The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation

Choice 1: Romans 1. The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation,

Jesus Christ is the Son of David in the flesh through his lineage. He is the son of God in flesh and in spirit. Because of his royal lineage through David, he could reign on earth, but through his royal lineage, being the only begotten of the Father, he is the heir to all that the Father has. He has the authority to reign in heaven and on earth through that lineage. He has the authority to act in God’s name and to do his will.

It was essential for the Savior to be mortal in that he needed to gain a body and have to ability to die. He needed a mortal body to atone for our sins and to lay down his life for us. However, he needed to be immortal to have the power to lay down his life and take it up again. Being immortal would allow him to fulfill God’s plan.

In Roman’s 1:15-20 Paul gives us some insight into his feelings about the gospel. In verse 16, Paul states that he is not ashamed of the gospel. He was not afraid to share the gospel with others. Not only was he not afraid, but he had a great desire to share the gospel with others. He had a testimony that the gospel was the power of God unto salvation. In verse 18 he testifies that the gospel is truth.

I can show that I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ through my obedience to the commandments. It isn’t always popular by the world’s standards to live in accordance with the gospel, and another way that I can show that I am not ashamed, is by standing up for what I believe. I can share the gospel with others, use my right to vote to vote for things that are in accordance with my morals and principles, I can serve faithfully in my calling and I can keep myself unspotted from the world.

In Romans 1:21-32, Paul lists some of the sins of the people

• Knew God, but did not glorify Him
• Ingratitude
• Vain (corrupt in reasoning)
• Hearts were darkened
• Professing themselves to be wise (Pride)
• Worshipping idols
• Unclean through the lusts of their hearts
• Changed truth of God to a lie
• Worshipped and served the creature more than the creator
• Homosexuality
• Did not like to retain God in their knowledge
• Filled with unrighteousness
• Fornication
• Wickedness
• Covetousness
• Maliciousness
• Full of envy
• Murder
• Debate (strife/discord)
• Deceit
• Malignity
• Whispers
• Back biters
• Haters of God
• Despiteful
• Proud
• Boasters
• Inventors of evil things
• Disobedient to parents
• Covenant breakers
• Without natural affections
• Implacable
• Unmerciful
• Knew the judgments of God, but transgressed anyway, or sympathized with others who did

My assignment was then to put a checkmark next to the sins that are still a problem today and I marked every one. The problems that Paul saw in his day are still happening today. Paul gives some reasons why people commit these sins
• They knew God, but would not glorify him as God (vs. 21)
• Follow the lusts of their hearts (vs. 24)
• They don’t retain God in their knowledge (vs. 28)
• They pull away from God through sin. They withdraw from the spirit so that it cannot work in them for good. (vs. 24,28)

In Romans 1:25, Paul states that the people “worshipped and served the creature more than the creator”. In Romans 8:19 the footnote gives some additional insight into what is meant by the creature, it says creation or material universe, so I believe that this means that they worshipped the things of the world more than God who created all things. I believe that they failed to recognize God’s hand in their lives and failed to glorify Him.

To complete this assignment, I read and pondered the required reading, I also discussed some of the principles with my husband.

I chose this assignment, because I believe that when we study the scriptures about Jesus Christ, it helps our testimonies to grow. I knew this would be a good opportunity to study the Savior and his gospel.

I really like the list of sins that Paul mentioned were evident in his day and realizing that those are still continuing. It helps me to see what areas I can improve in. This assignment could have been improved by studying other prophets who were not ashamed of the gospel and how they manifested that.