Romans 1:16
What does Romans 1:16 mean?
For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.
The short answer
In Romans 1:16, Paul plants a flag: "For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek."
Start with that opening phrase. "I am not ashamed" sounds cautious to modern ears, as if Paul were merely tolerating the message. But this is a classic figure of speech called litotes — deliberate understatement that means far more than it says. When someone tells you a meal was "not bad," they often mean it was excellent. In the same way, Paul's "not ashamed" really means something like "I am proud of this message and glad to announce it anywhere, including Rome." The letter to the Hebrews uses the very same construction when it says Christ "is not ashamed" to call believers his brothers — meaning he is proud to do so.
Why is Paul so confident? Because of what the gospel is. It is not advice, a philosophy, or a self-improvement program. It is an announcement — a royal proclamation that Jesus is Lord because God has raised him from the dead. And Paul claims that this announcement carries power in itself. When it is made and believed, things actually happen: lives change, hearts change, and new communities form around the risen Jesus.
The last phrase — "for the Jew first, and also for the Greek" — makes the scope clear. Salvation comes through the same door for everyone who believes, beginning with God's covenant people Israel and extending to the whole Gentile world. In one compressed sentence, Paul has stated the thesis of the entire letter: what the gospel is, what it does, and who it is for.
What scholars say
N. T. Wright explains why Paul can call the gospel God's power: it is a royal announcement of the risen Jesus that visibly changes lives and creates new communities. Thomas G. Long then shows that "not ashamed" is likely litotes — understatement meaning Paul is proud to preach it, the same construction Hebrews uses of Christ.
“In other words, as he says in Romans 1.16, the gospel, the royal announcement that Jesus is Lord, because God has raised him from the dead, is ‘God’s power for salvation to those who believe’. When this announcement is made, people discover to their astonishment that things change. Lives change. Human hearts change. Situations change. New communities come into being, consisting of people grasped by the message, believing it’s true despite everything, falling in love with the God they find to be alive in this Jesus, giving Jesus their supreme loyalty. That is the evidence Paul has in mind. ‘To us who are being saved, it is God’s power.’ That is as true in the twenty-first century as it was in the first – however much people today, exactly as in Paul’s day, defend their own power and prestige by declaring that it’s all folly.”
“It is for the very reason ( di’ hēn aitian ) that the sanctifier and sanctified share a common source that he can call them “brothers” ( adelphoi )—the Greek means having the same mother. We are reminded again of Rom 8:29, “Those whom [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born of many brothers.” Also reminding us of Romans is the phrase “he is not ashamed” ( ouk epaischynetai ), which is the same construction used by Paul in Rom 1:16 with reference to preaching the good news. Like Rom 1:16, this may be an example of litotes, or understatement, meaning in truth, “he is proud to call them brothers.” Compare Heb 11:16, “God is not ashamed to be called their God.”
What it means for you
Paul wrote these words to believers in Rome, the seat of imperial power, where the message of a crucified and risen Lord could easily sound like foolishness. That pressure has not disappeared. Most of us know the quiet temptation to soften our convictions, to keep faith private so it costs us nothing socially.
Romans 1:16 offers a different footing. Confidence in the gospel does not rest on our nerve or eloquence but on what the message itself does — it is God's power, not ours. That frees you to speak and live openly, trusting that the announcement carries its own weight, in the twenty-first century as much as the first.
Romans 1 in context
Romans 1 opens with Paul introducing himself to a church he has never visited. He describes his calling as an apostle, gives thanks for the Roman believers' faith, and explains his long-standing desire to come to them. Verses 16–17 form the hinge of the whole letter: Paul's compressed statement of what the gospel is and what it accomplishes. Immediately afterward, in verse 18, he pivots to a long diagnosis of human rebellion and unrighteousness — the problem to which the gospel he has just announced is the answer.