A Word in Season: Not Ashamed of the Gospel (Romans 1:16-17)

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Paul said to the Christians in Rome that he wanted to come and preach the gospel in Rome also.

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He wanted to tell them and others about the Lord Jesus Christ and the good news concerning him.

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He was ready to walk effectively into the lion's den. He was ready to go into the great metropolitan center of pagan

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Rome, where Caesar was claiming his divine right and where godlessness and wickedness were rife, and idols and false gods were at every point.

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But he said, I'm ready to go into such an environment because I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the

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Jew first and also for the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

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As it is written, the just shall live by faith. There in Romans chapter 1 and verses 16 and 17,

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Paul says that whatever men may think, however men may despise the gospel and its messengers, he is not ashamed.

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He will boast in that which is disdained. He glories in the good news of Christ.

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Now what gives him that confidence? Well, he knows it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.

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Yes, the men who preach it are esteemed foolish and despicable, but the gospel that those preachers preach, that's the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, whether the

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Jew or the Greek. Paul is confident that he can go to any person in any place, that he can make known this good news, and that God is both willing and able to make it the means of bringing a sinner to himself, that the gospel is the vehicle in which

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God rides in triumph through the world, forming a people for himself.

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Now what is it about this gospel that gives Paul such confidence? Well, the good news of Jesus Christ reveals the righteousness of God from faith to faith.

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It sets forth God's saving provision for lost mankind. Paul will go on to say that we have no righteousness of our own, but here is the righteousness of God revealed for us, to be received, appropriated, laid hold upon by faith.

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We come with an empty hand and we receive the fullness of God's gift.

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And Paul says, with such good news, how could I be ashamed? Why should

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I not both trust and make known this gospel? Now if that's true of Paul in Rome, what of you and me where God has put us?

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It's relatively easy for us to say that we're not ashamed of the gospel when we're sitting safe within the confines of our church buildings, surrounded by people who probably more or less agree with us, or at least have come in to hear or with some disposition to receive what is being spoken.

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But what about in the marketplace of ideas? What about on the streets of your city or your town or your village?

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What about with your friends and your neighbors and your colleagues, perhaps even your own family?

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Are we unashamed of the gospel? Do we first believe it the way

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Paul believed it, casting ourselves entirely upon Jesus Christ, in whom a righteousness from God is offered to us and provided for us, that we might be accepted through Christ with God?

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And having believed in him, having trusted him for ourselves, are we then ready to believe it continually, to entertain no doubts about it, to speak it unashamedly, not trying to smooth off the rough corners or blunt the sharp edges of the gospel, remove its offense against sinful men, and you remove its very power?

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We need to go on declaring it, we need to go on making it known, we need to speak it easily, openly, lovingly, tenderly, forcefully, honestly, so that men and women like us, whether Jews or Greeks, we can go to them confidently and say, here is a

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Christ who will save you, call upon his name and he will deliver you.

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Let us not then, for ourselves or before others, be ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to everyone who believes, for the

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Jew first and also for the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.