BY BRUCE GREEN
OPINION —
In Romans 1:16-17, Paul speaks of how he is not ashamed of the gospel—the good news about what God has done for us through Jesus. Shame is a comparative feeling—it’s what we feel when we don’t measure up to something. We feel a healthy shame when we’ve failed to do something we know we could have and should have done. Adam and Eve felt shame after they had eaten the fruit God had forbidden them to eat. Paul is telling us that he felt no shame about how the gospel measured up—with anything!
This is heady stuff because in the first century when he wrote, just about everyone believed there was nothing that could compare with the Roman Empire. After all, Rome was the Eternal City. The emperor was regarded as lord of all. Upon the emperor’s death, the Senate would issue a proclamation declaring him to be a god. They did this with Julius Caesar (though technically not an emperor). Augustus (the emperor when Christ was born), was Caesar’s adopted son so he was fond of referring to himself as “the son of a god.” One writer lobbied to have the calendar changed so that the year would begin on Augustus’ birthday and wrote that “the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the gospel for the world that came by reason of him.” For most people in the first century, the good news was associated not with Christ, but with Caesar.
All this helps us to understand how radical and revolutionary the gospel of Jesus was. It should make us appreciate that God chose a man who was a Roman citizen to be the minister to the Gentiles and to write a letter to the disciples at Rome. And Paul was absolutely convinced and convicted that the gospel of Rome was no match for the gospel of Jesus. His kingdom “would never be destroyed” (Daniel 2:44). Jesus was Lord of Lords and King of Kings—not Caesar. After Rome put Him to death on one of its crosses, He was declared the Son of God—not by the Senate—but by the Spirit through His resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4). There was simply no comparison!
It’s not any different today. If you measure the gospel against the latest scientific understanding, anthropological model or cultural belief system you know how it’s going to work out. It won’t be very long before those things will be significantly revised or rejected in favor of something else—but the gospel will still be standing and in absolutely no need of revision.
Paul was not ashamed because he had no reason to be. How about us?
Find more of Bruce’s writings at his website: a-taste-of-grace-with-bruce-green.com.
