The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

Through twenty years of pastoral ministry I have carried one earnest longing: to lay Romans out in order and preach it so that it could be readily understood. Because Romans cannot be preached without a right understanding of the Bible as a whole, I spent those twenty years storing up the word of Scripture within me, the way one adds book upon book to a growing stack. And now, inadequate though it is, I have finished preaching through Romans and have been able to publish these sermons as a book.

As I listened to the word the apostle Paul proclaims, I wanted to commend his faith, the faith with which he labored to live uprightly as one of God’s people and to lift high the glory of God. Of course, it is through God’s grace that faith grows. But for things to come this far, it took our Lord Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the requirement of the law; I believe it is because of him that there was an apostle Paul, and that there were fellow workers in the faith. I hope that you, like Paul, will become true workers who do not fear death for the sake of the gospel and who love your fellow Christians with all your heart.

Friends, wherever the name of Christ must be proclaimed, may you never hesitate but boldly preach the gospel, even when it brings persecution and ridicule. In his missionary work, Paul was less eager to see people change on the spot than to see a church rise in every land where the gospel had been preached. So wherever he went, he planted churches and raised up pastors, and through letter after letter he kept admonishing the saints and helping them live rightly before God. He never stopped laboring to present his brothers and sisters complete in Christ on the last day. To bring them without blemish before the eternal glory of God, he did not hesitate to sacrifice himself.

In the last chapter of Romans, as Paul calls the members of the church in Rome by name, I saw his goodness once again. Introducing his coworkers with such pride, he reminded me of a parent of fine character, the kind who stays out of the picture so that the children come out well in the photograph. Paul did God’s work exceedingly well. Yet without fellow workers in the faith who loved him, understood him, and believed in him, it was a calling he could never have fulfilled, and the life he displayed, a life like a miracle, was possible because the Holy Spirit helped him.

My wish is that you, too, will call by name your own partners in the faith who stand beside you. And just as the Holy Spirit blessed the apostle Paul, his coworkers, and the church, may you pray that the coworkers and the church beside you will be blessed by the Holy Spirit as well. I am grateful to the members of Watercourse Church, who give themselves beyond their strength to the books our church publishes for the sake of the mission. With deep thanks to God, who has caused us to draw one step nearer to our Lord Jesus Christ through these sermons on Romans, I pray that your faith will grow, unshaken, upon the solid rock.

October 2023
Pastor Cho Chun-sook, Watercourse Church