Ten Things to Know About Romans

1. Romans is the Gospel According to Paul.

Granted, it doesn't look like Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, in the way their Gospels told the story of Jesus' earthly ministry and interspersed it with His teachings. Paul does it in his own way.

Why is that important to know? Ah, we have the answer to that!

Right now, there are people promoting their religion in your neighborhood who want to give a new interpretation to Holy Scripture. One such group tells of an angel appearing to their founder with golden tablets on which had been written an ancient story. The angel provided special glasses for the man to look through and decipher the writings. The result was their new book, their new doctrine, and their new twist on the message of Christ.

Now, in Galatians chapter 1, we find this from the Apostle Paul: "Even though we OR AN ANGEL FROM HEAVEN preach any other gospel to you that what we preached, let him be accursed."

And then, as though underscoring what he had just said, Paul repeated it. (Gal. 1:8-9)

The point of that is this: we hold in our hands the very message Paul preached up and down the Roman Empire. It's called "The Epistle to the Romans." And Paul says anyone preaching anything other than that is declaring a lie and headed for judgment. Slice it any way you please and it comes up that way!

That's why it's crucial we help our people to get an understanding of Romans.

Someone asked the bank teller, "How do they teach you to recognize all the counterfeit money people try to slip past you?" She answered, "They don't. They just teach us to recognize the real thing. Once we know that, it's a simple matter to catch the fakes."

In teaching Romans, we are helping our people to know and recognize the real gospel of Jesus Christ. There could be no better preparation for dealing with the shams and fakes combing the streets of your neighborhood looking for the naive and unsuspecting.

2. Romans is deep.

Ah, but you knew that. You've started reading it, determining to enjoy it and learn from it, to grow deeper in Christ. Pretty soon, you're deep all right--in over your head, and you're not out of the first chapter! Welcome to the writings of Paul.

Romans is left-brain material. All logic and reason and well-thought out arguments based on revelations of God in the Old Testament as enlightened by the Holy Spirit. There's not a single funny story in the entire epistle! No jokes, no illustrations to speak of, and not a single cartoon if you can believe that--nothing but solid reasoning. Pure truth. It's vintage Paul all the way through.

You may remember what the Apostle Peter said about Paul's writings. Assuming Peter to be the author of the Second Epistle that goes by his name--the scholars are not in agreement over that; although it is most definitely God's Word to us--down toward the end of chapter three, we read:

"...just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction." (II Peter 3:15-16)

We notice three things in Peter's one-sentence commentary on Paul's writings.

(1) There are some things hard to understand. We knew that; we're just glad someone else admits it!

(2) People without adequate understanding misinterpret Paul's writings and get in big trouble. If you question this, tune in any of the hundreds of radio or television preachers and stand amazed at what you hear.

(3) Paul's writings are scripture. Granted, the word "scripture" simply means "writings," but early on, the word was used by believers to refer to Holy Scripture. Biblical historians tell us the early church elevated these writings to Scripture status quickly.

Although "Romans" is deep, it's not all over your head. Much of it is accessible to new believers and those without a biblical background. You don't have to know Greek or have a seminary degree to appreciate chapter 8 of Romans, one of the most sublime chapters in any writings of any time. Scattered throughout the rest of the epistle are gems which the Holy Spirit distributed to encourage us to come on in, open your mind and heart, for what's ahead is well worth the effort.

--Dr. Joe McKeever

Dr. Joe McKeever is a Preacher, Cartoonist, and the Director of Missions for the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans.

http://www.joemckeever.com/mt/


And hopefully more to come.

Jerry
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