The Power of the Gospel
“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.”
“I am not ashamed of the gospel…” Think about these words for a second. “I am not ashamed of the gospel…” Now lets drop the first half of that sentence and focus on “the power of the gospel”, and we will come back to the “I am not ashamed…” part later.
“I am not ashamed of the power 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.” The Apostle Paul wrote these words to the church in Rome as he was finishing his third missionary journey. Paul spent much of his missionary life traveling great distances between Greece and the Middle East, facing the elements of weather, and the elements of man. It was a hard life, and many time encountered threats on his life, but he did it for a reason. He did it because he had the living gospel in his heart, and it consumed his all, and became his all. And this all from a man who at one point was the sole nemesis of Jesus’ ministry and the spread of His teachings.
Paul was a Jewish zealot named Saul. He was brought up in a good education and had an amazing sense of the Jewish law. But growing up it was that law and not the gospel that fueled him. In the book I am reading now called Blessing or Curse: You Can Choose by Derek Prince, the author devotes a section to legalism. Prince writes, “Alternatively, legalism could be defined as the attempt to impose any extra condition for achieving righteousness beyond what God Himself has laid down,” and goes on to write, “’Trusting in the works of the law [legalism]’ and ‘making flesh our strength [carnality]’ culminate in a curse.” Saul was under a curse. Saul became a terrorist, striking fear in the Jewish converts of Christianity through intimidation and even death. Saul was on hand, and likely even participated in the stoning of Stephen. This man was a murderer because he was consumed by legalism. His worship was in himself and his own misguided ideology that he was righteous and above others because of this law. Saul’s acts of violence and persecution were not rare—in fact he was known throughout. When he was arrested in Acts 21, the Roman commander asked if Paul was “…the one who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the desert some time ago?” I am not sure what the Roman was commander was getting at, but the fact is he somehow recognized Paul from somewhere and associated him with terrorism. But even this man, this murderer, this hater of Christ can be converted, but not by any law, but by the Holy living Gospel, Jesus Christ.
Paul went on to speak against legalism, informing others of its dangers, and who better to direct the people in this matter since he was once consumed by legalism. He directed the Galatians saying, “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3). Informing them that salvation is found in nothing else but the blood of Jesus Christ. No law, no amount of money, can save us from our sins—we are limitless, except for the power of the Gospel.
I. Knowing the Gospel
The heart of God’s word to humanity is the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus is more than just the heart of the gospel; he is the gospel. John and Paul certainly understood this, as did the other apostles and first-century believers. That’s why they were able to impact their world and culture the way they did. John wrote, ““In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning…In him was life, and that life was the light of men…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:1,2,4,14). The word of life is Jesus. Writing to the Colossians, the apostle Paul spoke of Jesus in similar language, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together… For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” (Col1:15-17,19). Paul said that all the fullness of God dwelled in Jesus. Jesus, then, was the fullest and most perfect self-expression of God to men. That is why he once told his questioning disciples, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9b). Paul also kept the focus on his message clear and simple. “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1Co 2:2).
If we want to experience the power of the gospel, we must first recognize the importance of keeping our focus squarely on the heart of the gospel. The heart of the gospel is not healing. The heart of the gospel is not signs and wonders. The heart of the gospel is not even speaking in tongues. The heart of the gospel is Jesus Christ. It is only as we clearly proclaim Jesus Christ first and foremost that we will experience signs and wonders following.
Proclaiming Christ first and foremost is a reflection of our faith. As Paul wrote to the Romans, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Ro 10:17). Faith does not come by healing, nor does it come by signs and wonders. Faith comes from hearing the word of God. The greatest key to spiritual power in our preaching, teaching, healing, and other ministries is to focus on the gospel. There is great power in the simple message of “Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
Second, simple facts of the gospel
By the way, what is the gospel? It is very easy to overcomplicate the gospel. We can get caught up in emotionalism or side issues and lose sight of the basic core message. The gospel consists of a few definite, simple facts, and salvation consists of knowing, believing, and responding to these facts. It is on the basis of these facts that the love, acceptance, and power of God are released in our lives.
