“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God which brings salvation to everyone who believes; first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16).
The power of the gospel is that it changes peoples’ hearts. It brings hope where there is despair; it brings peace where there is conflict; it brings a home to those who are lost. It brings the possibility of change, of a new and better life, of a world of mutual love, respect and care.
It is this power of the gospel that is needed today.
The world is changing fast. The 20th century teetered under the threats posed by fascism and communism. The 21st century faces new challenges. The western world we have known, shaped by centuries of Christian influence, is changing, unsure of who it is, hesitant to embrace its past identity, conflicted about its future.
The two major emerging ideologies of our century are secularism and Islamism. Secularism sees no place for God. It draws on its own understandings of freedom and tolerance, and on the naïve view that there is no sin in the human heart, only malaises caused by circumstance.
The ideology of Islamism is feeding a diaspora of peoples spreading to all parts of the globe, seeking a new home. It is the opposite of secularism. God is everywhere, and human life is regulated under divine law strictly adhered to. No one is exempt.
Both these ideologies are deceptions, because they fail to change the human heart. Neither are grounded in the hope brought to human kind by a God of love who through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has brought salvation. Both, indeed, are increasingly hostile to such notions.
In this context, we are to take hold of the hope that is within us. We are to see this time in history as a time of new opportunity for the church. We are to be people who advance and advocate and embody the gospel of Jesus Christ. Like the first century, this is a radical message that will seem like foolishness to many, yet “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:25).
Jesus remains the hope of the world.