Not Ashamed of the Gospel – Part 1 of 6
Romans 1:16-17 - 16For 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. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Piper breaks up this passage into six messages, focusing on not being ashamed of the gospel, in this first message.
I am so encouraged to finally really grasp what it means to not be ashamed. Piper does a great job explaining it! I quoted quite a lot, but I encourage you to read through it, because you will be thoroughly encouraged.
Piper says, “Today we will focus on the words: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel.” You see the link with verse 15. The reason he is eager to preach the gospel in Rome is that he is not ashamed of the gospel.”
Now when Paul says in Romans 1:16 that he is “not ashamed of the gospel,” is this (the idea that his preaching Christ is somehow kept him from public shame) what keeps him from being ashamed? Does he escape being ashamed because he keeps himself in the best light? No. Exactly the opposite. Believing and preaching the gospel constantly put Paul in a bad light. It constantly stirred up other people to shame Paul. He gives us a list of ways that he was shamed in the ministry of the gospel (in 2 Corinthians 11:23–26):
… in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren…
In other words, Paul’s way of not being ashamed of the gospel was not that he could keep himself in the best light or that he had enough savvy that people always liked him and approved what he did. When Paul looked out on the huge world of unbelief in his day he felt a debt to all. He didn’t look with utter disdain on the pagans of his day. Beware of doing this. Our conservative lifestyle has been so politicized in America that we slip easily into feeling disdain rather than debt to unbelieving people. Not so with Paul, though he hated sin. Rather, he felt so overwhelmed with undeserved grace that he knew himself a debtor to all—Greek and barbarian, wise and foolish.
The debt that Paul felt was not appreciated. Instead of people being glad to hear it, they shamed him. Instead of people understanding and feeling in debt, he was persecuted and abused.
Piper explains two ways that that the gospel brings out shame:
The gospel does two things: it brings out shaming behavior in those who will not believe it. And it gives freedom from shame to those who do believe it.
Paul knew both. He was like Jesus. Jesus was abandoned by his friends, falsely accused of blasphemy, beaten with rods, ridiculed and taunted, stripped of his clothes, scourged with a whip, tortured in public, and made to look like a fool as people hollered at him on the cross: “You who saved others, save yourself.”
So, what do we do with this shame? We learn from Jesus.
What did Jesus do with all this shame—this shaming behavior? What would you do with it? Hebrews 12:2 tells us what he did with it: “For the joy set before Him [he] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus despised the shame. What does that mean? It means that when shame began to threaten his heart and to tempt him to abandon a clear and obedient witness to God and to the gospel, he said to shame, “Shame, I despise you. I will not yield to you. I will not give to you any satisfaction. You may do with me whatever you please—in the short run—but I will not obey you or follow you or give in to you. I despise you, shame, and will not let you rule me.”
How could he do that? How can you do that? Hebrews 12:2 says he did it “for the joy that was set before him.” Shame was stripping away every earthly support that Jesus had: his friends gave way in shaming abandonment; his reputation gave way in shaming slander; his decency gave way in shaming nakedness; his comfort gave way in shaming torture. So, if his present supports were all being stripped away in shaming persecution, how did he not capitulate to such shame? Hebrews 12:2 says, he set his heart not on the supports of the present, but on the joy of the future where very soon he would “sit down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Though he was being shamed, Jesus was not ashamed of his God and Father. Why? Because God had power to save him from death and give him all-satisfying glory at his right hand forever.
Now, I say Paul was like this. What did he say in Romans 1:16? “I am not ashamed”—in spite of all the cultured Greeks who mock me as preaching foolishness and all the unbelieving Jews who deride me as preaching a false Christ—I am not ashamed of this gospel. Why? “For it is the power of God unto salvation.” In other words, this message of Christ crucified for the sake of sinners, of Christ raised from the dead as the Son of God in power (1:4), of grace given freely to those who will trust in Jesus—this message will bring all who bank on it to everlasting salvation.
SO THE QUESTION OF THE DAY and THE ANSWER OF THE CENTURY!!!
How then do you overcome feelings of shame when you are shamed for believing and sharing the gospel? Answer: ponder the power of the gospel to bring forgiven sinners to final, everlasting joy.
So, how are we shamed today?
The greatest weapon of shaming today in the world of religious claims is the accusation that you are intolerant and therefore mean-spirited and egotistical.
To that we must steadfastly respond: It is the most loving thing in the world to tell the truth about the way of salvation. If Jesus has said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6), then, for the sake of love, we must pay our debt to the world, and despise the shaming of the “tolerant” ‘90s and tell them, “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The gospel of Christ alone is the power of God unto salvation.
Steve Allen
ACTION Zambia
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