I began this week with a plan to step into Paul’s Epistle to the Romans of the New Testament. As those of you who have followed the series will know, I became quite intrigued with apostle Paul and his writings back in June 2023. I began to write about him in “The Great Second Chance”—my 29th article of the series. Thirteen of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are credited to Paul and Romans is the longest. Altogether, these thirteen epistles make up almost twenty-five percent of the New Testament. Quite remarkable in an ancient text that continues to be revered around the world after two thousand years. I still find it strange, however, that when the great writers in history are recognized, Paul’s work and his name, are almost never included and yet his divinely inspired letters have had some of the most profound impact on humanity of any writer.
I decided to study Romans after reading the praise given by a number of noteworthy theologians, both past and present, of Paul’s letter. Martin Luther, who initiated the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, said Romans was the chief part of the New Testament. John Calvin, who wrote Institutes of the Christian Religion, the first systematic theological treatise of the reform movement, said Romans opens a pathway to understanding the whole Bible. More recently, John Piper, who wrote Love Your Enemies, said that Romans was the most important theological Christian work ever written. The late Tim Keller said, “The letter to the Romans is a book that repeatedly changes the world, by changing people.” With such high praise for a single book of the New Testament and my interest in apostle Paul already, I felt directed to a least begin to read it.
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