What do we mean by “power for salvation”? Why does the kerygma have power? Paul tells us in his first chapter of the letter to the Romans. He says the gospel is “the power of God for salvation for all those who believe.” [He was] totally convinced of it. He gave his whole life to it. He saw the power of God in the power of what the kerygma does to the human heart. There’s a really wonderful passage in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 that gives us clear insight as to why the kerygma has power. What is this power? To begin with, first I want to say this: the content of the kergyma is the good news about Jesus. It’s the fact that he’s Lord and Christ, Savior of the world. But the method of the kergyma is the work of the Holy Spirit. Those two things go together. It’s the right message under the right anointing of the Holy Spirit. I’ll show you why in this reading.
So this is 2nd Corinthians Chapter 4 verses 1 through 6. In it, Paul says: “Therefore this ministry by the mercy of God…” What is he talking about? He’s talking about the ministry of proclaiming the gospel. He said, “We don’t lose heart. We’ve denounced disgraceful or underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” That’s a description of evangelization, representing the kerygma. Through the open statement of the truth, which is the kerygma, we make an appeal to every man’s conscience, right? So he goes on. Paul said, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ.”
What we’re going to see here is that evangelization is fundamentally spiritual warfare. There’s a battle between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. The devil’s strategy is to blind the human mind and the human heart from the capacity to see what God has done in Jesus. And Paul explains this. He says, “For what we preach is not ourselves, but [we preach] Jesus Christ as Lord.” That’s a summary of the kerygma: “Jesus Christ is Lord.” This is the interesting part in terms of understanding the power: “We preach Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” This is the key. He says, “For it is the God who said let light shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God that is shining on the face of Christ.”
Do you get that? Remember what Jesus said to Peter when Peter identified him as the Messiah? What did he say? He said, “Flesh and blood didn’t reveal that to you, Peter, but my Heavenly Father made it possible for you to grasp who I am.” [That] is essentially what he said. He said, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him.” What does Paul tell us right here? He said, knowing the spiritual battle that’s going on, that the devil’s strategy is to veil the human mind and the human heart, the only way to penetrate that veil of darkness, he said, is to preach and to declare the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord. And he said, “when we preach that, the God who said let light shine out of darkness…” Where’s that from? That is from Genesis, right? When God spoke, he spoke light into the darkness. He said, that God “sheds light into the human heart when we preach the kerygma.” It’s the Holy Spirit that empowers the proclamation of the kergyma.
So it’s not just the words. There is the content, which is the story, the realization, that Jesus Christ is Lord. But the method is the Spirit. And the Spirit opens the human heart because it’s the special mission of the Holy Spirit to reveal to every human heart the Lordship and Majesty of Jesus. So that is a miracle. What happens in the human heart, it’s a God thing. This is why it has power, right? Paul said very clearly, I didn’t come to you with eloquence and lots of persuasion. He said, I presented to you the message that Jesus Christ is Lord and what happened? The Holy Spirit backs this message.
The reason this is the germ cell of the Church’s life and faith, and why the recent popes have really exhorted us to lay hold of the kerygma again, is because the Holy Spirit wants to back this. If we’re talking about all kinds of things the Holy Spirit doesn’t want to talk about, He’s not going to anoint it. In order for the human heart to be freed to come to faith, it’s a work of God in us. And God has decided through the foolishness of what we preach to save those who believe. And what’s preached is this message, that Jesus Christ is Lord. So when you’re out there sharing the gospel, don’t worry if you’re not that eloquent or if you don’t feel great that particular day, because it’s not about you. It’s about us just communicating this truth. We got to make sure we bring the right content and that we trust the Holy Spirit to do his work. That’s where the power comes from.