IN triumphant mood, with heart aflame, the great apostle of the Gentiles wrote to the weak, despised handful of Christians in the then proudest city on earth―the imperial city of Rome― “I am not ashamed of the gospel.” Nor had he need to be. Pagan Rome had the elements of decay and death in her, and has passed into history; the gospel with the vigor of eternal youth is still winning its peaceful conquests. You may be surprised and think it a strange statement, but there are some people ashamed of the gospel. They evidently do not know it. If they did they could not be ashamed of it. Here is a man who says distinctly, “I am not ashamed of the gospel,” and he gives his reason― “for
IT IS THE POWER OF GOD
unto salvation.”
I am not aware that Saul of Tarsus ever heard the glad tidings, but he saw the One who is the embodiment of the gospel. He tells us so in 1 Corinthians 15:8,8And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. (1 Corinthians 15:8) “Last of all He was seen of me also.” There is no mistake about it, no fable, no ambiguity, no myth. He could say, I have seen the One I preach unto you. If eleven other individuals or companies saw the Lord on earth after He rose from the dead, says Paul, I am the twelfth witness. I have seen Him in heaven. There we have completeness of witness, because twelve has that significance in Scripture. “Last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.”
Doubtless you know the story of his conversion―and that he got a commission from the Lord on the day of his conversion. You will find it recorded in Acts 26. The gospel-commission which he received from the Lord Jesus, a risen, glorious Saviour, was to go to the Gentiles, “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me” (Acts 26:1818To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. (Acts 26:18)). We get distinctly from his own lips how he responded to this commission as he says, “Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision; but showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judæa, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance” (vers. 19:20).
The glad tidings find their source in God. They are all about the Lord Jesus Christ―His life, death, and resurrection. Their first effect is not to make man happy. They lead him to repent, that is, to judge himself. Now I ask you, Have you repented and turned to God? I want you to seriously ponder and answer that question. “No,” you say. Well, the day will come when you will have to face matters. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psa. 9:1717The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. (Psalm 9:17)).
“Repent and turn to God,” is the word I have for you. Repentance has a large place all through Scripture. The lost in hell are convinced that if blessing on earth is to come to any, repentance is an absolute necessity, though they know full well that for themselves the day of such opportunity is forever gone. (See Luke 16:3030And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. (Luke 16:30).) I do not know what your life has been, but I know that if you have sinned and slighted the gospel until this hour, unless you repent and turn to God there is an awful eternity before you. “Go to the Gentiles,” said the blessed Lord to Saul of Tarsus on the day of his conversion, and “open their eyes.” That is the first thing. Until a blind man gets his eyes opened he does not know what is round about him, he does not know the way he is going. Have you ever had your eyes opened yet? If you are going along with the world, your eyes have never yet been opened, you are like a blind man on the edge of a precipice. If your eyes were now opened you would recoil from yourself, and your future, and you would turn to God in deep self-loathing, and then, I believe, from your lips would come the cry we hear in Acts 16, “What must I do to be saved?” God’s response is― “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
Dear unsaved reader, you will get your eyes opened some day. Is it to be only in the moment of your death and damnation? God save you now. “Turn them from darkness to light,” is the next word, “and from the power of Satan unto God.” I know what has held you from coming to Christ―the power of Satan. Thank God I know another power―the power of God. What is the power of God? Hear Paul on the subject― “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” Thank God for the gospel. If you are not yet saved the reason is that you have never really believed. The gospel Paul preached contained the blessed assurance to men that they were to receive forgiveness of sins by faith in Christ. If you were to turn to Him now the first thing you would receive would be forgiveness.
You say, “Must I not do something, or bring something?” No. All you have to do is to turn, and you will find that the power of God delivers you from the power of the devil, breaks off your shackles, frees you from your bonds, washes you, sanctifies you, and sets you apart unto God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul went to that godless place Corinth, and preached Christ crucified. Not that he did not know Christ in glory, and could eventually lead them on to Christ in glory. His death on the cross was the most ignominious death that a man could die, and he had to tell them there was no possibility of the power of Satan being broken, there was no salvation for them, apart from Christ, and Christ dying on that cross of shame.
