Romans 1:16

Romans 1:16, in plain English

Paul says he's not embarrassed by the gospel because it's God's power to save anyone who believes—starting with Jews, then spreading to everyone else.

Why it's here

Rome was sophisticated, powerful, skeptical of barbarian religions. Paul is saying: I know the gospel might look foolish here, but I'm not ashamed because it actually works. It saves people. And it's for everyone, not just one group.

Who's speaking

Paul

Where it sits in the story

This is the thesis statement of Romans. The gospel is the power of God. Not human wisdom, not Rome's military might—God's power working through faith. And it's universal.

The scholarly reading

Paul declares that he is not ashamed of the gospel because it possesses divine power to save all who believe, offering salvation to both Jews and Gentiles.

Language and setting

The declaration 'I am not ashamed' (ouk epaischynomai) may seem declarative, but it responds to implicit Roman attitudes: the cross was socially stigmatized, and a message centered on a executed Jewish rabbi would have appeared foolish to educated Greco-Roman society. Paul's refusal to be ashamed represents a countercultural commitment to a message the world disdained. The phrase 'power of God' (dynamis theou) emphasizes that the gospel operates with divine efficacy, not human persuasion (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5). The structure 'to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek' establishes salvation's universal scope while honoring historical priority: the gospel's redemptive movement began with Israel and extended outward. This echoes Jesus's instruction to the disciples to begin in Jerusalem (Luke 24:47) and explains why Romans, Paul's most theological epistle, is addressed to a mixed congregation.

Voice

Paul, making his thematic assertion about the gospel's nature and power.

Significance

This verse stands as the gateway to the doctrinal argument of Romans. The 'power for salvation' connects to God's historic redemptive acts—the exodus, the return from exile—now universalized through Christ. It also prefigures the resurrection, which Paul will argue is the ultimate display of divine power over death and sin. The priority of Jews foreshadows the extended argument of Romans 9-11 regarding Israel's role in God's plan.

14I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.

15That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

16I 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.

17For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

Read all of Romans 1 — Paul's masterpiece — the most systematic explanation of the Christian faith ever written. Dense, brilliant, and life-changing from first verse to last.