For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation.The word I particularly wanted to focus on was "power." My father-in-law Pat pointed out to me that the Greek word for "power" in this text is the root of the word "dynamite."
The point I made to the class was that, by and large, we don't think of the gospel as a "power." We mostly think of the gospel as a legal verdict, the proclamation that we've been forgiven.
But salvation doesn't mean "forgiveness." Salvation means rescue, liberation, and emancipation.
Salvation means Exodus.
And if that's the case, I asked the class, what does it mean that the gospel is a power for salvation, an explosive force in the world that sets people free?
