If you didn’t know Romans 1:16 and I asked you, “What is the power of God unto salvation?”, how would you answer?  Maybe you don’t say the gospel.  Perhaps you say, “the death of Christ” or you say, “the blood of Christ.”  Or maybe you say, “Christ Himself is the power of God unto salvation.”  I might not argue with these answers, but it isn’t what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:16.  He says with great plainness, “the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.”

What is it on earth that we have at our disposal in order for the salvation of people?  The gospel.  It, the gospel, is the power unto salvation.  It is the power of God unto salvation, so it is the power unto salvation.  God uses the gospel to save people.

The gospel is a message, so a message is what God uses to save people.  The Greek word for gospel means “good news” or “good message.”  I use message, but the part of the word that means message is angelos.  It means “messenger.”  It refers to angels, those spirit beings, but it means messenger.

Through Malachi, God calls both John the Baptist and Jesus “the messenger” in Malachi 3:1.  Malachi, whose name itself is the Hebrew word for “messenger,” so too a play on words in the book, prophesies both John and Jesus as messengers.  The prophecy of preaching this message ends the Old Testament, preparing for the New Testament.

Is the gospel really the power of God unto salvation?  Yes.  The gospel is the power of God in this unique way, that is, unto salvation.  It is the means God uses to save people.  People need the cross, they need the resurrection, and they need other components too like the working of the Holy Spirit, etc.  The power of God unto salvation, that specific component, is the gospel.  No gospel, no power of God unto salvation.

Romans 1:16 says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.  The.  It stands alone in that matter.  It doesn’t have the definite article in the Greek original, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t definite.  Whatever noun stands with the genitive, “of God,” is also definite, because God is definite.  “God” (Theos) doesn’t have an article in the Greek or the English, but that doesn’t mean God isn’t definite.  He is the God.  The gospel is the power of the God.

There is a construction in the Greek called the Apollonius’ canon, named after Apollonius, a second century Greek grammarian.  In koine Greek, the head noun and the genitive noun mimicked each other regarding articularity.  Rarely did they not.  God, when referring to the God, is always articular, even without the article, so the head noun, “power,” is also articular according to Apollonius’ canon.

To Be Continued