I Am Not Ashamed Of The Gospel

My father-in-law used to say that if you wanted the gospel in a nutshell you could find it in the first 3 chapters of Romans and Galatians and Ephesians. I will add, throw in also the first 3 chapters of John and Acts and you're good to go.

The other day I was struck by Paul's statement to the Roman Church that:

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it the righteous of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written; 'But the righteous man shall live by faith.' "  (Romans 1: 16-17)

The gospel or good news here is the testimony about Jesus, who He was, who He is, what He did in His death and resurrection so that all, Jews and non Jews, could come through Jesus to a saving relationship with The Father. The door to the Father is now wide open but we can only enter in -by faith - through the person of Jesus Christ.

It is that simple. It was always the core of Paul's message. If we get away from that central focus we then start to rely on the wisdom of man and the wisdom of man will always try to pull us away from surrendering in faith to the person of Jesus and instead try to establish religious or moral beliefs or good actions as the avenue to righteousness and salvation.

Not that we don't need the help of the Church to mature and grow us in our faith. But the first and foremost purpose of the Church is to introduce us to Jesus, to then equip us with the Holy Spirit of wisdom and power, and to lay a firm foundation in the Word of God so that we may be well equipped to grow and mature as part of the Body of Christ. Everything else flows out of our relationship with Jesus.

Unfortunately many modern churches of the day teach about the idea of Jesus, the social teachings of Jesus, the religion of Jesus, a Christ removed from the blood, the resurrection, the ultimate surrender of one's life to Jesus as Savior, Lord, and Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. And to go along with this they make to no effect the sound teaching of Sacred Scripture. All authority now rests in the evolved minds of contemporary man.

There could be no better example of this than the growing and wide spread acceptance of the LBGTQ agenda that we see happening (for the first time in history) today. Scripture that immediately proceeds the above quote talks about worshiping, or exalting, the created over the Creator. The created could be idols of wood, stone or metal that represented things of nature, worshiped in blindness over the One who made those things of nature.

But it also applies the same to the exalting of man over the Creator of man, a Creator who both through nature and consistently through His revealed Word speaks against such actions. Here is the sad part. The heart of man initially knows that his actions are wrong but the body and the soul were not able to change. Thus they look to find acceptance and approval of their sin and find a ready partner with a church which has already compromise the Word with a hundred arguments against it.

And the root, the source of all of the compromise, goes to the removal of the central focus of the gospel, the righteous man shall live by faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified (for the SINS of man).

Here the Word of God picks up beginning in the very next sentence, Romans 1: 17. (bold print mine)

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteous of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

for that which is known about God is evident is within them, for God made it evident to them.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so they are without excuse.

For even though they knew God they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools,

and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four footed animals and crawling creatures.

Therefore God them them over to the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.

For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever, Amen.

For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for the women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,

and so also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire for another, men with men committing indecent acts  (Romans 1: 17-28)

Paul goes on in this chapter including many of the other sins against God that we do, things that we even encourage others to, and advises us that without repentance, without Jesus, all of us would be condemned.

Today may each of you come to know my Lord and Savior Jesus in a more intimate way. Seek Him without reservation. Surrender all to His Lordship. Yield to His Holy Spirit. Come to the Father through Him.