How did you feel as you woke up this morning? What was the first thought that came into your head? Were you excited that this was a new day full of opportunities to share the wonder of the gospel with someone? If you are anything like me, I don’t imagine you often wake up ready and excited about the prospect that you might be able to share the gospel with someone.
But even if your day doesn’t start out with an eagerness to share the gospel, I wonder if that desire breaks into your day at all. Are there moments when you enthusiastically seek out opportunities to share with your friends and family how amazing it is that Jesus has saved you? Or do you shy away from those conversations worried someone might try to prove you wrong or laugh at you? I know there are more times than I would like to admit when I dread the question, “So what do you do?” There is no eagerness at all in that moment to tell them what I do or the fact that I am a Christian.
Not ashamed but confident in the Gospel
But in the book of Romans Paul has a very different motivation. In Romans 1:16 Paul clearly explains the reason he is so eager to preach the gospel. Very simply, Paul is so eager to preach the gospel because he is not ashamed of it. Paul is able to boldly proclaim because he feels no embarrassment about the message or the person whom the message is about. He feels no fear of ridicule or disapproval. We only have to look at his life to see how much that was so. Nothing could stand in his way. He was fearless in his proclamation. He had utter confidence in the message he was preaching.
Why was he so confident?
He writes, “for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Again, quite simply, Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because it is powerful. It is not a weak, foolish message but instead it is a life-changing message that comes directly from God. And what is it powerful to do? It is powerful to save. It is powerful to bring people to that initial point of repentance and obedience to God. It is the gospel that is God’s instrument to make us Christian in the first place.
And how necessary are Paul’s words to us?
As we look out at our churches and look upon our own lives, how often does it seem that Paul’s words are totally reversed? Our actions and words display an attitude which seems to say, “For I am ashamed of the gospel.” Or we can be tempted to believe that there are some people whom the gospel cannot save.
Instead we must see that the gospel of Jesus Christ is God’s power to rescue all – and so we can be eager to preach it without fear of being ashamed. As we understand the heart of the gospel better and the more we grasp its reality, the less we see its apparent weakness and feel that sense of shame and and the more we will see its power and the great need there is for us to share it.
