Ashamed of the Gospel – The Law and The Gospel

Ashamed of the Gospel?

The Law and the Gospel

Romans 1.16, 17

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

There’s nothing to ashamed of here!

Paul declared that he was not ashamed of the Gospel – not any part of it. Not the incarnation, not the blood of Christ, not the resurrection or the ascension, and not the demand for repentance from dead works and faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Which also means that Paul was not ashamed of the Law of God. I get the feeling sometimes that contemporary Christians are ashamed of the Law. They don’t like all that “do’s and don’ts” talk, the “thou shalt nots” of the Ten Commandments. They seem so negative. So works oriented. What they want is a God Who offers everything and demands only what we’re willing to give. And the Law of God doesn’t fall within that latter category. If we’re ashamed of the Law, we’re ashamed of the Gospel, because we cannot proclaim the Good News of Jesus apart from the holy and righteous and good reality of the Law of God.

Pray

Lord, I’m not ashamed of the Gospel At least, I don’t want to be ashamed of it. Help me to learn to love Your Law and to see it as the way of liberation for me, and the standard of judgment for the lost. And help me see Jesus more clearly, as the One Who makes the glory of the Law come alive for me.

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.