Category Archives: Romans

An Ancient Promise Fulfilled

By | | , ,
Comments Off on An Ancient Promise Fulfilled

An Ancient Promise Fulfilled

Studies In Paul’s Letter to the Romans
by Bob Burridge ©2011

Lesson 03: Romans 1:2-7

We hear bad news every day. There are accidents, disasters, diseases, crime, children shooting children, doctors killing the unborn, storms devastating communities, epidemics, resistant strains of bacteria threatening our health, and violent law breakers taking what is not theirs and terrorizing the lives of others.

To the world, without an understanding of God’s revealed truth, none of it makes any sense. People ask, “What possible good could there be in all this suffering, struggle, and pain?”

According to the common view today, man is alone in a meaningless universe. There is no God and no purpose to anything except what we make of it. Chance alone is believed to govern nature. Personal choice is believed to be all that governs individuals. This would mean that nothing is certain or has any real purpose. Often people make this pure rationalism the basis of all their thinking.

The religion of much of our modern world is Humanism. According to that view, man answers to nothing above himself. God is seen as a helpful fantasy invented by weak minded people. In the Humanist Manifesto II it states its own view of salvation for mankind: “No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.” (Paragraph 4 in the section about “Religion”)

Yet the manifesto begins by recounting the history of this human race that is supposed to save itself. It mentions the Nazis, police states, and racism. How can members of such a race of humans really save themselves? There is not much hope to offer, if we are on our own.

However, man is a created being, therefore he cannot live consistently as if there was no reality beyond the physical. For that reason many turn to mysticism and imagine all sorts of supernatural and superstitious realities. Even considering that, they can not account for why things are the way they are. One mystic believes one thing and another believes the opposite. One vision says God wants one thing, another vision or miracle shows the opposite. Contradictions become so common that the hope of real truth is abandoned.

Because of this abandonment of God, and of any absolute standard of truth and morality, despair and a sense of emptiness has become the norm.

In reality things are even worse than just bad news reports and man’s confusing philosophies. The Bible shows that at its root the fallen human soul is sick with sin and spiritually dead. As a result, the fallen dead soul is unable to rightly admit its own condition. It knows that no matter what is believed or done, no one can stop the bad news. There is no promise of a meaningful way through calamities, disasters, disease, or human crime.

We need a remedy for the cause of the underlying problem, not a tranquilizer for its symptoms. We don’t need pain killers, we need a cure. We don’t need to feel better, we need to get better. We don’t need to believe we are right, we need to be right. There is too much is at stake. Our world needs good news.

According to God’s word there really is good news.

While we may not be able to eliminate the tell-tale symptoms of a sin sick world, we can eliminate how they impact us. The individual soul can be delivered from the turmoil his inescapable sufferings can bring. Meaning and hope can be put back into struggling, empty lives.

The real good news is that there is a plan. There is a purpose to it all. The Greek word for “good news” is euangelion (ευαγγελιον). We translate it “gospel.” As Paul begins his letter to the Romans, the first chapter gives us the main theme. It is a letter all about the “gospel”, a word which appears four times in this first chapter.

In the opening sentence the author shows
what is at the center of his own mission in life.

Romans 1:1, “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God”

The Gospel of Christ deals with the most basic problem in man’s struggle. The major theme developed in the first 5 chapters of Romans is that we are restored to fellowship with God only by what Jesus Christ accomplished. As people restored to fellowship with God we have great hope and assurance.

First he shows us that this good news is not some new innovation.

Romans 1:2, “which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,”

Christianity was not a new idea born in the first century. The same gospel was promised long ago by God’s Prophets in Scripture. Paul doesn’t just mean the Major and Minor prophetic books in the Old Testament. He includes all who spoke from God and whose words have been preserved in Scripture; Moses, David, and all the others.

No idea invented by man is certain enough to give us confidence in this world. This good news comes from God by his specially revealed word.

Paul and those to whom he wrote in Rome evidently knew these ancient promises of the Bible. He speaks of them without explaining what he meant. The Old Testament is the foundation for the New Testament. Without understanding the ancient promises and the terms used long before, we are bound to fail to fully appreciate the words and work of Christ.

