Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Paul preached the gospel of Christ to people where ever he traveled because he was not ashamed of Jesus. We should not be ashamed either since “God is not ashamed to be called [our] God” (Heb. 11:16) Jesus had chilling words to say about those who are ashamed of Him.
If a person is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, I, the Son of Man, will be ashamed of that person when I return in the glory of my Father with the holy angels. (Mark 8:38)
The good news that Jesus died on the cross for our sins is a powerful message. It is so powerful that it can transform a sinner into a saint, an enemy of God into a child of God, and the spiritually dead into the living body of Christ. There is nothing else in all of creation that can save us from the wrath of God against our sin.
Although the gospel message is powerful enough to save every person in the world, only those who believe the message will be saved by it. “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” (Eph. 2:8)
God gave His chosen nation Israel the first chance at the Gospel. His intention was to bring salvation to the world though them. When they rejected Jesus, God brought the gospel to the rest of us through the small group of Jews who did believe. It is interesting to note that Paul always went to the synagogue and preached to the Jewish people in a city before he preached to the gentiles, even though he was the apostle to the gentiles. The Jewish people are still special to God.
