Romans 01 Background

SBC Family,

Tonight we will study the background and introductory issues of Romans. One of my goals is to explain “why” Romans is considered by many people to be the most important book in the Bible. For years it rubbed me the wrong way when people would say that. It sounded like they were deprecating other books. I knew that some people in church history had various levels of inspiration they assigned to books, and I thought this way of thinking may have led to that. For example, Luther held that James was in a fourth tier of books which was quite low on the totem pole. He questioned whether it was actually inspired because of James 2:14-26. In time though, I came to understand better why saying Romans is the most important book of the Bible is not necessarily deprecating other books. There is good reason for people concluding it is the most important book. It has to do with the breadth of content and systematic arrangement.

Other books that are highly critical to an overall understanding of the Bible include Genesis, Daniel, Matthew, and Acts. For practical application books like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Galatians, Ephesians. They are all very interesting and important, but there can be valid reasons for seeing some books as really very critical. Well, now I’ve probably spoken more about this topic than I will tonight, so I should stop.

See the handout. There are two. One is an outline version that I will follow tonight. The other is a book version which reads easier.

Grace to you,
Jeremy

Attachments:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fFh_mfn9QQto-uxDRd3fpJVQR-Ovtoj2/view?usp=drive_link,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-xwQtKSP3Lx3Sry7tL-5m5Op9KxdaHj7/view?usp=drive_link