Text- Romans 1:1-7
Title- Introduction to Romans
Romans 1:1-7 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 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, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, 6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; 7 to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I. Basic Background Information?
-Who?
- Paul
- To the believers in Rome
- When?
- After the 3rd missionary journey
- Where?
- From Corinth
IV. What is the Outline of Romans?
V. Why was the Book Written?
- Romans reveals God’s sovereign plan of salvation
- Romans is to show how Jews and gentiles fit into the plan of salvation
- Romans was written to exhort us to live righteous lives
For those of you that have more than one child; if I were to ask you to tell me which of your children was your favorite, you’d probably have a hard time doing it. It might not be that hard for some of you. Maybe you would pick the one you’ve known the longest, or the one that looks most like you.
For Bible scholars asking them to pick a favorite book of the Bible is like asking you to pick your favorite kid. You love them all in their own unique way. However, Romans is widely accepted by commentators and theologians as the most important book of the New Testament.
Romans has been referred to as “the crown jewel of the NT”. It is identified as Paul’s “magnum opus”. William Tyndale called it, “the principal and most excellent part of the NT”
John McArthur says, “The study of the epistle to the Romans remains a required course in the school of Christian discipleship.”
Romans is placed as the first of Paul’s epistles in the Bible, but it was not the first letter that he wrote. His letters to the Thessalonians were probably his earliest biblical writings. So if this isn’t his first letter, why is it placed at the beginning?
Martin Lloyd-Jones answers this question by simply stating, “I would suggest to you that it is here in the first position because the church was given wisdom by the Holy Ghost to realize that it is first in importance.”
The book of Romans is also important because of it powerful impact throughout history. In my church history classes, it seemed like Romans was responsible for some major shifts in Christianity over the centuries.
In 386ad a man was sitting in a friend’s garden. He was distraught, depressed, and lost. He heard some children singing nearby saying, “Pick up and read, pick up and read”. He picked up the scroll that was setting beside him; it opened to Romans 13:13-14…
Romans 13:13-14 13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
He wrote about that experience and said, “No further would I read, nor did I need; for instantly, as the sentence ended, by a light as it wee, or security infused into my heart, - all the gloom of doubt vanished away”
The man was Saint Augustine. (And now you know the rest of the story.) St. Augustine went on to become one of the most important theologians and protectors of the faith in all of church history.
A thousand years later in about 1515 a catholic professor was teaching a class on the book of Romans. This teacher wrote,
“I greatly longed to understand Paul’s epistle to the Romans, and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, ‘the righteousness of God’, because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and deals righteously in punishing the unrighteous…Night and day I pondered, until… I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, He justifies us by faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before ‘the righteousness of God’ had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gateway to heaven.”
Through the book of Romans, Martin Luther discovered the truth of justification by faith alone and sparked the entire reformation.
A few hundred years later in 1738 John Wesley discovered the truth of salvation through the book of Romans.
Romans has been the basis for countless salvation tracks. It is an invaluable guide to helping people understand their own sin, and what God has done to save us from that sin.
Romans is a book of deep theological and doctrinal truth, and at the same time, it contains some of the simplest teaching about salvation.
- all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
- the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- While we were still sinners, Christ died for us
- If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
It is a book of the Bible that has so much to offer. It is a guide for the lost, a textbook for the young Christian and an inexhaustible fountain of truth for the seasoned believer.
So you can see why I am very excited to teach through this book of the Bible. There is so much good stuff in here. I am discovering that the hardest part of preaching through this book is figuring out how to keep it to a reasonable length. I could spend years preaching through it. In chapter one it seems like you could preach a whole sermon on every other word. I placed a preaching calendar out on the bulletin board so you can get a general idea of where we are heading in the next year.
Today I want to start our study of Romans by answering three simple questions. Any time you study any book of the Bible it is important to get a feel for some basic background information. Who wrote the book, why was it written, when was it written? It is also helpful to take a look at an outline of the book. Most of your Bibles will have a section at the beginning of each book that gives you this information. Looking at an outline gives you a feel for the flow of thought, the subject matter, and even the purpose of the book.
Ultimately that’s what your looking for, why was this book written? Is it addressing a problem? Offering advice? Telling a story? Developing at least a basic understanding of the context of the book will prevent any misinterpretations or misunderstandings.
Many times these questions are answered by the book itself in the first few verses. Today I want to start by reading the first 7 verses in the book of Romans…
The first thing I want to look at is some of the basic background information. This will help give us that sense of context and deepen the meaning and understanding of the book for us.
The first question is who. Who wrote the book? It says right there at the beginning that it was Paul who wrote the book. That helps us understand something of the content of the book. We know that Paul was a Pharisee, a Jewish leader, who was miraculously converted to Christianity. He understood the OT and the Jewish religious system. So when we get into the middle of the book, where Paul is discussing the nation of Israel, we know that he really knows what he is talking about.