So what are the basic, simple facts of the gospel? Paul clearly stated them in 1 Corinthians 15:3,4 and Romans 4:25. 1 Corinthians 15:3,4 says, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” Romans 4:25 says, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” In these two passages, Paul makes four basic statements about the gospel.
1. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
2. Christ was buried.
3. Christ rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
4. Christ was raised from the dead so that we might be justified—made right with God, “just as if” we had never sinned. We are justified before God when we believe this record of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection on our behalf, and trust him as our Savior and Lord.
Paul emphasizes two things with regard to these statements. First, if the gospel is to make a difference in our lives, we must receive it and we must stand in it. As we learn to stand in the gospel, we will begin to appropriate the blessings and the power of the gospel. Second, Paul stresses the authority of the Scriptures over the authority of eyewitnesses as our primary reason for believing and standing in the gospel. He said that Christ died and rose again “according to the Scriptures.” In Paul’s day, the Scriptures consisted of what we know as the Old Testament. Centuries ahead of Christ’s life, the prophets of old had foreseen and prophesied the events of Christ’s life, death, burial, and resurrection. Later on, Paul would mention the testimony of eyewitnesses as supporting the testimony of Scripture, but Scripture always holds the predominant place.
The word of God is the foundation upon which we stand. We do not stand on circumstances. We do not stand on experience. We stand on the word of God. The word of God is greater than either our circumstances or our individual experiences. Our circumstances and experiences must be measured against the standard of God’s word. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Mt 24:35). Our salvation and eternal destiny are based on something that will outlast our circumstances, our experiences, and even the natural world itself: the word of God. We stand on the word of God.
Third, there is power in the gospel of Jesus Christ
I briefly mentioned the conversion of the Apostle Paul before, and how momentous it was. Acts 9 documents Saul’s conversion. Saul was on his way to search the synagogues for the disciples and any followers of Jesus to take as prisoners. You could see he took pride in his work—he was eager and very dedicated. But on his way to Damascus, the Lord appeared to him and said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul met the risen Savior that day, and several days later he received the Holy Spirit and became known as Paul. There is no sinner so great that will not fall to his or her knees when met by the risen Savior.
Many times I forget this message when I need it most. I cannot tell you the exact day of my conversion. I grew up in a Christian family, where my Mother and Father would read Bible stories to us. I attended a Lutheran school, where we began everyday with a lecture on the Word of God, and as part of our grade had to memorize passages of the Bible. I have had the Word of God around me since I was very young and for that I am very fortunate. But when I left that element, and went to a public high-school, and a public university away from my family and away from my Christian roots, I began to suffer. During my Sophomore year in college my grades dropped from a near 4.0 to 3.3. Also, during that year my Grandmother, who I was very close with died, and my parents finalized their divorce. My outlet was partying, not only was I attending parties, but more common I was the one throwing the parties. During that winter break my sophomore year, I was at, or throwing, a party every night. And I remind you winter break is a month long. Think of all that goes on at a large and crazy college party, the drunken stupidity, nudity, violence, drugs, and sexual immorality—all that I witnessed and engaged in. It was a complete fulfillment of my fleshly desires, and it brought me down. It became dismal, depressing, and very fatalistic.
Then in the early fall semester of my junior year, I had it, and hit rock bottom. Are we not created to serve a better purpose? That was it. That was the question I asked myself. And in the series of days following that incident, I did something that I had not done in a real long time—I prayed with all my heart that the Lord would save me from the mess I have created, because I could not go on living like this any longer. Then the next day on my way home from class Pastor Paul approached me and invited me to Bible study. [a1]I was horribly engulfed by the sins of the flesh, but He did not forget me, and to me, that day was the beginning of my conversion. There have been ups and downs since then, but I can honestly tell you, never have I been happier in my life then when the Holy Spirit is in and power of the gospel around me.
