Our Scriptures for The Lord’s Supper this morning are from Romans 1:15-17, and they are the basis of the theme of “God-centered, gospel-based righteousness” that is developed in the rest of this epistle. Paul was in a constant state of readiness to share the gospel of Jesus Christ (cp. 1 Peter 3:15) because he knew what the gospel was (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). He was ready because he knew the eternal consequences of believing or rejecting this message (John 3:16,17; Luke 13:1-5). By reading ahead in this epistle, we also learn that there was depth of urgency in Paul’s heart that is sorely lacking among many of God’s people today (cp. Romans 9:1-3, 10:1-4). Give me this kind of heart, Father!!
But what I want us to grasp this morning is the unashamed boldness of Paul to proclaim the gospel. Paul was always ready to share the gospel because he was not ashamed of its message. There was no such thing as being reluctant to share the gospel because of those he was around or how they might react to its content. He was not ashamed because he knew The Lord of the gospel (2 Timothy 1:8-10; Mark 8:38). And it is worth remembering that the culture and people that Paul was called to share with were not gospel-friendly people (1 Corinthians 1:18-25). In spite of all of the rejection that Paul experienced in sharing the gospel with others, he was relentless in proclaiming the gospel because he had personally experienced firsthand the life-changing power of God.
For Paul, the gospel of Jesus Christ was not a message that one could have a “take it or leave it” attitude towards (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). No! It was a matter of eternal life or eternal wrath (John 3:36). That might not settle well in our spiritually liberal society, but that is the message that we are commanded to proclaim (Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-48). Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers (Hebrews 2:11), so let us not be ashamed to proclaim Him as Lord in both word and deed.