Because there is such a poor understanding of the Old Testament in the Christian community today, many don’t understand the unified message of the Bible. They see a different God in the Old Testament than in the New. They see a different way of salvation, and a different answer to the problems of the world. But that cannot be. God does not change. He never needed to improve his perfect plan.

So Paul begins his gospel message by declaring the unity of God’s plan. When he introduces his theme in verse 17 we will saw in our last study that he bases it on an Old Testament text.

The center of the gospel is Jesus Christ.
There is no hope of good news without him.

Romans 1:3-4, “concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,”

From the first promise in Eden to the actual life of Jesus on earth, the coming of Messiah has always been the focus of the gospel.

Since the human race had fallen into sin through Adam, it would take a second Adam to redeem it. Jesus was born to be that second Adam. He took on a real human nature. As a real human he was fit to stand as a representative for his people. Of course there was a very important difference: Jesus did not inherit the sin of the first Adam as the rest of us have. He took on all our human attributes but without the corruption of inherited sin.

He fulfilled the ancient promises as to how that would be accomplished. Jesus was born of the seed of a woman as promised in Genesis 3:15. He was born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit of God as Isaiah predicted. He was born in Bethlehem of the tribe of Judah. And very importantly he was of the family of King David. This was a promise made directly in Isaiah 9:7, “Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Jesus came to reveal his Kingdom in a grander earthly form.

Jesus is also revealed as having a complete divine nature. He is called the Son of God. Many can be called sons of God in a general sense of loving God as their Father. However, it took on a special technical meaning in the prophets. When Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) the next verse tells us that the Jews took up stones to stone Him (John 10:31). Jesus then explained their reaction in verse 36, “do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?” The Jews understood what this term meant because they knew the words of the prophets.

Jesus didn’t become the Son of God at his resurrection. He was always God the Son. but his eternal Sonship was declared with power by the resurrection.

Jesus was one person who could draw from two natures: both human and divine. Only a Redeemer that was fully human could stand for man and his infinite sin and guilt. Only an infinitely holy and powerful God could pay that infinite price to redeem a fallen race. We will see as our studies in Romans continues, that when Jesus died he did not just make a way of salvation, or make salvation a possibility. He actually satisfied God’s justice for the moral crimes of his people and did all that was needed to fully restore them to fellowship with God forever.

Jesus was all that God had promised the Messiah would be. His eternal divine nature was united with an unfallen human nature to become the Savior.

This was not a new idea. It was the ancient gospel promised from the beginning. After the resurrection of Jesus he appeared to the two disciples along the road to Emmaus. There he pointed out how the whole of the Scriptures had spoken of him. In Luke 24:25-27 it says, “And He said to them, ‘O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”

This good news involves both God’s promise and our duty.

Romans 1:5-6, “Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;”

The grace of God and the appointment of Paul as an Apostle had a purpose. God called Paul to bring about the obedience of faith. In particular he ministered the good news specially to the Gentiles. If the Old and New Testaments are separated into two gospels with two separate messages, the unity which was spoken of by Jesus, Paul and the others is lost. The New Testament becomes isolated from all the verses it quotes from the Old Testament Scriptures. A crippled message emerges which is not defined by God’s word as a whole. It becomes a tapestry woven by man’s own imagination. Terms are defined by theologians instead of by the inspired words of the Holy Spirit. In doing this, contemporary Christianity has obscured important truth, the truth that makes the news to be good.

Our faith and obedience are not the cause of God’s grace being extended to us. If it was earned by us, or caused by our decisions or choices, then it would not be grace. Grace is by definition something unearned and undeserved.

If we had to act first to stir God to apply his promises to us, there would be no hope at all. We are fallen sinners and if left to ourselves we would never embrace Christ. All who come humbly to him and who trust in his work alone for their salvation have been brought to him by an overwhelming grace that makes them willing to come.

It was this grace that re-claimed Paul on his trip to Damascus and made him a believer. It was this grace that called a proud Pharisee to be an obedient Apostle and servant of Christ. It is this grace that rescues even Gentiles and changes their fallen hearts so that they will trust what God has said and strive to obey him in their thoughts and lives.

