The Gospel According to Paul

Introduction

I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior in 1994 at the age of thirty-three. As a new believer and for many years thereafter, the book of Romans was a place I found myself afraid to venture. Of all of Paul’s writings, Romans was the most difficult to understand and left me often bewildered as to what I had just read. A highly respected and well learned pastor once said that a new pastor should be with his congregation for at least five years before he attempts to begin to preach through the book of Romans. When Peter wrote these words I am convinced that he had the book of Romans in mind: “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; [a]s 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 Pet. 3:15–16). Having completed twenty years of active-duty service, I retired from the military and enrolled as a full-time student in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in order to fully prepare myself for the call to ministry that God had placed on my heart when He saved me nine years earlier. I knew from years of military training that the only way to overcome a fear is to face it head on, so when presented the opportunity in the fourth and final year of my seminary studies to take a semester-long Greek exegetical study of the book of Romans, I jumped at the chance to hopefully overcome my fear and confusion of this pivotal book of the Bible. It worked! God used Dr. John Taylor’s class to enable me to see Paul’s structure and, more importantly, the theological significance behind that structure.
Why is the book of Romans placed first in the order of the Pauline Epistles in our Bibles? Is it because it was the first to be written by Paul? The answer is no. The first to be written was Galatians, which Paul wrote after his first missionary journey. It wasn’t the second, third, fourth, or even the fifth. It was number six after 1 and 2 Corinthians, which were preceded by 1 and 2 Thessalonians, which were preceded by Galatians. So then why was it placed first among Paul’s letters in our canon? Our New Testament begins with the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John respectively. These books communicate the gospel message in narrative form by recording the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. They are followed by the book of Acts, which not only provides the early history of the Church, but it serves to introduce the key player in the growth and spread of the Church across the known world—the apostle Paul. The book of Romans comes next because it contains the Gospel according to Paul. However, this gospel message is not given in narrative form, but rather in a clear and concise didactic form. God commissioned Paul, His most gifted theologian of that day, to write a doctrinal thesis, an in-depth biblical teaching, that is to serve as the theological foundation on which He expects every New Testament church to be built.
Unlike many commentaries which are organized and presented in accordance with the chapters of the book in which they are analyzing, this commentary is organized and presented in accordance with the structure in which Paul organized and presented the letter to his readers. It follows his outline, an outline which often doesn’t align with the chapter breaks found in our Bibles, which were added over 1,100 years later to aid in navigation. As most letters do, Romans has an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. The main body consists of a four-part sermon in which Paul lays out this theological foundation on which Jesus Christ wants every New Testament church built. This is why this letter is so crucial for believers, and especially pastors and church planters, to understand and apply. This is why I have taught it to every international church-plant pastor that my ministry has assisted in planting a new church since the ministry’s inception in 2013. (If you would like to learn more about EPPIC Ministries International, please visit www.eppicmissions.org.) It is also why I feel compelled by God to share with you the things He has revealed to me concerning the content and purpose of this tremendously important letter.