At the start of his correspondence to the Roman church, in Romans 1:16, Paul states something that is
unexpected in its ramifications: “I am not embarrassed of the gospel.” Paul the apostle, embarrassed of the Gospel? It barely appears possible! Lots of preachers and analysts will state that what Paul implies is “I’m passionately thrilled about the Gospel,” with the exact same understatement with which John Lennon may have been able to state, “I’ve composed a tune or 2.” Could such a guy as Paul actually have dealt with the temptation of repenting of the Gospel?
We should not deal with Paul like an angel amongst males, complimentary from the temptations that assault us. The factor Paul rejected sensation embarrassed of the Gospel is since embarassment was a genuine possibility he dealt with. And we face it too.
The Bold Apostle, a Timid Man
Paul understood what it was to be afraid. He explains his entry into Corinth like this: “I was with you in weak point and in worry and much shivering” (1 Cor. 2:3).
Paul most likely didn’t get up in the early morning, take a look at himself in the mirror, and state, “Corinth, here I come! I’m sure you can’t wait to see me and to speak with me.” No, his mindset may have been something closer to “I do not understand if I can do this.” He might have thought of his retreat from Damascus (Acts 9:23– 25), or about his years of silence (Gal. 1:16– 17), or his whippings and jail times and shipwrecks (2 Cor. 11:21– 27). Paul had much to reflect on with worry from a human point of view.
Together with his own background was Paul’s eager awareness of what the Gospel was to outsiders: “a stumbling block to Jews and recklessness to Gentiles” (1 Cor. 1:23), an unsafe superstitious notion to be buffooned and maltreated instead of a major concept to think about. Whether to be embarrassed of the Gospel was a genuine concern since individuals actually treated it as something outrageous.
In God’s eyes, things are various. Far from being disgraceful, the Gospel, Paul composed somewhere else, is “the power of God and the knowledge of God” (1 Cor. 1:24). “it is the power of God for redemption to everybody who thinks” (Rom 1:16), as he advised the Romans.
When Paul was faced by the shaming of the world, he needs to have stated, “I have factor for pity when I consider my life. I have factor for embarassment when I take a look at myself and my presents. There is one thing I have no factor to be embarrassed of, outrageous as it might appear to outsiders: the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
“The Power of God”
We should not pass over this believed too rapidly, due to the fact that if we’re sincere with ourselves, we’ll discover that we’re frequently embarrassed of the Gospel. Such embarassment is not simply for brand-new Christians, not simply for laypeople; it likewise sneaks in for long-lasting, growing followers and ministers of God’s Word too.
When it boils down to the crunch and somebody asks, “What is this things about Jesus?” we might feel their eyes burrowing into our heads as we start to address. We feel in one’s bones they’re asking themselves, They can’t actually think that, can they?
When we enter into a syncretistic, pluralistic world with the message that “there is no other name under paradise provided amongst males by which we should be conserved” (Acts 4:12), we deal with the inevitability of contempt and mockery. This sort of truth was precisely why Paul felt the requirement to firmly insist that the Gospel is not a thing to be embarrassed of.
What should encourage us to deal with the contempt of the world? It must definitely not be self-confidence in our own capability to offer a tough message. Rather, it ought to be a conviction about the message itself. This Gospel about the male who passed away on a cross to forgive our sins and bring us to God “is recklessness to those who are diing however to us who are being waited is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). We ought to discover to state, like the disciples who stuck with Jesus after His difficult phrases, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of immortality, and we have actually thought, and have actually familiarized, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68– 69).
The Gospel is not something for us to be embarrassed of, whatever embarassment the world might stack upon it, due to the fact that by faith we can see God’s power at work in it to bring brand-new birth and sanctification. Lots of today will attempt to dress up the Gospel in contemporary believing to fit modern tastes. We do not require to work out all our energy attempting to develop the ideal kind of context for the Gospel or attempting to make the Gospel look a little much better. What we require is self-confidence in the power of the Gospel itself and the God to whom it draws us.
The Gospel is not eventually the discussion of a concept. It is the operation of God’s power. There is much about ourselves that we must question and much that we may be embarrassed of. As we come across the contempt of the world for the cross of Jesus Christ, we might state with Paul, “Say what you will, however I will not be embarrassed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God.”
This post was adjusted from the preaching “The Power of the Gospel” by Alistair Begg.