Our obedience to the faith revealed by the Prophets and Apostles is the evidence, not the cause, of the grace of God at work in our lives. Our obedience to and trust in the truth which God has revealed in his word brings glory to him, to his name, not to us.

Those in Rome, or those of us here wherever we maybe, show that we are the called of God when this obedience of faith is seen in us toward Christ.

What good news! While we flounder to know truth and to find a standard of living, God delivers us by his own power and promise. Salvation does not depend upon what we do. It depends upon what Christ, the infinite and almighty God in human flesh has done.

These are not vague generalities.
They are specific promises to all those blessed by God’s grace.

Romans 1:7, “To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul reminds these readers in Rome that they are beloved of God and called saints. They are beloved of God because his grace has made them partakers of the ancient promises. He reminds them that this grace which applies the work of Christ to them makes them saints.

These were not perfect believers. Paul’s letter corrects several errors among them. Yet, in Christ, all who are redeemed are declared free from the guilt of their sins. It is in this way that we all who are made to trust in Christ for our salvation are called “saints.”

The writer of the book of Hebrews explained the work of Christ as the sacrifice for sin. In Hebrews 10:10 he writes, “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

In this wonderful good news, the gospel of Christ, sinners are made into saints, slaves to sin are made into slaves of the Creator. This is a marvelous transformation of grace.

There is real good news here for our floundering world. There is a powerful Gospel. It is an ancient hope as old as the human race itself. It is a perfect hope founded upon the promise of God himself, and the work of Jesus Christ as the Redeemer.

When we see all the bad news closing in around us, or even when we become the victims of a world plunged into rebellion against its Creator, God does not give us pain killers, he gives us a cure. He does not just make us feel better, he cures us of the sickness itself. God doesn’t ask us to just convince ourselves we are right, he reveals what is right and true.

There is a plan and purpose to it all even if we don’t see how it all fits together. Our duty is to trust in this good news, and represent it in our words and lives to others. God’s promise is to deliver his people from the pain of sin and from the agony of disaster. God’s promise cannot fail.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Bible unless otherwise noted.)

Back to the Index of Studies In Paul’s Letter to the Romans

A Servant’s Perspective

By | | , ,
Comments Off on A Servant’s Perspective

A Servant’s Perspective

Studies In Paul’s Letter to the Romans
by Bob Burridge ©2011

Lesson 02: Romans 1:1

The first words of the book of Romans tell us a lot about its author, and they reflect its main themes.

Romans 1:1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God

This first verse shows us that the author saw himself as belonging to his Master, Jesus Christ, and that he was called to serve as an Apostle promoting the good message God had made known.

The message is summarized in this book of Romans in three main themes:
1. We are restored to fellowship with God only by what Jesus Christ accomplished.
2. Those restored to fellowship with God always show changed lives.
3. Lives changed by God ought to effect the society in which they live.

Living by these principles is neither common, nor valued in our world. Instead of seeing our hope and purpose centered in Christ, we are faced everyday with self-centered attitudes that are poisoning our society. Instead of asking what is right and what is true, people are asking what will further their own personal interests.

The idol of “Self” has become the god of our modern culture. Ego has become the center of our attention and concerns. Moral law has been re-written to justify anything that promotes a person’s self interests. Even much of our worship has been turned into entertainment to gratifying the god of self.

We live in an era where things are badly out of order. The idea of man being created and redeemed to serve God, who is truly his Lord, is not well liked, nor has it ever been truly popular. Individuals, homes, schools, businesses, churches, and governments don’t like to admit that there might be absolute standards they must obey. God is usually re-defined in some way that limits his authority over us. Even our duties to others are modified so that they will mostly benefit the doer.

One of the things most people try to avoid is being in the position of a servant. How different is Paul’s attitude as he begins this letter to the Roman believers.

Romans 1 begins …

Romans 1:1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God

The author of this book is the Apostle Paul.


We know from the rest of Scripture that he was born Saul of Tarsus. He was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin and a citizen of the Roman Empire. As a very gifted student of the Hebrew Scriptures he went to study in Jerusalem. His teacher was Gamaliel, one of the most celebrated rabbis of that era. Even today Rabbi Gamaliel is quoted and honored among the Jews. As a strongly committed Pharisee Saul lashed out at the Christians. He saw them as a new sect that threatened the traditions of the rabbis.

