The following message, introduction, is the first in the series titled Studies in Romans. It was delivered to the adult Bible class of Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church of Sea-Tac, Washington on Sunday, April 24th, 2005 by Pastor Robert Martin. Now today we begin a series of studies together in Paul's letter to the Romans, and I want to ask you to turn there, please. We will begin by reading the opening section of this letter simply by way of helping us to get a sense for the theme that Paul introduces. We'll be looking in more detail later. But in any case, let's give attention to the reading of God's word as I read the first chapter through verse 17. Romans chapter 1 and verse 1. Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. 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. 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. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son. that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you, but was hindered until now, that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. 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. Now today we're going to begin, as I've indicated, a study of Paul's letter to the Romans. We won't actually take up the text today, we'll simply deal with several introductory matters and try to set out the format that we're going to use for these studies together in the coming months. I've never taught the Book of Romans in exactly this way. Normally it has been my pattern both here and in other situations when teaching one of the books of the Bible, simply to engage in a lecture form, and there will be a certain amount of lecture material that will be covered in the course. However, on one occasion in Trinity Ministerial Academy, we went through the Book of Romans using a different method. And it is a method that is fraught with a certain amount of anxiety. and uncertainty and in that setting it in the end of the day I believe worked to the benefit of the students though it ended up being somewhat painful for the professor at times. But what we're going to be doing is looking together, studying together the book of Romans as we move our way section by section through this book. I'm going to ask you, as God gives you time during the week, to do some independent study of the passage that we're going to address. And I'm going to come with the purpose of asking you questions. asking you to tell me what you understand about the arrangement of certain parts of the text, what you think the central theme is, what you think the development of thought is. And so I'm going to ask you, and I'll give some suggestions later, I'm going to ask you to do some commentary reading. and to come with some sense of the general flow of the passage already in mind before we take up our studies together. But this morning I want to deal with a few introductory matters that I hope will be helpful in helping us to approach the Book of Romans. By any estimation, certainly a very important epistle in the New Testament, perhaps the most important of Paul's letters And we're going to begin today, again, a study of this really magnificent piece of literature. There's nothing quite like it, even in the scriptures, in terms of its, the method by which Paul executed this letter and also nothing quite like it as to its overall theme. But let's begin with, again, a couple of introductory issues. I'm not going to go into any kind of treatment as to the evidence that this was written, that the Book of Romans was actually written by Paul the Apostle. I think it is sufficient in this setting. If you're interested in that subject, there are plenty of introductions to the New Testament. The commentaries that I'm going to suggest to you all have excellent introductions to them. But I think in this setting, it is simply enough that we take the Word of God at face value. and understand that the letter begins with the word Paul, unlike letters that we write, which are signed at the end, letters in those days tended to be signed at the beginning, and the reason for that usually was because that they were in scroll form. And so when you opened a letter, if you wanted to see who wrote it, it was easier to see at the beginning than to unroll the entire scroll and look at the end. And so typically the author will identify himself in the greeting of the letter, and of course Paul does this in all of those letters which are attributed to him unequivocally. Well, Paul a bondservant of Jesus Christ. But now the question that arises of perhaps greater interest in terms of understanding the nature of this letter is where did Paul write this from and when did he write it? At what point does the Book of Romans fit into the corpus or the body of Paul's letters? There is quite a bit of debate as to the order in which the various letters Paul has written came, which he wrote first, which he wrote last. I think it's fairly safe to say that the so-called pastoral epistles, 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus, those were likely the last letters that Paul wrote given the historical references that are found in them, given some correlation of details with the Book of Acts. But the question as to the