Romans Chapter 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.
Why would we ever be tempted to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ? Our first point is perhaps the strongest, that being the ridicule of the world against us, especially by those who are learned and admired. But, these learned and admired ridiculers of Christ and Christianity, by the devils influence, are responsible for culturing the hordes of people and the masses of opinions that both ridicule and reject that which we preach. So, now instead of an intelligent opponent who is a fool and has reasoning that is unsound and founded in only human thought, we now face an entire culture of people who believe that they understand exactly where and how their learned idols of christian ridiculers are superior in thought and philosophy as compared to christians; for christians, it is taught, are superstitious and but one of many religious groups in the world. Being up against myriads of armchair philosophers and television scholars may seem an insurmountable task! But, give no heed to the ignorance of the world, the apostle Paul tells us that their “understanding (is) darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:” (Eph. 4:18), indeed they “walk in the vanity of their mind” he tells us in verse 17.
The Gospel does not glory in these things that the world glories in. What does the world glory in you might say? The world glories in putting everything neatly into a box, everything in its place, all tied up with a bow; and, then the world sits back in pride and says “there see what we’ve done, we’ve figured it all out!” Well, is this true? ”Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?”(1Cor 1:20) We simply ask, how is your worldly wisdom working out for you? If we were to rephrase Epicurus, we might say this “You say that your mind and intellect is all powerful and that you care for this creation that you deny God has created” I then say, ” answer me on these questions then. Is your mind and intellect willing to prevent evil, but is not able? Then your mind and intellect is not omnipotent. Is your mind and intellect able, but not willing? Then your mind and intellect is malevolent. Is your mind and intellect both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is your mind and intellect neither able nor willing? Then why call your mind and intellect of any value at all?”.
We don’t preach ethics, politics, science, military; we preach facts! A carpenter who died in weakness, His apostles, uneducated fishermen; then there’s the apostle Paul, a man who was highly educated, and yet counted it as dung. The Gospel doesn’t recognize mans need for making himself sure of anything, the Gospel is God’s method outside of man. Now we do not commit intellectual suicide, this is not the point. The point is that a mans own ability will never make him a christian. The able are on the same level as the ignorant, and scripture deliberately points out that intellectual pride is the last rampart to fall when the Holy Spirit is dealing with a mans soul. It doesn’t glory in intellect or moral effort and striving.
You can do all you like, your righteousness is as filthy rags, all your learning will avail you not, even what you believe is utterly useless. Well the world hates that! And Paul had to suffer under its scorn. This is how the temptation came to Timothy; mental and physical suffering came with the gospel. The gospel reverses the worlds ideas everywhere and always, without exception, it’s all on its own and separate. Not in line with any other teaching. There is no other religion even remotely similar to Christianity; we preach truth not philosophy. The most ignorant and the wisest that the world has can listen to the same gospel at this very moment and have an equal chance of salvation. There is absolutely no advantage to the educated and accomplished mind in receiving the gift that is salvation, and more likely a disadvantage to the person who is so accomplished that his ego and pride are a curse to him. How many an intellect have seen no need for the gospel? The world sits back and roars with laughter, what a show it says, born of a virgin, died in weakness, a crew of fishermen, bravo they yell! And, how hard is it to sit back while the world laughs at you, especially when you could meet them at their intellect and dismantle them as the apostle Paul and many other intellectually gifted saints through the centuries were capable of. How many times have I heard the world lament the fact that Jonathan Edwards, who is considered by many if not most as being the greatest philosophical mind that ever came out of the USA, devoted the entirety of his great intellect to the spiritual things of God and not the contemplative purposes of man? Paul, as others, knew that that would be denying the gospel. He has to keep all that back, cut it down leave it out, be a fool for Christ’s sake.
1 Corinthians chapter 2:1-5
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
One of the most important tests as to what the true gospel is, is that the gospel is always offensive to the natural man. We have experienced this time and time again, and we say again, that the gospel is always offensive to the natural man! ”For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness”(1Cor 1:18)
Scripture Alone 