Week Forty-Six Reading Assignment:
Acts 18 - Romans 12
"Forasmuch as this epistle (Romans) is the principal and most excellent part of the New Testament, and most pure Euangelion, that is to say glad tidings and that we call gospel, and also a light and a way in unto the whole scripture, I think it meet that every Christian man not only know it by rote and without the book, but also exercise himself therein evermore continually, as with the daily bread of the soul. No man verily can read it too oft or study it too well: for the more it is studied the easier it is, the more it is chewed the pleasanter it is, and the more groundly it is searched the preciouser things are found in it, so great treasure of spiritual things lieth hid therein."
(William Tyndale, 1534 edition of the New Testament)
(William Tyndale, 1534 edition of the New Testament)
This Week's Teaching Video: Jews, Gentiles, and Jesus
Charting Our progress
Good Book Review: Luke's SequelPaul Harvey is known for telling “the rest of the story.” In the Bible, that distinction belongs to Luke.
Like Matthew, Mark, and John, Luke wrote a Gospel — an account of Jesus’ death and resurrection, along with many parts of His life, ministry, and teaching. Unlike the other three, however, Luke goes on to tell the rest of the story. The Book of Acts — technically, “the Acts of the Apostles” — picks up where the Gospel accounts leave off: with Jesus’ final instructions and ascension. Then, after Jesus' ascension, Luke follows the disciples from that hillside, back to Jeru-salem, in and around Palestine, and then throughout the Mediterranean world. Acts reads like the highlight reel from the end of a team’s season. Luke doesn’t cover the 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust moments from the early church. Instead, he rapidly recounts the powerful high-lights from the first two decades of the Christian movement. We do get insight into the more day-to-day issues and elements of life in the early church, of course. The epistles that comprise most of the rest of the New Testament furnish that information and perspective. In Acts, however, Luke shows us the big plays — the scores, the touchdowns, the long bombs — from Jerusalem to Syria, from Asia Minor to Macedonia, and from Caesarea to Rome. |
Good Book Review: The Gospel According to PaulOf the twenty-seven books in the New Testament, twenty-one of them are letters. And of those twenty-one letters, thirteen were written by the Apostle Paul. And of those thirteen Pauline epistles, the letter to the Romans has been set apart and nicknamed as “the gospel according to Paul.”
Unlike the Gospels written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Paul’s letter to the Romans is not at all a biographical account of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection. Rather, the letter is our best summary of Paul’s understanding of the gospel message — that is to say, literally, the “good news” about Jesus. While most of Paul’s letters were written to churches that he himself had founded and where he had spent considerable time (e.g., Corinth, Philippi, Thessa-lonica, etc.), the letter to the Romans is a different case. He did not establish that church, nor had he been there yet at the time of his writing to them. Clearly Paul knew quite a few of the Christians in Rome. We get a sense for his personal connections during his final greetings at the end of the letter. Still, Paul was basically introducing himself to a church where he was a stranger. In the course of that introduction, Paul lays out for the Romans a full explanation of what he believes — about the Law, about faith, about grace, about salvation, and about Jesus. It is the good news — i.e., the gospel — according to Paul. |
"This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian's while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul. It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well."
(Martin Luther, from the Preface to his commentary on Paul's letter to the Romans)
(Martin Luther, from the Preface to his commentary on Paul's letter to the Romans)