BULLSEYE!
ACCURATE
BIBLE KNOWLEDGE!
QUESTION:
“WHY IS THE BOOK OF ROMANS IMPORTANT?”
ANSWER:
Let’s see what others have said about Paul’s book to the Romans
CHRYSOSTOM
(347
– 407) (He was called ‘The Golden Mouth’.) would have Romans read to
him twice
a week. So wonderful and powerful was the book.
MARTIN
LUTHER
(1483 – 1546) In his preface to the Epistle to the Romans he states “This
epistle is in
truth the chief part of the New
Testament and the purest gospel.
It would be quite proper for a Christian,
not only to know it by heart word for word,
but also to study it daily, for it
is the soul’s daily bread. It can never be read or meditated too much or too
well.”
“The more
thoroughly it is treated, the
more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes. In
itself, it is a shining light, quite sufficient to illumine the
whole scripture.”
Luther
goes
on to say “In
this epistle, you will find the greatest abundance of things that a
Christian
ought to know: What the law is, the gospel, sin, punishment, grace,
faith,
imputed righteousness, Christ, God, good works, love, hope.
Cross-bearing
conduct of ourselves toward the godly and toward sinners.”
“Conduct
of ourselves toward those of weak faith,
friends, toward enemies and toward ourselves.”
“Moreover,
all this teaching
has been built on the scripture ground and illustrated by Paul’s
personal
example and by the example of the prophets, so that there is nothing
left for
us to desire.”
“It
seems therefore, that
Paul’s object in this epistle, was to draw up a syllabus of the
entire
Christian and evangelical doctrine, and to prepare an introduction
to the
entire Old Testament.
For
any person who has
received this epistle into his heart has without question, the
light and
strength of the Old Testament in himself.”
“Accordingly,
let every
Christian become familiar with this epistle, and put it into constant
practice.
To this end, may God grant us his grace! Amen!”
MELANCTHON
(1497
- 1560) – called the Book of Romans “The compendium
of Christian doctrine”
JOHN
CALVIN
(1509 – 1564) said
of Romans “When anyone understands
this epistle, he has a passage opened to him to the
understanding of the whole Scripture.”
FREDERICK
GODET
(1812 - 1900) the Swiss theologian called the Book of
Romans “The cathedral of the
Christian faith.”
G.
CAMPBELL
MORGAN (1863
– 1945) said of Romans “The most pessimistic page of literature upon
which your
eyes ever rested” and at the same time “the most optimistic poem to
which your
ears ever listened.”
RICHARD
LENSKI
wrote that Romans is “Beyond question, the most
dynamic of all New Testament letters …”
COLERIDGE
(1772
– 1834) “I think St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans the most profound work
in
existence…”
MATTHEW
HENRY
(1662 – 1714) states in his Commentary on Romans that in
the universe of ‘spiritual stars’, there are those that differ from the
rest in
magnitude and glory – in the Old Testament it is David’s Psalms and in
the New
Testament it is Paul’s fourteen Epistles, the
chief of which is Paul’s epistle to
the Romans.
ST
PETER THE APOSTLE
wrote about Paul’s letters “As
also in all his epistles, speaking in them of
these things; in which are
some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned
and
unstable wrest, as they do also
the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” 2 Peter 3:16
THE
ABOVE THINK IT’S A PRETTY IMPORTANT BOOK.
WHAT
ABOUT YOU?
****
****
Harley
Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
“CONTACT US”
Australian
Bible
Ministries, PO
Box 5058 Mt. Gravatt East 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com