This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, The Book that Changed the World.
There was once a Roman Catholic monk named Martin Luther. Luther had tried to get right with God by rituals, penance, and good deeds, but his heart was empty. But Martin Luther had been studying the book of Romans. This burst alive in his mind: “The righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:17b). Luther saw justification by faith, the theme of the book of Romans, and he was born again. From this, the Protestant Reformation began and swept Europe.
Chapters 1-3 of Paul’s letter to the Romans deal with sin, what is wrong with the world.
Chapters 5 and 6 deal with salvation—because by the grace of God, He does not just show you that you are a slave sin; He shows you the way out.
Chapters 7-8 deal with sanctification. It is one thing to get saved, and another thing to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Sanctification means becoming more like Jesus.
Chapters 9-11 deal with God’s sovereignty over the universe, how from eternity past to eternity future, God is in charge.
In chapter 12, Romans says we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.
The end of the book of Romans, chapters 13-16, deal with service—how to serve this sovereign God; how to be, in a very practical way, the Christians we ought to be.
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God” (Romans 1:1). Paul was a privileged Jew, born in Tarsus. He was fluent in many languages, and very much aware of world affairs. Besides being a Jew, Paul was a Roman citizen. He was part of the most strict religious sect in Judaism, the Pharisees. This man had a pedigree a mile long.
But God cut him down to size. (Read Acts 9:1-22.) Paul later says of himself, “To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given” (Ephesians 3:8a). Paul knew that he was what he was by the grace of God.
Not only is Paul saved, but he calls himself "a servant of Christ Jesus.” This Greek word, doulos, actually means “bond slave.” In Bible times, if a man got himself in debt and could not pay, he became the property of the man to whom he owed money.
But the Bible set the law of jubilee, which said that after seven years all bond slaves had to be set free. (See Deuteronomy 15:12.) Sometimes a bond slave would say, “I don't want to be set free. I love my master, and I want to stay under him.” If he made that decision, the judges of Israel would take an awl and put it through his earlobe. (Read Deuteronomy 15:16-17.) There would be a hole there to mark that he was a bond slave. When the apostle Paul said, "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" (Galatians 6:17b), he meant he had become a willing bond slave of Christ.
You might think, “I don't want to be anybody's slave.” You already are. Either you are a slave of Christ, or a slave to sin.
If you do not know and love Jesus Christ, you will not understand the book of Romans—until God puts the light on in your soul. Paul’s epistle to the Romans is a book about the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the foundation of faith. Christianity is Christ.
Let's see what the apostle Paul says about Christ.
“…Which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:2-3a).
Paul did not start a new religion. What we are talking about was before the foundation of the world. What the apostle Paul is telling us in the book of Romans, he learned in the Old Testament—because The Old Testament is about Jesus.
Jesus told those people of His day, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39). The Old Testament is not about the Jewish nation, but about Jesus, the Messiah of the Jews.
“…Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Romans 1:3). He came, because He was promised, of the house and lineage of David. Jesus Christ is the royal heir to Israel's throne, in his humanity.
Then the next verse says He is “declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4).
God provided a Messiah. Jesus was not a divine man, nor was He a human god. He was the God‑Man.
How do we know Jesus was not just another religious teacher? Or a wild‑eyed fanatic? Because He walked out of the tomb. (See Romans 1:4.)
How do we know He did that? He showed Himself to be alive by many infallible proofs. People with good minds have said that there is inescapable evidence that Jesus Christ came out of that grave—more evidence than that Julius Caesar ever lived.
We serve a mighty Savior who has conquered death, Hell, sin, and the grave. And He did this by the spirit of Holiness. That is what the Book of Romans is about.
In Romans 1:1, Paul tells us the source of the gospel: “the gospel of God.”
Paul did not think it up. He said, “For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:12).
It is the gospel of God, so do not tamper with it. Paul warned the Galatians, " As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:9). Why? A false gospel will lead to a synthetic salvation, which will lead to a very real Hell.
Paul was not trying to be politically correct. The gospel of grace is the gospel of God.
This is not a gospel that alludes to Christ, or that mentions Him. Jesus is the gospel of grace. The word gospel means “good news”! It is good news concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.
You are not saved by good works, by religion, by baptism, by church membership, or by giving your money. You are saved by the grace of God—as taught in the book of Romans.
If you do not have assurance of your salvation, you have still not learned about grace. These are the truths you can learn from the book of Romans.
Do not look for a sign. Do not ask for a feeling. Stand on God’s word, and receive the grace of God. A river of peace will flow through my heart: the river of grace. That is the foundation of the faith.
Romans 1:1-4,17; Acts 9:1-22; Ephesians 3:8; Deuteronomy 15:12,16-17; Galatians 1:9,12, 6:17; John 5:39
Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily.”
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone…