first, is a much more debated point. And then, of course, the place of the Book of Romans, Paul's magnum opus, if you will. How does it fit? Where does it fit in Paul's life as an apostle? Is this something he wrote very early? Or is this something that he wrote comparatively late? Well, the best guess, and it is an educated guess, But the best guess is that Paul wrote the Book of Romans from the city of Corinth, or in its vicinity, while he was preparing his way to go to Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey there with the collection for the saints of Judea. And that would place the date of this letter somewhere around 58 or 59 AD. And so this is somewhat near the end of Paul's life. The best guess as to the date of Paul's death would have been around the year 64 or 65 at the latest. But in any case, around 58 AD from the city of Corinth. And let me simply give you some of the references. We can look together just for a moment at some of the references that at least establish the fact that this is the case. If you turn to Romans 15, we'll look first of all at what he says about the immediate context of the writing of this letter. He tells us something of the circumstances in which he is in. We learn much more about the collection for the Judean saints from 2 Corinthians in particular, but in chapter 15, verses 25 and 26, he says, but now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia, Macedonia the northern part of what today is Greece, Achaia the southern part, Macedonia the churches of Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, etc. Achaia would be the church at Corinth. He says, It pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. And so he tells us that the setting of the writing of this letter is just prior to his departure for Jerusalem. And we know from the Book of Acts, from other references that he makes, that for about a three-month period, there seems to have been a period of quiet, a period where Paul was not moving from place to place. He remained there in Corinth. It was during this period that he apparently wrote the Book of Romans. Likewise, if you look to the first two verses of chapter 16, he makes mention of Phoebe, says, I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Kentria. Cantria is one of the coastal towns associated with the city of Corinth, so he's either in Corinth or he's very near to Corinth at this point, but as he writes to the Romans, he writes and makes special reference to this sister who is making her way to Rome. I commend to you, Phoebe, our sister, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever business she has need of you For indeed, she has been a helper of many, and of myself also." It has even been suggested that Phoebe was the one who carried this letter to Rome, and that this letter, at least in part, served as an introduction for her. Well, furthermore, again, we've indicated Paul had some leisure time while he was in Greece for the three months prior to this journey, Acts chapter 20. Acts 20 verses 1 through 3. After the riot in Ephesus, that's recorded in chapter 19, we're told that Paul called the disciples to himself, verse one of chapter 20, embraced them, departed to go to Macedonia. So he's heading west again, he's left Ephesus, he's crossed the Aegean back into Macedonia, and we read that when he had gone over that region and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece and stayed three months. And then when the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, that would take him back to Antioch, chapter 13, the church that originally sent him and Barnabas on their first journey. Well, as he's about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. And so he eventually goes back north through Macedonia, across the Aegean again, meets with the elders of the Ephesian church at Miletus, and then from there on to Jerusalem to deliver this relief offering. But this three-month period, again, he stayed in Greece or in the region of Corinth for this three-month period. And so again, a further evidence that this likely was the place where Romans was written. And then fourth, if you look to Romans 16, 23, the fourth little bit of evidence that Paul gives us, he's kind enough in giving the details of his circumstances to tell us who his host was. He says, Gaius or Gaius, my host and the host of the whole church greet you. And so we do know that amongst those men that Paul personally baptized at Corinth, he mentions this man, he mentions Crispus and Stephanus and this man, Gaius or Gaius. And so, though it's not the only man that's mentioned in the New Testament by this name, Again, putting the other things together, most likely Paul enjoys the hospitality of this brother during these three months there in Corinth. Well, the question then, why is this important? Why is it important that we know not so much the place, but the time, around 58 AD? Well, the reason that it is important is because It enables us to understand something of the relationship between this letter and what other letter? We'll begin asking questions now. Galatians. And why is that important, Stan? The subject matter. The subject matter of the book of Galatians and the subject matter