A Study Of The Book Of Romans Lesson #1 Series

Book of Romans Study

Introduction & Romans 1:1-2

Tonight we will begin an expository study of the Epistle to the Romans, which was written under the anointing of the Holy Spirit by Paul, the Apostle. This letter to the Romans has often been called “the Constitution of Christianity”, or the “Christian Manifesto”.

Karl Marx is attributed with authoring the “Communist Manifesto”, which laid out the Communist purposes and program. It analyses and explains the class struggle of human society both historically and in present times, and proclaims the problems of capitalism, and a prediction of communism's potential future.

Marx said, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles". His manifesto gives his ideas for how the capitalist society of his time would eventually be replaced by socialism, and then eventually communism, and that communism would rule the world under a New World Order.

Another man, Adolf Hitler, wrote his own “manifesto” and titled it “Mein Kampf”, which means, “My Struggle”. In Mein Kampf, Hitler used the main thesis of "the Jewish peril", which he saw as a Jewish conspiracy to gain world leadership. In his story, Hitler describes the process by which he became increasingly anti-semitic and militaristic, especially during his early years in Vienna. It was in those years that the Mayor of Vienna, Mr. Lueger, taught Hilter what it meant to persecute Jews and how to do so. He also was greatly influenced by the German Nationalist party, which blamed Jews for all of Germany’s problems.

Hitler soon proclaimed his hatred of what he believed to be the world's twin evils: Communism and Judaism. He then decided that Germany needed to obtain new territory to help establish the rightful destiny of the German people.

Germany needed “Lebensraum” which means “living space”. Hitler’s manifesto stated that Germany, and the Aryan Race would rule the world and Germany would have a Third Reich making them the rulers of the world for 1000 years and that Germany, with he as its Fuhrer, or “leader”, would establish a New World Order.

This Christian Manifesto is Paul’s way of establishing the fact that there is only one Kingdom, and one Ruler who is destined to ultimately rule the world and the world to come forever.

That Ruler is Jesus Christ, the very Son of God and Savior of the World. In Romans Paul describes the cause of all sin, the overcoming of Satan and the powers of darkness, and the ultimate power of Grace and Faith over it all, and the establishment of Righteousness through Christ alone. There are no good men, no good governments; for all is sin and ultimately meant to be destroyed by the appearance of Christ and His Kingdom, and that will absolutely be a New World Order.

Just as we can see happening in our nation today, when people don’t know their own constitutional rights, or forget what it says and ignore its provisions and promises, then we are destined to become enslaved once again. Freedom only comes through knowledge and the defense of those rights that are established.\

In the Christian constitution, when we don’t know what the Word of God teaches, or we lose sight of God’s promises, or we allow the truth of the word to be compromised and lost through the misinterpretation or misapplication of what the word says, then we are destined to become enslaved by either the Law or sin once again. It’s imperative that we understand and uphold our constitution as a nation, but even more so, our rights and privileges as Born Again people of God’s holy nation.

This book, written by the Apostle Paul to the Christians at Rome, contains the most complete explanations of the roots of Christianity as well as examples of Christian doctrine that are as timely today as they were nearly 2000 years ago when this letter was written. As such, it is therefore imperative that we understand what Paul teaches concerning the Christian faith. We have heard a lot about the Roman Road to salvation, and many of you have used Paul’s words to lead people to Christ.

But what about the rest of the Book of Romans? How much have we studied it? How much do we understand it? How much assurance of your salvation can be had by knowing what the Book of Romans teaches?

I cannot say that the Book of Romans stands alone as the single most important book of the New Testament, for there is much to be learned from all of the Word of God. But what I do believe is that if we could only grasp the fullness of what Paul preaches in Romans, how much greater and more victorious of a Christian life we could have.

The epistle, meaning letter, to the Romans was written around AD 56 to 58 while Paul was in the city of Corinth on his 3rd missionary journey. Paul stayed in Corinth for 3 months before leaving to go to Jerusalem to bring the offerings that he had collected from the churches he had visited to the Saints at Jerusalem who were under persecution from their own religious leaders