Because of poor eyesight, I’ve always needed to wear glasses. There was a point in my childhood where those glasses embarrassed me. I was ashamed of how I looked.
As an adult, I’m not embarrassed, because I think they make me look good and because of the value they bring. I’ve shared with my wife, Jenna, that I’m thankful to have been born in the place and time that I was, partly because of how different my life would be if I did not have the ability to wear glasses.
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You might wonder what that has to do with the book of Romans. When I was younger, my embarrassment was partly because I didn’t understand their value, or how much I needed my glasses. That’s despite how much they changed and positively impacted my life.
We can be this way with our faith. We may believe the Gospel and that it has changed our lives for the better. And while we can be thankful for what Jesus did on the cross, when it comes to discussing faith in public or with friends or family, we may find ourselves a little embarrassed.
It could be fear or discomfort, or perhaps just not knowing for sure how to share our faith. We may be concerned how others will react or what they’ll think of us.
Paul opens Romans with a discussion of why he is unashamed of the Gospel, and why he’s intent on living in light of it. We’ll dive into why Paul is so bold about sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is not to create shame for anything we might feel, but to help us understand the value of what we have. Paul’s example can help us grow bolder in our faith.
Paul’s Opening Comments
The church in Rome was made up of people from diverse backgrounds. The problem was that many of those backgrounds clashed. You had Jewish people who had their customs and rituals, and those not from that background who did not feel compelled to live by those customs and rituals.
Paul wanted to address these problems, explain the good news of Jesus, and how to live in light of what Jesus has done.
Paul tells the Roman church that they are known for their faith. He speaks of how he longs to be with them, desiring to impart a spiritual gift to them. He speaks of an obligation to preach both to the Greeks and non-Greeks, and that he’s eager to also preach to them in Rome.
Paul is unashamed of the Gospel
In Romans 1:16-17, Paul shifts to an opening statement that he is unashamed of the Gospel.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
Romans 1:16-17
I’ll be honest, that at first I struggled with what Paul was saying, especially in verse 17. There’s some complexity and beauty in it at the same time. We’ll dive deeper into this by looking at four reasons that Paul says he is unashamed of the Gospel.
The Gospel is the power of God
Pay attention to how Paul said this. He didn’t say it was a type of power or a facet of power. Paul said that the Gospel is the power of God.
This is the God of the universe, and beyond the universe. This is the God who breathed life into mankind, who spoke creation into existence. In the Old Testament, it said that people could not see the face of God because it was too much for them, that they would die.
It is this all-powerful creator, this holy and loving God, who used the Gospel to reach the hearts of man and to change the world. If this is the method that God used to change the world, it must be powerful.
Paul, before he became a Christian, was going into the homes of Christians to have them executed. The Gospel was so powerful that an encounter with Jesus knocked him on his butt, and turned him into a man who dedicated themselves to traveling, writing, and communicating the Gospel of Jesus.
The power of the Gospel showed itself at Pentecost. There, the Holy Spirit changed the minds of over 3,000 people at one time. That power moved people to repent, be baptized, and give themselves to Jesus, and the church is still moving to this day.
The power of the Gospel moved atheists like C.S. Lewis to become some of the most influential Christian writers of their times.
The power of the Gospel is the Holy Spirit working in us to spread the Gospel. I find myself on Sundays saying, Lord, I can’t do this myself, Lord. It’s to the point where if you tell me I had a good message, I’m thinking, I didn’t do anything here.
The Gospel is the power of God.
The Gospel saves everyone
The second reason that Paul is unashamed of the Gospel is because not only is it the power of God, it’s the power that saves everyone who believes.
Last week, I had the flu, one of the worst cases of the flu I’ve ever had. It had me knocked out. It got to a point where I was tired of it, and I was looking for anything and everything I could do to get over it. I went to the internet and tried everything I could find. I was drinking water, taking special kinds of tea, different medications, trying all the naps, doing everything I could find to get over this thing.
