A big thanks to Barbaranne Kelly for filling in as I traveled. And thank you to all of you who have faithfully worked through this study with us.
Let’s wrap up our study with a few points to ponder.
Other religions are about being saved through works to give to God a righteousness. Christianity is about being saved through receiving from God a righteousness, without any works from us.
“The subject then of these chapters may be stated thus — that man’s only
righteousness is through the mercy of God in Christ which being offered by the
gospel is apprehended by faith.”
– John Calvin on Romans
In the last few chapters we discussed judging one another, and Paul emphasized that there are disputable matters that include food and drink and many other areas that are not explicitly prohibited in the bible. Paul also discussed our unity as Christians in chapter 15 and our responsibilities to each other.
We also see that women were prominent in the Roman church. Ten of the twenty-seven Christians whom Paul greets in Romans 16 are women (more than one-third). Six of them (Phoebe [vv. 1–2], Priscilla [v. 3], Junia [v. 7], Tryphena [v. 12],
Tryphosa [v. 12], and Persis [v. 12]) are specifically commended for their labor in the Lord. There is nothing that shows that any women held authority over men in the early community.
Let’s end with a few quotes on the epistle of Romans:
“This epistle [i.e., Romans] is really the chief part of the New Testament, and is truly the purest gospel. It is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but also that he should occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul. We can never read it or ponder over it too much; for the more we deal with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes.”1Martin Luther, “Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans,” in Word and Sacrament I, ed. E. Theodore Bachmann, vol. 35 of Luther’s Works
“When any one understands this Epistle, he has a passage opened to him to the understanding of the whole Scripture.”2John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, ed. and trans. John Owen (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1947), xxiv.
“All roads in the Bible lead to Romans, and all views afforded by the Bible are seen most clearly from Romans, and when the message of Romans gets into a person’s heart there is no telling what may happen.”3J. I. Packer, Knowing God, 20th Anniversary Ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 230.
Romans is “the most important theological, Christian work ever written.”4John Piper, “The Author of the Greatest Letter Ever Written: First in a Series of Messages on Romans,” Desiring God (website), April 26, 1998, https:// www .desiring god .org/.