October Loop Intro
Beloved,
This coming Lord’s Day is a bit monumental for us as, Lord willing, we complete our study through the book of Romans. This has been an epic journey we’ve been on together since March 19th of 2023, scaling up and back down the summit of the Mt. Everest of the New Testament together. What a journey it’s been!
This Sunday also marks the beginning of October, a month that commemorates the Reformation. It is fitting, as it was the book of Romans that sparked Luther and the Reformation. He said in the Preface to the Epistle to the Romans (1522)
“This epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament, and is truly the purest gospel. {Romans} is worth 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.”
As he wrestled with Romans 1:16-17, he spoke of his famous “Tower Experience” and said,
“I greatly longed to understand Paul’s epistle to the Romans, and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, `the righteousness of God.’ Because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and deals righteously in punishing the unrighteous, night and day, I pondered until I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, He justifies us by faith. There, I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise, the whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the righteousness of God had filled me with hate, it now began to fill me inexpressibly with a sweet love. The passage of Paul became to me the gateway to heaven.”
A few centuries after Luther, a young man who was quite disciplined religiously, part of a “holiness club”, quite “methodical”;-) in his approach, and a missionary, yet still unsaved, witnessed the faith of Moravian Missionaries that stirred his heart. Late,r while attending a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, John Wesley said,
”I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” (Journal of Rev. John Wesley M.A.)
Many key figures, such as Augustine, were also converted through reading the letter to the Romans. It can truly be said without exaggeration that the teaching and preaching of the book of Romans has changed the world. That’s a good reminder to us that lasting influence and impact on the world come through the scriptures being accurately studied, faithfully taught, and preached.
As we approach the end of the book, we’ll be reminded once again of the personal nature of the Gospel for all of life and the end result of the Gospel in the Glory of God. I hope you’ll make a point to gather with us this Sunday.
Grace to you,
Pastor Jayson