Can you remember something you’ve said or done in your past that you’re particularly ashamed of? Maybe it was a poor judgement call, or something malicious, or something that just made us stand out from the crowd. It’s that story that you don’t want brought up at social functions…a story you hope everyone forgets about.
Where does that sense of shame come from? Typically, shame comes from the feeling that we’ve done something wrong.
In the opening chapter of Romans, Paul is explaining how eager he is to come visit the church in Rome and to preach the gospel there to all who will listen – to Jews and gentiles, to the fools and the wise. And then he makes this statement: “ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ…” Why does Paul bring up the word “ashamed” here? Why would he be ashamed?
Before becoming a Christian, Paul was a well-trained and highly respected Jewish Pharisee who hated the church and imprisoned and even killed Christians. For him to come to faith in Christ required him to go back on everything he had ever said. It would completely contradict the identity he had built for himself. He had thrown away a very “successful” life to become a Christian. Paul didn’t care – he counted his old life as garbage in comparison to the treasure of knowing Christ (see Philippians 3:4-14).
Paul traveled through that area of the world boldly proclaiming the gospel, regardless of what it would cost him. His boldness changed individuals, families, cities and eventually, the world.
Our culture today doesn’t necessarily lack boldness. Some are incredibly selfish, and bold about it. Some will stand in front of a room of people or in front of a camera and boldly say things that aren’t true. Others are greedy, and bold about it. Some are very comfortable with their own sin, and they’re bold about it.
Shame comes from a feeling of having done something wrong. Paul explains in this passage that there’s nothing wrong in preaching the gospel, “...for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Paul also explains that when we tell people the truth about God, we’re not telling them something they don’t already know. The truth of God is plain for people to see, but Paul explains that people actively suppress and replace the truth to satisfy their own flesh.
The ideas that tend to prevail in our culture aren’t always the ones that are good and right; but they’re the ones people are willing to stand boldly for.
Let us be Christians who are like Paul, unashamed of the gospel and willing to live it out boldly in word and deed. To be bold doesn’t mean to be loud, arrogant, or harsh. It means we take the gospel values of love, mercy, truth, kindness and humility, and we live them out boldly regardless of what the world around us thinks, and regardless of what it may cost us.
