The Gospel: The Power of God

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for sal­va­tion to every­one who believes” (Romans 1:16).

Sometimes we treat the Gospel like old news. Hear it afresh today!

I was intro­duced to the Gospel as a young boy at the Baptist Church in Newton, Georgia, where my fam­ily attended. When I heard the Gospel, I believed that God loved me and sent His Son to die on the cross to save me. That was good news to me then and is even greater news now!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is, with­out a doubt, the most won­der­ful news ever heard, and the most pow­er­ful! Paul calls the Gospel “the power of God for sal­va­tion” to those who believe.  Amazingly, the Gospel, when believed and acted upon, will trans­form the vilest sin­ner into a child of God and a joint heir with Christ.

We all know the word “gospel” means “good news,” but just what is this good news that Paul calls the “power of God?” In the nar­row­est sense, the Gospel is explained in John 3:16–18. It says that all the world stands con­demned before a Holy God because of sin (bad news). But God, who is love, pro­vided sal­va­tion and free­dom from that con­dem­na­tion through the death of His Son to those who believe on Him (good news).

Think about this. The power of God that is found in the Gospel saves you and gives you every­thing you need to live for God–and keeps you until the end. In other words, when you place your faith in the mes­sage of the Gospel, the power of God is released to save you from sin (Romans 1:16). That same divine power pro­vides you with every­thing needed to live a Godly life through your rela­tion­ship with Christ (II Peter 1:3) and also keeps, or guards you, through faith until your ulti­mate sal­va­tion is revealed in the end time (I Peter 1:5). The Power of God saves, pro­vides, and keeps you. That is the good news of the Gospel!

Our response to this won­der­ful news should be to share it with all those with whom we come in con­tact, but sadly most of us do not do so. The Apostle Paul said that he was not ashamed of the Gospel. I do not believe that he allowed intim­i­da­tion by oth­ers to keep him from shar­ing it. My hope and prayer for those of us who lack in this area is that God will give us a greater bur­den for the lost and an increased bold­ness to tes­tify of the Gospel, the good news of Christ Jesus.