Romans 1:14-17 NIV
I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
You may be wondering why Paul (that's the church leader who wrote this long correspondence called Romans) would say--some might think defensively--"I am not ashamed" of the Gospel (good news). It helps to consider the stark, bloody reality of the crushing defeat the cross represented to these people.
If you were a first-century Jew, your response to Christ-followers might be, "let me get this straight: you want me to worship Jesus as some long-awaited deliverer of our nation-the One a few of the rabbis suggest Jewish Scriptures may foretell? We...are talking about the guy who died the most base, humiliating execution our occupying oppressors have devised to demoralize us...right?"
It was kind of a hard sell.
Non-Jews just laughed. Even painted graffiti making fun of the whole notion--no kidding.
Father, our own culture laughs as well; and caricatures; and in a hundred more ways assumes us to be hypocritical, or naïve--anything but what we strive to be. They assume the worst of you too, Lord--often based on our failure to represent you well.
Please keep us faithful. Keep us unashamed. Open the eyes of the blind that they may see the truth of their desperate need for you and how you express your love in this very Gospel. In Jesus. Amen.
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