Unashamed!
A Study of Romans 1:8-17
I am not ashamed of the gospel! That phrase has been echoing through history and around the world since today the apostle Paul wrote it in Romans chapter one verse 16.
I’ll give you an example. John Rough was a pastor in England during the reign of Queen Mary in the 1500s. He was arrested and locked away at Newgate prison, where he was condemned to be burned at the stake. From prison, he wrote a letter to his congregation shortly before his death, saying:
What shall I write of this corporal death, seeing it is decreed of God, that all men shall once die? Happy are they that die in the Lord, which is to die in the faith of Christ, professing and confessing the same before many witnesses…. My course, brethren, have I run; I have fought a good fight; the crown of righteousness is laid up for me; my day to receive it is [near at hand]. Pray, brethren, for the enemy doth yet assault. Stand constant unto the end; then shall you possess your souls. Walk worthily in that vocation wherein you are called. Comfort the brethren. Salute one another in my name. Be not ashamed of the gospel of the cross, by me preached, nor yet of my suffering; for with my blood I affirm the same.
Don’t be ashamed of the Gospel of the cross! Well, today I want to resume our study of the book of Romans. This is one of the easiest books of the Bible to analyze and divide into its logical sections. This book is analytical. It is Paul’s reasonable explanation of the Gospel, and the first seventeen verses are his prologue. And even the prologue easily divides into sections.
You may think I’m too concerned about paragraphs and divisions and sections to a book, but let me tell you why it’s important. The book of Romans, like every other book in the Bible, reflects the thinking of Almighty God on a subject that is vitally important to us. His thoughts unfold in a logical way, with one idea leading to the next. As we go through Romans, I’ll show you all this, but we need to understand the lines of logic that flow from the mind of God on the subject of the Good News He has given us.
So the first seventeen verses of Romans is the prologue of the book. And this prologue has four sections—the salutation in which Paul introduces himself; the state of thanksgiving he makes; the occasion or the reason he is writing this letter; and the theme that he is about to expound.
1. Salutation (Romans 1:1-7)
Last week, we looked at the salutation in verses 1 – 7. It says:
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. 7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
With these words, the writer introduced himself, introduced the Gospel, introduced the Lord Jesus, and greeted his readers in Jesus’ name. As we read these words, we need to put our own names in the passage. We need to say, grace and peace to me from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. As I prepared this message, I was tired and overwhelmed with work. So I just said those words aloud and it was an encouragement—grace and peace to me from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Try saying that with me right now. Let’s say it a couple of times: Grace and peace to me from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to me from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That is Paul’s salutation.
2. Thanksgiving (Romans 1:8-10)
Now he goes on with a word of thanksgiving. Look at verses 8 through ten:
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. 9 God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10 in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.
What excites Paul is the spread of the Gospel, and he boasted about the fact that the faith of the church in Rome was being reported all over the world. When I was a student in Bible college this bothered me, because I took the Bible literally and I knew this was not literally true. In the very next paragraph, Paul expresses his desire to take the Gospel to Spain, which had not yet been evangelized. So how could it be true that their faith was known all over the world? Well, since then I’ve learned the Bible writers sometimes used hyperbole in making a point. They overemphasized something in an obvious manner so as to make the point. Paul’s point was excitement and thanksgiving that the testimony of the Christians in Rome was known far and wide.
He found something about the church in Rome for which to thank God. We don’t know a great deal about the church in Rome in the mid-first century except what we learn here in this letter and in the final chapter of the book of Acts. But I’m sure it was far from perfect. In this letter, Paul addressed some of the issues that divided the early church. Some of the biggest differences involved disagreements between Christians from a Jewish background and those who had no exposure to a Jewish background.
Dr. John Harvey, in his commentary on Romans, suggests that there was not necessarily one large gathering of Christians, but a network of house churches. The city of Rome was huge, and the ruling emperor at that moment was Claudius. In chapter 16, when Paul says, “Greet Priscilla and Aquila…. Greet also the church that meets in their house” (verses 3-5). The churches met in homes across the city. These churches had many of the same problems we do in our churches. But yet Paul found reasons to be thankful for the believers in Rome.
I know what it’s like to be bruised by a church and by church leaders. I’ve had some bruising episodes. As I process the episode I have to work hard to find things for which I can be thankful. But those things are always there. And I am not going to let the imperfections of human beings drive me away from the church that was established by my blameless and undefiled Savior through His shed blood. As you can imagine, I’ve met people through the years who stopped going to church because they were hurt or offended by a congregation or by someone in a congregation. I simply will not let the failure of fallible people keep me from the family of an infallible God. Jesus died to bring us together. So look at your church today and find something for which to be thankful.
Paul had trained himself in the spiritual psychology of gratitude. He had grown in his inner maturity so that he instinctively looked for something to be thankful about in any and every situation. Perhaps during this series I’ll carve out time to study the thanksgiving patterns of Paul throughout the book of Acts and his epistles. I need to learn from him.
3. The Occasion or Reason for the Letter (Romans 1:11-15)
That brings us to verses 11 through 15, the occasion or the reason for the letter. Why did Paul write this letter? Let me give you a little background from the book of Acts. The apostle Paul went out on three organized church missionary trips. At the end of his third trip, he stopped in the city of Corinth and stayed three months in the spacious home of a Christian named Gaius, and here he formulated the plans for his fourth tour. We learn all of this by reading Acts 20 and Romans 15. He wanted to go next to Rome, and he wanted the Christians in Rome to help support an ambitious plan to take the Gospel to Western Europe. He would say more about this in Romans 15, but he alludes to it here.
