Romans – A Treatise
INTRODUCTION
The Epistle to the Romans is one of Paul’s great letters of the New Testament. It is different from other Epistles and we find in it truths that are both necessary and inspiring. We cannot take up this wonderful book without thinking a little of the person who wrote it. Of course, like all Holy Scripture, it was inspired by the Spirit of God, but God was pleased to use Paul for the setting forth of the sterling truths therein presented. God does not choose His servants at random. Wherever He has a specific service to be done, He will fit the vessel for that service.
Initially the Epistle to the Romans is a legal document, setting forth the foundational claims of the Christian faith. It is a kind of title deed to the realm of glory, our future inheritance. Keeping this in mind it is not surprising that Paul should be chosen to declare these truths. One can see how God reached back into the very early training of this man, before he was converted, in order that his mind might be cultivated and capacitated for its enlightenment by God’s Spirit so he would be uniquely fitted for a task like this.
Saul of Tarsus is really “the religious lawyer” of the New Testament. In his unconverted days he was a unique theological analyst. The traditional faith of his fathers had been thoroughly mastered by his mental prowess, and he had become a zealous devotee of its precepts. Actually, it was his religious propensities that made him a murderer. Incidentally, it should be a striking example to all of us of the fact that religion can never save the human soul. Only Christ the Redeemer can do that. Saul’s religion drove him into the blackness of a night of antipathy against the Lord Jesus and against every one of His followers. His theological bigotry impelled him forward by an uncontrollable force, making him willing to perpetrate the most diabolical cruelties on followers of the Lord Jesus. We see this come out in all its frightful force as he stood that day on the street of Jerusalem and watched the stoning of Stephen. When that man's face shone as the face of an angel you would have thought it was a sight that would melt the stoutest heart – but Saul stood there unmoved, his heart like the flinty rock, giving consent to Stephen’s murder. It was not that Saul was essentially a wicked man, a criminal, a man who delighted in sin. On the contrary, he gives us his religious history in the Epistle to the Philippians. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, an exemplary character in the religious world. In his Epistle to Timothy, he lays the claim that from his forefather he served God with a pure conscience. In other words, when consenting to Stephen’s death he thought he was doing the will of God. The crimes he perpetrated were done “ignorantly in unbelief.” Then the mercy of God reached him and he was wonderfully converted.
That is the traditional background of this man Paul, and one can see how the Lord allowed him to go into those avenues of religious bigotry in order that he might afterward have a proper appreciation of the mighty love of Christ that rescued him from the perdition of such folly. “He who is forgiven much, the same loveth much.” Thus Paul comes upon the scene. He is Saul with a new name, a regenerated heart, humbled and contrite, but still with the same astuteness of mind displayed in his unconverted days. Now that great intellect is captivated by the Spirit of God. Paul is renewed in the spirit of his mind – his thoughts brought into obedience to Christ. It is not exactly that he was given a new mind but rather that his mental capacity was taken over by the power of the Spirit. One can readily see then how Paul is so thoroughly equipped by his mental development, renewed and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to set forth this mighty legal document of the New Testament called “The Epistle to the Romans.”
Now we come to the Epistle itself. The reason this letter is of such great importance in this present age is because our feet are set in the shifting sands of man’s theological opinions. We are living in an age when the enemy is seeking to instill doubts and misgivings into the hearts of not only unregenerate men, but of God's own children. Therefore, we must lay hold of the truths of the Epistle to the Romans. Therein, by the Spirit, Paul takes up certain foundational questions. In this study, they are approached from the legal standpoint and a genuine attempt has been made to trace their logical conclusions, in the prayerful hope that these great moral problems between God and men might be more easily understood.
Thus we find in the opening chapters of the Epistle to the Romans that both Jews and Gentiles are considered. Their moral and spiritual qualifications are measured; their actions are duly weighed in the balance of God’s righteous judgment, and both are declared to be criminals. They are brought into the courtroom guilty before God, their mouths stopped, and they are condemned. The general charge brought against the Gentiles is that they have the testimony of creation, witnessing the power and Godhead of the Creator. Instead of responding to it, according to the intelligence God has given to the creature, they refused its testimony and went into idolatry, fashioning God in their minds after the order of corruptible man, beasts, and creeping things. Then the Jews are taken up as having the testimony of the law, God's righteous requirements whereby men may walk in this world for the good pleasure of the Lord. On the basis of law, they had broken their covenant with God. Thus the Gentile without law is brought in guilty and the Jew under law is brought in guilty and the third chapter of Romans declares that there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
That is the first question that is settled in the Epistle to the Romans. It is the sin question, the question of guilt. Now this is a means to an end. In chapter three we stand before the bar of God’s justice, Jew and Gentile, condemned unequivocally. But we are not left there. Immediately God’s righteousness is set forth, and it is not a righteousness attained by human effort, by good works, or by our own doings. It is the righteousness of God which is set forth on the principle of the faith of Jesus Christ – through His shed blood. Thus the second moral question settled is God's righteousness, and that is settled at the Cross of Calvary – by the faith of Jesus Christ. Then we have the great question of the clearance of the sinner from guilt: “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted unto him for righteousness.” Thereby the sinner is justified. In a sense, the one who has sinned and who has thereafter placed faith in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ is brought to a legal status before God where he is accepted, brought into the favor of God as if he had never committed a single sin. Then, as we travel across the pages of this wonderful Epistle, every moral and spiritual problem between the creature and the Creator is taken up and settled with a finality that silences every accusing voice. In chapter eight the grand unanswered challenge is proclaimed: “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.” And the final conclusion of the matter is that “nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In Summary
God is the Righteous Judge on the bench, maintaining all the austerity of the divine throne, yet disclosing a heart that is bent on justifying the criminal. Jew and Gentile are arraigned before this Bar of Justice, and Paul is the brilliant attorney for both prosecution and defense. The Lord Jesus is the One who mediates the cause and pays the penalty of the condemned offender. Every moral and spiritual issue is carefully scrutinized; illustrious witnesses are presented before the Court; due deliberation is given to every vestige of evidence; heaven’s inviolate throne is vindicated; all religious, racial, national, and moral distinctions are appraised and eliminated; the Court rests its case with the sinner justified and reconciled to God.
Our goal in preparing this study has been to avoid the usual theological phraseology, replacing it with graphic, everyday language that will, we pray, bring a new endearment to the study of Romans, hopefully leading souls to Jesus Christ and establishing in Christians more confidence in God.
The Darby Translation Bible (DBY)
First published in 1890 by John Nelson Darby, an Anglo-Irish Bible teacher associated with the early years of the Plymouth Brethren. Darby’s translation work was not intended to be read aloud. In fact, in his own oral ministry he generally used the English KJV. While he did not feel a new translation in English was needed, still, he decided to produce a highly literal English version of the New Testament for study and private use purposes. His New Testament translation was first issued in parts, beginning with the Gospel according to Matthew in 1865. The New Testament was completed in 1867. The version is
exceedingly literal, based upon modern critical editions of the Greek text, and abundantly supplied with text-critical and philological annotations. We believe the annotations are by far some of the most comprehensive and detailed to be found in an English version.
Footnotes
Footnotes have been added in some of the lessons for the purpose of further study and consideration.