of the book of Romans is essentially the same, though the circumstances in which each letter was written is different. In both cases, the subject matter is the doctrine of justification by faith. That is the central core issue. However, in the letter to the Galatians, the background is such in which Paul is dealing with the defection of the Galatian believers from the gospel that he had first preached to them. Who had come into Galatia and was giving trouble in the Galatian churches at the time Paul writes the letter to the Galatians? Terry? Judaizers. Alright, we call them Judaizers. Now they didn't call themselves that, but that's a label that's been attached to them. And what was distinctive about their doctrine? Anyone? They mix the ceremonial law with salvation. They mixed, well not just the ceremonial law, but the ceremonial law was a large part of what they were doing. They were saying that in addition to the death of Christ and its virtue for the forgiveness of sins, that in order to be right with God, one had to assume the yoke of Judaism. which meant that one had to take upon oneself the obligations, especially of the ceremonial and the civil law of the Jews. And so the idea was that the virtue of Christ or the righteousness of Christ was important, but it wasn't enough. In order to be justified, you had to have Christ, but you had to have a certain degree of your own righteousness secured by becoming a Jew and by taking the yoke of the law upon you, and therefore supplying the righteousness of Christ with something of your own virtue. All right, so it's in that context that Paul writes, and what does he say to the Galatians? How does he warn them? Don't withdraw from the gospel. So to take upon them the yoke of the law was to separate themselves from the gospel. It was to make the gospel void. The gospel was not Christ plus, the gospel was Christ. Not Christ plus your own works or Christ plus your own virtue or your own righteousness, but the gospel was the righteousness of Christ. So Galatians is written in the context of controversy. Now the question I want to ask you is when was Galatians written? Now that's a greatly debated point. All right, either 50 or 57, let's say 49 or 50, somewhere in that range. The best evidence is that the letter to the Galatians was, in fact, in the order of the writing of Paul's letters, where does it fit? If it's written 49 to 50 AD, That makes Galatians most likely the first of Paul's letters. And the reason for dating it then is because we know that the so-called Jerusalem Conference dated or recorded in Acts 15, that happened in the year 50 AD. And yet, in the letter to the Galatians, There's no mention of the conference and yet the conference dealt with the very issue that the letter of the Galatians was about. In other words, the conference was an apostolic effort to put to rest the Judaizing heresy. And yet Paul makes no mention of it when writing the Galatians. As they're dealing with Judaizers, it would have been greatly to his advantage if the whole band of the apostles had already made a decree to say that this is error. but he makes no mention of it. Well, Galatians very likely, and I think this is the most defensible position, is the first of Paul's letters. And yet the book of Romans is written on the same theme but in different circumstances. Not in the circumstances of controversy. The issue of the place of the law in the doctrine of justification has been settled in the book of Galatians and it was settled at the Jerusalem conference. Not that there was no more trouble to be had. I mean the Judaizers didn't just pack up their bags and go home. They continued to cause trouble right to the very end of the apostolic era and beyond. They still cause trouble. But the point is as far as a controversial setting, Galatians is that but Romans taking the same thing is written in a different context. And we'll talk about that context in just a moment when we look at the purpose for the letter. But now, here on the same theme, and that same theme is even to the point of Paul using the same Old Testament texts as the basic texts that are being opened up. Okay? In particular, Habakkuk 2-4. If you'll look back in chapter 1, of Romans. In verse 17, what is most likely the theme text, Paul was an expounder of the scriptures. And one of the things we're going to see about the Book of Romans is that more than any place else in all of his writings, he undergirds what he says with reference to the Old Testament scriptures. But his theme text is Habakkuk 2.4. As he's setting out in succinct form the The statement of the gospel, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes for the Jew first and 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 or the righteous shall live by faith. Habakkuk 2.4. Paul uses that same text in Galatians. He develops that same text in Galatians but not nearly as fully as he does in Romans. And so it is proper to say that though Galatians contains a statement of the gospel and a defense of the gospel, the book of Romans is in fact an exposition of the gospel on the basis of its Old Testament root or foundation. Okay? And so Galatians, there's a sense in which if you track through especially