Wisdom Wednesday: Wisdom of the Good News

Wisdom Wednesday: Wisdom of the Good News

Submitted by Debbie’s Dad

  So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

 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 most, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

 (Ro 1:15–17 NASB 1995)

In the epistle to the Romans, Paul begins in chapter 1, saying he is “set apart for the gospel of God” (verse 1). Move The word “gospel” in the New Testament is the rendering of the Greek word evangelion or “good message”. We usually refer to this as the “Good News”.

Paul was eager to present the gospel to the people of Rome. He lists the reasons for his eagerness in the first chapter:

1. The gospel was promised by God long ago by His prophets in Scripture. (v. 2)
2. The gospel specifically was about God’s Son, a descendant of David, king of Israel. (v.3)
3. And the gospel declared His Son, Jesus Christ, Who demonstrated God’s power by resurrection from the dead (v.4)
4. And the gospel brings to people obedience to the message and faith in Jesus Christ. (v. 6; see also Romans 15:18; 16:26).
5. And to those who obey in faith, they are the “beloved of God” and are called saints (v.7 see also I Cor. 1:2)
6. And the gospel is uniquely the power of God for salvation to everyone who by faith, believes in Him. (v. 16)

This is the gospel message–God sent His Son who died and was resurrected from the dead to demonstrate His power over death, and that those who in obedience, believe by faith in Him, will become the beloved of God. (The most well-known version of this gospel is in John’s gospel: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life”. John 3:16).

When writing to the believers in Corinth, Paul emphasized that the message of the gospel is the wisdom of God:

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.  For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Co 1:21–24).

The good news is the wisdom of God and the power of God – the means of salvation for all who will obey and believe.