The Riddleblog

An excerpt from “Not Ashamed of the Gospel” Season Five/Episode Five (Romans 1:16-17)

What, then, should we take with us from Romans 1:16-17?

The first thing we need to say is that, like Paul, we must never be ashamed of the gospel. Yes, the cross is a scandalous message. Yes, the cross is foolishness to the Greeks. Unfortunately, in much of American religion (and even in much of evangelicalism), the gospel has become a message about how the holy God makes himself acceptable to self-righteous sinners. While preachers, teachers, and evangelists have every right to be cognizant of the culture and communicate the gospel accordingly, we are never given the right to change the message of the cross to appease that culture.

The power of God is revealed whenever the gospel is preached, not when ministers seek to entertain, strive to be politically relevant, or speak to the whims of the congregation. Until Christ’s church recovers its confidence in the preaching of the cross, we will never see a healthy church, nor witness genuine reformation. Let us sincerely desire and eagerly pray that we may follow Paul’s example and that we, as individual believers and as church members, may never be ashamed of the gospel. For the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. The preaching of the gospel is the means by which God saves sinners! "The righteous shall live by faith." But how can people come to faith when there is no gospel? As P.T. Forsyth once put it, "We must preach to our age, but woe to us if it is our age which we preach, and only hold up the mirror to the time."

To read the rest, follow the link below

The Preached Gospel Summons Us to Faith in Christ

An excerpt from“Not Ashamed of the Gospel” Season Five/Episode Five (Romans 1:16-17)

The message of the cross is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel summons all who hear it to faith in Jesus Christ. Those who believe when the gospel is preached to them manifest what Paul calls the “obedience of faith.” The gospel saves those, but only those, who believe [trust] in Jesus Christ. Paul is not addressing the exceptional cases here–for example, such as what happens to children of believers who die before coming to faith, or the thief on the cross, and so on. Paul’s point is that the gospel summons us to believe it when we hear it. Those who obey that call and believe are “saved,” while those who are summoned but who do not believe will face the wrath of God on the day of judgment. It is correct to say that those who reject the gospel when it is preached to them, disobey God and remain under his judgment unless and until they trust in Christ.

In his wonderful little commentary on Romans, Anders Nygren, makes a very important point, well worth our consideration.

The gospel and faith belong together inseparably. Therefore we may not speak of faith as something which could exist apart from the gospel. Faith is not a state of the soul which man must have, that by its aid he may receive the gospel. It is the gospel which is primary, which creates faith and awakens it in us. When one hears the gospel and is conquered by it, that is faith. Faith is not prior to the gospel and independent of it. It [faith] arises only through one’s meeting with the gospel [1].

Nygren’s point is that saving faith arises only in connection to the preaching of the gospel. Faith is not our contribution to our salvation, nor is faith the one work God requires of us in order to be saved. Rather, as a demonstration of his power, God creates faith in our hearts through the preaching the gospel just as when he created the universe from nothing.

To read the rest, follow the link below

Blessed Hope Podcast, Pauline Studies, Reformed ResourcesKim RiddlebargerSeptember 7, 2026Faith in Christ, Romans 1:16-17Comment

"Not Ashamed of the Gospel" (Romans 1:16-17) A New Episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast!

Episode Synopsis:

Paul is eager to come to Rome to preach the gospel. These words have long been familiar to Christians, and we understand Paul’s sentiment. Yet, in Paul’s day, preaching the gospel was an absolutely scandalous message. The gospel is centered on the cross of Jesus Christ. For us, a cross is a well-known Christian symbol. But for those in Paul’s day, the cross was a sign of shame and denigration. It was something people abhorred and would not speak about. The noted Roman statesman and orator Cicero spoke of the cross as so horrible that Roman citizens should never be subject to such a thing, and should never even entertain the thought of such a horrible manner of death, much less speak of it. So why would Paul be eager to preach such a message if it was likely to repulse and offend people, rather than draw or attract them?

Paul knows that this gospel—centered in the cross of Jesus Christ—is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. God uses this scandalous message to call his people unto himself, create faith, and grant them eternal life. As Paul tells the Romans, the gospel was first preached to Jews in the types and shadows of the Old Testament, and then through recounting the events associated with the messianic mission of Jesus Christ, which culminated in his suffering and death upon a Roman cross. When the crucified Jesus was raised from the dead three days after his crucifixion, God demonstrated his power—which is of a different kind and far greater than all the military might of Rome. Jesus is truly Lord—not Caesar nor any of the Roman gods. So, when Paul says he desires to come to Rome to preach this message, he is trusting the power of God to do what is impossible for sinful humans: to be given new life, the forgiveness of sins, and to be counted as righteous before God.

Paul is also eager to preach the gospel because in it the righteousness of God is revealed. Sinful men and women can be reckoned or credited as righteous by trusting in the crucified and risen Savior proclaimed by Paul. No amount of sorrow or tears, no enlightened teacher or guru, and no amount of good works can grant this righteous status to sinful people. The only proper response to Paul’s gospel is the empty hands of faith—the reception of this free gift of a perfect and faultless righteousness that is found in the gospel. This is why Paul is eager to come to Rome and preach this scandalous message.

To see the show notes and listen to the episode, follow the link below