Romans 1:16

Note

Verses 16 and 17 have long been read as the theme of the whole letter. Having said that he is eager to preach the gospel in Rome (Romans 1:15), Paul gives his reason: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek" (Romans 1:16). The next verse says what the gospel reveals: the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish.

The noun euangelion (εὐαγγέλιον) is the object of epaischunomai (ἐπαισχύνομαι), "to be ashamed of", here in the present with the negative οὐ: a settled stance, not a passing mood. "Not ashamed" sounds mild, but it is the language of confidence, and it recalls Jesus' warning about anyone who "is ashamed of Me and My words" (Mark 8:38).

The ground of that confidence follows. The gospel is God's dunamis (δύναμις), his power, and that power leads to sōtēria (σωτηρία), salvation. Before the gospel is information about salvation, it is the power that saves. Those who receive it are everyone who believes, a present participle: whoever is believing. First to the Jew is the order of history: the gospel came first to the people to whom it had been promised, and then to all, for God is "the God of Gentiles too" (Romans 3:29).

The King James Version reads "the gospel of Christ", the BSB "the gospel". The words "of Christ" stand in the Textus Receptus, which the KJV follows, but not in the older manuscripts behind the BSB. The sense is the same: verse 9 has already called it the gospel of God's Son.

The versions agree on the substance and differ in small ways. The KJV's "the power of God unto salvation" keeps the direction of the Greek εἰς σωτηρίαν, toward salvation; the BSB's "for salvation" says the same more plainly. The LSV has "to everyone who is believing", holding on to the participle's present tense, and calls the gospel "the good news of the Christ".

Wesley notes that to the world the gospel is folly and weakness, so that by the world's judgment Paul ought to be ashamed of it, "especially at Rome, the head and theatre of the world" Wesley. He adds: "As St. Paul comprises the sum of the gospel in this epistle, so he does the sum of the epistle in this and the following verse" Wesley. Matthew Henry, reading on into the next verse, writes: "Faith is all in all, both in the beginning and progress of Christian life" Matthew Henry.

What the gospel looked like in Rome shows a few years later. Writing early in the second century of the Christians Nero put to death after the fire of AD 64, Tacitus called their faith "a most mischievous superstition" Tacitus, Annals 15.44. A crucified man proclaimed as Lord was "a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" (1 Corinthians 1:23). To that city Paul writes that he is not ashamed. The righteousness of God in the next verse became, centuries later, the phrase Luther wrestled with Luther, Preface to the Latin Writings.

Paul was not unashamed because the gospel looked strong, but because it is God's power to save everyone who believes. The verse tells anyone standing before the gospel that its power lies neither in the one who tells it nor in the one who hears it, but in God.