Romans 1:16-17

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith"

From Background Notes [BN] for December 1^st & 2^nd written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Paul tells us that the righteousness of God is the power of God, for through the Gospel we learn how it was that God began to make the world right.

Through the preaching of the cross — a terribly foolish undertaking on the face of it — God revealed how he intends to set the world back on track. God intends to forgive sins through the sacrifice of Jesus who died so that sin might be defeated. Jesus, the God-Warrior, fought the battle with sin on the cross and won, not by striking back at his executioners, but by letting go and accepting the brutal punishment of sin in his own person. Like a lightning rod, the cross of Jesus attracted the full force of sin’s fury onto the Jesus who died because of itand died for it and died in our place. The power of Jesus on the cross resides in the pure unlikelihood of it all. Sin hadn’t a clue that when it brought Jesus down to death it was signing its own death warrant. The God- Warrior — the Mighty God — won the day by losing his own life. What did he tell his followers? “You want to save your life? Then lose it!” [BN, 9-10]

Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene:

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am