Christ Leads The Way

“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” – Romans 1:16

You can’t be a people pleaser and go to heaven. I know this to be true because it’s a principle that’s taught throughout the Bible. People are subject to whims and their own opinions that are not always aligned with God’s. So God’s will must always reign supreme. He has all authority over everyone, whether they believe it or like it or not.

Jesus said, “Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. Don’t assume that I came to bring peace in the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

“For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of His household […] And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:32-36, 38).

Many times, acknowledging Christ and His teachings will mean going cross-grain to the culture in which we live. It also means that people will be set at odds with one another because of their differences in beliefs.

While I am naturally inclined to dislike and dissuade any type of conflict with others, I know that my faith in Christ will cause disagreements with others, disdain towards me, and, even, possibly my death. But I believe in Christ with my whole heart, and I will always stand for His righteousness and His truth, no matter what the cost may be.

“Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it.” – Matthew 10:39

The Lord said not to be surprised if the world hates you as His disciple because the world hated Him first (John 15:18-19). I stand with God, and I stand on His Word. I stand against sin, and I stand against hate. I stand for Jesus.

The gospel is for all people, but all people will not accept it. “To those who are perishing, the message of the cross is foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is God’s power” (1 Corinthians 1:18). People say that they want truth, but they deny the absolute truth. Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). No one can make it to the Father except by Him.

It’s no marvel that so many people do not accept Christ. “People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of religion but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:2-5). And the time is now for all those people who deny God and carry out such things to repent (Acts 17:30).

If people do not repent of their sinful and wicked ways, there is a fiery judgment that awaits (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). They will be the ones who are continually on fire, eternally. And there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12).

So whether it’s convenient or not, I will always teach and preach Christ and Him crucified. He is the author of my salvation. And God is calling all people everywhere to repent of their sinful, hateful, and ungodly ways, to believe in Christ, to confess that He is Lord, and to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.

I am not ashamed of the gospel.