https://youtu.be/jXYx8kTeN7U

Intro story-band I used to like

He had allowed himself to become ashamed of the Gospel of Christ

Romans 1:16-17

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel [a]of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

This is a powerful scripture

This verse shows pauls convictions and that they lay in the Gospel of Christ

He is someone who demonstratively lives his life for Christ and makes it known to all

This should be a baseline for all Christians today

At the minimum you should not be ashamed of the Gospel that has set you free from sin and death

The gospel that through Jesus Christ we will be resurrected with Him in the end to live out our days glorifying Him

We have no need to be ashamed of what Christ has done, paul surely wasn’t

This gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes

When reading the word I try to put myself in the position to understand why the writers say things the way they do

Of course paul would say hes not ashamed, we all should

To really understand the depth of this scripture we should analyze some other things first, like who was paul before this

The reason why its important to understand who he was is because it puts a whole new meaning and importance on this verse

Paul was born around the same time as christ

His original name was saul of tarsus

He was born to a family of devout Jews

His lineage was from the tribe of Benjamin

His family lineage was very attached to pharisaic tradition

They followed jewish law very closely and strictly and saul even became a pharisee himself

saul was well known for his attack and persecution of the early church

He would hunt Christians down imprison them, flog, them and even execute them

We see this in scripture during the stoning of Stephen

Acts7:57-8:1

57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Saul Persecutes the Church

8 Now Saul was consenting to his death.

At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

saul was someone who would do whatever he thought he needed to do even kill Christians to uphold jewish law

saul denied that Jesus Christ was the messiah and it showed by the persecution he placed on the Church

Until one day on the road to Damascus

Jesus himself appeared to saul

It changed his life forever