Bible Truth #159 - Romans 1:16

Romans 1:16

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

You may wonder what this verse has to do with the sovereignty of God in salvation and to that I respond easy - look at the word POWER. It is the Greek word dynamis and as my pastor has said, it means the force that overpowers any form of resistance and it is the word from which we get the word dynamite.

The Gospel is the power of GOD for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew and then the Gentile. The point is that the creature, i.e. man, is NOT stronger than God. So those God wants to save, they’re going to be saved. The creature does not have the ability to say “No” to dynamis power.

And what sort of “resistance” can man put up to begin with? None, because man is dead. A dead man can’t resist any more than Lazarus could have resisted when Jesus called him out of the grave (John 11:43-44). That is why God, when we were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1, 2:5, Colossians 2:13), stepped in and made us alive FIRST. And once He changed our nature by making us alive, our new nature is one that we naturally come into the Light where before we could not and would not (John 3:20).

Now the Arminians will say, “But wait! Paul writes that the Gospel is the power of God FOR EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES.”

To that I say AMEN! Paul did not write the Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who ever lived, nor did he write that it is the power of God for those who don’t believe. Paul wrote “...[the Gospel] is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” Here is where we get back to the old argument of who will believe. The Arminian will say that a dead man:

- can believe [No, he can only if God works in him, John 6:29].

- can come into the Light [No, he won’t, John 3:20].

- can repent [No, not without God granting it to him, 2 Timothy 2:25].

- can believe thereby pleasing God [No, he can’t, Romans 8:8].

- can do whatever he wants. To that I say show me in the Bible where a lost man, or a dead man, can do anything spiritual at all! The spiritual condition of man is death. He is born spiritually dead and can NOT regenerate himself any more than Lazarus could make himself come alive. And THAT is an excellent analogy.

Did Lazarus make himself come alive? Did Lazarus resurrect himself? Did Lazarus even walk out of the grave of his own power? NO! His grave clothes had been wrapped around him to such an extent he could not even WALK! And this is what the Bible tells us in John 11:44, his hands and feet were wrapped, the King James version writes his hands and feet were BOUND. If this is the case, and it IS the case, he could not even walk out of the grave under his own power or ability. The people witnessing this miracle did not see him walk out of the grave. He was levitated by Christ and literally floated out of the grave. This is why Jesus said, “Loose him, and let him go.”

So as with us spiritually concerning salvation. WE WERE DEAD and could do nothing. We could not believe until God quickened our dead spirit and MADE us believe (John 6:29). And He did it with dynamis power, a power to which we could NOT say “no” any more than Lazarus could have said “no.”