“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 to faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:16-17).
When Paul wrote to the saints in Rome, he said he was “not ashamed of the gospel” (Romans 1:16). Because of the confidence he had in Christ’s message, he was “eager to preach the gospel” (Romans 1:15) and do many other things in the cause of Christ.
We need to have the same confidence as Paul so that we can also say, “I am not ashamed of the gospel” (Romans 1:16). Can we say this? To answer that question, we need to consider what we would be willing to do with and for the gospel.
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Benjamin Franklin famously said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” A common variation of this quote is, “People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.” Though the founding father and those who use this quote today are referring to matters relating to civil government, there is a spiritual truth contained in the statement. How this principle applies to our spiritual lives is of far greater importance than how it applies to the power of human government. So let us consider the spiritual implications of this principle.
