The Glory of God in the Gospel: An appeal to return to true gospel preaching, Romans 1:16

Recently, I have been meeting with a group of men on Saturday mornings for prayer at a little more. For some time I have been burdened to invest my life in others in preaching a biblical gospel. You see, much of what is seen on TV and in other Christian circles is not gospel preaching. They talk about sin, but never define it biblically. They talk about Christ, but never explain from Scripture how His death addresses man's sin problem. And then they distort the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion by diluting it down to repeating a prayer that is based a human comitment--many times devoid of a true work of the Spirit in converting a soul. Then when people fall away because they have not been changed by the power of God, the reasoning is: "People have choices." Yeah, and I guess the gospel does not have power then, either.

These things should not be so, brothers. But they are. What does God's word say about these matters? I, like you, want to turn away from this kind of man-centered evangelism. I want to see God's power in the conversion of a person's soul. I want to say with the Apostle Paul: "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" (Romans 1:16 ESV). As a church, we are memorizing Romans 1:16 this month and quoting it in the worship service each week. When I meditate on the words I can't help but ask the question: Paul, what revelation of the gospel did the Lord give to you so that you believed with all your heart that the gospel has its own power to convert souls?

In a sermon entitled "Regeneration Vs. the Idolatry of "Decisioinal Evangelism," Paul Washer explains that the message of the gospel is such a scandal that the Apostle Paul had every reason to be ashamed of the gospel. He says:

When we look at Romans 1:16 we understand that Paul was not ashamed of the gospel. That might seem something unusual to us that he has to make that statement, being and Apostle, a principle carrier of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But I want to tell you that Paul's flesh had every reason to be ashamed of the gospel, because the gospel he preached contradicted everything that was believed to be true and everything that was believed to be sacred in his culture.

Paul makes no attempt to "become relevant" to his culture. He makes no attempt to make treaty with his culture, adapt his message to the cuture, repackage his message, or any of the other nonsense that's become so prominant in the evangelical community today.

To the Jew Paul's gospel was the worst sort of blasphemy because it claimed that the Nazarene who died on that cross, accursed, was the Messiah and the Son of God. To the Greek it was the worst sort of absurdity because it claimed that this Jew from some out-of-the-way place was actually God in the flesh. Therefore, Paul knew that whenever he opened his mouth to speak the gospel he would be utterly rejected and ridiculed to scorn unless the Holy Spirit interveded and moved upon the hearts and minds of his hearers.

Now this is what he knew, this is what you should know. If you're properly preaching the gospel, it will be scandalous. And if you try to make it less of a scandal, you no longer preach the gospel.

Paul said he was not ashamed of the Gospel because he knew it was a Gospel of power (Rm. 1:16). A word of caution: In our day, because much of what is called gospel-preaching is a diluted gospel, we do not see any power in it. And because we see little or no power in the Gospel itself, we are tempted to either (1) dress up the Gospel anew as times/culture change, or (2) to make our evangelism increasingly man-centered. It is interesting that Paul never did either. The Gospel that he preached at the beginning was the same Gospel that he preached decades later at the end of his ministry. And he never based the success of the Gospel on activities outside of/extra to preaching, in the hope that it would be those things that would draw people in and open them up to the Gospel. Why is that so interesting to ponder? He truly believed that the only power for the conversion of souls was in the gospel. Therefore, he simply preached the Gospel. In fact, Paul said if anyone preaches another gospel let him be accursed (Gal. 1:6-9) What is this Gospel of power that Paul preached? We must know this.

And so, over the proceding weeks, I would like to invite you on a journey with me as we unpack Scripture and, by God's grace and for His glory, may we recover the gospel of Jesus Christ in our day that awakening and true revival may come!