“. . . We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.” (Romans 1:5, ESV)
From that verse, did you catch what counts as the end zone for Paul? What Paul is aiming his life (and his readers’ lives) toward? The goal is right there in the opening to Paul’s letter to the Romans: Jesus’ name among all the nations. The vision is nothing less than world gospelization. Paul says he’s an apostle of Jesus—through whom we receive grace and apostleship to call all nations to faith in him.
To that end, the goal in this article is to call each disciple of Jesus reading this to leverage your life for world gospelization. I would compel each of you to leverage your skills, time, money, prayers, connections, students, congregants, children, and (for some of you) your place of residence for world gospelization.
Why? It’s because that’s the resounding “therefore” we get when we read Paul’s letter to the Romans. Romans begins and ends with “all nations.” It begins and ends with people coming to faith in Jesus from all over the world. Through hearing the gospel, they come into a life of obedience to God—obedience that comes from faith:
“. . . to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.” (Romans 1:5b, ESV)
“. . . the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith.” (Romans 16:25b-26, ESV)
“I would compel each of you to leverage your skills, time, money, prayers, connections, students, congregants, children, and (for some of you) your place of residence for world gospelization.”
Romans is a missions book. “I thought it was a theology book,” you might say. And yes, it’s that too. But Paul knew that the way to call people into missions for the nations is to give them theology—to give them the gospel of Jesus. Among Paul’s objectives in writing this letter was his goal of calling the Roman church to follow his example in leveraging their lives for world gospelization. For example, see his appeal in 15:23-33 for their support as he moves the gospel into Spain. Paul knew that much of the world did not live in the obedience of faith, and he wanted the Roman Christians to join the mission to reach them.
The gospel invites—compels—us to join Jesus’ mission. In Romans, Paul is saying, Hey Roman Christians, here’s the gospel we believe. Because you believe this, help me take it to Spain and the rest of the world. To throw fuel on their fire for missions, Paul taught them the gospel.
And to the degree that we believe the gospel, we too will leverage our lives for world gospelization.
In view of this goal, I’m going to ask you if you really do believe two truths from Romans—two truths that will fuel your fire for God’s global mission. Do you really believe these?
1. All people are guilty of sin and under God’s wrath.
Paul will spend the first few chapters of Romans saying what he summarizes in 3:10 (ESV): “None is righteous, no, not one.” To show this, he speaks of several categories of people who are unrighteous.
Paul is saying both Jews and Gentiles stand guilty before God. Those with the law of Moses and those without. Those who think of themselves as righteous and those who don’t give righteousness a second thought. Those with God’s “special revelation” (the prophets, the Bible, Jesus, Apostles, etc.) and those with only God’s “general revelation” available to everybody, as they see God’s glory in creation. Even to those without a Bible, God’s glory is revealed (1:18), plain to them (1:19), and clearly perceived (1:20).
Paul explains that not only do we all know of God, but we intuitively know God’s basic moral standards. Romans 2:14-15 (ESV) says,
“For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.”
“They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts.”
Where I live, an estimated 95% of the Japanese people who have not heard the gospel yet can walk around and see God’s design in their world and his provision in their lives. They should think, “There must be a being/creator to whom we are accountable.” It reminds me of a man from Osaka named Yoshio who was baptized into Christ at age 68. As we talked in a seekers’ class, he told us, “I always knew there was a God, but I couldn’t find anyone to tell me about him”—until at age 67 when he saw a flyer for our Easter service. He knew of God but needed to find a witness. How many more people have to go 67 years without running into a church who can be a witness of the gospel?
But without Jesus . . . we are guilty and under God’s wrath? Isn’t that too harsh to be true? Discomfort with the idea of God’s wrath isn’t anything new. Romans 3:5b-6a shows us Paul was at least familiar with people in his day being uncomfortable with God executing justice: “What shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means!” he says. 
Look over Romans, and you’ll find that anyone with a problem with God’s wrath has a fight with Scripture:
- 1:18 – God’s wrath is revealed.
- 2:5 – Because of unrepentant hearts, people store up wrath for themselves.
- 2:8 – Those who reject truth and follow evil receive wrath.
- 5:9 – We are in danger of God’s wrath, but Jesus saves us from it.
“Discomfort with the idea of God’s wrath isn’t anything new.”
Want to go outside of Romans? Ephesians 2:3 also says we were objects of wrath. Want to go outside of Paul? John 3:36 says that whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.
God’s wrath is not like human anger—not a moody temper. It’s simply our holy, just God’s reaction against sin in his creation that he loves. Sin is revolting to him because he is good. God is just.
How many people is God obligated to save? Is God obligated to save everyone? Anyone? Does he have to make a way for us to be saved? He doesn’t. The story of human history could have been this: God created, man sinned, God judged all humanity with a flood, the end. It could have been: God created, man suppressed truth about God with unrighteousness, judgment day came, and all were condemned. As every human passed before God, we would receive a guilty, just sentence from the Judge.
An umpire’s job in baseball is to call balls and strikes accurately. Imagine that two pitchers play each other and both throw nothing but unhittable strikes. The umpire calls all of them strikes. Nine innings of no hitters—nothing but strikes. Then imagine the umpire starts to feel sorry. “I want somebody to score. I want someone to at least get on base.” So four pitches come right across the plate at 108 mph and the umpire calls, “Ball.” He wants to be loving so he calls a strike a ball. Is that loving? Is that being a good umpire? No, it would mean he was compromised. The crowd would want him out of there. It’s when the umpire calls strikes “strikes” that he’s a good umpire.
“It’s when the umpire calls strikes ‘strikes’ that he’s a good umpire.”
God calls it right every time. If he were to condemn 100% of humanity, he would be a just, accurate judge. As Romans 3:10 says, “None is righteous, no, not one.”
But can you imagine if God made a righteous way to “righteous” the unrighteous? He has. Here’s a second truth I’m asking if you believe:
2. All people can be justified by faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul continues in Romans 3,
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:21-26, ESV)
Justified. Through faith, we receive the righteousness of God. It’s dropped into our account. In Philippians 3:9 (ESV), Paul describes being “found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” Isaiah 53 describes the suffering servant as making many righteous through his own sacrificial death. One of my favorite verses, 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV), says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
On the cross, Jesus became sin. He took mine. Yours. All of ours. The wrath of God came down on him. He was the propitiation for our sins. He took them down to the grave and rose again—alive, while the sin stayed dead.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
For me—through faith in Jesus—his righteousness is taken and placed in my account. Now, when God looks at my account, he sees Jesus’ righteousness. He sees total righteousness. I’m in Christ. God doesn’t see my sin; he sees his child—his adopted child. His heir. All of this salvation and eternal life is ours by God’s grace, through faith! Do you believe that?
Friends, our only hope is Jesus. We receive this salvation only through faith in Jesus. Do you believe this good news?
Do you believe it enough to leverage your life in such a way that the world can hear it?
Conclusion
When we stand before Jesus, we will not be saved for being relatively good, even for being in church ministry or knowing more of the Bible than the next person. We cannot be saved by being preachers, missionaries, heroes, or even martyrs. On that day, when I stand before God, there’s one thing in life that will have saved me—calling on the name of Jesus! I call on Jesus—his work, his righteousness, his death and resurrection.
All people must call on Jesus to be saved!
All that to say:
“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14-15, ESV)
Maybe you are supposed to be sent.