Saul’s life changed dramatically. As he traveled to Damascus, fully authorized by the high priest to hunt down and arrest Christians, the risen Christ stopped him, set him free from his bondage to sin. Jesus put faith into Saul’s heart enabling him to trust in the work of Jesus as the promised Messiah.

Soon Saul was promoting the Christian faith. He told the gentiles about the ancient promises and principles of God’s word. He explained to both Jews and gentilesthat Jesus was the Messiah promised ages ago in Scripture. In his travels outside the Jewish communities, Saul became known by the Greek name, Paul.

While on his third missionary journey he wrote his letter to the Romans. Paul had not been able to get to Rome in person. So he wrote this letter to tell them what he would have taught if he had come in person. Romans comprehends and summarizes the basics of the Christian faith.

Paul considered himself a “servant” of Jesus Christ

Romans 1:1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God

Paul used this unpopular idea of servant to summarize his relationship with Christ. We need to know what he meant.

In the Roman culture slavery had become very abusive. The Greek word used for bond slaves was doulos (δοθλος) which is the word Paul uses here. In Rome slavery had become ownership of the servant. They were forced into service against their will and often treated abusively. Even today we think of slaves as people who are demeaned and mistreated.

However, that would not be how a Jew of Paul’s training would use the word. Nor does that oppressive idea fit with what Paul is saying about his relationship with Christ.

In his law, God had explained what his people ought think about being servants. Back then, People weren’t hired with contracts and pay-scales in the way they are today. To work, they willingly bound themselves to a master to work faithfully expecting fair wages. Debtors could work their way out of obligations by working as servants. Law breakers not guilty of capitol crimes had to work to pay off those they victimized. There were no jails or prisons in God’s law.

Unlike the pagan nations, God’s people were to treat those who work for them with respect. The biblical idea of slavery should not bring up the cruelty and racial bondage we usually think of. Ownership of a human, or the sale of a human, was a serious crime in God’s law. Slavery could not be forced upon anyone unless it was to pay off debt from a crime. Slaves were never to be mistreated and had to be released after a set period of time. Abuses are not inherent in the idea of servitude according to God’s law.

There is a sense in which all believers are to be servants of Christ. Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers saying, “And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” (1 Corinthians 3:23), “Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:1-20).

In his letter to the Ephesians Paul called believers “… bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart” (Ephesians 6:6). In 1 Peter 2:16 Peter told believers to act, “… as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.” Later in this book of Romans Paul develops that theme even more as he applies it to Christians.

Certainly a Christian’s relationship with Jesus Christ can’t be compared with pagan slavery. Paul was not abused or forced into service against his will. He found love, not abuse, from his master. Paul became a most willing servant of Christ. His hardened will was changed by the Holy Spirit who gave him spiritual life.

But he did consider himself as a purchased possession of his loving Lord. That’s what makes human ownership of another human so wicked and immoral. People belong to their Creator, not to other creatures. Believers belong to their Redeemer, therefore it is wrong for men to possess other men.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

1 Corinthians 7:22-23, “For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.”

In the Old Testament godly men were often called “servants of Jehovah” ‘eved YHVH (עבד יהוה). This title was used of Abraham, Jeremiah, Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah and many others. The Messiah himself is called a servant in the great passages of Isaiah (49:1-7, 52:13, 53:11).

Paul was glad to be under the mastery of Jesus Christ. This duty and devotion to his loving master is the first thing he mentions in describing himself to the Roman readers.

Jesus told his followers they would be better to be servants than masters in his kingdom. Luke 22:25-27 reads, “And He said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called “benefactors.” But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.’ ”

This is how we ought to see our work for Christ. We ought to think of ourselves as servants, purchased by our Lord’s own death in our place, so that we can do the work of the one who loves us so. We ought to love being the subjects of the King of kings.

Paul understood his service to be in the office of an Apostle

Romans 1:1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God

When the church of God entered a new era after the death of Christ, officers were appointed. Titles were needed to identify these offices. Words that already existed were used.

