August 1: I am not ashamed

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 man shall live by faith.”     (Romans 1:16,17 — New American Standard Bible)

Why would anyone be ashamed of the gospel? Not only is it a story about things that happened two thousand years ago in another corner of the world that seems so far, it is a story that demands a response. No one can read about Jesus’ life, teaching, healing, and miracles and come away impressed with how “nice” a story it is. Either it’s a pack of lies designed to deceive, or it is God’s personal message to each one of us. Either Jesus was a liar or madman, or He was God on earth. The gospel makes such bold statements about Jesus and the necessity of His death on the cross that no one who takes the time to understand it can remain neutral.

In another passage Paul writes that this message is foolishness to Gentiles and a stumbling block to Jews. The Jews of Jesus’ time were expecting their savior to be a version of King David riding into Jerusalem with an army to free them from their Roman oppressors, and a Savior dying a criminal’s death on a cross was a blasphemous contradiction. Why would anyone believe in a god that couldn’t save himself from cruel men? But what they failed to understand was that Jesus’ death and suffering made the opposite possible for those who choose to believe in Him.

CS Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity, has a nice way of putting it:

“God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.”

Without faith in God and the gospel there is a void in the core of our being. How can we be ashamed of a gospel that fills that void and makes us complete? Those who stubbornly hold on to that void as if it were something good should be the ones who are ashamed. 

Far from being ashamed, we are proud of the privilege of being God’s children.