There are numerous people throughout Christian history who have experienced the life-transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They could not change themselves, not to mention saving themselves from the power of sin, death, and Satan. But when they believed the gospel of Jesus Christ, they were changed from slaves of Satan to children to God. There is power in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
God said that his word would not return to him empty, but would accomplish and achieve everything he desired (Isa 55:11). Jesus entrusted the keeping and proclaiming of that word to his disciples and to every other believer in every generation. That includes you and me. We are stewards of the greatest message, the greatest truth in human history, that God loved us and sent his Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1Jn 4:10).
Fourth, “I am not ashamed”
Sometimes we are tempted to feel that the simple message of Jesus is “old hat” to us, and we get restless for something more. We go from place to place saying, “Give me something new; I want a deeper teaching.” Growth and maturity in our faith is certainly desirable and proper, but we need to be careful that in the process we never get tired of the simple gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hidden within the simplicity of the gospel message is the power to save the world. The apostle Paul testified, ““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” (Ro 1:16).
We should never be ashamed or embarrassed by the gospel message that we proclaim. There is no reason for us to be apologetic in claiming that we have the greatest news that anyone has ever heard. When someone hears the message and understands who Jesus is and what he has done, the way is open for the Holy Spirit to create faith in that person’s heart. John 5:24 says, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” Remember that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The moment someone receives the gospel, his eternal destiny is changed. A great transformation takes place. A sinner bound for hell is changed into a citizen of heaven—a child of the King and an heir to the kingdom of God. Heaven is his home; God is his Father; and Jesus is his Savior, his Lord, and his elder Brother. The Holy Spirit is his Counselor. No power on earth can bring about such a change. Only God can do it through the gospel of Jesus Christ for there is power in the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Many times the sinful world will look down upon your faith and ridicule you for your beliefs, but do not be ashamed to carry the gift of the gospel. On the last day judgment will be left for God, and through the gospel and the precious blood of Jesus Christ we will be saved. Several weeks ago, an amazing but tragic series of events unfolded in Atlanta. A man set to face charges of rape, shot and killed 4 people in an Atlanta courthouse. After fleeing the courthouse he took a woman, Ashley Smith, hostage in her apartment. Ashley had already been through a lot in life. Her husband was stabbed to death a year or two earlier, and she was left to care for their child. As hard as that is to deal with, she did not give up and instead focused on the gospel and her faith in Jesus Christ. It was that faith, together with a book titled The Purpose Driven Life that enabled Ashley to live through the ordeal and see her child in the morning. While they were in the apartment, she served this man. She served him by making him breakfast, but more importantly she served him by feeding him the hope that the gospel brings. Those words did something to this man, because he let her go in the morning. But not only that, this man, who had killed 4 people to try to get away from going to jail, gave himself up peacefully to the police in the morning. Praise God for there truly is power in the gospel.
Latest news reports say that the Pope is on the verge of death, and when he passes away that will be huge loss for this world, but a gain for heaven. Pope John Paul II lived an amazing life, preaching the blessings of the gospel. One of his main topics was to spread peace and freedom for the oppressed. He played an important role in the governmental change in Russia from a communist state to a democratic state. Had he not received the gospel, he would not have been able to produce these kinds of fruits.
These are just a couple examples from millions upon millions of stories where the power of the gospel changed life and history. So, don’t ever be ashamed to proclaim the gospel of Christ. If you are ashamed, you are ashamed of Christ’s suffering and death; you are ashamed of his resurrection; and you are ashamed of God. John the Baptist testified of Jesus, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29). Jesus was the fulfillment of everything toward which the Old Testament Jewish sacrificial system pointed. The high priest would sprinkle the blood of the lamb on the altar and on the mercy seat to make atonement for the sins of the people. Their sins were, in a sense, “covered” by the blood. This made it possible for the people to come into the presence of God and receive blessings rather than curses, and life rather than death.