For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: {5} for it is the {x} power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the {y} Greek.

(5) This is the second part of the epistle, until the beginning of chapter nine. Now the whole end and purpose of the discussion is this: that is to say, to show that there is but one way to attain unto salvation (which is displayed to us by God in the gospel, and that equally to every nation), and this way is Jesus Christ apprehended by faith.

(x) God's mighty and effectual instrument to save men by.

(y) When this word Greek is contrasted with the word Jew, then it signifies a Gentile.

People's New Testament

1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel. Hence he is ready to preach it in Rome, in the very citadel of heathen pride and power. If there was any place where one would be ashamed of a crucified Savior that place was Rome in the reign of Nero.

The gospel. God's plan of salvation in Christ. Its three great facts are the death, burial, and the resurrection of Christ (1Co 15:1-4).

For. He now states why he is not ashamed of the gospel.

It is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel is God's only appointed means of salvation. The name of Jesus Christ is the only name... whereby we must be saved (Ac 4:12). All God's saving power is manifested through the gospel.

To every one that believeth. The great fundamental facts of the gospel (see above) must be believed, in order to the enjoyment of the saving power. They are embraced in the proposition that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. The gospel does not save unconditionally. Belief is a condition.

To the Jew first, and also to the Greek. The first to enjoy this saving power were Jews. To them the gospel was first offered. But it is offered to the Greek also, on the same conditions.

Wesley's Notes

1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel - To the world, indeed, it is folly and weakness, 1Cor 1:18; therefore, in the judgment of the world, he ought to be ashamed of it; especially at Rome, the head and theatre of the world. But Paul is not ashamed, knowing it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth - The great and gloriously powerful means of saving all who accept salvation in God's own way. As St. Paul comprises the sum of the gospel in this epistle, so he does the sum of the epistle in this and the following verse . Both to the Jew, and to the gentile - There is a noble frankness, as well as a comprehensive sense, in these words, by which he, on the one hand, shows the Jews their absolute need of the gospel; and, on the other, tells the politest and greatest nation in the world both that their salvation depended on receiving it, and that the first offers of it were in every place to be made to the despised Jews.

Scofield Reference Notes

[1] salvation

The Heb. and Gr. words for salvation imply the ideas of deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness. Salvation is the great inclusive word of the Gospel, gathering into itself all the redemptive acts and processes: as justification, redemption, grace, propitiation, imputation, forgiveness, sanctification, and glorification. Salvation is in three tenses:

(1) The believer has been saved from the guilt and penalty of sin Lk 7:50 1Cor 1:18 2Cor 2:15 Eph 2:5,8 2Tim 1:9 and is safe.

(2) the believer is being saved from the habit and dominion of sin Rom 6:14 Phil 1:19 2:12,13 2Th 2:13 Rom 8:2 Gal 2:19,20 2Cor 3:18.

(3) The believer is to be saved in the sense of entire conformity to Christ. Rom 13:11 Heb 10:36 1Pet 1:5 1Jn 3:2. Salvation is by grace through faith, is a free gift, and wholly without works Rom 3:27,28 4:1-8 6:23 Eph 2:8. The divine order is: first salvation, then works Eph 2:9,10 Ti 3:5-8.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel-(The words, "of Christ," which follow here, are not found in the oldest and best manuscripts). This language implies that it required some courage to bring to "the mistress of the world" what "to the Jews was a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness" (1Co 1:23). But its inherent glory, as God's life-giving message to a dying world, so filled his soul, that, like his blessed Master, he "despised the shame."

for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth-Here and in Ro 1:17 the apostle announces the great theme of his ensuing argument; Salvation, the one overwhelming necessity of perishing men; this revealed IN THE GOSPEL MESSAGE; and that message so owned and honored of God as to carry, in the proclamation of it, God's own power to save every soul that embraces it, Greek and Barbarian, wise and unwise alike.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:16,17 In these verses the apostle opens the design of the whole epistle, in which he brings forward a charge of sinfulness against all flesh; declares the only method of deliverance from condemnation, by faith in the mercy of God, through Jesus Christ; and then builds upon it purity of heart, grateful obedience, and earnest desires to improve in all those Christian graces and tempers, which nothing but a lively faith in Christ can bring forth. God is a just and holy God, and we are guilty sinners. It is necessary that we have a righteousness to appear in before him: there is such a righteousness brought in by the Messiah, and made known in the gospel; a gracious method of acceptance, notwithstanding the guilt of our sins. It is the righteousness of Christ, who is God, coming from a satisfaction of infinite value. Faith is all in all, both in the beginning and progress of Christian life. It is not from faith to works, as if faith put us into a justified state, and then works kept us in it; but it is all along from faith to faith; it is faith pressing forward, and gaining the victory over unbelief.