THE DIVINE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 219
they might be saved, had given the apostles to be theirs, — " All things are yours; Paul is yours, Apollos is yours," — and charged them to preach the gospel to them; so that, Acts xx. 26, 27, he saith, " Now I am free from the blood of all men." How doth he prove it? " I have not shunned to declare to them the whole counsel of God." He frees himself from any surmise that they might have that he had a design of his own, and sought some advantage to himself in thus interposing in the concerns of the gospel, by telling them he doth but discharge a debt. " I am a debtor," saith he. And it is truly and really the wis- dom of those who, in their several spheres, have the dispensation of the gospel committed unto them, to let the people know that they need not absolutely, whatsoever they do consequentially, count them- selves beholden to them for preaching the word ; but that, indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ hath engaged us in a debt: which if in his name we pay and discharge, we are sure of a reward; if not, he will require it at our hands. We owe the preaching of the gospel to them that are willing to hear it; and if, upon any account, we withhold it from them, we do defraud them. " I am debtor," saith the apostle. And every one that receiveth the gift and call from Christ is a debtor, and so should esteem himself. " I have done nothing," saith he, " but engaged in the discharge of the debt which I owe to the souls of men."
But there might likewise arise another objection, " If he be so con- cerned in the publication of the gospel that he writes an epistle to Rome, the greatest theatre then upon the earth, the head of the em- pire, and most eminent place in the world, why did he not come himself and preach it?" He returns an answer thereunto, verse 15. " That," saith he, " is not at present in my power. I am not my own ; I am disposed of by a call of Christ, and guidance of his Spirit. But ' I am ready to come to Rome ;' I have a readiness to preach the gos- pel wheresoever God calls me."
Now, that he might not seem to have outbid himself, in speaking of going thither to preach the gospel, without considering what it might cost him, he gives them the reason and ground upon which he had so engaged himself to be ready to come to Rome, in the words of the text, " For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ : for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth ; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
In the words there are, —
First. A general assertion, laid down as the ground of what he had before affirmed ; and that is in these words, " I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ."
Secondly. He gives a reason of that assertion, what made him say so, " I am not ashamed, because the gospel is the power of God." To
220 THE DIVINE POWER OF THE GOSPEL.
which reason he gives a threefold limitation : — First, As to the especial end of it, " The power of God." Whereunto? — for this or that end in the world ? No ; " It is the power of God for salvation." Secondly, He limits it in respect of the object, " The power of God unto salva- tion." To all ? No; but " to every one that believeth," — to all believers, consider them either antecedently to their being made believers, or con- sequentially, having received the word. To others it is " foolishness;" but to us that believe, it is " the power and the wisdom of God." Thirdly, It hath limits as to the manner of administration, " To the Jew first, and also to the Greek." The word " first" there, respects the order of dispensation, and not a priority of efficacy or excellency. The word was first to be preached to the Jews, as you know, in many places, and that for many ends not now to be insisted on. This is the design of the words.
I shall, for the opening of them, inquire into two things: — 1. What is intended by the "gospel"? 2. What is it to be "ashamed of the gos- pel"? After which the great reason will ensue of the apostle's assertion, " Because it is the power of God unto salvation."
1. What is intended by the " gospel"? The gospel is taken two ways: — (1.) Absolutely, as it is in itself; (2.) Relatively, with reference unto our practice and observance of it : —
(1.) Absolutely, and in itself; and so also it is taken two ways: — ■
[1.] Strictly, according to the signification of the word " good tidings," for the good tidings of the accomplishment of the promise by the sending of Jesus Christ. The name is taken from Isa. Hi. 7, " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that publish - eth the good tidings of the gospel." And in this sense the apostle gives us a description of the gospel, Acts xiii. 32, 33, " We declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again;" — sent Christ according to the promise ; the tidings of which is strictly the gospel.