Unashamed

The Saving Gospel

I have spoken and blogged at length about the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its various forms in today’s church. I have never reasoned as to why I have been so outspoken about preaching the full and unchanged Gospel of the Bible. I don’t think much of the shortened version which says believe and be saved. I don’t lay much store by the prosperity gospel nor in the similar ‘name it and claim it gospel’. I want to see, or hear, the true Gospel of repentance and salvation preached in every church, and home, and office, and on every street corner in the world.

Yet I now ask, “Why do I want this?”, and “What is the screaming urgency that causes me to preach this?” It’s a perfectly valid question that carries with it a very straightforward and simple answer.

That answer is found in Romans 1:16 and I have chosen the NIV1984 version. “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”

If you want to put that a different way then I suggest The Message version “It's news I'm most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God's powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews and then right on to everyone else! God's way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: "The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives." “

That’s pretty good reasoning isn’t it?

I am NOT ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the power of God unto salvation of everyone who believes. Paul here is talking about the full Gospel as later contained in the Bible including believing, repenting, turning away from your sin, and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart and life as Saviour and Lord.

Did you notice that? The Gospel contains God’s power unto salvation. It is a powerful Gospel. It is a saving Gospel. It is for anyone, yes anyone and everyone who believes it – that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again so that we might have everlasting life. Everyone who believes, repents, turns from his or her old sinful ways, and receives Jesus as Lord and Saviour WILL be saved – and it is God’s power in the Gospel that achieves this.

What a wonderful, glorious, everlasting, and powerful Gospel we have. Why change it? Why ‘spin’ it? Why not just preach it and allow God’s power through His wonderful Holy Spirit to do the rest. The Bible warns against adding to, or taking away from the words the Lord speaks to us. This I believe means the meaning as well as the actual wording.

There is power in the Gospel – God’s power. Speak it out and let the Holy Spirit work. We don’t have to prove that God is the Lion of Judah – we just unlock His cage and let Him out.