Who was the book written to? It was written to the believers in the church at Rome. In verse 7 it says…
As we saw earlier this is a book that has been used to bring people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ for thousands of years. But it was originally written as a guide and encouragement, and instruction to believers. It has a lot to tell us who are already believers in Jesus Christ.
The next question is when? When was the book written? It was written in 57ad, near the end of Paul’s 3rd missionary journey. Let me help you get a handle on what that means. All the books of the NT were written from about 49ad to 90ad. The first book to be written was probably Galatians in 49ad, right after Paul’s first missionary journey.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke were probably written in the early 60’s ad. Revelation was written by John in the early 90’s or late 80’s.
So Paul’s writing of this letter falls somewhere in the middle of the other books. It was written at a logical point in Paul’s life. He had been a believers for a number of years. He had learned more about Jesus from the other disciples, he had spent time learning about and studying what it meant to follow Christ. He wrote this book not as a young believer, but as a seasoned minister.
The final question is where? Where was Paul when this letter was written? He was in Corinth, and planning a trip to come see the church in Rome soon. He sent this letter to prepare the way.
The next part of our introductory study of Romans is to look at the outline of the book. If you ever had to write a paper for high school or college you know about outlining. You start with a main idea, then sub-points, then a new main idea and more sub-points. Outlining is important because it helps us organize our thoughts and give us a sense of the big picture. Whenever I read a book, the first thing I do is look at the table of contents, which is just the outline of the book. From that information I can learn a lot about whether or not I am interested in the book.
There have been a number of different outlines suggested for the book of Romans. I thought I would just share a couple with you so that you can get an idea of where we are headed.
The most basic outline of Romans is to simply split it into two sections,
I. Chapters 1-11- Doctrine
II. Chapters 12-16- Application
Another general outline would be,
I. Intro- 1:1-17
II. Condemnation- 1:18-3:20
III. Justification- 3:21-5:21
IV. Sanctification- 6:1-8:39
V. Restoration- 9:1-11:36
VI. Application- 12:1-15:13
VII. Conclusion- 15:14-16:27
A more specific outline would be…
I. Righteousness for Acceptance by Faith- 1:1-8:39
a. Introduction of Paul and his message
b. Righteousness rejected by all men
c. Righteousness accepted by faith
d. Righteousness and personal sin
II. Righteousness in God’s act with Israel- 9:1-11:36
a. God’s righteous Election of Israel
b. God’s righteous witness to Israel
c. God’s righteous restoration of Israel
III. Righteousness in Human Obedience under God- 12:1-16:27
a. The renewed mind: Proper perspectives on self, church, and society
b. The renewed mind: Acceptance and edification of the weak
c. The trip to Rome
d. Final remarks
e. Ascription of glory
As we can see from these outlines, Romans is a book that covers a lot of territory. I deals with everything from condemnation to glorification. It offers propositional truth and practical living.
The final question to answer today is, why was the book written? We have already seen some answers to that question simply through our study of the background information and outline.
There are a number of different needs met by Romans, but I think we can boil the purpose of the book down to three things.
First, Romans reveals God’s sovereign plan of salvation. Particularly in the first eight chapters of the book we find Paul explaining sin, guilt, condemnation. In very clear and vivid language he talks about how sin has created a gulf between us and God. It stains us completely. It enslaves is and leaves us mortally wounded.
Paul doesn’t just deal with our sin, he also talks about how just as sin entered through Adam, salvation is now available through Christ. So the first important purpose of the book is that it helps us understand our own sin and salvation by faith through Christ.
Second, the purpose of Romans is to show how Jews and gentiles fit into the plan of salvation. Paul takes three chapters, and then some, to talk about the rejection of Christ by the Jews, and the fact that God is not done with them yet.
Third, Romans was written to exhort us to live righteous lives. The last chapters of Romans transition from doctrinal truth, to practical advice. It offers some guidelines for how we should now life since we are children of God and freed from slavery to sin.
Imbedded in these three reasons for the book are a host of important doctrines. Romans gives us extensive teaching about the doctrines of sin, salvation, justification, sanctification, God’s sovereignty, and the church, just to name a few.
Just look again at these opening verses. They contain more doctrinal truth than most of the books in my study.
- Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures,
There we see the doctrine of revelation
- 3 concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 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,
There is the doctrine of Christ and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the doctrine of the trinity.
- 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, 6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;
There is the doctrine of salvation by grace.
It’s no wonder this is considered the crown jewel of the New Testament. It has it all. It offers truth in a pluralistic world. Teaching to the spiritual immature. Meat for the spiritually mature. Guidance to the lost. A bridge from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And practical advice for how to live a God-honoring life.
Martin Luther said, “It is the chief book of the New Testament. It deserves to be known by heart by every Christian.”
I’m not going to make you memorize it. But we will dig in and see all that it has to offer us. It is a powerful book. As we study it listen to what it is saying to you.
