Unashamed

 For I am not ashamed of the gospel ~ Romans 1:16 (a)

 

I have skipped the section spanning from v8 to v15 but I need to refer to it. I need to say what the 'for' is there for.

Paul is assuring the believers in Rome of his desire to come (and telling them of his failed attempts,  in order to support this). 

He finishes by saying (v15)

"So as much as is in me,  I am ready to preach the Gospel to you who are in Rome."

And to reiterate his point,  he says ;

 

 For I am not ashamed of the gospel,because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.

 

Today I want to think about what that means,  to not be ashamed of the gospel.

When I first gave my life afresh to Jesus,  as an 18 yr old,  I was extremely zealous in sharing my faith.  I think it is a common experience for the youthful and freshly converted!

It was a particular reaction to what I then saw as the hypocrisy of a large section of the church,  who I had,  in my arrogance (I am ashamed to say),  written off as lukewarm Christians. 

I thought 'how can they be living for Christ when they just go day to day,  week by week as they always have done'.

 

I am going to give Christ my whole life,  I thought.  As if in the first place I were actually able to do so by sheer effort,  or in the second place that those I judged so harshly weren't already living for Christ to the best of their abilities.

And,  although I had been shown incredible grace by God,  in including me in his great salvation even though I was a dropped out,  drug addicted rebel,   I still did not (and in some ways even now)  understand what grace meant.

 

But times have changed for me.

 

I now feel more naturally weary of sharing my faith.

There have been one or two success stories, over the years,  but, largely, that early evangelistic fervour was very unproductive.

 

I know,  I know,  you will say, 'seeds were sown'...and 'you never know what came of it'.

But let me tell you,  I found it ultimately disheartening and I simply could not sustain it.

I still share something of my faith from time to time,  but,  and I am in no way endorsing this or defending it,  largely I have given up on one to one evangelism.

And the guilt of it plagues me continually.

And yes,  it's largely to do with shame.

 

Firstly I didn't like the expectation that was placed on me once people know you are a Christian. Ironically,  they start judging you,  maybe even see me as a judgemental person.

And some mock.  Some in what they consider to be 'playful banter', and some in outright derision.

And you know what?  It hurts to have the most precious thing in your life repeatedly trashed. 

I know the older generation used to say that religion is a personal thing. 

And although it is way more than just personal,  it is personal. Deeply, deeply personal.

And also I struggle enough with my own doubt.

Why would I want to engage with someone else's as well?

(bear with me)

And then there is the science thing. I am not a scientific person.  I don't even like science.  And yet people are so much better informed over scientific critique of scriptural understandings of creation,  and the afterlife etc, etc.

The truth is,  I just can't argue very well.
I am not the owner of a towering intellect such as the one that possessed St Paul.

So,  although I sometimes (VERY rarely) share when prompted by the spirit, I have Largely lost my early habit of routine evangelisation of every human I meet.

 

But am I ashamed of the gospel?

I don't feel I am.

Not one bit.

 

The gospel is everything to me.

 

I believe it and I have experienced it.  It has captured my heart for all eternity, that wonder of the cross,  in God showing this sinner such undeserved favour and forgiveness.  I write this with grateful tears in my eyes.

 

I love the Gospel.

 

But the Gospel is more than the ABC of belief.

As we have noted already in this series,  God himself, in Jesus, is the Gospel.

And so to be ashamed of the gospel,  is to be ashamed of Jesus.

And Jesus says,  if anyone is ashamed of me,  or my words, of him I will be ashamed before my Father in heaven.

 

Shame is one of the most powerful emotions.

It is the very first result of the fall of mankind. Shame at your nakedness.

This was never Gods intention.

And then when Christ Jesus redeemed us from the fall,  he hung naked on the cross.

 

The cross was not simply a penal execution.

 

It was a humiliation.

 

A shaming.

 

And Hebrews 12 tells us,  that he, Jesus, 'endured the cross,  scorning it's shame '

Colossians goes further,  it's implies that the cross itself was used to shame his enemies. He made a public spectacle of THEM,  he says,  triumphing over them by the cross.

But Jesus bore our disgrace.

To be ashamed of the Gospel is to be ashamed of him. It's not compatible with faith in him.

I feel here is the the thing to help me and hopefully some of you.

I would maintain it is not the Gospel I have been ashamed of but of myself.
Ashamed at my lack of ability to defend the message intellectually,  ashamed that my life may not match up.  Ashamed of being vulnerable.

 

But here is the thing.

 

I referred earlier to the sharing of my faith. I am no decrying personal testimony. As young evangelists we are taught that people cannot argue with our personal experience.  And that has some truth.

 

But it is not ourselves we are supposed to be sharing.

And do we need to defend the Gospel?
It is objective,  absolute truth.

 

I head a preacher once say; 

 

You don't need to defend a lion.

 

Do perhaps we need to be at least as objective as we are subjective. Just share the Gospel and shake off the dust from your feet.

And our sense of shame is all askew to begin with. There is no shame in Christ.

Let us go to him,  outside the camp.
Becoming outsiders for Christ,  who became the ultimate outsider for our sake.

Hebrews 11:16 says 'Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God'.

It seems to me that if The almighty and holy God is not ashamed of me then any sense of shame I would feel over him would be twisted in the extreme.

I write today,  knowing that I am not alone in my community,  in struggling with sharing the Gospel. I write in part because of this.  That we all may renounce shame,  as Jesus did, and preach him to all.

God who is unashamed to call us your own, may we never be ashamed to call you ours,

 

This day,
Or any day,

 

Amen.