Why did Paul say “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,…” Pretty long:)

Believers, what do Paul’s words “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,…” in Romans 1:16 mean to you? Sometimes we hear these words used in the context of not being ashamed to preach inside public transportation and other public spaces or being bold enough to plaster posts about our belief on social media:) But not many preachers of today are derided and persecuted by religious people for what they preach like Paul was. Many churchgoers will even fear you and give you extra respect the minute you say you have a church and without ever hearing what you are preaching:)

But what really is the gospel of Christ and how could it have the capacity to make anyone who believes it or who believes in God for that matter feel ashamed to the extent that Paul had to express that he isn't ashamed of it? Even God-fearing people like the Jews who did their very best to obey the law and do its works in order to get into God's good books (just like many who profess Christ teach and do today) were ashamed to be associated with the gospel of Christ: Nicodemus went to Jesus at night!

Let's see why!

Paul was a chief persecutor of Christians before his first encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees, living by the Law of Moses which is summed up in the words “do good, get good; do bad, get bad.” Under the law, when you disobey, you get the punishment that you deserve. God will only bless you when you keep His commandments. To receive from God, you have to “play your part.” No "Freely you have received" here. Making vows in order to get from God was the norm. You have to love God with all your heart... and love your neighbour as yourself, or else judgment will follow. If there is sin in your life, you can’t come into His presence or else, you die.

If there’s poverty, sickness, joblessness or anything bad in your life, it would be as a result of some sin you or your forefathers committed and YOU have to do certain things to make your issues go away. Generational and other curses abound here. You have to do good works and avoid sin/unclean things all by yourself in order to be righteous and receive from God. In essence, nothing goes for nothing. If you want to be set free or receive from God you have to "play your part" by doing certain things that the priests tell you to do, or else "nothing for you."

Believers, the above is the doctrine of the Pharisees whom Christ called "brood of vipers." And this doctrine is akin to what is being actively preached in many places of worship today. The only difference is the "in Jesus' name" that is attached to each prayer point. Part-doctrine of the Pharisees (Law of Moses which they could not uphold) and part-Jesus (Grace and Truth.) Neither cold not hot.

But this is not what Paul preached after his encounter with Jesus. Paul preached that we do not get God's righteous punishment that we deserve because Another, our Lord Jesus Christ, took our punishment and that we are made righteous not by our works but by His blood. See Romans 5:9- "Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from God’s wrath."

Paul preached that we are made righteous by Christ's obedience and not our own righteousnesses which, according to Isaiah 64:6 are like "a menstrual rag." Romans 5:19 tells us how we are made righteous: "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."  Also see 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Paul preached that in Christ, the law is fulfilled in us but not by us. See Acts 13:38-39: "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses."

Paul preached that our Heavenly Father gives us all things FREELY with Christ and not because we know how to fast and pray to unlock the windows of heaven or command the morning as many teach today. See Romans 8:32- “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” No questions about which sin we committed last and no grovelling on some mountain to get our heavenly Father who gives us all things freely with Christ to bless us!

Paul preached that New Covenant believers have been redeemed from the curse of the law (generational or otherwise) because "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Galatians 3:13-14.

Paul preached that God’s grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts (Titus 2:12) and that Christ “gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.” Titus 2:14. Jesus came to save us from our sins and make us live right! Grace is our Teacher, not you or I.

Paul preached that we are made right with God by faith (believing Jesus) and not by obeying the law. See Romans 3:26-27- "...and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law."

Paul preached that if righteousness comes through obeying the Law, then Jesus died for nothing! See Galatians 2:21: "I refuse to reject the grace of God. But if a person is put right with God through the Law, it means that Christ died for nothing!"

The religious leaders of Paul’s day could not bear him speaking this Truth; neither can many in the church today who are specialists in leading the flock on the wild goose chase of trying to get right with God and getting the blessing through obedience to the law and doing good deeds. But Romans 4:13-15 says - 

"13 Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith. 14 If God’s promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless. 15 For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!)"