the use of the Old Testament in Galatians and in Romans, what you see is that there are certain texts that appear in both places, but in Galatians, Paul's exposition is much more elementary. It's much more fully developed in Romans. And that's what you would expect. something written in 49 or 50 AD as opposed to something written eight years later. Well Paul, Paul though he was an apostle, though he spoke and wrote by revelation and by inspiration of God yet in the scheme of things he grew in his understanding and he grew in his ability to expound the gospel as he spent years continuing to study, years continuing to interact with God's people and so by the time we come to him near the end of his life we have in Romans the fullest expression of his doctrine of justification. Now we're not going to find anything in Romans that contradicts what he says in Galatians. It's the same gospel, it's the same general features, but you're going to find a much much more developed presentation of the gospel in the book of Romans. And so it'll be very helpful from time to time for us to compare at certain points of what Paul does in Galatians and what he does in Romans in order to see how certain ideas have become, I don't want to use the term grown, how they've grown. I don't particularly care for that, but I think you get the idea. We're going to see a much fuller, more mature expression of the gospel in Romans, but we're going to see indeed many threads going between the two. Oh, so much then for date. But now for the purpose, why did Paul write Romans? Well, again, thankfully he tells us. He's been very helpful at this point. In some of the letters of the New Testament, we have to do a lot of study to discover what the theme is. Men still debate as to what the central, the core, the first theme of Paul's letter to the Philippians is. For example, there are a number of rich themes, and to say which one is paramount, scholars don't agree. But when it comes to the Book of Romans, There's general agreement amongst conservatives as to what Paul intended to do. He tells us, and let's again look at the passage in chapter 1, and then we'll look at a passage in chapter 15. Sandwiched between these chapters is, in fact, Paul's exposition of the gospel. But bracketing this large center section, Paul gives us something of a revelation of his own mind as to purpose. Well again, verse 80 says, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for your all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making requests, if by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you." Now what do you learn from that statement right there? What do you know about Paul's relationship to the church at Rome? He doesn't know them, right. He's never been there. Now he knows quite a few of them. If you look at the end of the letter to chapter 16, it's not that he doesn't know them in the absolute sense. Greet Priscilla and Aquila. Greet Mary, Andronicus, and Junia, and Plius, Urbanus, and there's this whole list of people that he knows in Rome, but he's never actually been there. He's never seen the work. Whatever input he has had in the work has been secondary. This is not like the churches of Galatia. This is not like the church in Ephesus. This is not Philippi. It's not Thessalonica. It's not Corinth. Paul didn't go there and begin de novo. He doesn't just begin with nothing and begin to gather with some Jews and a church is raised up. But converts from other places, And prominent among them, he mentions this couple, Priscilla and Aquila, that he knew from Ephesus. And so there are lots of people who have now made their way to Rome, the capital of the empire. And there they have banded together and God has raised up a church. So Paul knows them, but he's never been among them. And there are many people there that he doesn't know. There are many people there that he doesn't know. All right, he goes on to say, I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. And so he's telling us that one of the main purposes of his going to Rome is to be involved in their further instruction. He wants to be involved, he says, to impart some spiritual gift to you. Well, he's not going to give them the gift of tongues. He's not going to give them the gift of discernment of spirits, et cetera. That's not what he's talking about. He wants to be able to go and to minister the word among them and to further instruct them in the things of the faith. And so part of his purpose in going to Rome is to do that. Well, part of his purpose in writing this letter before he goes is to prepare the way for a ministry among these people. All right. Now he says, I don't want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you, but was hindered until now that I might have some fruit among you also as among the other Gentiles. And then he goes in to laying out the theme, I am 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 at Rome also. Now, that doesn't mean they've never heard the gospel. It doesn't mean they have no idea of the central themes of the gospel, but Paul wants to lay out in a way that only his personal presence can do the gospel and its implications. Now turn to chapter 15. Paul has more in mind, however, than