In the last post we began to discover the wonders and importance of Paul’s message to the Christian in Rome. We read Augustine’s comments regarding Paul’s letter, and Luther, and Barth and several other notable theologians and teachers in the Church’s history.
We have discovered that this letter has drastically altered the lives and theology of anyone who reads it. I heard a story about a church in Montana that was considered one of the most liberal church in the city of Great Falls. Back in the 1940’s, the Pastor visited the Moody Church to see what fundamentalists were teaching because he wanted to find something to criticize. So he listened to Dr. Ironside teach the book of Romans, and then talked to Dr. Ironside, who gave him a copy of his lectures on Romans. As the story goes, the pastor read the book on the train back to Montana, and by the time he reached Great Falls, he was a transformed man. He got up in his pulpit and began to proclaim the truths of the book of Romans and the church was transformed just as he had been (which is the way it should always be).
You can’t read this letter without it effecting your heart and your faith. Samuel T. Coleridge called it “one of the most profound books in existence.” F. Godet referred to Romans as “the greatest masterpiece which the human mind has ever conceived and realized,” and called it “the cathedral of the Christian faith.’ F. B. Meyer regarded Romans as “the greatest and richest of all the apostolic works.” Jensen called Romans, “Paul’s masterpiece,” while Findlay referred to it as “Paul’s magnum opus.” Baxter regarded Romans as “the charter of evangelical Christianity,” and Griffith-Thomas stated, “A thorough study of this epistle is really a theological education in itself.” Godet was convinced, “the probability is that every great spiritual revival in the church will be connected as effect and cause with a deeper understanding of this book.” Even within the last century this has been proved. When the Swiss theologian, Karl Barth published his book, The Epistle to the Romans in 1919, it created a theological tsunami that overwhelmed the liberalism of Europe in the twentieth century.
The impact of this letter on the history of Christianity has been phenomenal. Maybe more than any other portion of scripture, the epistle to the Romans has sparked revelation and renewal in the church of Jesus Christ. So this begins out inspection of this amazing letter to the Church of Jesus Christ!
If interested, you can download the entire study of The Letter to Christians at The Rome
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Letter to Christians in Rome: Preface (pt 2 of 2)
In the last post we began to discover the wonders and importance of Paul’s message to the Christian in Rome. We read Augustine’s comments regarding Paul’s letter, and Luther, and Barth and several other notable theologians and teachers in the Church’s history.
We have discovered that this letter has drastically altered the lives and theology of anyone who reads it. I heard a story about a church in Montana that was considered one of the most liberal church in the city of Great Falls. Back in the 1940’s, the Pastor visited the Moody Church to see what fundamentalists were teaching because he wanted to find something to criticize. So he listened to Dr. Ironside teach the book of Romans, and then talked to Dr. Ironside, who gave him a copy of his lectures on Romans. As the story goes, the pastor read the book on the train back to Montana, and by the time he reached Great Falls, he was a transformed man. He got up in his pulpit and began to proclaim the truths of the book of Romans and the church was transformed just as he had been (which is the way it should always be).
You can’t read this letter without it effecting your heart and your faith. Samuel T. Coleridge called it “one of the most profound books in existence.” F. Godet referred to Romans as “the greatest masterpiece which the human mind has ever conceived and realized,” and called it “the cathedral of the Christian faith.’ F. B. Meyer regarded Romans as “the greatest and richest of all the apostolic works.” Jensen called Romans, “Paul’s masterpiece,” while Findlay referred to it as “Paul’s magnum opus.” Baxter regarded Romans as “the charter of evangelical Christianity,” and Griffith-Thomas stated, “A thorough study of this epistle is really a theological education in itself.” Godet was convinced, “the probability is that every great spiritual revival in the church will be connected as effect and cause with a deeper understanding of this book.” Even within the last century this has been proved. When the Swiss theologian, Karl Barth published his book, The Epistle to the Romans in 1919, it created a theological tsunami that overwhelmed the liberalism of Europe in the twentieth century.
The impact of this letter on the history of Christianity has been phenomenal. Maybe more than any other portion of scripture, the epistle to the Romans has sparked revelation and renewal in the church of Jesus Christ. So this begins out inspection of this amazing letter to the Church of Jesus Christ!
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Bible Commentaries, Bible Study, Romans
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Letter to Christians in Rome: Preface (pt 1 of 2)
Letter to Christians in Rome: Introduction (pt 1 of 4)