Nobody would need the teachers of religious law anymore if Paul’s message stuck! Paul was saying that ANYONE, EVEN SINNERS, could enter into the Holy of Holies (God's presence,) live and receive!, knowing that the guilt of their sins have been taken away because of what Christ has done. See Hebrews 10 -  

"19 We have, then, my friends, complete freedom to go into the Most Holy Place by means of the death of Jesus. 20 He opened for us a new way, a living way, through the curtain—that is, through His own body. 21 We have a great priest in charge of the house of God. 22 So let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, with hearts that have been purified from a guilty conscience and with bodies washed with clean water."

The gospel that Paul said he was not ashamed of says that in Christ, we enjoy ALL of the Lord's benefits and GET TO live right too, all because of what Christ has done and not because we kept the law of Moses, which no one can ever do according to Romans 3:20. This is the Truth that makes free! No wonder the Ten Commandments-toting religious people of his day who depended on their various fasts, good deeds and obedience to the law for favour and right-standing with God could not stand him. He was whipped, stoned and left for dead, imprisoned and killed for the message that he preached! No wonder Paul proclaimed that he was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Paul preached GRACE - undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour! 

Bear in mind that these people who were ashamed of the gospel were not robbers, tax collectors and prostitutes who, by the way, followed Jesus and were transformed. We often think that those who are "ashamed of the gospel" are "sinners," non-Christians and those who don't believe in God but these ones don't even know the gospel. How can they be ashamed of something they do not know? The gospel-haters who were ashamed of the gospel and persecuted Paul were highly religious, Ten Commandments-toting teachers of religious law that were so eager to enforce what the law says in the lives of others and even execute its judgments, just as they tried to do with the woman caught in adultery that they brought to Jesus. But Christ did not condemn the woman.

Today, their counterparts in the church also drag you to Jesus and tell you that you who are held captive by your sins and addictions can be punished in His presence! Christ sees how much you want and try to stop sinning and wants to save you but they believe that you love to wallow in your sins and tell you that the Lord will punish you for them unless you stop by your own power, as if you had not been doing your best to stop and contradicting Matt. 1:21- "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Worse, they tell you that there is something you can do by your own power to save yourself and avoid God's wrath, as if the sinner woman could have done something to save herself from paying the wages of sin. Believers, beware of such teachers! No matter how outwardly holy they seem, like the Pharisees, they can never cast the first stone. Jesus could, because He is without sin, but He didn't, because He came to save, not to condemn, as it is written in John 3:17: "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

Christ saves from sins (Matthew 1:21,) condemnation (Romans 8:1) and the wrath of God (Romans 5:9- "Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath.") It is His gift of "neither do I condemn you" that makes us "go and sin no more."

We might think "my sins are not as bad as adultery and armed robbery" but consider James 2:10- "For whosoever shall keep the whole law yet stumble at one point, he is guilty of all."

We all need God's saving grace (undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour) that many who profess Christ are ashamed to proclaim today. Many are professing Christ but believe the doctrine of the Pharisees. Believer, ask the Lord to rid your mind of any wrong theology and wrong believing today. He is Saviour.

The Law and Grace are two entirely different covenants. The bible tells us “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” - John 1:17.

Under the LAW, we see God “…by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation” but under GRACE He says “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Hebrews 8:12.

Believers, we are not under Law but under Grace. These two cannot mix as many preachers of today try to do. You cannot have one leg on Mount Sinai and the other on Mount Zion. You cannot be trying to get right with God by keeping the Law and expect to be saved by Grace. Remember Revelation 3:15-16, Our Lord Jesus Christ says:

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. 16 I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

Don't let anyone misinterpret these verses for you, deceiving you into thinking that being "hot" is burning for Christ by keeping the Law and being made right with God by doing its works. Romans 3:20 says "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands..." and Galatians 5:4 says "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace."

