“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” — Romans 1:16 (NIV) 

Just a few months ago, hardcore South Florida fans were over the moon because the Panthers, Dolphins, Marlins, and Heat all made the playoffs in their respective sports! I remember watching nearly every game with my family. Almost every night for about a month straight, we’d sit in our living room together and watch. We honestly aren’t true fans who watch throughout the entire season, but being a South Florida family through and through, we needed to support our teams since they had made it so far! It mostly ended in defeat, with the Heat, Marlins, and Dolphins all being eliminated fairly quickly. But for Panthers fans, we got to celebrate our very first NHL Stanley Cup Championship. It was awesome!

Now, you might be wondering what this has to do with today’s Scripture. Well, our verse starts off by saying something very important. The apostle Paul is the one writing this, and in the first part of this verse, he says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel.” When I think about the idea of not being ashamed of something, I think about believing in something so deeply that you never feel embarrassed to be associated with it. Even when the Heat and the Panthers lost, I saw the true Florida fans remain loyal and proud of their teams. I know it seems silly, but it’s true. When we believe in something or someone, it means we support them and are not ashamed of them. 

Nonetheless, because we live in an imperfect world filled with imperfect people, there’s always the chance of someone or something disappointing us and bringing us shame. When it comes to the gospel; however, there’s never anything to be ashamed of! The gospel never fails because our God never fails. When we choose to believe in the gospel and Jesus as our Savior, we must adopt this attitude of not being ashamed by it. 

In our world today, it’s easy to sometimes keep our faith on the back burner or behind the curtains of our “public” life, but that’s not how God intended for us to live out our faith. I’ve heard it said once that we often try to justify the way we hide our faith by saying that faith is supposed to be private. This; however, is not the right word to describe it. Our faith is personal, but not private. 

Our faith should be evident in the way we live and act every day. When we believe in the gospel, it should change us. Colossians 1:13–14 (NIV) reminds us of our salvation by putting it like this, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

The blood of Jesus has made us clean, and we now have access to a personal relationship with God! We have a promised future. We’re citizens of His eternal kingdom. We’re redeemed and forgiven. We have a renewed identity and purpose. The gospel is all about the power of God, and that’s why we can join in saying the same thing as Paul. May we also be unashamed of the gospel!

Pause: In what ways do you sometimes confuse private faith with personal faith? 

Practice: Today, ask yourself how you can live unashamed of the gospel. Make it a goal to make your faith something evident in your actions even if it means being different from the people around you.

Pray: Jesus, thank You for Your gospel! Thank You for rescuing and redeeming me! I repent for all the moments I live ashamed or embarrassed by my faith or Your Word. I am sorry for succumbing to the pressure of the world at times, but I don’t want it to be so easy anymore. Help me to walk in faith and live unashamed. Remind me of the power of Your gospel daily. I love you Jesus! Amen.