just instructing the Roman Christians. Paul is not going to Rome with the idea, at least in his understanding of his going to Rome, it is not to go and simply settle there in the capital of the empire and to become part of the foundation of the Roman church. But rather, in this plan to visit Rome, he has plans to go further afield. Paul stays at most, we know, three years in Ephesus, but that's the longest time that we know that he spent in any one place as far as ministering the gospel. And so as he goes to Rome, we begin reading in verse 14. He says, now I myself, this is chapter 15, I myself am confident concerning you, brethren, that you are also full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able to admonish one another. So he doesn't think of these brethren as novices. It's not that he regards them as ignorant of the truth. Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit." So he says, on some points I have written, though you are well instructed in some things, in other things I have written in greater detail. And one of the things, just by way of example, one of the things that you find in Romans that you don't find, for example, in Galatians, is admonition about their relationship, the relationship of Christians to the civil authorities. The Jews were very given to insurrection, very given to rebellion, and that shows up not many years after this in the Jewish rebellion that ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and even into the second century. The Jews are continually rebelling against the Roman authorities. Well, as Paul writes to these Christians living in the capital of the empire, he tells them be subject to magistrates, be subject to rulers, that they are ordained of God. And so they are to be submissive subjects even of the wicked emperors of Rome. Okay? So part of the reason that he writes Romans, he says, is on some points, he says, I want to remind you of some obligations you have. Okay? Well, let's go on, verse 17, therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things that pertain to God, for I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me in word and deed to make the Gentiles obedient in mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum, and Illyricum is what is now, Jeff, help me, modern Yugoslavia, what used to be Yugoslavia, Yeah, OK, so he's already gone to the north out from Philippi and Thessalonica, gone around into what is now Albania, what's still called Macedonia. Macedonia now is not exactly the same as Macedonia then, but up into what used to be Yugoslavia. So he says, I have. in mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit, so that from Jerusalem round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation. But then, verse 22, for this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you. But now, no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you, whenever I journey to Spain, And so if you remember your Mediterranean geography, where is Rome on the Mediterranean coast? Anyone? Where's Rome? Let's draw the Mediterranean. Here's Spain, Jerusalem. Where would we put Rome? Kind of in the middle, right? So you got the boot, right? Okay, so Rome's here. Paul has been laboring over here. He's gone as far as up to Illyricum. but he's headed for Spain. Now, what did Spain represent in that day? That was kind of the end of the world, wasn't it? I mean, there was another end of the world that way, but this was the end of the world as far as the Roman Empire was concerned. Beyond this, what, the Germanic tribes, the Brits, et cetera? Most of our ancestors lived in something other than the world in those days. All right. There's a happy thought. We're all descended from total barbarians. All right, so he tells us he's going to Spain. Whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you for I hope to see you on my journey and to be helped on my way there by you. If first, I may enjoy your company for a while. But now I'm going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints, for it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors, for if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this route, I shall go by way of you to Spain. But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, and that I may come to you with joy by the will of God and may be refreshed together with you. So Paul is over here in Corinth. He's going to go to Jerusalem. He intends from there to go to Rome and from there to Spain and he wants these folk to help him. Now what happened? What happened? Anyone remember? Did Paul make it to Jerusalem? Well, yeah, but when he goes back, I'm talking when he finally heads back. He finally heads back. He does go to Jerusalem, doesn't he? What happens in Jerusalem? He gets arrested. He gets arrested. He ends up at Caesarea He finally gets to Rome, but in chains. And that's where the book of Acts ends, isn't it? Paul's in house arrest in Rome, waiting to appear before Nero. Now the question is, did he ever get to Spain? We don't know. There are indications in the pastoral epistles that he was released from this Roman imprisonment eventually, but we don't know whether he ever actually made it to Spain or not. But this is his