The wrong interpretation of "neither cold not hot" would also mean that being "cold" is living a hedonistic life without regard for God's law. Why would Christ wish for any to be this way? Our Lord said "I wish you were either one or the other!"

CHRIST WOULD RATHER WE WERE HOT OR COLD: totally under grace where we GET TO have Him as our righteousness and "live in triumph over sin and death" according to Romans 5:17; or totally under the Law in its pristine condition where we have to cut off limbs that cause us to sin and where breaking one law is equal to breaking all according to James 2:10. This way, people will realise the futility of trying to attain righteousness by keeping the law and be driven to His grace and thus, overcome the world!

But this "neither hot nor cold" doctrine is being preached in many churches today! Non-Levite "high priests" are feeding the sheep a watered-down version of the Law (the "neither cold") as the standard of righteousness before God, all with no shedding of blood for the remission of sins, while simultaneously calling on Jesus without seeing Him as Saviour to the uttermost (the "neither hot,") an effort in futility since such that are trying to keep the Law in order to get right with God have been cut off from Christ according to Galatians 5:4.

These are the ones that say "Yes you are saved by grace through faith but you still have to keep the Ten Commandments and do such and such in order to be really saved or "maintain your salvation.""

Believers, "the Law is not of faith" and "without faith it is impossible to please God." You can never please God with your efforts at keeping the Law, including the Ten Commandments. All you need to do to be saved (including saved from the power, pleasure and penalty of sin) is "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" and even this is by grace. Without Christ, we can do nothing.

Believers, as the righteousness of God in Christ, forsaking our own filthy rags righteousnesses from works of the Law and accepting that which Christ died for us to have, God is no longer dealing with us based on sin! How could He when His Spirit testifies to us in Hebrews 10:17 that “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds” because Jesus Christ "our High Priest offered Himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time." (Heb. 10:12.) Verse 14 says "For by that one offering He forever made perfect those who are being made holy."

Our sins have been utterly punished in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are forgiven in Him, "And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices." Says Hebrews 10:18.

But some will tell you who are in Christ that you are not healed or you lost your job because of some sin you are committing or something your great-grandfather did and you have to come and offer sacrifices of fasts and seed before God can save you! Believers, let's take our blessed brains to church! Matt. 1:21 says "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

How can our Saviour Jesus Christ who came to save us from our sins use those very sins as an excuse for not saving us? Jesus never first asked the people He healed, saved and delivered from oppression when He walked the earth as a Man what sin put them in their condition or whether they had fasted and obeyed the Ten Commandments before saving them. The people that He healed back then were not even born-again – He hadn’t died on the cross when He healed them! If you can save yourself from your sins, even after you became born-again, you don't need Jesus.

Under the LAW Deuteronomy 28:1 tells us, “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully keep all His commands that I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the world...” Deut. 28:15 says: “But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:" This is followed by a host of curses. Notice "observe to do all His commandments and His statutes." No one can do it all, "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands..." (Romans 3:20.) Those who try are under the curse says Galatians 3:10-

"Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, “Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God's curse!”

Because God so loved the world, He gave His own so to become a curse for us and die our death so that we might live. This is Grace. See the effect in Romans 5:17-

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ.”

We get to live in triumph over sin and death (fear, worry, sickness, lack, enemies' molestations, etc are all "death begun") not by obeying the Law but by receiving God's abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness in Christ, no terms and conditions attached. With this gift of righteousness comes no condemnation. It is Christ's "Neither do I condemn you" that makes us "Go and sin no more."

Believers, the Letter kills but the Spirit gives life. Apostle Paul was not a preacher of the Law or this horrid mixture of law and Grace that is being peddled in many places of worship. In fact, he said that when you try to keep the Ten Commandments to get right with God, Christ becomes of no effect unto you - Galatians 5:4 “For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.”

