February 2, 2025
Ashamed of the Gospel
My
text this afternoon comes from the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Christians
in Rome. It’s a vitally important text for us especially in our religiously
pluralistic culture: “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 Gentile.” (Romans 1:16)
One definition of ‘ashamed’ is to be reluctant
or unwilling to do something because of embarrassment. Paul’s text here in
Romans chapter one cuts to the heart of a growing problem facing many of
today’s Christians in America. Television, Hollywood, the educational system,
the courts, the marketplace, and even many churches have for many decades been slowly
squeezing Christians into the mold called ‘religious pluralism.’ And that ought
to frighten us because that mold reduces Jesus the Christ to just one of many
religious teachers and prophets.
If
you don’t know the term, ‘religious pluralism’ is the notion that states all
religious worldviews are equally valid, equally true, and equally
acceptable to God. Said simply, all religious roads lead to God.
Pope
Francis, of all people, is only the latest influential clergy to promote that
ancient heresy. He did so during his visit to Singapore in September of last
year. But he is not alone in that false teaching. Those in pulpits and pews in
a variety of Protestant denominations also believe many roads lead to heaven.
In fact, according to a 2021 poll by Probe Ministries, nearly 70% of self-identifying
Christians believe the same demonic lie that Jesus is NOT the only way to God.”*
I
want to remind us of that conversation in the Garden of Eden of the dialogue
between the Serpent and Eve that has had deadly and horrific consequences to
this very day. It was there that Satan asked Eve, “Indeed, has God said?”
(Genesis 3:1) And in so doing, the devil
seduced her into doubting God's word and suspecting His motives were dishonest.
Her doubts quickly led to her fatal disobedience, and Satan, having
successfully deceived Eve to question God and His motives, uses the same tactic
to this very moment.
I’ve
said this before, and I say it again because the danger is so very great, a
danger the apostles warned of time and again: “The Spirit explicitly says
that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying
attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” (1
Timothy 4:1)
And
so I preach to you what every faithful follower of Christ has preached for
2,000 years: Anyone who dilutes the gospel message, anyone who preaches a
different gospel than what the New Testament proclaims – they are false
teachers in league with the devil – either intentionally or unintentionally.
Those
are bold words, yes. And I make that statement without apology because I’m
simply quoting the apostles. For example, listen to Paul in his letter to the
Christians at Corinth: “For such men are false apostles, deceitful
workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for
even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it
is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of
righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.”
And
this from Jude: (1:4) “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed,
those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly
persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness
and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
And
again from Paul: (Galatians 1:8-9) But even if we, or an angel from
heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to
you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have
said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a
gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
Regarding religious pluralism, listen: There can only be ONE truth, not a half-dozen.
The doctrines of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism and other
religions are not only totally diverse in their teaching about sin,
righteousness, and judgment, but they are totally divergent in their
understanding of the nature of God.
Bible-based
Christian faith unequivocally declares that our sins can only be erased by
faith in the sacrificial atoning death of Jesus on the cross and that He rose
from death three days later. Only Christianity has the full and complete answer
to the question about sin, forgiveness, eternal judgment, and eternal life. Only
Christ is the road to eternal life. God's word has never been ambiguous about eternal
Truth – and neither should we who are His faithful servants.
Christian!
Do not be ashamed of the gospel. Christ Jesus was not speaking in riddles when
He warned: “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will
be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the
Father and of the holy angels.” (Luke 9:26)
He
was not being cryptic when He said: “I am the way, and the truth,
and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6).
And the apostle Peter was not confused when he warned the Jewish religious
leaders: “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name
under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
(Acts 4:12)
And
because the gospel is absolutely and unalterably linked to eternal salvation,
Jesus commands us to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all
nations.” (Mark 16:15) In fact, the first recorded words of the Lord were “Repent
and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15) It is because of the exclusivity
of the Christian gospel message that the word appears nearly 100 times in the
New Testament – again and again, so no one can say they didn’t know what the
Almighty Judge expects of us.
Please
do not overlook this text, either: Enter through the narrow gate; for the
gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many
who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that
leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
We
are all familiar with telephone area codes. My phone number is comprised of ten
digits, starting with the area code of 360 – which is from the Pacific
Northwest. The area code 212 identifies parts of New York City.
And
also as everyone here has experiences, if we misdial a phone number by one
digit, the call will not go through to the intended recipient. For example, if
you want to dial someone in New York, and misdial 212 as 112 as I tried to do,
you’ll get a recording which says, “The number you have called is not valid.”
And,
please – we all must hear this and believe this: Eternal life and the
complete forgiveness of our sins has only one working ‘phone number’ – to
maintain the metaphor. And that number is JESUS. Any other number, any
‘misdialing’ of that number, takes us on the broad way that leads to
destruction.
it
is no wonder the apostle was not ashamed of the gospel. It alone is the power of
God to rescue those who believe from the eternal disaster that faces all who
reject the gospel.
Now,
before moving any further, I need to make sure we all understand what the term,
‘the gospel’ is. The word ‘gospel’ comes from the Greek word meaning,
‘good news.’ Listen to the apostle Paul define the ‘good news’:
(1
Corinthians 15:1-3) “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel
which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,
by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I
preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to
you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and
that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
Let me
summarize what Paul wrote here about the gospel. First, Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures. God's word, from Genesis through
Revelation tells us that our human nature is utterly fallen. We are hopelessly and
helplessly sin-diseased creatures, and without God’s intervention we can never be
reconciled to our Creator. But the ‘gospel’ – the ‘good news’ – is this: God DID
intervene in our otherwise hopeless situation, and that intervention
forms the basis of the exclusiveness of the gospel.
