Righteous of God

Passage: Romans 1:16-17

Every single commentator on the book of Romans calls verses 16-17 the heart of the entire book. Here Paul announces his grand theme that will occupy his attention for the rest of Romans. Romans is Paul’s clearest exposition of the Gospel of God, and these two verses give the heart of Paul’s ministry as an apostle. This is Romans in a nutshell, and the summary of the Bible.

I am not ashamed of the Gospel.

Why does Paul start off saying he is not ashamed of the Gospel? Because there are plenty of reason to be ashamed of the Gospel. The Gospel is a scandal of weakness and folly.

The founder was killed as a criminal on a Roman cross, cursed.
God was so weak and powerless He couldn’t keep His Son from being killed.
The message of the Gospel is too simple, nothing especially intellectual.
It doesn’t rise to the level of the great philosophies of Plato and Aristotle.
Calling people sinners certainly isn’t popular, that gets downplayed in our day.
God’s method of salvation is crazy, insane. No one would ever dream up that plan.
A resurrection, are you kidding me, everyone knows no one comes back from the dead.
The followers of the Gospel were lowly, fishermen, shepherds, not the noble and elite.
The Gospel was regarded with contempt by the educated, the sophisticated.

Today the Gospel is unacceptable because it flies in the face of our independence, our self-reliance. The Gospel strips us of our pride, our boasting, our wisdom. No other religion stirs up the shame and guilt of our sinfulness. No other religion is as offensive to man’s pride.

For all these reasons the Gospel was ridiculed, mocked and spoken against everywhere it went.

Paul is coming to preach the Gospel and he wants to prepare the Romans for the reproach they will receive for believing the Gospel, for lifting up the cross of Jesus. A crucified Savior was a stumbling block to Jews and utter nonsense to the Greeks.

Paul knows all about the ridicule and mocking, all the ways the ungodly oppose the Gospel. Paul was willing to be shamed for the Gospel because he was not ashamed of the Gospel.