CHAPTER 2 THE WRITER AND HIS READERS Romans 1:1 PAUL, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. So the man opens his Lord's message with his own name. We may, if we please, leave it and pass on, for to the letter writer of that day it was as much a matter of course to prefix the personal name to the letter a... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 3 GOOD REPORT OF THE ROMAN CHURCH: PAUL NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL Romans 1:8 HE has blessed the Roman Christians in the name of the Lord. Now he hastens to tell them how he blesses God for them, and how full his heart is of them. The Gospel is warm all through with life and love; this gre... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 4 NEED FOR THE GOSPEL: GOD'S ANGER AND MAN'S SIN Romans 1:18 WE have as it were touched the heart of the Apostle as he weighs the prospect of his Roman visit, and feels, almost in one sensation, the tender and powerful attraction, the solemn duty, and the strange solicitation to shrink fro... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 5 MAN GIVEN UP TO HIS OWN WAY: THE HEATHEN Romans 1:24 WHEREFORE God gave them up, in the desires of their hearts, to uncleanness, so as to dishonour their bodies among themselves. There is a dark sequence in the logic of facts, between unworthy thoughts of God and the development of the... [ Continue Reading ]