---
title: Romans 1:16
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-1-16/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-1-16.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Romans 1:16
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Romans 1:16

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "For I am not ashamed of the good news; it is, in fact, God's power for salvation to everyone having faith"

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary cites Romans 1:16 to support the preaching work as the means of salvation. "God's power for salvation to everyone having faith" is read as the message that JW publishers carry door to door — and accepting the Watchtower's preaching is the entry point to receiving the good news. The verse anchors the centrality of the organisational preaching activity in Watchtower theology.

## Protestant Usage

Romans 1:16 is Paul's thesis for the whole letter. The gospel itself — the message of Christ crucified and risen for sinners — is "God's power for salvation." The mechanism is faith, not any organisational mediation. And "Jew first and also Greek" signals universal scope: the same gospel saves anyone who believes, regardless of ethnic or organisational membership. Paul's "obedience by faith" of 1:5 returns at 10:16 ("they have not all obeyed the good news") — believing the gospel and obeying the gospel are the same act. The Watchtower needs the preaching work to be the entry point; Paul needs only the gospel and the believer's faith.

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders euangelion as "good news" rather than "gospel" (consensus ESV/NASB/NIV/KJV). Lexically defensible — euangelion literally means "good news" — but consensus English versions preserve "gospel" as the technical theological term for the apostolic message about Christ. The NWT's deconsecration of the term aligns with the Watchtower's preaching-work parlance ("the good news of the kingdom").

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Eternal Salvation to All Who Obey Him](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/hebrews5-9-obey-salvation.md) — Hebrews 5:9 and the obedience of faith [Salvation]