(This article, first published almost exactly a year ago, is still as fresh as ever and is very timely as we begin reading the book of Romans today.)
One day, a man affixed a document to the doors of a church. The document, quickly translated, spread rapidly. In a short time, it was an earthquake; the history of the church, the Western world, and the world in general was radically changed. The man was Luther, the document the 95 Theses, the theme how man can come to God. Luther had understood: man is justified only by faith and not by works. The Reformation began, Protestantism was born, and the world would never be the same again.
Luther draws the heart of this revelation partly in Romans. A fascinating epistle, a fundamental work of Christian theology, Romans is essential to understanding the gospel. It explores how God worked through Christ to bring man to a knowledge of Himself, to a new relationship with Him, and to a transformation of his eternal and earthly status and life. An essential book of the Christian faith.
It covers the central themes of the gospel, such as justification by faith (dear to the Reformers), redemption, propitiation, glorification, and reconciliation. It explains the new covenant, the difference between the law (the old covenant) and grace, liberation from the grip of sin, God's plan for Israel, the new life and status of those who receive Christ by faith, and the life led by the Holy Spirit.
Martin Luther calls it 'the purest of the gospels'; and Romans, according to him 'deserves not only that every Christian know it word for word, know it by heart, but that he soak it up every day like the daily bread of the soul. One can never read it or meditate on it too much, and the more one devotes himself to it, the more precious it becomes, the more delicious it is.'
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