God’s Grand Old Gospel
Romans 1:1–17
Set apart for the gospel of God. Romans 1:1

The gospel is God’s gospel. It is something God announced and accomplished and what he sent his apostles to proclaim. It is something God blesses and through which he saves men and women. The grammatical way of stating this is that the genitive (“of God”) is a subjective rather than an objective genitive. It means that God creates and announces the gospel rather than that he is the object of its proclamation.

Note how prominent this point is in these early verses of Romans. God the Father has “promised [the gospel] beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures” (v. 2). He has sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to accomplish the work thus promised, with the result that the gospel, then as now, is “concerning” him (v. 3). Finally, it is “through [him]” and “for the sake of his name” that Paul and the other apostles, exercising a calling received by them from God, were in the process of proclaiming the gospel to men and women everywhere (v. 5).

If God is concerned about his gospel to this extent, will he not bless it fully wherever these great truths are proclaimed?

Let me tell you one story of such a blessing. In the year 1816 a Scotsman by the name of Robert Haldane went to Switzerland. Haldane was a godly layman who, with his brother James Alexander, had been much used of the Lord in Scotland. In Geneva, on this particular occasion, he was sitting on a park bench in a garden in the open air and heard a group of young men talking. As he listened, he realized two things. First, these were theological students. Second, they were ignorant of true Christianity. As a result of this encounter and after a few encouraging conversations, Haldane invited the students to his room and began to teach them the book of Romans. God honored this work, and the Holy Spirit blessed it by the conversions of these young men. They were converted one by one, and in turn they were instrumental in a religious revival that not only affected Switzerland but also spread to France and the Netherlands.

Why should it be any different today? If it were our gospel, we could expect nothing. But it is not our gospel. It is “the gospel of God,” that grand old gospel that was “promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures” and achieved for us by the Lord Jesus Christ through his substitutionary death and resurrection. We should proclaim it fearlessly and with zeal, as did Paul.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.