I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)
The Christian faith is power. It works inseparably with God’s omnipotence to advance his purposes. It has the ability to achieve, to dominate, to overcome, to destroy and to build. It has the power to save and to damn. Paul writes that it is the aroma of life to those who welcome it, but the same message that is good news to God’s chosen ones is a stench of death to those who reject it and oppose it. In addition to the condemnation that unbelievers stand under, the message about Jesus Christ is another witness against their wickedness, so that according to God’s design it increases their punishment and suffering in hell.
The Christian religion is power. We must become accustomed to thinking of it this way. It is intelligent. It is important. It is influential. It summons God’s chosen ones to faith and heaven, and it damns God’s rejected ones to the pits of hell. It is the greatest power at work in the world. In fact, it is the only true power at work, because even those forces that oppose it are under God’s direct control to serve its progress. The Christian religion is the only power that can pluck a man from the depths of hell, and to restore to him all that Adam had lost, and to grant him even that which Adam never had. No one other than Jesus Christ provides this, and no system other than the Christian religion possesses this power. In fact, all that is non-Christian resists this power.
The Christian message has the power to confer God’s forgiveness and righteousness. It has the power to save all kinds of people – men and women from any country and any culture, from any social and economic and intellectual background, at any time in history. When God has chosen a person to believe in his Son, and he sends the gospel to this man, all his previous beliefs, assumptions, and commitments crumble to dust. If he resists, that resistance is ordained and controlled by God, and if he does not resist, that is also ordained and controlled by God. Then he finally believes, not because he possesses freedom to choose, but because God’s appointed time for him to believe has come and God causes him to believe. Thus man is both not free and not coerced when he believes, because he so completely lacks freedom from God’s power that when God wills it there is no place for coercion, not even the thought of resistance.
The gospel has the power to convince all kinds of non-Christians and seize them for the kingdom of Jesus Christ. It has the power to lift men from the superstition of science and from the abomination of idolatry.
We have often referred to the follies of science, and how irrational methods and assumptions pervade the entire enterprise, so that even when compared with the grossest pagan religions and primitive cultures, it remains one of the most superstitious systems in existence. The scientist hardens his heart. Against all reason he decides that he can discover the truth, even though we can demolish any scientific theory ever devised in a matter of seconds. He braces himself for the onslaughts of logic and the gospel. But when the Christian message comes in the power of the Holy Spirit, his superstition and his composure break down, and he hates himself for his credulity, for having believed that science could discover anything. Even though he sets himself against God, Scripture, and Reason, when these come with power, the scientist is reduced to nothing.
Likewise, a devout follower of a non-Christian religion hardens his heart, and he braces himself. He is determined to adhere to his heritage. If God wishes to damn him by this false religion, then according to what God causes him to think, he might not even consider alternatives, but would rather cling to his chariot to hell with an invincible tenacity, so that he remains unmoved by all truth and reason. But if God wishes to save him – and he saves only by Jesus Christ, through the Christian faith – then the man would happily spit in the face of his religion, his heritage, his ancestors and parents, and his prophets and teachers, in order to embrace the gospel.
This is the power of the Christian faith. Therefore, we are eager to preach the gospel even to scientists, to college professors, and to church leaders and biblical scholars (since many of them are false believers), and many others like them who are hardened in their hearts, and who are prejudiced against Christ in their ignorant and stupid minds. The Spirit of God can make even these people acknowledge their foolishness and their need to be taught the way of salvation. I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is power. It is power and wisdom and righteousness from God. I am not embarrassed of the Christian faith because it is better, wiser, stronger, superior in every way, and not only more true, but the only one that is true.
Why should we be embarrassed, when the Christian faith is the only hope for salvation? It is the only message, the only religion, or the only worldview that can do any good, that can save anyone, and that can teach any truth. It is the only true explanation for anything at all. The problem is that the rest of the world stands against God’s truth, reason, and righteousness, and so non-Christians disagree with us and put pressure on us. They want to shame us into discarding it, or hiding it, or changing it into something else that is acceptable to them. They wish to neutralize the power of the gospel, because it is the only threat against their delusion and their way of life.
Why should we be embarrassed, when we hold the only truth and the only power? Why should we be ashamed, when non-Christians are the ones who are wrong, and ignorant, and irrational, and wicked? So what should we do? We will become even more bold and attack their beliefs and their lifestyles by the preaching of the gospel. We will make them ashamed of their science, their religion, and their heritage. We will make them embarrassed of their unbelief and their unrighteousness, so that the gospel of Jesus Christ may be honored, and so that some may awake to truth and righteousness, and be saved. Let us, therefore, take up the sword of the Spirit and thoroughly criticize and humiliate the non-Christians until they have nothing to stand on. And then we will hold forth the only truth and power that can save them – the religion of Jesus Christ. God will enable us to do this by the power of his Spirit.