Ashamed of Jesus

Romans 1:16 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth: to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

What does this mean. Well, we have to look at the background for this one. This may be a long read by the time it’s over.

Let’s look at the time just before Christ was born. Greece had hundreds of gods, and was very philosophical. Rome had many, many gods. So did Greece for that matter.  I won’t start listing any here for the simple reason, I would take a few pages just to list them. And the other countries around were mostly pagan. People in those days all accepted each others beliefs, and gods and traded them around because none of them negatively offended anyone. Caesars wanted to be regarded as gods, and killed anyone that didn’t acknowledge them as such. And the Jewish nation was oppressed by the Romans of the day. Rome in those days didn’t have Catholicism as it does today. Catholicism only came around about 300 some years later (Catholics will claim that the apostle Peter was the first pope, this is false).So when Jesus came around, people were having a great old time not offending anyone living a good life. Then He started by preaching He was the way, He was the truth, and He was the life.

Now think about his for even just a few seconds. If someone comes to you and tells you he is god, there are 3 possibilities to that statement. 1, he is absolutely insane, and has no concept on true reality, 2 he is an absolute liar, 3 he is. Now you have to think of the repercussions of this statement that Jesus made. The people of those days must have thought He was a lunatic. NO ONE would have made that strong of a claim. This is one of the reason the Pharisees wanted Him dead, He took the place of God.

Now that also poses another problem, that means that EVERY OTHER god is false. How could one man, come and accuse all the other ones of being false. What arrogance!!!!
And not just claim that He knows the correct way to heaven, but that He IS!!!! This was absolutely ruining every ones party. Now here are a few other factors you have to think about. His birth, were under incredibly skeptical circumstances. He was born of a virgin. Think about that one. For us Christians, it’s easy enough to believe. But for people of that day, how stupid would it be to believe that someone was born from a virgin.Then when He got to 12 yrs old  He was teaching the smartest people in the synagogue. How impossible would this have been??!! I am sure you know some 12 yrs old, there isn’t much they can teach you, but Jesus was teaching on the law of Moses and interrogating the leaders of the time. They were all astonished. Next when He starts preaching, He didn’t study much in the law according to His background. He was a carpenter. Then all of a sudden, 30 yrs old, takes the place in the  Synagogue, and with authority, says that the kingdom of God has been amongst them. For anyone else, this would be blasphemy to the worse degree!!!!
A simple carpenter, which is now doing some miracle healings, resurrecting the dead, preaching on sin, calling himself God, saying He is the only way to get to heaven and telling everyone they must repent of their sins.
For people to follow Jesus in those days, you really had to get rid of your pride. And even worse after His death. All the disciples were persecuted to the worse degree. Peter was sent to jail numerous times, so was Paul. Jails in those days didn’t have a bed and a TV.
The gospel, was the most (by human standards here) unbelievable story there was. Based on the above text, anyone in their right mind would not believe it. Christians were persecuted and were not ashamed because they believed it to be the divine truth.
Here’s a test to see if you are ashamed of it, preach it. To anyone, to the next person you talk to, if you can go on with passion, and preach on sin, repentance, salvation and everything else, there might be good evidence that you are saved. But when someone brings up the name of Christ in a joking manner and you laugh it off. If you are embarrassed to talk about your Savior even if there is no persecution that will follow, you are showing evidence that maybe you are not saved at all.
I can’t judge your situation and say that you are or are not saved, but think of this, across the ocean, in India and North Korea, to preach the gospel and to be a Christian, means your days are counted. But they are not ashamed of the Gospel.