Romans 1
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes…
In those days, it was considered quite a shameful thing to hold to the gospel of Christ.
You were considered an outsider and heretic by your Jewish family (if you were a Jew), and the state religion was against you as well.
You followed an obscure carpenter, who was put to death for the trouble He caused.
Most of His followers were unlearned men, who would have been considered “gullible”, “superstitious”, and “deluded” for following that way.
The crowning evidences of their faith: the resurrection and ascension, were only witnessed by a few of them, and they were all followers of Christ…so who would believe that?
The closer we approach the reality of the gospel, the more we will experience the same “shame” of the world, because Satan understands where the truth is, and the power of the truth, and has the same enmity against it as he did in the past.
If we don’t experience the power of the gospel to save us from sin, then we will be “ashamed” of it in the end.
It was a corrupt church/state union that fought against the truth in Christ’s day, Daniel’s day, Paul’s day, Luther’s day, and Wesley’s day. Revelation chapters 14 to 19 make it clear that it will be the same in our day.
It was Satan who inspired those apostate churches to pour contempt upon that way, although they themselves were deluded into thinking they did it for God’s glory.
God help us not to be ashamed of the gospel.
Other articles by Frank Zimmerman:
- Good and Bad Marriages
- Psalm 75 and God’s Character
- Walter Veith and 1888
- What the Battle is About
- This Generation Shall Not Pass
- The Wheat and Tares
- The Doubter’s Bible
- Real and Counterfeit Love
- From a Far Country (plus Observations)
- Prophecies of Christ’s First Advent
- What is the 1888 Message?
- Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion
- God is in Control
- How Does God Heal Today?
- The Boy Who Went to Heaven