Beloved reader, think of the cross. Think of Jesus dying there, crowned with thorns, and dying between two malefactors, What do many now say it was?
Foolishness! How many refuse altogether the truth of atonement, and that the atoning sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ procure salvation. It does not appeal to man’s reason, but then, remember above all things that
IT IS GOD’S WAY
of salvation. What a blessed thing it is to see with God’s eyes, and to get hold of things according to God’s mind.
Of these Corinthians, Paul could later say, You are my children, because “I have begotten you through the gospel” (1 Cor. 4:1515For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. (1 Corinthians 4:15)). But he hears of bad doctrine getting in among them. Some were denying the resurrection, so Paul writes to show that if there was no resurrection, Christ was not risen. He says, “I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain” (1 Cor. 15:1, 21Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:1‑2)). What does he mean by that? He does not mean that they had not the right kind of faith―he means unless they had believed a fable. If there were no resurrection then Christ had not risen. They had at first believed this glorious truth. If it were false, they had believed a fable. Mark his words: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.” He had received these foundation truths from the Lord in glory, I have no doubt. There are
THREE GREAT FACTS
presented in his gospel―Christ died, was buried, and rose again, hence he was able to tell them of a living Saviour. It was that living Saviour who spoke to Paul on the way to Damascus.
How did Paul get into the company of God’s saints? Through faith that is in Jesus. So must you. What will deliver you from darkness and bring you into light? Faith in your soul, which lays hold on that Saviour in glory. What is faith? I do not doubt it is the soul’s reception of a divine testimony―God speaks, and you hear and believe what He says. That is faith. The definition of it is this-”He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true” (John 3:3333He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. (John 3:33)).
But God does not always speak in the same way. Look at Nineveh, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” There was no gospel in that, and yet the solemn testimony was mingled with mercy. Mercy granted them forty days that they might repent. The Ninevites believed God, and said in effect, “He has given us respite for forty days; we will use it,” and they repented. They were not told to repent, but we read that when the people heard they believed God. It does not say, they believed Jonah. No, “they believed God”; then they “repented,” and I don’t think they took forty days to do it. That same day two millions of people were bowed before God and they did “works meet for repentance” too.
I cannot promise you forty days of respite ere judgment will fall on you. I can tell you that Christ died for our sins, rose again, and has passed into glory, and the one who now turns to Him receives forgiveness. Whether God’s testimony be of judgment or mercy, if that testimony be received by the soul, that is faith, and it will lead to repentance―self-judgment.
“Christ died for our sins”―thank God, that is no myth; it is a wonderful, blessed reality. “He was buried,” the end of man, in that way, comes before God’s eye. Man must die. Sin has ruined him. There is nothing in him that will suit God. The wisest, the most learned―what is their end? Death; and an awful thing is death, as God’s judgment of sin. Every man naturally is under sentence of death. You may seek to put it off; you may send for the cleverest doctor in the town, and you may pay a big fee; what for? Satan truly says, “All that a man hath will he give for his life” (Job 2:44And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. (Job 2:4)). All is in vain, for “the wages of sin is death.” Paul informs us―There has come in One, on whom death had no claim, and yet He has gone down under death, in order that He might bear the sins of others.
Man’s history, as man, is thus closed, and what now? Christ rose again, according to the Scriptures. We have Scripture fulfilled, and the love of God made known. The whole question of sin was settled before God when Christ died on the cross. Paul says He was once offered “to bear the sins of many” (Heb. 9:2828So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:28)). Another scripture says, “He died for all” (2 Cor. 5:1515And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:15)). “Many” takes in all who will believe. God’s righteousness now is “unto all and upon all them that believe” (Rom. 3:2222Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (Romans 3:22)). I can go to the world and say, Christ died for all. He went into death―the death which lay upon you and me―that He might annul it.
