“…the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation…” - Rom 1:16
I’ve never been in a street fight.
They look pretty scary, honestly, and I have no desire to be in one. I’m not, by nature, a fighter, and would rather just back away slowly.
But the phrase ‘the bigger they are, the harder they fall’ has been used in the context of bringing down large and important figures in boxing for years. In fact, the expression is believed to come from boxing and became popular when Robert Fitzsimmons used it in a 1902 newspaper interview before fighting the much heavier James J. Jeffries.
If you’re like me, there are certain people in your life that you feel are the furthest from salvation. They’re so hardened, and so darkened by sin, that you’ve given up hope that God will ever save them.
You might be right, but can you imagine a more hardened sinner than the Apostle Paul? He was busy killing Christians when Jesus saved him. Of all the religious leaders of his day, Paul says that he was outworking all of them in self-righteousness, and in the persecution of the church (see his pedigree in Phil 3:1-6).
And yet, Jesus saved this hardened sinner.
And the weight of his salvation was felt around the world at the time, and has echoed down to us in our day through his ministry.
He was one of the biggest, but Jesus brought him down.
No wonder, then, that when Paul wrote Romans, he said that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. No matter how powerful, and no matter how important a person is, their power is nothing in comparison to the power of God.
And when that power of God is unleashed on a person for their salvation…well…they’re going to be saved. No matter how big an unbeliever is, friends, Jesus is bigger, and the Gospel is His power to bring them to Himself.
So, rather than despair for the hardest in our lives, and rather than make excuses for our lack of boldness because of the hardness of those around us, let’s willingly and openly proclaim the Gospel to a lost and dying world.
Those whom God chooses will be saved, and nothing can keep them from that destiny.