The church was to be governed and instructed by Elders. The Greek word for Elder is presbuteros (πρεσβυτερος). It literally means someone who is older or wiser. This word was already used in Israel as a special title for the spiritual office of teacher and overseer.

The church was to be served by Deacons. The Greek word deakonos (δεακονος) literally means someone who serves. In the general sense anyone who serves could be called a deacon. When the Jewish office of Levite ended with the finished work of Christ, there was a need for a new office to carry out the daily administrations of God’s church. A new office of service was created by God’s direct command. The ordained deacons were to care for the needy, maintain the place of worship, and act as daily administrators of the church’s resources.

And the church was to be established and set on its course by Apostles. The Greek word Paul uses is apostolos (αποστολος) which means “someone sent forth with an assignment.” As a general term “an apostle” is anyone sent out with an assigned duty. In New Testament times cargo vessels were called “apostolic boats”, boats sent on a mission. In that general sense, all believers sent out to serve God may be called apostles. In a more specialized way certain men sent out on special missions were “apostles.” The word is applied to Barnabas, Apollos, Timothy and others. But there was a very specialized use of the word for a limited number of men chosen by Christ. The office of Apostle applied only to the original 12 chosen by Christ, to Matthias chosen to replace Judas, and to Paul, who was specially chosen by Christ.

All holding the office of Apostle met these qualifications:

  • They were directly chosen and called by Jesus Christ. (John 6:70, 13:18, 15:16,19, Luke 6:13, Acts 1:24-26, Galatians 1:1,6)
  • They were eye-witnesses to Christ, his teachings, and his resurrection. (Acts 1:8,21,22, 1 Corinthians 9:1, 15:8, Galatians 1:11-12, Ephesians 3:2-8, 1 John 1:1-3)
  • Their calling was affirmed by special supernatural signs and miracles. (Matthew 10:1,8, Acts 2:43 3:2, 5:12-16, Romans 15:18,19, 1 Corinthians 9:2, 2 Corinthians 12:12, Galatians 2:8)

This means that the office of Apostle could not continue past the first century. Unlike the other church offices described in the New Testament, no qualifications were stated by which new Apostles were to be chosen by the church.

Due to that direct calling by Christ, they had a unique authority. They ordained elders to rule in the newly established churches. They had direct revelation and instruction from Jesus Christ. They uniquely explained the fulfillment of God’s promises in Christ. They laid the foundation of the church upon which later generations were to build.

Paul was to serve as an Apostle. He was called to that office directly by the risen Christ.

Paul was set apart to promote the good news God had revealed.

Romans 1:1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God

Some times men are set apart by the church for special assignments such as being missionaries, ministers, Sunday school teachers, elders, deacons, heads of committees. Paul and Barnabas were set apart for the first missionary journey in Acts 13:2. The setting aside Paul refers to here was his special call to explain the gospel. It was his calling to make known the saving work of Christ. This is why he gave up his comfortable life as a respected rabbi. This is why he spent the time and effort to write this well planned out 16 chapter book to Rome.

In a similar way we are all are called to obey God and to tell others about the gospel of Christ. We are not all set apart in the special way Paul was. However, when God gives us a duty in any area of life we must let nothing else interfere with it. We must carry it out as if we were given over to be bond-servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We each have divine callings in our lives too.


We must be devoted to each of our duties as servants of Christ. Some of you are called of God and gifted to be engineers, machinists, mechanics, sales representatives, managers, designers, students, teachers, home makers, husbands, mothers or fathers … many things.

The ways of our Master must be carried out in every assignment given to us by God

  • We have a duty toward ourselves to maintain a personal walk of devotion to Christ. Every day we need to learn more about his word, talk with him in prayer, encourage his people, obey his moral principles, and hope in his promises.
  • We have a duty to our family to be a good spouse, child, parent and family member.
  • We have a duty to our church, the spiritual family. There we must be faithful in worship, fellowship, and in promoting its work and ministries.
  • We have a duty to our calling at work to bring forth our provisions from our labor, and to do that faithfully.
  • We have a duty to society to help and encourage others in our community.

We are to carry out each duty as bond-slaves of our Lord Jesus Christ. We must honor him as our master and do all things within the boundaries of his standards.

