For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. Romans 1:16 WEB
Our beliefs directly affect our actions in life. Faith in God leads the believer in submission to something greater than ourselves. In accountability to the Lord, we tend toward self-control. Additionally, the divinity of Christ gives hope of eternal life with the promise of forgiveness for our sins.
A lack of faith also impacts our lives. In self-reliance, we tend towards either the puffed up arrogance of pride or the desperate hopelessness of human existence. In other words, a person is either crushed by the pressures of the world or they tend to take pride in the significance of self and their surrounding culture.
Sensing Roman pride and an assumed reluctance to share the gospel in a hostile environment, Paul boldly asserts that he is not ashamed of the Good News of Christ. In the cultural center of the Roman empire, Rome itself, persecution of the early Christians discouraged some believers. However, Paul writes of his eagerness to go to Rome and share the truth of Jesus Christ.
The Righteousness of God
As a Roman citizen, Paul understood the pride of that distinction. Roman citizenship afforded a person special privileges and rights. But since his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul’s pride as a Roman and his zeal for Jewish tradition were replaced by his knowledge of the risen Christ. He understands the danger of self-righteousness and arrogant pride but also the joy of living in the righteousness of God.
Paul is unique in his Jewish background and his Roman citizenship. As an apostle, he understood that the gospel message came first to the Jews. He also knew that Jesus instructed his faithful to preach the Good News of Christ to every nation. And so, he mentions teaching the gospel message first to Jews and then to Greeks which is a reference to all Gentiles.
In addition, Paul understands the difficulty of proclaiming the Good News of Christ in a world that sees the message as new and sometimes strange. The pride of man and cultural traditions may lead some self-satisfied individuals to resist the message and even sometimes violently oppose the Good News of Christ and salvation from sin.
Live by Faith
Paul concludes the sharing of his eagerness to preach in Rome with an explanation of why he is unashamed of the message. He writes in Romans 1:17, “For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, ‘But the righteous shall live by faith.’ WEB” This is a reference to scripture from Habakkuk 2:4 which reads, “Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith. WEB”
The puffed up and prideful in Rome would resist the gospel message of receiving the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul sensed that this resistance caused the few Chrstians that live there to shrink away from sharing their faith. He understood the difficulty of establishing an understanding of Christ in the cultural center of the Roman Empire but he eagerly awaits the opportunity to share the Good News of Christ there.
Prayer: “Father God, thank you for your saving grace. Thank you for my salvation in Jesus Christ. Make me bold in my sharing of the Good News of our Savior. Help me to live in the victory won on the cross. In Jesus’ name – Amen”
Yesterday’s Devotional: My Father’s Hand