But the death of the body is not all. After death comes the judgment, and that means the lake of fire, as we see in Revelation 21. But Christ, when on the cross, not only bore sins, but also the consequence of these sins, judgment and death, and now He is risen, and at the right hand of God. When He was on the cross He was the Victim for sin, but now He is the Victor over death. He has met its claim on man, has accomplished the will of God, and has broken all the power of the enemy. Paul says, I have seen Him, and I am told to go to the Gentiles―to heedless sinners in their sins-and tell them that there is forgiveness for them. Glorious tidings!
Let us look at the character of Paul’s preaching. He says it was “not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect” (1 Cor. 1:1717For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. (1 Corinthians 1:17)). Needy sinners do not want brilliant sermons—what they want is the truth, and that is Christ. I can understand, therefore, the apostle’s care to make everything as simple as possible. There is only one thing in this world which can meet man in his sins, and that is the cross, by which God lifts a man out of his sins, out of the power of Satan, and brings that man to Himself, through the resurrection of His sinless Son. We have all sinned, but after that, and before the day of judgment, He, who will then be the Judge, has Himself stepped in and taken the very place of the criminal, and sustained the judgment passed on the criminal. Well wrote Anne Steele: ―
“He took the guilty culprit’s place,
He suffered in his stead;
For man―oh, miracle of grace―
For man the Saviour bled.”
Paul did not use enticing words of man’s wisdom. No, “the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.” The preaching of the cross is looked upon today as great folly. By whom? By them that perish, but it is wisdom to those who believe. The dying thief found the cross to be the power of God, and so did Saul of Tarsus. Let it be God’s power unto salvation to you also, my reader. Remember that “it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise.” The patience of God will one day become exhausted, and He will do with this poor world what He did in the days of Noah―He will visit it with unsparing judgment. Where will the wisdom of the wise be then? “The world by wisdom knew not God.”
The learned wiseacres of today are telling us that science is going to lead man to God. No, it is not reason that will lead men to God―it is faith. What a pity to waste your life reasoning, instead of being a simple believer. Forget not, “It pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe.” You say, how shall I be saved? By believing in Jesus, once dead and now alive again. All the blessings of the gospel belong to “them that believe.”
Do not seek for signs. They will not profit you. We read, “The Jews require a sign”―they had two given to them for which they were none the better. What were they? A babe in a manger. Surely there could be nothing weaker than that, save the other― a dead man in the grave. We read in Luke 2, “This shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying is a manger.” If you want to know God you will have to learn Him by the Incarnation, and then by the death of His Son. Then by simply believing in Him, you will become a child of God and an heir of glory.
Says Paul, “We preach Christ crucified; unto the Jews a stumbling-block”―why? Because they looked for Christ to come in glory, and He came in weakness. The Greeks heard of this blessed Man dying on the tree, and they said, Folly! What does faith discover in Him? But unto them “which are called... Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” Both God’s power and God’s wisdom are seen in the death and resurrection of that blessed One, who is seated now at God’s right hand in glory. “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” When man gets near death how weak he is, and when he has died you say, “It is all over.”
Stop a bit. Let God come in, and then we see Jesus come up out of death. “God raised Him from the dead.” What is the end of death when God steps in? Resurrection. A risen Christ is now the evidence of God’s claims being met and Satan’s power being broken. He was crucified in weakness, but what has the weakness of Christ done? Broken the bars of the tomb, annulled death, destroyed the power of Satan, taken sinners from his grasp, and brought them to God.
I can understand the apostle then saying, “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh... are called.” What a wonderful thing to be among those whom God has called. “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.” Others may say, “What a fool you are to believe these things and follow a rejected Christ.” Never mind―you will turn up among the wise in the day of the Lord. Further, you will find that a simple Christian, walking in the power of the Spirit of God, with the Word of God in his heart and on his lips, will be able to overcome the greatest Goliath in the world. Man always wants what is great, but God seeks the lowly. He lays hold of poor sinners like you and me. True, we are among the “things which are despised.” Christ was despised. If, for His sake, you are despised by the world, you are in Christ’s company.
Let us not then be “ashamed of the gospel,” but believe it simply and boast in Him who has saved us by His own loss and shame.
W. T. P. W.