The world sees these areas of life only in how they bring personal gratification. To our fallen souls, all work and relationships are to satisfy our own feelings and desires. God is seen only as one of the ways for getting what we want as individuals. Ego becomes god, and self-gratification becomes the standard for all judgments and decisions. When seen this way our order of priority is confused. Our personal lives, families, worship, work and society become twisted and wounded.

As Paul shows us here, to be what God has made us to be and redeemed us to be we need to fulfill our callings as those who are bond-servants of Jesus Christ.

The tragic myth of the world is the belief that freedom is found in serving one’s self privately, in the home, in church, on the job, in the workplace, and in society. Proverbs 16:25 warns us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

The most frustrating and oppressive servitude is to live as if you were free from God. The most satisfying freedom, is to be a devoted servant of Christ.

When we serve our Lord Jesus Christ in each duty he gives us, remaining within his boundaries, giving him recognition for every ability and blessing, we begin to discover the wonderful blessing of what God can make of our lives.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

Back to the Index of Studies In Paul’s Letter to the Romans

Romans: A Letter of Hope

By | | , , ,
Comments Off on Romans: A Letter of Hope

A Letter of Hope

Studies In Paul’s Letter to the Romans
by Bob Burridge ©2011

Lesson 01: Romans 1:17

We live in a world abundantly supplied with broken things. We deal with broken appliances, cars, dishes, toys, air-conditioners, computers, and about everything else except the things we hope would break so we would have a good excuse to get rid of them. Our world is also filled with broken promises, broken trust, broken relationships, broken systems of education and health-care, broken dreams, and broken hearts.

In its brokenness, the world has become immoral, self-centered, impatient, violent, and cruel. The things that should stir people to action are lost in a deep bog of apathy. In man’s desperate search for hope and solutions he only ends up breaking things more.

The reason why we can’t simply patch things up is much deeper. Man can’t repair society, or his relationships with people, or his broken attitude toward himself, until first his relationship with God is repaired.

Here’s the problem: if our relationship with God is broken as seriously as the Bible tells us it is, how can we know how to go about the repair process?

With his broken understanding of himself, and of God, and of the universe he lives in, man turns to all sorts of inventive ideas to make the problem seem better for the time. He invents religions and rituals. He holds rallies and gets stirred up into emotional frenzies. He makes strict rules, and creates support groups. Or he just indulges his own urges, and blends into the crumbling mess around him hiding his head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich. Sometimes — he tries all these contradictory things at once.

There is a better way. God in his written word has given us a reasonable and sound accounting of what is true and of what is right. However, the Bible is a complex set of 66 books which can be misunderstood when we approach them with our preconceived notions and with a severely broken comprehension.

Wouldn’t it seem reasonable that God in his infinite wisdom, in his marvelous grace, and in his astounding desire to make himself known would give us a comprehensive book to summarize the basics for us, and help us build a structure for understanding? Wouldn’t it seem reasonable that God would tell us clearly how our relationship with him can be repaired? how our relationship with others, and with the world as a whole, can be fixed?

God has done just that. He has given us the book of Romans.

The great reformer Martin Luther called Romans “the chief book of the New Testament.” The Genevan Scholar John Calvin wrote, “When anyone understands this epistle, he has a passage opened to him to the understanding of the whole of Scriptures.” A more recent writer, James I. Packer, said, “There is one book in the New Testament which links up with almost everything that the Bible contains: that is the Epistle to the Romans.”

The celebrated British scholar Robert Haldane wrote, “In the New Testament, the Epistle to the Romans is entitled to peculiar regard. It is the only part of Scripture which contains a detailed and systematic exhibition of the doctrines of Christianity.”

I consider Paul’s letter to the Romans to be the one book the mastery of which gives a solid framework for organizing God’s whole revelation. Romans comprehends and summarizes the basics of the Christian faith. Though Paul’s letter to the Romans has been studied many times, it is always helpful to sit at the feet of the Apostle Paul to study this epistle again. It is good to keep the basics fresh in our minds, and to review the answers to our common problems.

Make this studies in Romans a project for thought throughout the week after each study. Read the passage over several times. Think about the lesson it teaches. Pray that God will help you put its principles into practice in your own life every day.

