byDesmond Ford

THE BOOK OF ROMANS MADE CLUffi-2

"A Spiritual Masterpiece thatEncourages True Religion"

Tyndale called Romans, "Thelight and way into the wholeScriptures." Luther said Romans is,"The chief part of the NewTestament and the purest gospel."Calvin said, "Every Christianshould feed upon it every day asthe daily bread for his soul."Coleridge said Romans is, "Themost profound piece of literature inexistence," thereby agreeing withFrederick Godet.

F. F. Bruce said, "Beware whenyou begin to study Romans.Anything can happen."

Augustine's ConversionMonica was a great Christian ladywho lived in Carthage, North

Christ'sPreciousProlDises

testament, summing up the essenceof what he knew by experience.When you read Paul, you're not justreading doctrinal material, you'rereading Paul's lifeblood. You'rereading his life experience. Romansis testamentary. It's Paul's last willand testament.

RomausPrevents Bad ReligionRomans is prophylactic.

We use the word "prophylactic"to talk about preventive things,about preventing problems in medi-cine. We use it here to mean pre-venting problems in religion.

I repeat, most religion is badreligion. But if we understandRomans, we'll get religion straight.

Many testify that Romans is a spiritualmasterpiece. It prevents bad religion and

promotes true religion. Romansencourages conversion, revival, truemotivation, and faith. It identifiesthe only two religions in the world.

The false religion of Good Viewsand the true religion of Good News.:·F...·..····..····.•.···1· rederick Godet, the

•French theologian,called Romans, "The

cathedral of the Christian faith." Itis, indeed. It's the most importantdocument ever written.

Romans is the only book in theBible that systematically tells us ofthe plan of salvation. The onlybook. If you don't understandRomans, you really don't under-stand the Bible.

Romans was written by thechief theologian of Scripture, theapostle PauL Jesus made the atone-ment, but Paul explained it. Theatonement couldn't be explaineduntil after it was made.

Romans is Paul's last will and

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Africa. She had a tempestuous son,Augustine.

Augustine lived a very loose,licentious life, and Monica was wor-ried about him. He announced he wastaking off for the big city of Rome. (Hecould live it up and sin better there.)Monica worried.

But in Rome, Augustine's experi-ence paved the way for his conversion.One day he was in a garden in Milanwhen he heard a child chanting andcalling. The only phrase that regis-tered with Augustine was the Latinexpression, 'Take and read."

He had with him a manuscript ofthe New Testament. His interest wasaroused. He took it and read. The firstwords he saw were: "Put ye on theLord Jesus Christ, and make not provi-sion for the flesh, to fulfill the luststhereof' (Romans 13:14 KJV).

Our world is different because ofAugustine. And Augustine became dif-ferent because of Romans.

Romans and RevivalsSince the days of Christ, these menwe have mentioned have changed theworld. Paul, Augustine, Luther, Calvin,and Wesley were great men who weretransformed by Romans. F.F. Brucewas right when he said, "Be carefulwhen you read Romans. Anything canhappen." All the great revivals in theChristian world have been triggeredby this book.

Romans was responsible for therevival in this country under JonathanEdwards. For the revival underWesley in England. And that ofGeorge Whitefield in this country andEngland. And Luther in Germany. Allgreat and true Christian revivals arebegun by this book.

Tread carefully when you study it.Anything can happen.

Law and MotivationRomans tells us the truth about God.It tells us the truth about religion. Ittells us the truth about how to live.These things we must know.

But Romans will also motivate us.You see, we're all conscious of

law. You don't have to have someoneread the Ten Commandments.Everybody has convictions of rightand wrong, whether in church or out

of church.However, law cannot muzzle

desire. Law is helpless and hopeless torestrain us from evil. The only motivein the world that will keep me from sinis the knowledge that God is mine andI am his.

No commandment will keep mefrom sin. No law will keep me fromsin. No creed can do it. Not even fearof my brethren can do it-and that's avery potent fear, because we want tobe accepted.

The only motive that can keep mestraight is the knowledge that God ismine and I am his. That's the essence.

Faith-Not SectarianismRomans is a book about faith, hope,love, and the cross. It says nothingabout sectarian shibboleths.

You won't find any fierce debatehere about the nature of the Lord'sSupper. Romans takes baptism byimmersion for granted, but it doesn'ttry to polemicize on the matter. Whenit talks about the keeping of days, itmakes it quite clear that the questionof days is not nearly as important asfaith in Jesus Christ.

Faith-the Key Word of RomansThat's the key word of Romans-faith. You find it 64 times throughoutthe book. You find it in the very firstchapter, verse five, 'The obedience offaith." And it's the last word of thebook before the doxology, the samephrase-"the obedience of faith."

Life would be very different if Paulhad written it the other way-"thefaith of obedience." That would bedreadful. But he wrote, at the begin-ning and the end, "the obedience offaith." It's as if he's saying, "Only thatwhich is done because of your faith inJesus Christ is acceptable to God.Nothing else. Everything else donebefore faith in Christ is simply a sin. Itfalls short because it doesn't have thatwhich stamps it as authentic-faith inChrist."

The only obedience God willaccept is that which grows out of faithin Jesus Christ. It's wonderful thatRomans should finish with thatword-"faith." Faith is the very lastword in the very last chapter justbefore the closing doxology (Romans

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16:26RSV,NRSV).

A Circular LetterMany ancient manuscripts of Romansdon't have chapter 16-because it's alist of names. Probably what happenedearly on was that an edition of Romanswithout chapter 16 was circulatedamong the churches. The chapter thathad the names of the Christians inRome who Paul knew was left off,because it was only of local interest.

Still it's a chapter with many beau-tiful little statements. Paul greetsPriscilla and Aquila, who risked theirlives for him (15:3-4). Paul speaks ten-derly of Rufus and his mother, "whohas been a mother to me," says Paul(15:13).

A circular letter among thechurches would be the only Biblesome early Christians had. They rec-ognized that Romans contained thesum and substance of Christianity.They had oral traditions about Jesus,and these were circulated widely. ButRomans was the only written Bible

some people had.That's why so many manuscripts

of Romans bring it to a conclusionwithout chapter 16, because it went toall the churches.

Only Two ReligionsRomans is a book about true religion,majoring in the majors. It's a book thattells the truth in such a way as to warnus against its opposite.

There are only two religions in theworld. The Bible refers to them sym-bolically as the religion of Jerusalemand the religion of Babylon. These arementioned in the first book of theBible, Genesis, and they're mentionedin the last book, Revelation. They'rementioned in a middle book, Daniel,also.

One religion is the religion ofgood views. That's not the Christianreligion, though many Christians prac-tice it. The other is the religion of goodnews.

There's a big difference betweengood views and good news.

Good News, Good ViewsThe false religion of good views cen-ters on humanity. The true religion ofgood news centers on God. The falsereligion looks at human activities,human achievements; but true religionlooks at the cross.

False religion makes Christ firstof all our Example. That's a miserableteaching. It would depress any of uswho are honest. You cannot compareyourself with Christ without feelingvery far gone.

True religion looks upon him as aSubstitute. "Jesus was my substituteon Calvary, and he's my substitute inthe last great day." None of us can getthrough the judgment without thatSubstitute.

Bobby Burns said, "My life isn'twhat it should be." He said, "It's noteven what it could be." He spoke for allof us. Our life isn't what it should be.Our life isn't what it could be, or whatwe would have it be.

But we have a Substitute in thejudgment. That's Christ. .:.

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