THE GOSPEL OF THE POWER OF GOD

Evening Star, Issue 20316, 26 October 1929, Page 23

THE GOSPEL OF THE POWER OF GOD

Sermon preached in the United Congregational Church, King street, Dunedin, by the Rev. C. Maitland Elliss. Subject: ‘The Gospel of the Power of God.’ Text; Romans 5., 16: "I aw not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, lor it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” Our text is a striking one. Paul declares his unshaken _ confidence in the Gospel of Jesus Christ Tne world was not a stranger to mighty philosophies and religions; many of them were hoary with antiquity, and had enshrined tho highest concepts of thought the world had known up to that date. Yet hero is this apostle to the Gentiles, a preacher of a religion painfully new and which was not welcomed by the intellectuals of that age—a religion which seemed the height of foolishness; embraced for the most part by the ignorant and untutored—declaring his exultation in ins Gospel, and that he hopes to proclaim it within the metropolis of the Empire itself. Wo think of the text in the light ot its preceding context. The first chapter of Romans is not pleasant reading, it sets out with a brutal frankness the moral condition of the age in which Paul lived. We might be inclined to suspect that Paul was exaggerating the whole position, that he is writing for the sake of mere effect, that his zeal ran away with his sense of proportion and had distorted his perspective, were it not for the abundant endorsement of Ins description afforded by both profane history and the results of recent archaeological research. And the context gives point to the apostolic statement. Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel, because it was the power of God unto salvation —a power equal to the task of salvaging the moral wreckage of humanity even in tho heart of Roman society itself. And in every ago since Paul's day men and women have endorsed Paul’s words. They have been one with him in this tremendous assertion that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Gospel of the power of God unto salvation.

(1) It is the Gospel of the power of God. It is a gospel because it is a message of power. It is that which makes it a gospel. We all know that the word “gospel” meams “good news “ glad tidings ’’—and any religion which claims to bo a “ good news ” must at the same time bo able to claim to be a message of power to men’s hearts. Paul claims that the Gospel which he has preached in other centres of the Empire, nd which he hopes to yet proclaim in Rome, is such a message of power; hence he glories ira it, for such a gospel reaches down to the depths of men’s hearts and relates itself to their deepest needs. It docs so because it is tho power of God. Nothing else will meet the case. No other kind of power but divine power can deal with tho groat problems of human sin and weakness. It matters not whethej we take society as a whole, beset as it was in Paul’s day and as it is in niis, with tho moral rottenness and spiritual deadness of paganism and unbelief, or whether we take the problem ot the individual with its sin—its “divided self” —the only gospel which will make any appeal at all is a gospel of power. Herein is Paul’s rejoicing. For that very reason he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. It was a gospel of power. It was this which made him tho great missionary of tho apostolic age. It was this which had worked the great miracle in his own life. It was this experience of the Gospel which, had made possible for him to write that marvellous description of the problem of the divided personality in chapters vi. and vii. of this very epistle and to conclude with the wonderful climax in chapter viii. Truly Paul had a strong case and a solid basis for his rejoicing. (2) It is the Gospel of the Power of God unto salvation. Note the terra salvation. Sa.vation is a bigger term than version. Conversion is a genesis. Sulvat’on rightly understood, is a process. The new "birth, wonderful as it is, is only a birth. The newborn soul, like tho newborn child, has to grow and develop. And the Gospel of tho power of God is a gospel of a power which is able not only to convert man, but to develop and nourish the newborn life until it arrives at the fullness of the stature of Christ. I want you to notice how in three ways at least the Gospel proves itself to be the power of God unto salvation. . .

It is the gospel of God’s energising power. Paul knew that. Ho knew that the only hope for the decaying civilisation of his day was a power which could re-energise and revitalise society and individuals. And tho only gospel which is of any use to men today must he _ first ot all a gospel of life and vitality —a gospel of divine energy. This is essentially tho claim made by tho gospel of the power oj God. It is the gospel of the lifo_ of God coming to men. As our Lord Himself declared; “I am come that they might have life, and that more abundantly.” Let a man respond to the claims of Christ, aud he, too, will find that it is essentially a gospel of the divine energy. It becomes to him a driving force, a quickening power, a revitalising principle. Let any man allow it to have full sway in his life, and at once he will understand the meaning of that pregnant - phrase of Chalmers “the explosive power of a new affection.”

It is the gospel, secondly, of God’s transforming power. This essentially follows from what we have just argued. The power of the divine life must be a transforming power. Men ask, in their shallowness of thought and often with a sneer, “What has tho Gospel done?” Let history answer. It has changed communities and has transformed society wherever it has been allowed fair play and full scope. It has won more battles For truth and right than any military force. It has been responsible for all that is best in modern democracy. It has altered our conceptions as the value ol womanhood and child life. It has emancipated the slave. It is even now reacting upon our ideas as to what the relationship should be between master and man, Capital and Labour, nation and nation. And it is the same in the case of the individual. Christ transforms life. He transforms our outlook, bur ideals, tho very' attitude of our hearts. It is the only power in tho world which claims to transform men

by the “ renewing of their minds *’ (Romans, sii., 2). But in the tfhird place it is tho Gospel of the power of the divine fellowship. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul declares: “ God is faithful, through whom ye are called into the fellowship of His Son. Jesus Christ.” This is the very heart of the Evangel— God in Christ calling men into fellowship and companionship with Himself, a fellowship which is in terms of an experience of the living Christ. It is just here that w© find ourselves face to face with the condition, the only condition attached. Tho Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth. Wo ask: “ Surely this is too simple a thing, too childish a condition:”’ It may be childlike, nay it is childlike, but it is far from being childish.;, For what exactly does belief ihean in this'sense ?_ Belief, as used by the apostle, is nothing less than the committal of the whole man. ft is not a mere intellectual assent or agreement to any creed or code or confession of faith, but a whole-hearted trust and repose in Jesus Christ. But when you have thus trusted aud committed yourself you have done the biggest thing in life. For if a man would thus venture upon Christ ho must first of all turn his back upon tho past and forsake sin. Then it means he must be prepared to trust Christ. And that involves obedience to Him as Lord and Master.

Let any man do this, make this unconditional venture upon Christ, then he, too, will know the truth of ’the text that the gospel is the power of God. He will know ■what Paul meant when he declared that the life he lived was, in his own words, “ I live, yet no no longer I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I live I live by faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” The test is nob in the first instance that of scholarship or intellectual attainment, but that of experience. And tho test is open to you. Turn to Christ. Turn your back upon your past life. Accept Christ unconditionally. Venture on Him. Learn of Him. Follow Him. Obey Him. And you shall know the truth of those immortal lines of Wesley when ho sang:

He speaks, and listening to His voice New life the dead receive, The mournful, broken hearts rejoice, Tho humble poor believe.