Romans · New Testament · Romans 1:8–17
God's Good News
The Story
Paul opens this section by thanking God through Jesus Christ for the believers in Rome, whose faith has become known throughout the entire world. He then calls God as his witness that he prays for them constantly, day and night, and that one of his steady requests is the opportunity — God willing — to finally come and visit them in person. His desire to visit is not merely social; he wants to bring them a spiritual gift to help them grow strong in the Lord, and he adds honestly that such a visit would be a mutual encouragement, with each strengthening the other's faith. Paul explains that he had planned many times to visit Rome but had been prevented from doing so, and that he feels a deep sense of obligation — to both the educated and the uneducated, both Greeks and non-Greeks — to preach the Good News wherever he can. He then states plainly and without qualification: "For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes — the Jew first and also the Gentile." The passage closes with what stands as the theological cornerstone of the entire letter — a declaration of how God makes people right in His sight: "This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, 'It is through faith that a righteous person has life.'"
The Message
Paul's declaration that he is not ashamed of the Good News is not a casual remark — it is a deliberate statement made in the shadow of a city where Roman power and its gods stood at the center of the world. The Good News he carries is not a philosophy or a moral system; he calls it the power of God at work, actively saving everyone who believes. And the means by which God makes people right before Him — from start to finish — is faith, not achievement, not ancestry, and not status.