Not Ashamed - 9/1/2024

“Not Ashamed!”
“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” (Romans 1:16)
Why would we ever be ashamed of the gospel? That's the question that Paul, whose life was radically changed by the gospel, addressed in the greatest single statement ever made about the gospel in Romans chapter 1.
Maybe, we have all at times been ashamed of the gospel. There's been times we had a chance to share the gospel, and we didn't. We had a chance to speak up and we remained silent. What should grieve us as Christians is that we seem to be living in a time where we are ashamed of things that are right and unashamed of things that are wrong.
How could Paul be so eager to preach a message that got him jailed, beaten up, left for dead and repeatedly scorned? What are some reasons why Paul was not ashamed and more importantly why we should never be ashamed of the gospel:
We should not be ashamed of the gospel because it is such good news.
The message of the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead so that we might have life eternal (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
We should not be ashamed of the gospel because it is God's power.
Only the gospel is powerful enough to accomplish God's purpose in a fallen world polluted by sin. The gospel was so powerful that it could change Saul of Tarsus, an enemy of Christianity, into Paul the Apostle (Acts 8-9). That's powerful! The gospel was so powerful, it could take 3,000 people in a single day, the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, and change their minds, change their thinking, and move them to be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of their sins (Acts 2:38-41).
We should not be ashamed of the gospel because it is salvation to everyone who believes.
There is nothing more important than salvation! You can die with wealth. You can die with fame. You can die with position, influence and popularity. But what good is it if you had all those things but died without salvation?
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels” (Mark 8:36-38).