Not Ashamed

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”  Romans 1:16

The 18th century Bible commentator Matthew Henry wrote, “I reckon him a Christian indeed that is neither ashamed of the gospel nor a shame to it.”  There’s been plenty of things that I have said or done of which I am ashamed.  However, there is one thing of which I am not ashamed, and that is the gospel.  I am forever grateful that I heard the gospel, repented of my sins, and received Christ as my Lord and Savior.  The apostle Paul was not ashamed to preach the gospel everywhere he traveled.  That was his mission.  Considering his upper class Jewish upbringing and his intellect, Paul could have been ashamed of preaching about a Man who would have been considered part of the lower socio-economic class, who was an itinerant Preacher that associated with sinners, and who eventually was executed by hanging on a cross like a common criminal.

However, Paul was overjoyed at the opportunity of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.  The gospel is basically a simple gospel.  There are no theories or philosophical conjecture which would make it only a topic of so-called “great minds”.  In Paul’s former days as a Pharisee, he would have considered the gospel a very lowly subject about which to discuss, but Jesus changed Paul’s heart.  The gospel is the conduit or pipeline by which God’s power delivers salvation to all who believe.  The gospel was first delivered to the Jews, but as a nation they rejected Christ, which opened the door for the gospel to go to the Gentiles, here referred to as “Greeks”.  It was always God’s plan to provide the way of salvation to all people.  The Jews, God’s chosen people, were to make Him known throughout the world, but they failed.  God was not thwarted nor surprised at their rejection.  His plan never fails regardless of man’s failure to heed His word.

Everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, whether they be Jew or Gentile, male or female, or rich or poor exchanges his or her sin for Christ’s righteousness.  Each one who has believed on Christ by faith will eventually appear before God just as if he or she had never sinned.  That’s called “justification”.  How cool is that?