Can you easily talk about the Bible with strangers?  Does it make you feel uncomfortable to bring up the topic of Jesus to people you don’t know?  Are you capable of evangelizing or are you ashamed?  Let’s dive in:

We read in Romans 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. ¹⁷ This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Okay, let’s break this down.  Let us look at the definition of “ashamed”: To feel ashamed you feel shame, distressed, or embarrassed by feeling foolish, guilt or distress.

My family and I recently watched a movie regarding the Columbine shooting that occurred back in in 1999.  The movie is called “I Am Not Ashamed.”  The movie is about the Columbine High School shooting and in particular, a young lady named Rachael Joy Scott.  I would encourage you guys to watch it if you have not.  Rachael, you see she was not ashamed of the gospel in this movie.  Rachael is in a  public school as a Christian.  She endures ridicule, bullying, being made fun of, basically she is the black sheep.  The pressure builds so much against her and all she wants to do is be liked and fit in, so she tries to switch sides and hang out with the secular crowd, the popular girls and the football team.  She finds out sooner than later they like to party and drink and hook up.  She finally realizes that this is not the life she wants and she jumps back very quickly to her Christian faith.  Not too long after that, she’s put to the ultimate test and this is where I stop.  You will need to watch the movie to see what happens.

The bottom line is this: should we be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ?  The answer is as a Christian NO!  That is what Paul is telling us in Romans that he is not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ or the good news about Christ and Christianity,

The word “gospel” in Greek (εὐαγγέλιον) Phonetic Spelling: (yoo-ang-ghel’-ee-on), also known as the Good News.  It is the Good News of the coming of the Kingdom of God Mark 1:14-15 14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

It also means that Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected to restore peoples’ relationships with God.

The rest of Romans 1:16 says “It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”  

The power of God at work.  This is the Holy Spirit in us.  It is He that makes the changes in our life.  It is the Holy Spirit‘s job to produce the Christ-like characteristics in us to prepare us to do the good and perfect will of the father.

Philippians 2:13 “God is working in you giving you the desires to obey him and the power to do what pleases Him.”

This is obtained through the sanctification by the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is that still small voice in us leading and guiding us.  It says in 1 Kings 19:12 “He often nudges us with a gentle whisper.”

Being Christ-like is not produced by us imitating Him, but by the Holy Spirit inhabiting us allowing Christ to live through us.  We see here in 1 Colossians 1:27 “For this is the secret Christ lives in you.”

How can we apply this to our lives?  How can we let the power of God work through us? I’ll tell you, by trusting God’s Spirit to give us His power, love, faith, and wisdom.  Since God’s spirit lives in us, these things are always available for the asking. 

Romans 1:16 “Saving everybody who believes” what does He mean, “saving everybody who believes?”  To believe in something, does this mean all you have to do is believe He is real?  No, definitely not because the Devil believes Jesus is real.  So on that note, in order to be saved, we must believe.  To believe in something is to accept something that is true, feel sure of, the truth of, be convinced, to trust.  So as a Christian are we to assume that to believe in Christ has more to do than to actually just believe that He is real?  The answer is yes, Jesus has many instructions for us, instructions on how to live, walk, talk, give, instructions on how to treat people, instructions on how to love, care, share, forgive, help for our marriage, for our families, our children, our jobs and especially on what we should be doing with our lives.

So if I am to say I believe in Christ, shouldn’t we be deadlocked, having laser vision on His plan for me?  This is where this scripture Matthew 22:14 “Many are called if you were chosen” comes in.  There are many countless millions upon millions of people who believe, who called themselves Christians, but as God says in the Scriptures only a few will be chosen.  So many of us believe He is real, but that will not be sufficient.  We actually have to believe in the Good News, that is the Gospel and live accordingly

The Good News tells us how He will make us right in His sight.  Now how does God make us right in his sight?  2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

To be made right before God is like this: forgiveness is like a bath and righteousness is like putting on clean clothes.  We take the bath that we might be cleansed of all of our impurities, in other words, we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, repent of our sins, and turn 180° and walk a new path towards our Savior.  When we do this, we get out of the bath and put on a new set of clothes, our armor of God, our righteousness.  We must be clothed in suitable apparel as we go before people.  If we are going before our Great King, our Good Shepherd, we should be concerned about our clothes.  We must be clothed in righteousness.  So God has done three wonderful things to make us perfectly righteous in His sight:

1. He has canceled out our sinful life that stemmed from Adam
2. He has given us new life in Christ
3. He has given Christ to us as our righteousness

In Mark 7:20-23 “It is what comes from inside that defiles you.²¹ For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. ²³ All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.

But the Good News is this:

Our old self is and or was a sin factory, but in Christ, we are cleansed.  We see in Romans 6:6 “For we know that our old self was crucified with him [Christ].”

God has given us a new life in Christ.  He didn’t change us, but rather put an end to our old self.  He crucified our old self up on the cross through Christ and now God has given us a new life.  In Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.”

We can be confident in our new life.  2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, He is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”  You see, that is the good news as it says in Romans 1:17 that “…God makes us right in his sight…” and He did this through the blood sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ, so we could be cleansed and clothed in perfect righteousness to do the perfect will of our Father in heaven.

This is accomplished from start to finish by faith as the scripture says it is through faith that a righteous person has life.  Faith is complete trust or confidence in someone or something.  So it is through our faith, our belief, our sanctification through Christ that gives us life and not just life now in our human bodies, but eternally in heaven with our heavenly father.

So to recap:  

#1 Don’t be ashamed of the good news

#2 The good news is the Gospel and the death and resurrection of Christ

#3 The power of God is working in and through us, this is the Holy Spirit

#4 We must believe and truly believe in what the Good News says and follow it, for this will activate our faith

#5 God will make us righteous to be able to come to Him and He does is through Christ, we have been cleansed

#6 We have been clothed in righteousness, empowered by the Holy Spirit and made courageous to go forth and do the will of the father

So be confident of this, we are children of God.  He will never leave or forsake us.  Now carry that around with you in your daily lives.  Think clearly, exercise self-control, look forward to the special blessings that will come upon you.  Don’t slip back to your evil ways.  Be holy in everything you do.  Live in reverent fear of the Lord.  Show sincere love to your brothers and sisters.  Love each other intensely with all of your heart and conduct yourself as children of God and most importantly:

Don’t be ashamed of the Gospel which is the Good News about Christ!