Romans
1:16 ¶ For I am not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God
revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth
in unrighteousness;
Ashamed can mean
embarrassed and disappointed at something you wish were not so. It also meant,
though, bashful and modest at the time of the translation, something you held
back. It confounded you, as in caused you shame.
Ezra
9:6 And said, O my God, I am ashamed and
blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over
our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.
Jeremiah
6:15 Were they ashamed when they had
committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they
blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit
them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
Jeremiah
8:12 Were they ashamed when they had
committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they
blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their
visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
Job 6:20 They were confounded because they had hoped;
they came thither, and were ashamed.
Psalm
40:14 Let them be ashamed and confounded
together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and
put to shame that wish me evil.
Paul is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
not embarrassed by it, not holding back, because IT is how God can save every
man and woman who believes and trusts in it. The Jews were preached to first
but the Gentiles, which is what is meant by Greek as the dominant culture and
language of the Gentiles among whom Paul moved. The just shall live by faith is
an allusion to a verse in Habbakuk.
Habbakuk
2:4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up
is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
He says this again in
Galatians and Hebrews.
Galatians
3:11 But that no man is justified by the
law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
Hebrews
10:38 Now the just shall live by faith:
but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
An important statement
is made in verse 18 for the upcoming religious history of mankind that is
summarized. Man knows the truth, is willfully ignorant, and is judged based on
holding the truth he knows in unrighteousness. Man knows in his heart there is
a God, that he did not create himself or just happened out of nothing by
accident. He also has a pretty good, if general, idea of right and wrong. But
mankind, you and I included, usually choose to act as if God did not exist and
that we had no clue what right and wrong were. Paul is beginning a great
argument on justification, the commentators say, and this is his beginning,
establishing the universal, debased condition of men and women and their
guiltiness before a Holy God.
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