D a i l y D e v o t i o n a l IN THE NEW T E S T AME N T
S T U D I E S
FOR INDIVIDUAL MEDITATION
AND FAMILY WORSHIP
By R. A. TORREY
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Friday, June I. Rom. 1 : 16 , 17 .
ply because they won’t believe. There is power in a great mighty engine with steam up to draw any car, no matter how heavily loaded, up the grade, but the car must be coupled on or it will not be pulled. There is power in the Gospel to draw the worst sinner up the gradé to glory, but he must couple on. How can he couple on? By simply believing. Believing what? “The Gospel.” Then Paul goes on to give the reason why the Gospel is the “power of God unto salvation to everyone that believ eth.” That reason is because in the Gos pel “is revealed a righteousness of God by (rather, out of) faith unto faith.” No righteousness is attainable by the sinner by his own doing (cf. 3:20; Gal. 3:10), i. e. no righteousness from our works ; but there is a righteousness attainable by the sinner, even by the vilest sinner, not by doing but by simply believing, a “righteousness out of faith,” i. e., a righteousness which springs from faith. This “righteousness out of faith” is revealed unto faith. The whole secret of righteousness from first to last is faith. Saturday, June 2 . Rom. 1 : 18 - 21 , Thus far all that Paul has been saying has been bright, very bright, but we now turn to one of the darkest pages of the Bible. But alas ! dark as it is, it is true in every line. Would that it might have been possible to omit verses 18-31 from the Bible, but it was not possible. If they had been omitted, there would have been a se rious defect in the Bible: it would not have told the whole truth. These dismal verses are very valuable for revealing man just as he is when he turns away from God. The God of the Bible is à God of love, but true love is holy love and hates sin. Just because God has an infinite love for
Paul here tells us why he was eager to preach the Gospel up to the utmost limit of his ability. It was because he was "not ashamed” of it. Many today, even many ministers, are ashamed of the Gospel. They wish to substitute something else for the Gospel, sociology, literature, or philos ophy or something else, for the simple Gos pel, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried and rose again” (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-4). Paul tells us why he was not ashamed of the Gospel. Paul’s reason for not being ashamed of the Gos pel was not that which many men are urg ing today, viz. because of the great and learned men who have accepted it, neither was it because of its achievements in civil ization, literature, education and art. No, Paul had a far higher reason than this for not being ashamed of the Gospel, viz., “it is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that believeth.” Surely no truly intelligent person can be ashamed of that which has omnipotence in it, the power of God, and not only the power of God in a general way, but the power of God to such a glorious end, " unto salvation.” Only the simple Gospel of Christ crucified, buried,, risen, has this power. There is nothing else in all the world that has this power. What folly it is then to substitute any thing else for the Gospel. And who can the Gospel save? Anybody and everybody who believes in it. It is the “power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” The wisest and the most foolish, the best and the vilest, the richest and the poorest, the highest and the lowest, the greatest and the smallest. The Gospel can save them all, if they will only believe. Why is it then that it does not save everybody? Sim
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