Approximately 25 years after Christ’s ascension, at the close of his third missionary journey, Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome from the Greek city of Corinth. As he is preparing to travel to the Jerusalem church with an offering for the poor believers, he pauses long enough to write a letter to a church he has never visited. He writes to introduce himself, but being the teacher he is, Paul can’t help but also teach his new friends about the righteousness that comes from God—the great truths of the gospel of grace.*
This letter, the Book of Romans, written by the greatest Christian to ever live, to a group of people he would never meet, in God’s providence has left an immeasurable impact on humanity.
It was said of Martin Luther upon reading Romans,
“And so, the lights came on for Luther. And he began to understand that what Paul was speaking of here was a righteousness that God in His grace was making available to those who would receive it passively, not those who would achieve it actively, but that would receive it by faith, and by which a person could be reconciled to a holy and righteous God.”
In May of 1738, a failed minister and missionary reluctantly went to a small Bible study where someone read aloud from Martin Luther’s Commentary on Romans. “While he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken my sins away, even mine.” John Wesley was saved that night in London.*
John Calvin said of Romans, “When anyone understands this Epistle, he has a passage opened to him to the understanding of the whole Scripture.”
And the great theologian, G. Campbell Morgan, said Romans was “the most pessimistic page of literature upon which your eyes ever rested” and at the same time, “the most optimistic poem to which your ears ever listened.”
It is amazing to see how the Sovereign of the universe graciously condescends to use fallen humanity and unremarkable circumstances to communicate His perfect plan of salvation.
* Source: Bare Bones Bible Handbook
** Source: Enduring Word Commentary
