In View of God's Mercies: The Gift of the Gospel in RomansSample

Day 1: From Whom? Read Romans 1:1-17. When Paul talked about the “ power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16, emphasis mine), he spoke from experience. Read Acts 9:1-19. As you saw in Ananias’ reaction, many of the early Christians were skeptical of Paul’s conversion and slow to trust its legitimacy. If I had been there, I might have felt the same way. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that certain people have been saved. Before we turn our attention to the text of Romans, let’s note the dates and locations surrounding the writing of this letter. AD 33: Jesus was crucified, raised from the dead, and ascended into heaven near Jerusalem. AD 33–34: Paul oversaw Stephen’s death. AD 34: Paul met Jesus on the way from Jerusalem to Damascus. After Paul’s salvation encounter with Jesus, more than a decade passed before he began the first of his three missionary journeys around the Mediterranean Sea and Roman Empire. Those three journeys occupied his time for the next 15 years. From various locations on these journeys, he wrote the majority of his 13 letters we find in the New Testament. The letter to the Romans, even though it’s the first of Paul’s letters we encounter as we turn the pages of Scripture, was most likely the sixth letter he wrote. AD 57: Paul wrote Romans to the Christians in Rome from Corinth, a town just west of Athens, during his third missionary journey (AD 53–57). Paul, a zealous Jewish Pharisee, became a passionate follower of Jesus. His life shone with the joy of a man who knew he’d been forgiven, redeemed, and made new. As we read Acts and Paul’s other New Testament letters, we learn that Paul, in his effort to proclaim this gospel that saved him, endured beatings, stoning, hunger, exposure, imprisonment, and was shipwrecked numerous times (2 Cor. 11:23-28). But, because he knew the power of the gospel, he knew those sufferings paled in comparison to the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:8) and proclaiming Him to all the world.