plan. When he writes the book of Romans, this is what he's planning to do. And so these passages, one at the beginning, one at the end of the book of Romans, emphasize that he wrote the book of Romans not only to set a fuller exposition of the gospel before these Roman Christians for their edification, but also to bring them on board, as we would say, that they would be ready and eager then to help him as he's going to make his way further west to Spain. All right? And so he wanted to enhance his ministry both in them personally and through them to Spain and to other places in the western reaches of the empire. All right. Gresham Machen has an interesting comment in his introduction. Here I'll just read the paragraph to kind of sum up this part of our study. Machen says, it must not be supposed that Romans is merely a systematic treatise. Some want to treat the book of Romans like it's a piece of systematic theology. Well, there's much in the Book of Romans that's usable as building blocks in building a systematic presentation of the gospel. But Machen is right in saying that we must not suppose that it is merely a systematic treatise addressed to the Roman Church only by way of a literary device. Like the other epistles of Paul, this is a real letter. By it, Machen says, Paul hoped to accomplish something not merely in the church in general, but very specifically in Rome. Paul was intending to preach in the extreme western part of the empire. For such labor, one city only was fitted to be a base of operations. Antioch, that's the church that sent him out, he says, is too remote. Rome only would meet the need. But the Roman church had not been founded by Paul and indeed he was personally unknown to the mass of Roman Christians. If therefore Rome was to serve Paul as a base of operations, it was highly desirable that the church should be furnished with a full exposition of Paul's gospel. Such an exposition would provide Paul on his approaching visit to Rome with the best possible introduction. Furthermore, Paul was by no means ignorant of the internal affairs of the Roman Church. By his coming visit, he hoped to impart to the Roman Christians some spiritual gift, and even in the letter he speaks, though with perfect tactfulness, to correct some of their faults and to fortify them against specific dangers. These matters, however, are far less prominent. Romans is primarily an exposition of the gospel of God's grace with special reference to the claims of the law. and of the Jewish people written in view of Paul's approaching visit to Roman. Primarily an exposition of the gospel, but here are these words with special reference to the claims of the law. That is the law of Moses. The relationship of the gospel to the law of Moses is very much of the background of most of what Paul says in the letter to the Romans. Well, what is more suitable, then, as far as an introduction of himself to this mass of Christians he does not know? What more suitable to the preparation that he hopes to make to go further west to Spain than sending an exposition of the gospel that he preached, which he hoped would serve to a people that he hoped would serve as a base of operations for future missionary labor? All right. We've got a few minutes left. I want to take up one final subject. We've seen that the theme of the letter very evidently is the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. A number of passages, I would simply give you to list them. Romans 1.1, Romans 1.15-17, Romans 15.16-29, and Romans 16.25. Perhaps just to touch on that, the word gospel doesn't appear very often in the book of Romans. If you do a statistical analysis, there's one word that is there much more than any other, and that's the word God. The word gospel appears a comparatively few times, but it appears in some very strategic places. Perhaps just to look at these very quickly. Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, verse 1 of chapter 1, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God. He introduces, even by his own description of himself at this very early part of the letter, what his theme is going to be. It becomes much more explicit in verses 15 and 16, I am ready to preach the gospel to you. I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. And then chapter 15, again at the end of the letter. Chapter 15, verse 16. I have written more boldly to you that I be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God. And then verse 29. I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. And then 1625, now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. Well, the gospel is very much the theme of this letter. But whose gospel is it? Paul calls it my gospel. However, he's much more expressive of the central theme of the letter when he calls it God's gospel and the gospel of Christ. Those expressions, brethren, are very important because Paul expounds in this letter as the chief idea that is the gospel that he preaches is nothing other than the gospel of the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. It is the gospel of God. It is the gospel which God has revealed. Its central theme is the righteousness of God, but a righteousness of God found in his son, Jesus