Daily Devotionals

Bowen's Daily Meditations

Devotional: October 31st

" I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." - Romans 1:16.

This seems a very moderate declaration of attachment but very few can go so far as this. The gospel of Christ is the word that sets forth Christ. It is nothing apart from Christ. As He is honorable, so is it; as He is excellent, so is it. To be ashamed of it, is to be ashamed of Him.

Are you ashamed to speak, look, and act in such a way as to show your conviction that you and all men are lost sinners until recovered by the grace of God; and that you are dependent upon this grace for all power to conquer sin, resist temptation, know the truth? You flatter yourself that you are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because when you are with Christians, you laud Christ; but on other occasions you keep back the " one thing needful,’’ and give unscriptural prominence to the many things not vitally needful. Are you willing to speak as Christ spoke; to express the opinions expressed by the Son of God; to talk in promiscuous companies of the necessity of cutting off a right hand, plucking out a right eye; to make mention of unquenchable fires, and a never-dying worm; to tell men that except they repent, they shall all like wise perish; and to discourse of the mansions in the skies, and the return of Christ to judge mankind? If our conversation is quite of another character, if reference to these things is never or seldom made by us, is there not the strongest reason to believe that we are ashamed of the gospel of Christ? In fact, the presence of gospel truth in very many societies where Christians are frequently found, would be as startling as the presence of Christ himself. We are not even conscious of the humiliating defeats that we, professors of the gospel, have sustained.

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