This first lesson is an overview of the territory ahead. Before I go on a trip I like to sit down with a map and look over the route I’m going to take. I like to estimate how I’m going to divide the trip into sections so I can plan where to stop at night. I like to know what kinds of things we will be passing so I won’t miss things I wish I’d known about as I breezed by.

We know that the Apostle Paul traveled to many cities explaining to the Jews that the Messiah promised ages ago had come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He explained to the gentiles what that promise of Messiah was so that they too could understand his important message.

Paul had not been able to get to Rome just yet. So he wrote this letter to tell them what he would have taught if he had come in person. This is a letter summarizing the Apostolic message by the Apostle Paul himself!

Its main theme is found in Romans 1:14-17

“I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ “

Paul took his text from the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk. This ancient prophet wanted an explanation for why things we so confusing to him as he tried to live in his broken world ages ago. God’s answer then, as it was to Paul hundreds of years later, and as it is to us today, is that the person who is right with God will live his life trusting in what God has made known. It is more important to know what to do and to believe, than to understand philosophically why things are as they are.

The old expression “the just shall live by faith” is one of the old translations of this verse. God was drawing a contrast for Habakkuk. Those who are self-important, the proud, have a sick soul that is guilty and condemned before God. Those who are right with God, those justified, show their trust in God by living “faithfully.”

They live by trusting in what God has made known. They know that if God has not spoken it, then we can’t know about it with certainty. The children of God will content themselves with what God has said in his word.

Living by faith does not mean living blindly or believing something without evidence. It means trusting without reservation in all that God has made known, and specifically in trusting in God’s provision for sin that makes us into his children.

Paul develops his theme in two parts.


The first part of the book shows how our broken relationship with God is repaired. Jesus is presented as the Messiah that God promised to his fallen race from the beginning. We will see in the study of Romans how that promise comes to individuals, how it sets them free from bondage to sin and its guilt. We will see that there is power in the risen Savior that enables God’s people to overcome the depressions and frustrations of living as broken people in a broken world.

The second part of the book shows how our broken relationship with others is repaired, and how we should therefore live with our neighbors on this fallen planet. By the principles revealed in God’s word redeemed people can learn how to repair their lives, their homes, their churches, their workplaces, and their communities.

This is wonderful good news for us broken people in this broken world. Though we may not be able to explain everything, we can be victorious, and turn things around. No matter how bad things are now, no matter what has gone on in the past, there is hope and assurance in the truth of a Sovereign Lord whose promises can not fail.

The teachings of the Apostle in Romans show us ….

  • how to personally overcome guilt and depression
  • how to appreciate the world around us in a healthy way
  • how to make real changes in our lives
  • how to improve our friendships, and our community
  • how to develop a God-based view of politics, work, evangelism and worship.
  • how to find a balance between tolerance and compromise

God has provided, through Christ, the remedy the world needs. With all the confusion, superstition and doubt that collide in the forum of public debate today, the message of this book is urgently needed.

A century ago Robert Haldane wrote of this world saying, “The spirit of speculation and of novelty which is now abroad, loudly calls upon Christians to give earnest heed to the truths inculcated in the Epistle to the Romans.” (p.3)

There are speculators and innovators today, many of whom even quote the Bible, who have little understanding of the basic principles of Scripture. They dare to guide us as experts, teach our children, and run our governments. People continue to follow this advice that has caused tragic confusion and pain.

Ideas that contradict God’s truth are not just personal opinions that ought to be equally considered. They are closing in on our society to strangle out its last breath.

A person does not need an academic degree in all the disciplines of knowledge to recognize the error and the dangers in the foolish advice that surrounds us, and to learn a far better way. All one needs is a solid grounding in God’s principles as revealed in Scripture. Falsehood is stripped of its mask when it is laid against the basic principles God has given us.

There is no better way to organize our obedience than to know well the book of Romans. We are wise to covenant together to learn this book. To study it carefully, to trust in its certainty, and to conform to its teachings.

Here in this book is the most complete presentation of what we need to know to repair our relationships with God, with one another, with the world we live in, and with ourselves.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Bible unless otherwise noted.)

Back to the Index of Studies In Paul’s Letter to the Romans