Listen
again to the Scriptures: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God.” (Romans 3:23) And again: “The wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
That prepositional phrase, ‘in Christ Jesus’ is
critical, because it is only those who are IN Christ Jesus, who believe
in Him and trust Him to be their substitutionary atonement for their sins – it
is only those to whom God gives eternal life. No one else. Not Muslims. Not
Hindus. No one. Not even Jews who reject their Messiah Jesus. Only true Christianity
has the answer to the question: What can wash away my sins? What can make me
whole again? And that answer is: Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What does Scripture mean when it speaks of Jesus’
substitutionary atonement for our sins? It’s this: God’s utter holiness
requires divine punishment for sin. There’s no wiggle room in the justice of
God to overlook even what we might call minor sins. Justice REQUIRES wrath
against sin. All sin. Any sin.
On the other hand, God’s mercy toward sinners
calls for, well . . . mercy and compassion toward the sinner.
That tension between God's wrathful justice and
God’s bountiful mercy was satisfied in the Old Testament through the Mosaic sacrificial
system. The last half of Exodus, and the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy especially
focus attention on the animal sacrifices which became the substitutionary
punishment for the person who had sinned. When the Jewish priests laid their
hands on the head of the sacrificial animal, the sins of the penitent sinner
were transferred to the animal who then was slain.
Fast forward to Calvary’s mountain outside
Jerusalem where ‘The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world’ was
slain. The sacrifices under the Law of Moses were a picture – a foreshadow – of
what God would fulfill centuries later on Calvary’s cross. Listen to God’s promise
through Isaiah the prophet seven centuries earlier:
“He [the
Messiah] was despised and rejected . . . . We turned our backs on him and
looked the other way . . .. But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for
our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be
healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to
follow our own. Yet the Lord laid
on him the sins of us all.” (Isaiah
53:3-6, NLT)
Jesus, the perfect and sinless Lamb of God, provides
the only way for the penitent’s sinner to be perfectly cleansed from his or her
sins. That means everyone who comes to Jesus for forgiveness will – without
question – receive forgiveness.
No other religious faith meets God's unyielding
requirement for the forgiveness of sins. When the penitent turns to Christ, God
forgives those sins to such a degree as to consider those sins having never
been committed. The theological terms for that divine reality are
‘justification,’ and the ‘remission of sins.’
On the other hand, everyone who rejects Christ
and follows another faith – or no faith – they will not receive God's
forgiveness, and will ultimately experience His eternal wrath for their sins.
THAT is the devilish danger of religious
pluralism.
And that is part of Paul’s point when he wrote
in that letter to the Corinthians, “Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures.” Which brings us to the second point he makes about the gospel: “[Christ] was buried,
and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
Scripture repeats the
message again and again – so we will not miss it. Jesus rose from the dead
three days after His crucifixion. This is not an insignificant or debatable
point. Eternal life and eternal damnation rest on that fundamental historical
reality of Christ’s resurrection. Every other foundation is nothing but sand
and will lead to eternal damnation.
Now admittedly, to insist
that Jesus is the only road to God is not going to win many friends among those
who want to live and let live, and who want to be tolerant of other religious ideas
and expressions.
Well, so be
it. As St. Paul wrote to the Christians at Galatia, “If I were trying to
please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” And you and I, as
disciples and followers of Jesus, we must decide every day if will we
compromise with those who believe all roads lead to heaven, or will we stand
unashamed with Christ and the history of all the martyrs who died for God’s
eternal truth?
This is the gospel: God became Man through the
Virgin’s womb. He lived a sinless life. He died as a substitutionary sacrifice
for our sins and it is only through Christ can anyone be reconciled with the
Father. Again, as Scripture tells us, “There is no other name under heaven
given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12)
Listen,
if Jesus was not physically resurrected from death, then our Christian faith is
no better than Buddhism, or Islam, or Hinduism – or any other false religion. Worse
yet – if Jesus did not physically rise from death, then we are without hope
whatsoever for eternal life and the forgiveness of our sins.
Let me
repeat that crucial point which stands in direct opposition to the demonic lies
of religious pluralism: Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, everything
the New Testament tells us about sin, forgiveness, and eternity is a puff of
air and we are of all people most to be pitied because we live a lie.
Christian,
listen! Please. You will be told by the media, Hollywood, educators and multitudes
of clergy, theologians, and pastors – as well as the average person in and out
of the pew – you’ll be told that there are many possible paths to God.
But I
will say it uncompromisingly again as I have said it multiple times in this
message: The Scriptures warn us that those educators, theologians, pastors and
all the rest are ALL wrong. Every one of them. And Satan is using them to pass
along the same lie that worked with Eve – “Indeed, has God REALLY said that
Jesus alone is the way to eternal life?”
Christian!
Faith in the full inerrancy, infallibility, and divine inspiration of God's
word is an ‘all-or-nothing’ faith if we hope to face life AND death with a
godly confidence.
When
the same former Pharisee Paul wrote, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it
is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first
and also to the [Gentile] – he was writing to a people steeped in religious
pluralism. Rome and all Europe and Asia were known for their multiplicity of
gods. But God sent Paul to tell them the truth about God's only
plan of salvation – which is through Jesus the Christ, who alone is the ‘way,
the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through Him.
No
one. No exceptions.
And
just as the Father sent Paul to a religiously mixed-up world, even so God sends
us. It’s called ‘The Great Commission’ which Jesus Himself commanded of us: “Go
into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. (Mark
16:15)
But
we cannot go as He commanded, unless we believe what God tells us about the
true gospel. Please, believe God's word, and never compromise His truth to
curry favor with others.
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