Transformational Epistle
The apostle Paul wrote his
epistle to the church in Rome nearly 2000 years ago. The letter is only a few
pages long, less than 10,000 words, but its impact has been profound. At least
three times in the history of the Christian church this epistle has produced an
upheaval that forever changed the church for the better.
One was in the early 1500s
when an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther was trying to ease his conscience
through living what he called a “life without reproach.” Yet in spite of obeying
all the rituals and prescribed ordinances of his priestly order, Luther still
felt alienated from God.
Then, as a university
lecturer on the book of Romans, Luther found himself drawn to Paul’s declaration
in Romans 1:17:
“For
in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by
faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by
faith’” (NIV).
The truth of this powerful
passage finally struck Luther for what it was. He wrote:
“There I began to
understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by
a gift of God…namely the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies
us by faith…Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered
paradise itself through open gates.”
I think you know what
happened next. Luther could not keep quiet about his rediscovery of the pure and
simple gospel. The Protestant Reformation was a result.
Another upheaval caused by
the book of Romans came in England in the 1730s. The Church of England had
fallen on hard times. London was a hotbed of gin-drinking and loose living.
Corruption was rampant, even in the churches. A devout young Anglican
minister, John Wesley, was preaching repentance, but his efforts were having
little effect. Then the young Wesley, after being touched by the faith of a
group of German Christians on a stormy trans-Atlantic voyage, was drawn to a
Moravian meetinghouse. In Wesley’s words:
“In the evening I went
very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading
Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine,
while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in
Christ, 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.”
Once again the Book of
Romans was instrumental in turning the church back to faith as it launched the
Evangelical Revival.
A more recent upheaval
brings us to 1916 Europe. In the midst of the terrible carnage of World War
I,
a young Swiss pastor finds that his optimistic, liberal views about a Christian
world advancing toward moral and spiritual perfection have been shattered by the
mind-numbing slaughter on the Western Front. Karl Barth realized that the gospel
message needed a new and realistic perspective in the face of such a cataclysmic
crisis.
In his “Romans”
commentary, published in Germany in 1918, Barth was concerned that the original
voice of Paul was being lost, buried under centuries of scholarship and
criticism.
In writing about Romans 1,
Barth said that the gospel is not one thing among other things but a Word that
is the Origin of all things, a word that is ever new, a communication from God
that demands faith and that, when properly read, creates the very faith it
presumes. The gospel, said Barth, demands participation and cooperation.
In this way, Barth showed
that the Word of God was relevant to a world battered and disillusioned by
global war. Once again, the book of Romans was the shining star, showing
the way out of a dark cave of shattered hope.
Barth’s Commentary on
Romans has been aptly described as a bomb dropped on the playground of the
philosophers and theologians. Once again the church was changed by the message
of Romans taking hold of a devout reader.
It changed Luther. It
changed Wesley. It changed Barth. And it continues to change many today.
Through it the Holy Spirit transforms its readers with faith and assurance. If
you do not yet know that assurance, I urge that you read and believe the Book of
Romans.
I’m Joseph Tkach, speaking
of LIFE.
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