MONDAY November 27th
Romans 1:16
‘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.’
When I commenced these devotions on Paul, I started with the opening verses of Romans 1, verses 1-6, I have returned to this chapter and to verse 16.
Paul is making an important statement, and it is that he is not ashamed of the gospel. I ended the previous devotion with Paul saying that he didn’t count his life of being of any value, by this he meant that he considered his calling and the gospel as being of higher and more important value.
Again, as we consider what he was doing at the beginning of Acts 9, breathing out threats and murder against the disciples to becoming one who has been saved by the gospel and transformed by the gospel and now making this declaration in Romans 1:16, it is incredible evidence of the amazing grace of God.
He was one who had been unbending with intent to destroy everything that was related to Jesus and all who followed in the Way, but now, he was unbending in his commitment towards the gospel, because he himself had come to experience the power of God which was at work in and through the gospel. After all, if it could change him and turn his life around, then the power of the gospel was and still is sufficient to turn anyone’s life around.
He was not ashamed of the gospel because he saw the power of God at work in the gospel. He not only knew what his experience was but would have witnessed the transforming power at work as he had become obedient in his calling to take the gospel to Kings, to the Gentiles and to the children of Israel.
It is in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 that we have from the pen of Paul the following words, ‘For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God’, (verse18)
What had been folly or foolishness to him as he became an activist with the gospel haters, had now become so powerful to him, not only in saving him but it caused him to become an advocate or ambassador of the message of the Cross. And as we will see, no one and nothing was going to deter him in his fulfilling the purpose for which God had called him.
Can we also along with Paul say that we are not ashamed of the gospel? It is easy to make the declaration when we are with other believers, but what about when we are in the workplace or the college, or wherever we are found during the hum-drum daily routine of our lives, when opportunity arises do we willingly share about Jesus or do we slink back and remain silent.
May God give to each one of us the same determination to be advocates or ambassadors in this world around us, may the Holy Spirit grant to us boldness to speak out and to share with those who are lost that there is a Saviour that loves them so much that he died for them to grant them forgiveness and eternal life.