It’s important to remember that Paul did not start the church in Rome. We don’t know how the Roman church developed in this city. Our biggest clue is this—in Acts, chapter 2, when the Day of Pentecost came and the Holy Spirit filled the believers and they proclaimed the Gospel, we’re told visitors from Rome were there. They were in the crowd. They were evidently among those who were saved. They returned to Rome in the power of the Holy Spirit and the Gospel spread there. Rome was the capital of the Roman empire and a city of about a million people—the largest city in the world. There is no indication the church in Rome was started by Simon Peter, and certainly no evidence it was started by Paul. This passage says as much. But Paul wanted to visit. Why?
In these verses, Paul listed three reasons he wants to come to Rome.
1. To impart some spiritual gift and be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. Look at verse 11: I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— 12 that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.
What did Paul mean by spiritual gift? This is left vague, but the idea seems to be that he wants to come and minister to them with whatever spiritual gifts he has. He wants to come and preach to them and teach them and encourage them. And he also wants to receive encouragement from them, to be mutually encouraged with them.
Paul returns to this theme at the very end of the book. The last paragraph of Romans says, “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me… so that I may come to you with joy, by God’s will, and in your company be refreshed.” (Romans 15:30-32).
Guideposts Magazine told the story of a woman named Mary-Ann Kordoski who was at the Myrtle Beach airport waiting to fly to Michigan and then on to New York, where two days earlier her 44-year-old daughter had died from a heroin overdose. She had already lost her 45-year-old son to the same drug. She learned that all her flights had been delayed, and the ticket agent rebooked her on a direct flight to LaGuardia. But she only had five minutes to race through security, and in her haste and grief she forgot her gate number. She burst into tears.
Suddenly a young man approached her and gave her a hug. “Hi Mary-Ann,” he said. “It’s me, Eric, from the prayer group.” She vaguely remembered him, but she said, “I can’t talk now. I have to catch my flight to LaGuardia.” He said, “That’s my flight too. Come with me.” He helped her board, and when they got to LaGuardia they had a cup of coffee together. Mary-Ann told Eric about her troubles, and his listened intently.
“I knew your son,” he told her. “We were in a recovery group together.” He gave enormous comfort to Mary-Ann, and then he prayed with her. As Mary-Ann got up to go, she said, “I’m so glad you were here.”
He said, “Funny you should say that. When I booked this flight, I was so irritated that I had to go through New York just to get to Texas from South Carolina…. But obviously there was a reason.”
Wherever we are, we should look around for someone to whom we can impart a spiritual gift and be mutually encouraged by one another’s faith. God often arranges rendezvous for us just like that so we can fulfill that important purpose of giving comfort and encouragement to someone else.
2. To Have a Harvest Among the Romans
Second, Paul wanted to go to Rome to have a harvest among the Romans. That’s a rather strange phrase, but here’s the way he put it in verse 13: “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.” It was the Lord Jesus who began this harvest language. He said things like, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Matthew 9:37). He said, “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35). Paul picked up this “harvest” language. He said in Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
The “harvest” represents men and women who are ready to receive the Gospel. I’ve come to realize that for most people, it takes repeated exposure to the Gospel before they are ready to accept it, at least among those who are adults. During the twentieth century, some evangelism trainers talked about the “rule of seven,” saying that it often took about seven encounters with the Gospel before someone was willing to submit their lives to Christ. Nowadays we simply believe that the process of bringing someone to faith is shaped by childhood exposures, godly grandparents or parents, conversations with Christian friends, exposures to church, and so forth.
But Paul had the gift of evangelism, and he was very effective in bringing in a harvest of souls. The most encouraging verse about this for me is 1 Corinthians 3:6 (NKJV), in which Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered it, but God gave the increase.” Anytime we do anything personally, verbally, financially, in conjunction with our work at church, in missions, in giving literature, in sending New Testaments, or whatever—we are planting, we are watering, and God will give the increase.
3. To Preach the Gospel (verses 14-15).
Third, Paul wanted to go to Rome to preach the Gospel. He said in verses 14 and 15: “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.” And that leads us onward to the theme of the book of Romans in verses 16 and 17. The whole of the letter to the Romans—its divisions, its chapters, its verses, its materials, its subject matter—is summed up here.
4. The Theme of Romans (Romans 1:16-17)
16 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. 17 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.”
Let’s take the first phrase and reverse it from a negative to a positive: I am proud of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I boast in it. I glory in it. I celebrate it. I have great confidence in it. I’ll shout it from the rooftops and mountainsides. I’ll share it with complete strangers. It may be one of the seven or so exposure points that will lead them to Christ.
Why are we so unashamed of the Gospel? Because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. It has the power to change a person’s life. “The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.” One of the most remarkable chain reactions in Christian history happened in this way. About 350 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a pagan, immoral, philosopher and professor came to faith in Christ while reading the book of Romans. We call him today St. Augustine. We also call him the “Father of the Western Church.”
Over a thousand years later, Martin Luther became an Augustinian monk in Germany and he studied Augustine’s theology of grace. As Luther studied the book of Romans, he too came to realize that salvation was by grace through faith, and it led to his conversion and to the entire Reformation.
More than 200 years later, John Wesley was listening to someone reading the preface of Luther’s commentary on Romans, and he too was converted. He became the greatest evangelist of his day and started the entire Methodist denomination. John Wesley was converted 1,352 years after Augustine was converted, but the one factor running through the chain was the book of Romans.