I. INTRODUCTION

A.  The Bad News

A quick look at any newspaper or magazine shows that the world is getting worse and worse.  The bad news that occurs on a larger scale is only the multiplication of what is occurring on an individual level.  The term "bad news" has become a colloquialism to describe our era.

The reason there is so much bad news today is that people are in the grasp of a terrifying power that grips them deep inside their being.  It causes men to self-destruct.  The power that makes for bad news is sin.  There are four ways in which sin produces bad news in the human race. 

1.      Selfishness

It is truly bad news when everyone is bent on fulfilling his own particular desires at any price.  The basic element in selfishness is the dominance of your own ego above others.  It all started when Satan said, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most high" (Isa.  14:13-14).  Man has inherited that propensity to sin and is utterly self-centered.  Whatever evil a society permits, man will attempt.  He will go as far as society's toleration will allow.  Man will consume everything in sight based on his own lust--things, people, and ultimately himself.  Many times when a friend, spouse, or family member ceases to provide what an individual wants, they are discarded like an old pair of useless shoes.

The ultimate goal in life for sinful man is to achieve self- satisfaction.  Whether it is in businesses or marriages, man ends up perverting everything because of his selfish lust for fame, dominance, popularity, money, and physical fulfillment.  Sin pushes humanity to self-consumption.  Someone has well said we ought to use things and love people, but instead we love things and use people.  The end result of man's selfishness is that he is unable to have meaningful relationships.  He is unwilling to give and thus he forfeits that which is the truest source of joy--an unselfish, sacrificial love for others.  Man becomes dominated by selfish greed that alienates him from everyone and everything.  He finally comes to a place of utter loneliness and despair.  When man follows his own lust, he begins to realize the law of diminishing returns--the more he wants, the less it satisfies.

2.      Guilt

Using and abusing people, or doing whatever else is necessary to indulge yourself brings about guilt.  God has designed man to feel sorrow when he sins, otherwise man could never prevent himself from going to hell.  It is like pain.  God has given the sensation of pain to allow you to recognize when your body is injured.  Likewise, God has given us the sensation of guilt as a way to tell us that we are sinful and something has to change.  The bad news is that man lives with anxiety, fear, psychological problems, ulcers, and a myriad of illnesses caused by his guilt.  He may try to alleviate his guilt by drunkenness, debauchery, or even suicide.  Men try to cover their guilt with a frivolous facade.  Some men even try to rationalize their guilt away with money, possessions, alcohol, drugs, sex, travel, and psychoanalysis.  Some blame their guilt on society, perhaps on a so-called antiquated biblical tradition.  People will push off their sin on anything.  I read of one man who blamed his guilt on a banana his mother gave him when he was a child! But you only end up compounding your guilt when you blame someone else for it.

3.      Meaninglessness

When man experiences selfishness and guilt, he will invariably ask himself, "Is what I'm experiencing all there is to life? What are the real answers? The real questions? Why am I alive? What is the real meaning of life?" Man is fed a steady diet of lies by Satan himself, who runs the world's evil system.  And since his lies never really answer the question of man's existence, man is left with no answers.  Edna St.  Vincent Millay said this in her poem "Lament": "Life must go on; I forget just why. " Many live in a series of 24-hour periods without real significance, where little changes.  The epitomy of man's problem is summed up by Roquentin, the main character in philosopher Jean Paul Sartre's novel Nansea, who said, "I decided to kill myself to remove at least one superfluous life. "

4.      Hopelessness

Born out of the trauma and anxiety of meaninglessness is the reality that you have nothing to live for and nothing to look forward to.  The only result of a self-centered, guilt-ridden meaningless life is the starkness of death.  That is why people mask the reality of death by laughing at it or ignoring it to avoid the inevitable hopelessness--the sense there is nothing for man here in this life or in the life to come--is the worst news of all.

Thousands of babies are born every day into a world filled with bad news.  With each passing day, men find themselves falling deeper into the human dilemma because they live in a world dominated by the father of lies--Satan himself.  As a result, sin produces bad news.  And even the small amounts of good news are but moments of rest in an unending saga of bad news.  It is like so many peace treaties--those moments when everyone stops to reload.  In between the bad news, much of the good news is short-lived. 

B.    The Good News

With so much bad news, can there really be any good news? Yes! The good news is that sin can be dealt with.  You don't have to be selfish.  Guilt and anxiety can be alleviated.  There is meaning to life and hope of life after death.  The apostle Paul says in Romans 1:1 that the good news is the gospel, which is the good news of God.  That is what the book of Romans is all about.  Paul begins this epistle with the good news of God, and ends with it as well (cf.  15:16).  Bracketing the entire epistle is the great reality that there is good news from God. 

1.      Its significance

Paul called the gospel by many different phrases, but whatever he called it, it was good news.  It is the good news that man's sin can be forgiven, guilt can be removed, life can have meaning, and a hopeful future can be a reality. 

Paul endeavors throughout the book of Romans to unfold the incomprehensible riches of the good news to man.  But did you know that the entire thrust of all 16 chapters of Romans is distilled into the first seven verses? Paul is so thrilled by what he wants to say that he can't wait to say it, so he capsulizes his foundational thoughts in Romans 1:1-7.  It is as if the seed of the gospel is in the first seven verses and then fully blooms throughout the rest of the epistle. 

