Click Here for Romans Resources, including the reading plan for iPhones.
Since today is the launch of our Romans experience, I'd like to offer the following as an introduction to what many consider Paul's greatest contribution to our Bible. The question for this week and particularly chapter one is: What jumps out to you today?
The event that split history into “before” and “after” and changed the world took place about thirty years before Paul wrote this letter. The event - the life, death and resurrection of Jesus - took place in a remote corner of the extensive Roman Empire: the province of Judea in Palestine. Hardly anyone noticed, certainly no one in busy and powerful Rome.
And when this letter arrived in Rome, hardly anyone read it, certainly no one of influence. There was much to read in Rome - imperial decrees, exquisite poetry, finely crafted moral philosophy - and much of it was world-class. And yet in no time, as such things go, this letter left all those other writings in the dust. Paul’s letter to the Romans has had a far larger impact on its readers than the volumes of all those Roman writers put together.
The quick rise of this letter to a peak of influence is extraordinary, written as it was by an obscure Roman citizen without connections. But when we read it for ourselves, we begin to realize that it is the letter itself that is truly extraordinary, and that no obscurity in writer or readers could have kept it obscure for long.
The letter to the Romans is a piece of exuberant and passionate thinking. This is the glorious life of the mind enlisted in the service of God. Paul takes the well-witnessed and devoutly believed fact of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and thinks through its implications. How does it happen that in the death and resurrection of Jesus, world history took a new direction, and at the same moment the life of every man, woman and child on the planet was eternally affected? What is God up to? What does it mean that Jesus “saves”? What’s behind all this, and where is it going?
These are the questions that drive Paul’s thinking. Paul’s mind is supple and capacious. He takes logic and argument, poetry and imagination, Scripture and prayer, creation and history and experience, and weaves them into this letter that has become the premier document of Christian theology.
Eugene H. Peterson
Introduction to Romans
The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language
My apologies for the late post today. I was out in the middle of nowhere enjoying the long weekend with no access. Fresh thoughts from me on Tuesday!
ReplyDelete1:8-15 Paul explains the reason for his letter. He has never been to Rome to serve the church there, and he has a burning passion to do so. Rome was the center of the universe, and Christians' influence in that city could (did, actually) change the world. Two things strike me here. First, how deeply and sincerely Paul cared about these people he has never met -- I want to have even a little of that. Second, the Roman church started and grew without any apostle being there. Sometimes we get the false impression that Paul and the other apostles personally started every church and personally spread the gospel to every city and country. The church at Rome reminds me that everyday people became followers of Christ and shared their faith with friends and family, spreading the gospel wherever they lived or went.
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite part is verse 7 which loosely translates to "I saw God just the other day and He said to tell you hi and give you a hug."
ReplyDeleteI love that translation Emma...good to see you back after the summer break!
ReplyDelete"The person in right standing before God by trusting Him really lives" (1:17) No one gets there by being born in a certain country, to a certain race or to a certain set of parents. Each of us is responsible for our own relationship with God - we are not excluded because of where we live or how we live. Rich or poor, black or brown, fat or skinny, blonde or brunette, athletic or academic, etc. It just doesn't matter to God, so why does it matter so much to us?
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you what jumps out at me... is the technological savy and time consumption to struggle through getting my unsightly mug on the "followers" deal... almost quit before I got started... to all others out there - beware of the techno kool-aid that the Apple/Mac zombies (our pastors) have drank... I bet Paul would agree.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the first 7 verses of Romans go, I really dig Emma's comment.
I agree Stan, I can't even get mine to change up there. And for the record, I'm the "Apple/Mac zombie" not Cameron...get it straight!
ReplyDeleteIn response to verses 18-25, "It's not until we understand the severity of our lost condition that we become concerned with rescue."
ReplyDeleteDo you believe this? Can we really be concerned with the rescue of our neighbors and friends without understanding the severity of their lost condition...of our lost condition?