“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” (Ro. 1:16).
The highways of hell are littered with people refusing to trust that Jesus is who He says He is. The Jews to whom Paul refers are those unbelievers who do not think they need the gospel because they do not need saving. They believe they were born into the right families, and the faith of their fathers is all they need. Paul writes, “It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendents” (Ro. 9:8).
The Jews had much formal religion – they loved the husk. All formalists are wanderers who are under the misunderstanding that because they were baptized as infants or walked an aisle one day and professed to believe, they really are saved. Many of these “Jews” would declare that they have been a Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopalian, et cetera all their lives, and they certainly are going to heaven. The pity is that they have never lain prostrate before Calvary’s cross and acknowledged Jesus as Lord of their lives.
Believers live their beliefs. Christian believers live like Christ. When a professing Christian is not living like Christ and has never lived like Christ, he can have no Spirit-anointed assurance that he is a Christian. How do you know this? Jesus says, “For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit; nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit” (Lk. 6:43f.).
Paul’s reference to the Greeks alerts your attention to those having little interest in religion. They appreciate the eloquence of religious speakers, they are admirers of religious intellect, they love the way the speaker can capture them with a word and the polish or finesse he may exude, but they view him as foolish and bigoted when he claims that Jesus is the only way (Jn. 14:6).
You have many “Greeks” in your society. They will patiently listen to the claims of the Muslim, Bahai, Unitarian, Hindu, Buddhist, Universalist, and others. Their opinion is that all that matters is one’s sincerity and one’s openness to the philosophies of those around him (Col. 2:8).
Every non-believer falls into Paul’s two categories. Nonetheless, God is every day saving and sanctifying folk who are “Jew and Greek.” He is calling to Himself those whom He purchased with the blood of His Son: “Men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And Thou has made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth” (Rev. 5:9f.).
Is there any area of your theological armor challenging your lifestyle because you question what God says about His Son and what He says about the lifestyles of those believing in His Son?
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