Perhaps no one book in the whole of the Scriptures may be considered to have a claim

upon all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, more than the Epistle to the Romans.

Where all exhibit the hall-mark of inspiration comparisons are odious, but inasmuch as a

building needs foundations as well as top stones, so we may speak of the epistle to the

Romans as essentially fundamental in character.

In this epistle Israel as well as Gentile, both in their sin and their salvation, are placed

in their true relation to the purpose of God. Here sin receives its fullest exposure and

here justification by faith its grandest exposition. Doctrinal, practical and dispensational

truth receive equal attention, and the whole argument is conducted upon a calmer level

than was possible when dealing with matters so personal as those which prompted the

epistles to the Galatians and Corinthians.

To  those  who  are  vitally  concerned  with  the  teaching  of  Ephesians,

Rom. 5: 12 - 8: 39 is of supreme importance, for Eph. 2: 1 proceeds upon the

assumption that Rom. 6: is practical truth. Philippians too does not teach but

assumes knowledge of justification by faith (Phil. 3: 9). (See Booklet "Romans Stones

for the Ephesian Temple").

As we read the epistle it is very evident that the church at Rome contained a fairly

even mixture of Jewish and Gentile believers, and the necessity to adjust the differences

between them and both of them to the gospel is the motive that prompted the writing of

the epistle.

We must be on our guard against a too sweeping generalization in the attempt

to express in one line the teaching of this epistle. As Dean Farrar writes, "Who will

pretend to give in a few words the central conception of the 'Prometheus Vinctus' or of

'Hamlet'?" Much less can we hope to do so with such an epistle as that to the Romans.

The central feature of the epistle may well have been the dispensational passage

covering chapters 10: and 11:, for this touches the sore point of Israel's rejection. This

would necessitate not only a reference to Sinai and to the covenant made before that with

Abraham, but in virtue of Paul's apostleship to the Gentiles would demand a statement

that carried things as far back as Adam. This is indeed what we find. To the apostle Paul

we must look for information concerning the relation of Adam and the race, and to this

epistle in particular for its fullest exposition.