Romans 1-3

And Now… the TRUTH!

You’ve seen him on “Survivor” and “The Great Race”… now, read his book!

That’s what it feels like when you turn the page from Acts to Romans. We’ve watched Paul go from a religious terrorist to a persecuted missionary and the travelogue of his missionary trips read like scenes from “Castaway”. But then, after all the excitement of shipwrecks and midnight escapes; of facing screaming crowds and miraculous releases from prison, we turn to the next book in the New Testament and get… theology?

Don’t let this scare you!

In fact, Paul would be saying: Hurray! You finally got to the good stuff! For him, his story was always secondary to the truth for which he was willing to die. And now he lays that truth out in style.

Romans, the first non-narrative book in the New Testament, is as close as we get to a “Christianity for Dummies”. In many ways it’s a non-gospel gospel. You see, many of the folks who would read this letter have never read any of the gospels we all just finished reading two weeks ago. These Roman Christians didn’t have Matthew or Mark to learn from yet so their first taste of a written presentation of Christ’s message was this pamphlet sent by Paul from Corinth. In it he lays out the big picture of the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection and the life-changing power of our faith in that act. It is the single most complete theological survey of Christian doctrine in the Bible.

Now doesn’t that excite you? OK: Now the good news… there’s a Reader’s Digest version. It’s the first three chapters and it goes something like this: Mankind has fallen down and we can’t get up.

Paul starts by making it clear that neither the Jew’s law-keeping nor the Gentile’s smarts will solve the problem. The only hope is a “righteousness from God.” Note the direction. It’s important: “a righteousness from God.” The whole book is written to underline that we receive hope, grace and forgiveness through God’s work, not ours. By faith is Paul’s mantra and he makes sure we know that this is faith in Christ… not our goodness, nor the law, nor even the church. Because of the gift of grace through faith in Christ we are free from the law of sin and death.

The rest of Romans will get challenging. (God bless the blogger with Romans 10 & 11!) But remember the core message – Our righteousness is from God. It’s the greatest gift one could ever receive.

And that’s the TRUTH!


Jeff Walling
April 16