It would have been great to find an authoritative source that said “this is exactly what you need to do.” Ultimately, this is what the Gospel is for us.
The Gospel is for everyone. Paul said it’s first for the Jew, then the Gentile. This was the order in which the Gospel was preached. Ultimately, there’s no one the Gospel cannot save. No one is too far gone. No one is so sick they can’t be healed by the Gospel. There’s no one too broken to be restored.
For the person who’s made many mistakes and feels shame, there’s hope. For the person who’s been on the fence about faith and unsure whether to dive in, there’s hope. Those who’ve rejected and avoided God all their lives can have hope.
Because of that, let me encourage you to not give up. We know people we want to come to know Jesus. Keep praying. Continue to invite that coworker to come to Jesus. Keep praying and inviting that neighbor, or praying for that world leader to know Jesus. There is no one the Gospel cannot save.
The Gospel gets us right with God
I struggled with verse 17, so I looked it up in the New Living Translation:
The good news tells us how God made us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith as the scriptures say, it is through faith that a righteous person has life.
Romans 1:17 (NLT)
What we find is that the Gospel gets us right with God. This implies that by nature, we’re not right with Him. That goes against the common message that’s out there. People tend to think they might be okay with God. “I’m a good person,” or “I’m not a bad person,” or “I’m not as bad as someone else.” We may not be talking with Him, praying, reading His word, but still think we’re okay.
The truth is, none of us are right with God without Jesus. What standard would make us right with Him, and who set that standard? If it’s just because we think so, that doesn’t work.
If we peek forward in Romans, we see we’re not okay:
We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
Romans 3:22-24 (NLT)
According to this, we’ve all done. Even those who seem to be spotless on the outside. We all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
It’s not about your personality, or how you feel about your relationship with God that makes you good with him. This is not about how well you’ve done. It’s not about avoiding the bad. It’s about Jesus paying the dept of our sin. Our acceptance of His grace is what gets us right with him.
Isn’t that better than crossing our fingers and hoping we’re okay? Doesn’t that take the pressure off of trying to outdo our bad with good? Trusting in him making us right is far better than relying on false confidence.
`The Gospel is Good News.
The word Gospel actually means “Good news.” Paul says that he’s not ashamed of good news.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt ashamed of giving someone good news, unless that might have been bad news for someone else. But there’s nothing that is bad news in this. This is good for everyone.
God has chosen out of his great love for us to come down and make a way for us. He chose to die for our sins, and three days later to come out of the grave to give us an opportunity to spend eternity with Him. He did that for us.
Paul’s saying that this is the power of God, and it is at work and moving in the world. This is the Gospel that saves everyone who believes, and there’s no one it cannot save. The Gospel gets us right with God and we don’t have to live with false confidence or false hope.
This is good news.
I’m not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith.
I’m not ashamed of it. It’s too good.
The value of the Gospel
We see why Paul is unashamed of the Gospel. But more than that, we see the value of the Gospel.
We might feel embarrassed about sharing our faith. Openly living out and displaying our faith can feel uncomfortable. But in our nervousness, may the Holy Spirit remind us that it’s the power of God, and it has changed the hardest of hearts and the most closed of minds.
May we not feel embarrassed about living in a way that’s different than those around us. May we remember that this Gospel saves everyone who is need of saving. Let us remember that this Gospel gets us right with God and that we don’t have to worry about our relationship with Him.
These are powerful things. It’s the kind of power that is good news. Maybe remembering the value of the Gospel can help us cast aside emotions and fears and discomfort. Perhaps those can help us share the message people need to hear.
Remembering the value of the Gospel can help us pray for others, and pray with people. It can help us talk to people about Jesus. The value of the Gospel can help us invite others to join us at church, or to live in ways that speak the love and hope of Jesus.
The Gospel is the power of God. It’s the message that saves everyone. It’s what gets us right with God, and it’s good news. Let’s live in light of how wonderful a thing we have in the Gospel of Jesus.