as much as in seeing? Anyone who has ever had an aha moment or has suddenly discovered the truth of a situation knows that fresh vision changes everything. In his eye-opening new book, Pastor Alan Wright invites readers into a new, simple spiritual practice, a little breath prayer that can be prayed throughout the day. Jesus, how do you see this?

It's a prayer that the savior loves to answer because after all, Christ came to be the light of the world. Clear away confusion, win over the darkness, and open your heart to wonder and joy by getting your copy of the book right away. And when you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's new beautiful hardcover book. And as an additional thank you for your support, you'll also receive a free six-week Seeing as Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan. Let Jesus take you by the hand and show you a whole new perspective for your life.

As you learn how to ask Christ for his eyes, you'll start seeing as Jesus sees, and you're going to love the view. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back here now with Pastor Alan in the studio and our parting good news thought today from the teaching the gospel of God. Gospel means good news, eu angelion, the good message. And to think of Paul who starts out this incredible epistle to the Romans, truly a letter that has not only changed lives of Christians throughout the centuries, but we could truly say has changed history itself.

This incredible letter. And he begins with the gospel. He's set apart for the gospel of God. It's good news. The world's full of bad news, but the gospel is good news. And it's good news of what God's done for us in Jesus. So I just want every listener, this parting thought in the world of bad news, every day, let your heart be filled with the gospel, which is good news. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.