I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes...(Romans 1:16)

Themes: Gospel, Wisdom and Power of God, Salvation in Christ Alone

LYRICS

The message of the cross is foolishness
To those who are perishing
The message of the cross is foolishness
To those who are perishing

But to us who are being saved
It is the power of God

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ
It is the power of God
Saving all who believe
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ
It is the power of God
The very power of God

The foolishness of God is wiser than
The wisdom of any man
The foolishness of God is wiser than
The wisdom of any man

And to us who are being saved
It is the power of God

BRIDGE
There is one Way
There is one Truth
There is one Life
Jesus Christ

Guest Vocals: Aaron Bauer

THE WORD IN THE WORDS

The message of the cross is foolishness
To those who are perishing
The message of the cross is foolishness
To those who are perishing

But to us who are being saved
It is the power of God

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18-24)

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ
It is the power of God
Saving all who believe
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ
It is the power of God
The very power of God

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)

The foolishness of God is wiser than
The wisdom of any man
The foolishness of God is wiser than
The wisdom of any man

And to us who are being saved
It is the power of God

but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:24-31)

BRIDGE
There is one Way
There is one Truth
There is one Life
Jesus Christ

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

DEVOTIONAL

“Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God”
1 Corinthians 1:30

Man’s intellect seeks after rest, and by nature seeks it apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Men of education are apt, even when converted, to look upon the simplicities of the cross of Christ with an eye too little reverent and loving. They are snared in the old net in which the Grecians were taken, and have a hankering to mix philosophy with revelation. The temptation with a man of refined thought and high education is to depart from the simple truth of Christ crucified, and to invent, as the term is, a more intellectual doctrine. This led the early Christian churches into Gnosticism, and bewitched them with all sorts of heresies. This is the root of Neology, and the other fine things which in days gone by were so fashionable in Germany, and are now so ensnaring to certain classes of divines. Whoever you are, good reader, and whatever your education may be, if you be the Lord's, be assured you will find no rest in philosophizing divinity. You may receive this dogma of one great thinker, or that dream of another profound reasoner, but what the chaff is to the wheat, that will these be to the pure word of God. All that reason, when best guided, can find out is but the A B C of truth, and even that lacks certainty, while in Christ Jesus there is treasured up all the fullness of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:3) All attempts on the part of Christians to be content with systems such as Unitarian and Broad-church thinkers would approve of, must fail; true heirs of heaven must come back to the grandly simple reality which makes the ploughboy’s eye flash with joy, and gladens the pious pauper’s heart—“Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” Jesus satisfies the most elevated intellect when he is believingly received, but apart from him the mind of the regenerate discovers no rest. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” “A good understanding have all they that do his commandments.” - Charles Spurgeon