Why the Gospel Means Everything to Us

“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 for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Paul, Romans 1:16-17

I don’t believe that any among us who claim to be Christian would consider ourselves ashamed of the Gospel. And that is true, at least to the extent of identifying ourselves as Christian. But being ashamed of the Gospel is not just denying such an identity. It can also be seen in our lives – the compromises we make in our values under social pressure, our turning away from necessary conflict, our lack in evangelism, church discipline, relationships and so on. Whenever we compromise the Gospel, it is because we are ashamed of it, because we do not know its power. The value and power we see in this Gospel that saves, is directly reflected by how clearly we understand what we are saved from.

The Bible tells us that God came down in human flesh and dwelt among His own creation, and yet they did not know Him. He came to His own people and yet they did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12). Why did Jesus come? Why did we need saving? And, why could we not recognise Him? Such is the state of humanity that we not only cannot recognise the One who came to save us, we don’t know that we need saving. We can’t see our rebellion. You see, all of mankind is stricken with a disease, one that is so debilitating that death is the only cure. Sin. None can overcome it and there is no spiritual vaccine or ritual that can save an infected soul. And worst of all, we are all born infected. It causes us to live in constant hostility towards God and separates us from Him. We hide it in the facade of words such as higher rational thought, evidence, interpretation, meaning, love, tolerance etc, not knowing a dime’s worth of what any of those words really mean. No amount of rational thought, evidence, interpretation, meaning, love or tolerance that is laid in front of a man is able to convince his deluded mind to believe in this child born on Christmas day. Sin blinds us to the reality and consequence of our disobedience. We are doomed for a destiny to perish in sin, under the eternal wrath of Almighty God. Though we were created good, our first father, Adam, sinned against God by disobeying Him and through his disobedience, brought upon His generations, death.

Believing in the existence of Christ is a historic fact but to believe in Christ as God incarnate and Saviour of our lives is a divine revelation. It is not that we don’t have proof, the evidence is overwhelming, but only the Spirit of God can open our eyes to believe. Jesus is our God and He came to save us from our sin. This is the Gospel of Christ and it is the power for salvation to everyone who believes. Understanding the reality of God’s justice, an eternal punishment for the wicked and the grace that has spared us who believe in Jesus through the gift of faith can never make us a people ashamed of the Gospel, ever.