2.      Its source

The Greek word for gospel in verse 1 is euangelion.  It is used over 60 times by Paul in his epistles.  Paul had lived all his life hearing only the bad news, but once he heard the good news he couldn't help but tell everyone in sight about it.  Tyndale wrote that the word euangelion signifies good, merry, glad and joyful tidings that makes a man's heart rejoice and makes him sing and dance and leap for joy.  The good news is the merry, glad, and joyful news that God will deliver us from our sin. 

The thrust of the Greek text of Romans 1:1 is that the good news is from God.  It is important that Paul distinguished between ordinary good news and good news from God because euangelion was a common Greek word.  In one of its more prominent occurrences, it was used to precede messages to the people from the emperor.  In the Roman Empire, the people were required to worship the emperor as if he were a god.  Whenever someone from the emperor's official party made an important announcement, it was called euangelion, or good news.  The messenger would proclaim, "Good news, the emperor has given birth to an heir" or "Good news, a new emperor has acceded to the throne. "

Paul contrasts his good news as if to say, from the emperor by saying, "I'm writing to you at Rome who are used to hearing the euangelion of the empire and I'm telling you I've got good news not from Caesar, but from God. " The really good news is from God, (most of the Caesars were bad news!).  God brings good news to those who are undeserving. 

The Way God Loves

Dr.  Donald Grey Barnhouse illustrated the Christian's unworthiness by recounting this story: "It was told that a young man, much loved of his mother, pursued a wicked course that took him deeper and deeper into sin.  He became enamored of an evil woman who dragged him further and further into unrighteousness.  The mother naturally sought to draw him back to a higher plane and the other woman resented it bitterly.  One night, the story goes, the evil woman chided the man with an accusation that he did not really love her.  He vowed that he did.  She appealed to his drunken mind, saying, that if he loved her he would rid them of his mother and her pleadings.  According to the story, the young man rushed from the room to the nearby house in which his mother dwelt, and dealt her death blows, tearing the heart from her body to carry it back to his paramour.  Then comes the climax of the tale.  As he rushed on in his insane folly, he stumbled and fell, and from the bleeding heart there came a voice, `My son, are you hurt?' That's the way God loves you" (Expositions of Bible Doctrines Taking the Epistle to the Romans as a Point of Departure, Vol.  1 [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952], pp.  21-22). 

Charles Wesley put the same thought into his hymn "Depth of Mercy": "Depth of mercy! can there be mercy still reserved for me? Can my God His wrath forbear--me, the chief of sinners, spare? I have long withstood His grace, long provoked Him to His face, would not hearken to His calls, grieved Him by a thousand falls. " Wesley marvelled at the good news from God to undeserving men. 

II. THE PREACHER OF THE GOOD NEWS (v.  1)

"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. "

God called a unique man, Paul, to be a major spokesman for the good news.  God had committed to him mysteries concerning the church that had been hidden from past generations but were now to be revealed (cf.  Eph.  3:3, Col.  1:26-27).  Paul was God's keynote speaker for the heralding of the good news to the Gentiles.  He had a remarkable Jewish heritage, Greek education, and Roman citizenship.  He had incredible abilities as a leader, fighter, motivator, and articulator who was specially called and converted by God Himself.  From Jerusalem to Macedonia, Paul had completed three missionary journeys proclaiming the good news.  And even though Paul was mightily gifted by God and could perform miracles, he could not rid himself of his own thorn in the flesh (2 Cor.  12:7-9).  Paul could cause prisons to fall (Acts 16:26), yet became a permanent prisoner.  All the preachers who have ever preached since Paul have depended on his sermons for their material.  Paul left a great legacy of biblical teaching through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 

A.     Paul--A Servant of Jesus Christ (v.  1a)

"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. "

1.      A slave of dignity

The Greek word used here for servant is doulos, which means "slave. " Those who love the Lord are his servants. 

a)     Exodus 21:5-6

The Lord said, "If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free; then his master shall bring him unto the judges.  He shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. " Because of his love for his master, this servant became known as a "bondslave. " He didn't serve because he was forced to but because he wanted to.  He became a slave of love. 

b)     Genesis 26:24

"The Lord appeared unto him [Isaac] the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham, thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake" (emphasis added). 

c)      Numbers 12:7

The Lord said, "My servant, Moses, is faithful in all mine house" (emphasis added). 

d)     Joshua 24:29

Scripture says, "It came to pass . . .  that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old" (emphasis added). 

e)     2 Samuel 7:5

The Lord said, "Go and tell my servant, David, Thus saith the Lord, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in" (emphasis added).

f)        Isaiah 20:3

"The Lord said . . .  my servant, Isaiah, hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia" (emphasis added). 

g)     Isaiah 53:11

The Lord prophesied about the coming Messiah by saying, "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities" (emphasis added). 

Paul was a bondslave.  It was something he chose out of love, not fear.  There were perhaps millions of slaves in the Roman Empire.  For the most part, they were treated not as persons but as objects.  If a master wanted to kill his slaves, he could.  Some Bible commentators think Paul is using doulos only in its Jewish sense--not in the Roman sense--and is thereby affirming love for Christ.  The Hebrew concept of servant could include someone in the highest ranks of service.  Kings had servants, and in that sense, a servant could be someone who had great honor an