I Am Not Ashamed of the GospelSample

Our relationship with the gospel

Do you share Paul’s convictions about the gospel? Do you sense your obligation toward it? It is easy for us to go to church and participate in the gospel ministry, but when we go outside the building, we forget we are obligated to share it. We are not called to go to church to celebrate the gospel. We are called to leave the building and distribute it, proclaim it, and declare it because everyone around us needs it: the wise and the simple.

Are you aware of this great treasure that has been put into your hands? You are now a minister of reconciliation. You are an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Can you honestly say that you’re eager to share this message with others? Are you ready, willing, and zealous in the proclamation of the gospel? Not just in theory, but practically, can this be seen in your life?

Can we admit that we’ve had times when we’ve been ashamed of the gospel? Maybe it’s been when we’ve been surrounded by unbelieving family members, or maybe at work or at school. We have been unwilling to make our faith in Jesus Christ known and to share the message that has been put into our hands.

Paul’s relationship to the gospel is due to his perspective. You will not share his sense of obligation, eagerness, and boldness in sharing of the gospel unless you share his view. In Romans 1:16, Paul reveals his perspective, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”

What is the gospel? Romans 1:1 describes it as a message from heaven,from God Himself. It is everything God has revealed about Himself. The good news is a letter from heaven to humanity, and you’ll never understand the good news unless you believe the bad news.

What is the bad news? That the first man and woman committed the first great sin, and we all fell in Adam, and the results of the fall. The bad news explains why we are where we are. The condition in which humans are now born:spiritually dead, blind, deaf, and with a hard heart; unable to deliver themselves from the slavery of sin and Satan; belonging to the domain of darkness and needing transference into the dominion of God. This sad state was our condition without a Savior—the bad news.