Not Ashamed of the Gospel

In one paragraph

Pastor Carl walked through Romans 1:8-17, focusing on the word "gospel" and what it actually means. He challenged the congregation to write down the gospel in one sentence and bring it back the following week. The driving idea was that if you cannot say clearly what you believe, it is hard to share it. Paul keeps repeating the word "gospel" through the opening of Romans, and Pastor Carl noticed...

Read together

1. Romans 1:8 Paul thanking God through Jesus Christ for the Romans because their faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world
2. Romans 1:9 Paul declaring God as his witness that he unceasingly mentions the Romans in his prayers
3. Romans 1:10 Paul expressing his ongoing prayer to finally come to Rome by the will of God
4. Romans 1:11 Paul longing to see the Romans to impart some spiritual gift so they may be established
5. Romans 1:12 Paul expressing desire to be mutually encouraged by one another's faith
6. Romans 1:13 Paul noting he has often planned to come to Rome but been prevented, wanting to obtain fruit among them as among other Gentiles
7. Romans 1:14 Paul declaring himself a debtor to both Greeks and barbarians, the wise and the foolish
8. Romans 1:15 Paul expressing eagerness to preach the gospel to those in Rome
9. Romans 1:16 Paul declaring he is not ashamed of the gospel as the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes
10. Romans 1:17 the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, the righteous shall live by faith
11. 1 Corinthians 1:18 the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but the power of God to those being saved
12. Ephesians 2:14 adapted as a succinct gospel statement: the wall of hostility has come down
13. 2 Corinthians 5:19 cited by Lemon Santa as a succinct gospel statement: God was in Christ reconciling the world
14. 2 Corinthians 5:21 for our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God
15. 2 Corinthians 8:9 though Christ was rich yet for your sake he became poor so that by his poverty you might become rich
16. 1 Timothy 1:15 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost
17. 1 John 4:10 God loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins
18. Romans 5:8 while we were still sinners Christ died for us
19. Romans 6:23 the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
20. Romans 8:1 there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
21. Romans 8:32 God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all
22. Revelation 5:9 used as a benediction: worthy are you for you were slain and by your blood ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation

Talk about it

1. Pastor Carl mentioned a few succinct statements of the gospel from the Christian Century article, like 'We're all bastards but God loves us anyway.' Which of those statements felt closest to the mark for you, and why?
2. Paul says in Romans 1 that he is 'a debtor' to Greeks and barbarians, wise and foolish alike. What does it mean to feel that kind of obligation toward people who have not heard the gospel, and do you feel it?
3. Pastor Carl's professor avoided the word 'gospel' and instead said 'God's message of love and forgiveness.' How much does the language we use to talk about the gospel matter, and when does familiar language help or get in the way?
4. Pastor Carl pushed back on 'love your neighbor as yourself' as a statement of the gospel, saying it is the outworking of the gospel rather than the gospel itself. Do you agree with that distinction, and why does it matter?
5. The homework from this sermon was to write the gospel in one sentence and bring it back. What did you write, or what would you write right now, and what made it hard to get it down to one sentence?