omans is an uncommon book. It is the only one of PaulŪs epistles in the New Testament that is written to a church that he did not plant himself. He had never even been to Rome. It is the only book in the New Testament whose explicit design is to state the Gospel in a systematic presentation. And in terms of historical import, Romans is the one epistle that has most greatly influenced the Church of Jesus Christ. Three vignettes are presented below.
In his Confessions , Augustine tells of his great torment of soul. He had been living a life of carnal indulgence. One day in A.D. 386, his wretchedness had finally reduced him to tears. He fled to the Scriptures. He writes, "So quickly I returned to the place . . . for there had I put down the volume of the apostles, when I rose thence. I grasped, opened, and in silence read that paragraph on which my eyes first fell,'Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.' No further would I read, nor did I need; for instantly, as the sentence ended,by light, as it were, of security infused into my heart,all the gloom of doubt vanished away." Thus, upon reading Romans 13:13-14, was converted one miserable wretch. This wretch became the greatest defender of the Sovereignty of God in salvation that the church has known since the apostles. Toward the end of his career he proclaimed to his Lord, "Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hear ts are restless till they find rest in thee." 1
On November 3, 1515, Dr. Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and professor of sacred theology at the University of Wittenberg, Saxony, began a series of lectures on Romans. His keen eye for the text was evidenced by his teaching methods, which were significantly different from the scholasticism of the late Middle Ages. He prepared for his students special copies of the biblical text: it had broad spacing (for interlinear notes) and very wide margins. The students learned above all else that exposition must be tied to the text.
It was while he was teaching on Romans that Luther came to understand justification by faith. From him was lifted a life-long burden of sin and the pain of separation from a terrifying and holy God. These are his own words: "I greatly longed to understand Paul's Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, 'the justice of God,' because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage Him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against Him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that 'the just shall live by his faith.' I then grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through gra ce and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the 'justice of God' had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven." 2
The historical impact of Luther's conversion cannot be overestimated. His understanding of justification became the basis for his first quarrels with the Roman Catholic church over indulgences. These quarrels escalated to nothing less than the full recovery of the Gospel in Europewhat we now call the Protestant Reformation.
Since the Reformation, one of the marked instances of God's use of Paul's letter to Rome was during what is now known as "Haldane's Revival" in nineteenth-century Switzerland and France. The words of Martyn Lloyd-Jones articulate what transpired there. "In 1816, Robert Haldane, being about fifty years of age, went to Switzerland and to Geneva. There, to all outward appearances as if by accident, he came into contact with a number of students who were studying for the ministry. They were blind to spiritual truth but felt much attracted to Haldane and to what he said. He arranged, therefore, that they should come regularly twice a week to the rooms where he was staying and there he took them through and expounded to them Paul's epistle to the Romans. One by one they were converted, and their conversion led to a true revival of religion, not only in Switzerland, but also in France. They included such men as Merle D'Aubigne, the writer of the classic History of the Reformation , Frederic Monod who became the chief founder of the Free Churches in France, Bonifas who became a theologian of great ability, [etc.] . . . It was at the request of such men that Robert Haldane decided to put into print what he had been telling them." 3 Robert Haldane's Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans is regularly reprinted and is well worth owning. His work well displays the exactness of the doctrine that is set forth in Romans, together with the practical vitality that accompanies it. In reading Haldane's Romans we may sit under teaching that God has been pleased to bless highly. In his preface Haldane writes, "By studying the Epistle to the Romans, an exact and comprehensive knowledge of the distinguishing doctrines of grace, in their various bearings and connections, may, by the blessing of God, be obtained. Here they appear in all their native force and clearness, unalloyed with the wisdom of man." 4
Responsible historians must be committed to the following principles: 1) a sound philosophy of history so that historical data are properly interpreted, and 2) the study of primary sources of historical data. No responsible historian can neglect a careful study of one particular primary source: a letter sent by a first-century Pharisee of Tarsus to those obscure "followers of Christus" in Rome. This ancient document is of more historical significance than the Magna Carta, Shakespeare's plays, Newton's Principia, and Kant's Critique considered together.
