Romans: A Preamble

Romans is an amazing book. The rich depth of theology it contains, often conveniently condensed into one or two memorable verses, makes it a favorite source for arguing many doctrinal issues. A lot of people, however, have a very superficial understanding of this great book. They may be able to recite the “Romans road”, and have heard plenty of sermons out of Romans, without really grasping the over-arching sweep of it. I fall somewhere into this category myself, but intend to change that over the next few months. 

The way I plan to remedy this deficiency is to memorize the whole book. There is something about the process of actually memorizing something that helps your brain understand things that at first glance seem confusing. Also, memorizing Romans brings famous verses like 3:23 and 6:23 into context--which often adds layers of meaning that may have been previously overlooked. Finally, memorization is the best way I have found for myself to really comprehend how all the pieces of a book in the Bible work together to form one cohesive whole. 

Why is all this going onto our blog? Well, when it comes to the Bible, memorization could be considered the ultimate form of reading--therefore it fits quite well under the theme of the blog. The other reason is as an introduction to the rest of the series. As I memorize Romans, I am going to write about each chapter, to help fix the outline firmly in my head: summarizing things, any thoughts that the text brings up, how each section fits into the rest of the book, et cetera. Hopefully, this will be encouraging to you, as well as help me memorize Romans. 

As Paul would say,

Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all...The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. 
(2 Thessalonians 3:16,18)