Here is truth: God has power to kill shame, flatten sin and resurrect people. And he has power to resurrect what for all the world looks like death in your life. The good news about Jesus Christ is the power of God. The gospel is its own power. It doesn’t tell us how to get power. It is power.
The story of the Bible from beginning to end is the story of God’s power over our weakness. Paul tells the Corinthians that the word of the cross is for those who are dying and for those who have been defeated. It is for those who feel powerless. The gospel is for the ones who have lost everything, who have seen it all get washed down the drain, who have tried this world on for size only to discover that it has no power to save us from anything.
Let me say that again: The world has no power to save us from anything.
Paul tells us that the good news about Jesus is for everyone who believes. The Greek word for “believe” in his proclamation in Romans 1 (pisteuo) has the same root as the Greek word for “faith.” Getting this word down is a key to everything. This brand of faith is not about accepting a tick list of facts. And it isn’t (these are JD Walt’s words) a “kind of lever that we pull in order to make something else happen.”* That’s how you birth heresies like the prosperity gospel.
Faith is the life of Jesus living itself out in me. Fellowship. Friendship. What could be more inviting? More organic? More real?
“I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to all who believe …”
Some days, it is just good to be reminded that our part in the equation is simply to believe.
* I am grateful for the JD’s daily teachings at http://dailytext.seedbed.com
