Romans 1:16

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” (Romans 1:16 NKJV). The context in which this verse is found finds Paul longing to visit believers located in Rome. He is thankful for their effective witness and prays for them without ceasing. He desires to come to them to help them reach more of the lost. He then makes it clear that he is not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation and in it the righteousness of God is revealed.

Paul says he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Google defines shame as a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior. To be ashamed of the gospel implies that one does embrace it with their whole being. Feeling shame reveals that we are more concerned about how we appear to the unbeliever that we are about their lost condition. It shows that we have not yet embraced the idea of “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21 NKJV). When our life becomes all about Jesus Christ then our witness will not be hindered because we will not be ashamed.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation. This is not very well understood in the western church because we are guilty of trying to argue a person into a position of belief. This is a dangerous practice because if we can convince a person to pray a prayer of salvation they may go away thinking they are saved and when they see no change in their life they think Christianity is of little value. It is God who saves and he uses his great power to change the hearts, even of hardened terrorist. It is God that changes the heart and makes room for one to have faith to believe and since God shows no partiality, salvation is available to all.

Prayer

Father, I am so thankful that Jesus was willing to endure the shame of the cross to purchase our salvation. Help us overcome any feeling of shame we might have concerning Jesus Christ and burden our hearts for the lost. Father, help us understand what you saved us from and have given to us. Convict us of our need to live for Christ and not for self.