Articles
I Am Not Ashamed
Paul confidently wrote to the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel . . .” (1:16).
The gospel is the good news of salvation in Jesus. Its essential facts are that Jesus died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He was raised from the dead on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
The gospel invitation of salvation is open to all. Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). The proper response to the invitation is faith expressed in baptism. “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved . . .” (v. 16). In another account Jesus summarized the required response as “repentance for forgiveness of sins” (Luke 24:47).
Why would someone ever be ashamed of such a gracious invitation? The answer is, because many people reject it and ridicule or mistreat those who accept it.
Some Jews in Paul’s day scoffed at the idea that Christ, the Messiah, would be crucified. “We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block” (1 Corinthians 1:23). Others got past that gospel fact, but they could not bring themselves to accept that the invitation was just as open to Gentiles as it was to Jews.
Some Gentiles in Paul’s day found the idea of salvation in a crucified Jew foolishness. Some sneered at the very mention of resurrection from the dead (Acts 17:32).
Twenty centuries later, there remains a sizeable portion of society that views the accounts of Jesus as legendary and ridicules the idea that there is any need of salvation. Those of us who believe are thus regarded as some sort of superstitious simpletons.
Some who acknowledge the historicity of Jesus balk at the call for repentance—changing one’s way of living to conform to Jesus’ teaching. They may well see the value of some changes, but other requirements are dismissed as archaic, out-of-touch with modern reality and our more “advanced” thinking.
And if you preach baptism as a requirement of gospel acceptance, prepare to be opposed by the majority of those who consider themselves partakers of the gospel.
Regardless of the response, Paul was “eager to preach the gospel” (Romans 1:15). God’s assessment, not man’s, is what mattered to him. May we all have his noble spirit.
