In Roman’s 1:8-17 Rome was a city where Caesar Nero would dress thousands of Christians in the skins of lambs and throw them to the lions then taunt them by saying, “Where is your Good Shepherd now?” He would dip Christians in hot wax and light them in his garden and say, “Now you are a light of the world.” Rome was the entertainment capital of the world and was so wicked even Hollywood would be forced to blush, where the acceptable greeting of the day was “Caesar is lord”. Yet it is to this place Paul declared that he was not ashamed of the gospel. Faith is not only the starting point of our salvation it is the staying power of our salvation. Paul wrote in Col. 2:6 “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him”. That is why when Paul wrote to the Galatians in 3:3 he said “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”
