Unashamed of God’s Gospel

PRAY

Romans 1:15–17 ESV

15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Why is Paul so passionate about God’s good news made manifest in his Son, Jesus the Messiah? Why is this gospel literally what he lives for? Verses 16&17 answer this question and set the stage for the theme of the letter. And in the midst of it Paul shifts the focus from his own persuasion and ministry to the gospel itself, which will become the theological treatise running all the way through at least Rom 15:13. So these verses flow from the last statements in his thanksgiving and prayer, but they also transition into a kind of thematic statement for the bulk of this letter. Paul is about to unleash a bold theological treatise on the gospel and its consistency with God’s character and his holy Scriptures, as well as its transformational implications for every human, Jew and Gentile alike.

We, like Paul, must unashamedly live by and proclaim God’s gospel (of His Son Jesus Christ) because this gospel alone is God’s saving power to everyone who believes.

[In verse 17 we also see that] The reason the gospel is God’s saving power is that it reveals God’s gift of righteousness on behalf of those who live through faith in Him.

Like Paul, we must be unashamed of the gospel. (verse 16a)

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel…”

Shame for Paul is not merely embarrassment; it is social rejection, ridicule, and dishonor… and it even includes the suffering that results from these things. Again, shame is not merely embarrassment, but carries the weight of social rejection and being ridiculed and dishonored by men. There is then a real risk of being cowed by such pressure and intimidation from the world.

In his final letter to his protege, Timothy, Paul sought to encourage Timothy’s perseverance by his own example.

2 Timothy 1:8–12 ESV

8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, 12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

Paul is, in particular, not ashamed of a crucified Christ, which seems to be the primary target of shaming from Jew and Gentile alike, with the same wrong thinking about Jesus, but from different angles. - To the Jew, a misunderstanding of Scriptural evidence concerning the Messiah leads to ignoring his suffering that precedes his glory. That means they can’t imagine a Messiah who isn’t triumphant on their terms, who suffers terrible ignominy and a dishonorable death. In fact, they become hands-on party to the cause of his death. (Note! In reality, we are all the cause of Christ’s death because he in fact willingly gave up his life for our sin.)

To the Greek (the way Paul refers to Gentiles when emphasizing their Greek learning and education), it is just utter foolishness that any hero is not a hero precisely because of his superior power (and intellect and skill) and exercise of that power to win his spot at the top. - It is truly a uniquely Christian ethos, which God himself has revealed, of a humble and gentle and sacrificially suffering hero who exercises his power and wisdom by giving himself in service to others. This ultimate King’s triumph is through his selflessness!

The irony of this is that Jews seek for signs and Greeks seek for wisdom, and Paul knows that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the greatest sign of God’s victory in and through him, and Jesus is reveals the supreme wisdom of God!

1 Corinthians 1:22–24 ESV

22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Do we face, in our day and society, the same thing that Paul faced in some form? Is it still a risk that shame (concerning the gospel) is a danger that can impact our thoughts and affections and words and actions?

Social Rejection tempts us to shrink back in shame. (especially among the intellectual elite, but also in the broader arena of public opinion, we experience social pressure by intellectual shaming) Paul could be shamed by both Jews and Gentiles alike. But Paul is eager to preach the gospel in the place of highest society in all the Roman world (Rom 1:15), being unafraid of ridicule and social rejection, because this is the only good news which truly saves. For this gospel of God, concerning his Son, Jesus the Christ, is that which enacts God’s own power to save those who believe.

Suffering can also tempt us to be ashamed. Does God really care? Could God really want this for his people? We might shrink back in shame.

In fact, we must not be ashamed of the gospel, in this way of shrinking back from the central truth that it proclaims. Jesus himself explains this.

After one of the times he foretold of his coming suffering, and rejection by the Jewish religious elite, and of the necessity that he should be killed and rise again, Peter took him aside and rebuked him for it, but then received a stern rebuke, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (This was said out of love for Peter, because of the seriousness of getting this right… as we can tell from how Jesus continues in this context.)

Mark 8:34–37 ESV

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?

And notice especially verse 38…

Mark 8:38 ESV

38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

If we are ashamed of this gospel, then we do not truly live by it. For saving faith in this gospel will mean that we can see beyond the world’s adulterous and rebellious shaming to embrace the goodness and grace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So we along with Paul we are not ashamed of our crucified Lord for three reasons, two of which he has already stated.

1. The Son in human flesh did not stay dead. Christ is risen! (which Paul emphasized at Rom 1:4) He proved God’s victorious power. He is not only a crucified King; he is a crucified and risen King! - Just so, those who mock God might also attempt to shame us by attacking the rationality and historicity of Jesus’ resurrection. But when we see the very purpose of Scripture, the NT is written to prove the historicity of the risen Jesus and that he is in fact the only rational outcome of God’s perfect plan.

2. And that’s the second reason Paul has already stated that we are unashamed. - This Jesus is in fact the Lord of God’s perfect plan, as revealed in the Scriptures. (see Rom 1:2) He has proven God’s victorious plan and purpose. This King is the fulfillment of God’s promises!

3. A third reason Paul now emphasizes in these thematic verses is that this crucified Christ is God’s provision for salvation. He is the only source of true deliverance, of ultimate rescue.

Like Paul…

We are unashamed of the gospel (of the crucified and risen Christ) because…

…as Paul continues…

By the gospel God enacts His saving power to everyone who believes. (verse 16b)

“for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek”

Jesus, and specifically his sacrificial death and resurrection, is the particular means God uses to unleash his power to save. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation. God’s power in this case is not his position and ability, although he does hold the ultimate place of power and is the only one able to save, but power here is his supernatural activity to save. God does indeed hold the position of power, and almighty God alone has the ability, but Paul’s point here is that in the gospel is God’s actual power enacting this salvation.

