I am not ashamed of the gospel

Romans 1:1-17 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, ² which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³ concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, ⁴ who was declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, ⁵ through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His name, ⁶ among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;

⁷ to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸ First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the world. ⁹ For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, ¹⁰ always in my prayers requesting if perhaps now, at last by the will of God, I will succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; ¹² that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. ¹³ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also just as among the rest of the Gentiles. ¹⁴ I am under obligation both to Greeks and to the uncultured, both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵ So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

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. ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: “But the righteous one will live by faith.”

In yesterday’s meditation, we saw that in 2 Corinthians 2:2 Paul said: I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. In today’s text he says: I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. 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. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: “But the righteous one will live by faith.”  If we know Christ, then we also should not be ashamed of the gospel. We should be eager to preach wherever we are and wherever we go knowing that while some will reject our message, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. For ourselves we need to remember what Jesus says in Luke 9:23-26: “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, this is the one who will save it. For what good does it do a person if he gains the whole world, but loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels.”

The cross that we take up daily, is not a cross of suffering and shame. In John 19:30, when He was on the cross Jesus said: “It is finished!” The suffering and shame is over. It was forever defeated in the resurrection. If we follow Jesus, we need to follow Him not just to the cross, but to the resurrection, where there is no shame.  In truth, to follow Jesus, the cross we take up really is fashioned into another kind of wooden implement. In Matthew 11:28-29 Jesus says: “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”Jesus taught us to pray saying: Your kingdom come and Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. When we walk with Him, in the glory of the resurrection, we bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. We find rest even in our work with Him because He is the one who does the work. Even more, It is already finished in Christ! In John 14:12-15 Jesus says: “Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus commissions and commands us saying: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 

To all who are beloved of God called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the world.  Amen.