Christ. And so at one place he can call it my gospel, And yet at the other places he speaks of the gospel of God and the gospel of Christ. And so the point is that the gospel is very much God-centered and Christ-centered. The gospel that's found in the Book of Romans is very much God-centered and Christ-centered. Paul had a God-centered perspective, a Christ-centered perspective. The gospel is not to be studied with a man-centered perspective. The gospel is obviously brethren for our benefit. We are obviously in view. And a benefit coming to us, saving benefit coming to us is one of the grand ends of the gospel. But the gospel is presented as a God-centered and not a man-centered reality. And therefore it behooves us, brethren, to always keep God at the very center, His will, His revelation of His mind, His working, His doing, His righteousness. It is a God-centered gospel, and even the way that Paul describes it in this letter points that out. All right. We have just a moment left. I had intended to say something about the manner in which Paul expounds this theme, that is, by use of the exposition of Old Testament text, but we'll simply have to take that up as we come to it. Next time, we're going to begin with talking through a basic outline of the Book of Romans. I'm going to ask you to come prepared, having read the entire letter, to tell us what the major divisions in the letter are, where we have units of thought that we should be looking at, how Paul's mind and how he unfolds the gospel, how his mind tracks through from the beginning to the very end, give us something of a framework, something of a skeleton to put the meat on as we come. But I do want to encourage you in the time that's left to make some suggestions as to commentary reading. I certainly would encourage you to be looking at some of the standard devotional commentaries on the Book of Romans. Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, some of you have these already in your personal possession. I certainly would encourage you to read those. For our purposes, they may not be the best commentaries in terms of helping to understand structure and those type of grammatical and historical issues. I would very, very strongly recommend that you have a copy or get a copy of William Hendrickson's Commentary on Romans. It's written with a broad readership in mind. It's not a heavy technical commentary, yet he does deal with some of the issues and questions we're going to be raising. Henderson's commentary is excellent. If you're ready to chew on some good solid meat, John Murray's commentary on Romans is probably the best one-volume commentary that's available, and yet Murray can be a little tough reading sometimes. But if you have Murray, certainly I would recommend it. Probably, if you're into technical commentaries and if you've had some Greek and can handle that, certainly Cranfield on Romans, the two volumes, the two, the International Critical Commentary Series, the first, When it first came out, it had a commentary by Sande and Hedlum. Not a great commentary, but it's been replaced now by Cranfield. It is an excellent, excellent commentary, but if you don't have an understanding of Greek, it's going to be kind of tough. Help me think, Jeff. Haldane, Robert Haldane, his commentary published by Banner of Truth, more in the after the method of Matthew Henry and Matthew Poole, not so much technical. HCG, Hanley Moule, M-O-U-L-E, a little commentary. Jeff Wilson's commentary, Banner Publishes, what is it, Digest, a reformed comment on Romans. There's a number of good commentaries you can read. I guess if you could have one, I would recommend Hendrickson. if you're just gonna buy one commentary. But these are readily available if you go on to Amazon or to any of the, go to Cumberland Valley Book Service, they can easily get these for you. But I want to encourage you, even if you don't, even if you do nothing but read Matthew Henry or Poole or one of those commentaries, come to class, having read the passage that we're going to be dealing with, having read that section, usually it's gonna be four, five, six pages, out of the commentary and try to get some idea as to what's going on so that when we come to class, we can all participate and come to hopefully a common understanding of what Paul is saying. Next time, we're going to look at the first, let's take the first nine, no, excuse me, I'm looking at the first chapter of Corinthians, that won't work. I think it's the first seven verses. Yes, the first seven verses of chapter one. All right? Okay, any questions then as to what we're going to try to do? Well, if not, let's close our time with prayer. Our Father, we do pray that you would bless us as we come week by week to this study. We pray that you would give us, Lord, something of what your servant Paul intended for the church at Rome, that you would give us a clear understanding of your gospel and its implications across the broad range of the Christian life. We just ask, Father, that you would bless our studies, help us, Lord, to be diligent in prayer and in reading the scriptures. We just pray, Father, that you would indeed look graciously upon us. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.