Believers, people falsely accused Paul of preaching that it is okay to sin because of the gospel of Christ - God’s grace - and many religious people who believed in God were ashamed to proclaim the gospel. The spirit of the antichrist is not Anti-God. It is simply one that rejects the finished work of Christ in making the sinner righteous and heaven-bound. It preaches that YOU must save yourself from your sins and become godly (be like God) by your own effort. Same way Eve was deceived into thinking that she could "be like God" by human effort. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a picture of the law which gives the knowledge of good and evil. We see this in Romans 7:8-12-

"Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me."

God wants us to be godly, but the example of Eve has shown us that human effort at attaining godliness (obeying the law, which gives the knowledge of good and evil, in order to be godly) only leads to death. Through his mouthpieces on many pulpits, Satan is still trying to seduce many into attaining godliness by human effort at obeying the law. One can preach inside bus and on social media out of a sense of duty but check what is being preached. Is it Christ or is it human effort at obeying the law and doing good things in order to be godly (be like God) and earn a ticket to heaven?

Believers, God provided a way for us to be righteous like Him and it is not through human effort at obedience. See the way in Romans 5:19- "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous." This is Grace. We don't deserve it. We cannot earn it. But there is something prideful about the arm of flesh that wants to be relevant in the story of our salvation.

But God's grace is not a license to sin. In fact, the law gives sin its power. See 1 Corinthians 15:56- "For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power." Also Romans 6:14 says "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace." But many have this verse backwards, try to keep the law in order to be righteous and thus sin has dominion.

Paul said in Romans 1:16-17- "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Grecian."

The Gospel of Christ- Grace- is the power of God to salvation –salvation from hell, sins, addiction and everything that we need saving from. Salvation here is not just being saved to go to heaven; it is also deliverance from the molestation of enemies and redemption from all earthly ills. It is being saved from the penalty, power, presence and pleasure of sin! The word used in the original Greek translation of the New Testament is Swthria (pronounced soteria) and it encompasses all these meanings. That is our Jesus (Yeshua in Hebrew literally means Salvation.)

He is the Way to living a righteous life, reigning in life and eternal life! Our Saviour “gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.” Titus 2:14. If we could do it on our own, we won’t need Him.

By Grace, lets not be found among the "do good, get good; do bad, get bad" professors of Christ. The world understands this language and expect us to be ashamed of what we believe: that in Christ, we are righteous apart from works and we always get the good that we don't deserve because He gave Himself for us. This is the message of the cross. It seems foolish to the world, "For the message of the cross is foolishness [absurd and illogical] to those who are perishing and spiritually dead [because they reject it], but to us who are being saved [by God’s grace] it is [the manifestation of] the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18

In Christ, we get the good that we do not deserve because Another, Jesus Christ, got the bad that we deserve, not so that we should go on sinning sprees as many religious people say, but that the goodness of God should lead us to repentance. But many preach this backwards, saying repentance (usually interpreted as human effort at obeying the law and doing right) is what makes God bless us with His goodness.

Judas repented after he betrayed Christ, even tried to do restitution to make things right, but he died. Peter too betrayed Christ by denying Him thrice because he was afraid of the Jews. But Peter waited on the Lord to make him right with Himself: the same Peter, transformed by the Spirit, went on to preach a sermon in full glare of the same people that he was afraid of and 3,000 people got saved. Christ gave charge of His sheep to this same Peter (John 21,) the disciple that failed the most. The goodness of God leads to repentance (a change of mind from wrong believing about God which leads to right living.)

This is the gospel: justification by faith. The Lord who transformed Simon (meaning reed, easily swayed by the elements) to Peter (meaning Rock,) He will transform you too.

Most sinners are looking for the Way out of sin and don't want to wallow in it as self-righteous people believe. Christ is the Way. He saves from sins according to Matthew 1:21. 

Right living is a fruit of right believing. Believe Right and you will Live Right!