Over Christmas we celebrated the glad tidings of Immanuel, God with us in the person of Jesus Christ, born to save, to reconcile us to God forever. This ‘good news of great joy’ is not only the way people come to know of Jesus, it is the Spirit’s means for opening hearts to receive him. The Apostle Paul reminded the church in Rome that the gospel is nothing less than the power of God that brings salvation to all who believe. Given its necessity and import, though it might cost him, Paul declares he is not ashamed of the gospel; it is for him the most precious thing this world affords. In 2026 we take Paul’s statement as our verse of the year, to help us be conscious of, and confident in, the gospel, unashamed to stand on it and declare it afresh in our own generation.