And salvation in its basic sense means to rescue, to deliver. The deliverance, the saving we need in this case is from ourselves: our love of sin and living in it. We are the cause of our lostness, blindness, hardheartedness, waywardness, and rebellion against God. Even God’s own righteous wrath against sin (which Paul emphasizes in 18ff), and the resulting final judgment and corresponding punishment, are consequences of the problem we create.

If I stand in the middle of a street with busy traffic, there are consequences from which I need to be rescued (like the oncoming bus). But most fundamentally I must be saved from my own stupidity of thinking its ok to stand in a busy street.

Or if I decide its entertaining to watch a battle from nearby hill, and the battle turns in my direction, I may suddenly realize I’m not safe, and I need to be rescued from whizzing bullets and cannonballs and sharp bayonets. But mostly fundamentally I need rescuing from my foolishness.

We need saving from ourselves and our love of sin and living in it. We create the problem; God provides the rescue. God created us but he didn’t create the problem. We’ve done that by our sin of self-autonomy and every other sin that flows from it. Even God’s wrath is a consequence of the problem that we have created, and is a simple consistency of his perfect character. Sin is the problem. And yet God in his righteousness provides the rescue by his own righteousness, as we shall see both in verse 17 and in Paul’s development of this line of reasoning in the ensuing chapters.

We should also note that when Paul speaks of salvation it carries the finality of eschatological fulfillment. In other words, salvation emphasizes future fulfillment and completion (Rom 5:9-10, 13:11). For Paul, there’s a great deal more finality to salvation, which has yet to be fully realized, than the mere point of conversion. That does not negate the importance of conversion, the beginning of saving faith, but it does give us some perspective that Paul has in mind ultimate deliverance from sin, death, and judgment.

You might think this is a minor distinction or merely semantics, but I think it actually helps us understand why saving faith in not merely a momentary decision. ***

Salvation is from ourselves and the consequences of our sin, and salvation for Paul particularly emphasizes the complete and final rescue from sin, death and judgment. Finally, salvation is both from something and to something better… God saves us from ourselves and our sin and to himself, and everything that goes with being right with him. Full adoption as heirs and all the corresponding glory and benefits.

And to whom does Paul says that God’s saving power applies? To everyone who believes, to the Jews first and also to the Greek.

This word for believe is the verb form of the noun faith. Faith is a trusting and submissive commitment of oneself wholly to God (to the Lord Jesus) because of God’s promise and power to save through what Jesus accomplished at the cross (and resurrection). And this verb is an active participle, like saying “to the one who is believing,” or “to the one who is a believer.” Faith alone (as opposed to personal merit through works) is incredibly central to Paul’s argument in Romans, and to his teaching elsewhere. We cannot merit salvation; rather, we believe in the merit of Christ’s achievement, a faith that submits to him as Lord.

Again, I just want to note that for Paul saving faith has a beginning, but it cannot possibly be a past act only. Saving faith is an ongoing trust and submissive commitment of ourselves wholly to God because of His promise and power to save through Jesus’ accomplishment on the cross and risen status as Lord.

So Paul says, God’s saving power enacted to those who believe is to the Jew first and also to the Greek. When Paul says Greek here, he means Gentiles more broadly, but why does he say the gospel is for the Jew first.

With this Jewish priority I believe Paul has in mind more proximity than chronology. That is not to say that you can’t make an argument for chronology, because it seems to have been Paul’s practice to go to Jewish synagogues first when he entered a new city in which there was a synagogue. However, in Romans especially, where Paul develops this thinking significantly in chapters 9-11, he emphasizes Jewish proximity to the gospel because God gave his promises to Israel and has brought to fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who is himself descended through Israel in fulfillment of God’s promises. So Jews are in this sense much nearer in opportunity to believe.

This reality also serves to humble both Jews and Greeks in their relationship to one another, for Jews to know that the fulfillment is not for them alone, and for the Greeks to honor their fellow Jewish believers because of God’s grace to them and through them.

So, to summarize again the application to us from what Paul is saying, we are unashamed because it is this gospel of God’s plan through Jesus that is God’s power to save US, and it is this gospel which is God’s power to save anyone, appropriated by faith in God’s provision of righteousness.

[next time] How does this gospel enact God’s saving power?

The gospel reveals the gift of God’s righteousness, appropriated by faith (as opposed to works). (verse 17)

“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith [to] faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

The argument in Romans is that God remains righteous and yet provides his righteousness through Jesus Christ to the ones who have faith in Him.

Conclusion: We, like Paul, must unashamedly live by and proclaim God’s gospel (of His Son Jesus Christ) because this gospel alone is God’s saving power to everyone who believes.

So it isn’t that they don’t seek to shame us, or that shame doesn’t cause hurt, but shame before men is not the final word. Instead, our pride in the gospel and confidence in the gospel outshines and outweighs their attempts to shame us.

By God’s grace, we have come to know that this is the only good news which saves… because it enacts God’s saving power… by revealing God’s own righteousness on behalf of the ones appropriating his righteousness by faith.

So too, we follow Paul’s example to boldly herald (proclaim) this good news. We must not allow social rejection and suffering to make us cower.

We must not be ashamed of God’s good news as he has revealed himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ, nor ashamed to proclaim it, because this is the gospel which saves, the gospel that maintains God’s righteousness while providing his righteousness to the one who lives by faith.

PRAY

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