Scripture: One Book at a Time
The whole of Sacred Scripture is a single narrative that promises and points to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of the World. It is an epic story, the greatest ever told, and told "one book at a time." Each book makes it contribution to the narrative as God reveals God's self to us and his desire that all be saved.
Lesson 58 – The Letter to the Romans
The Letter to the Romans is Paul’s longest letter and was written fairly late in his life. He is writing to a community already established in Rome, one that he did not start and had not yet visited. It is a community that is not unified for historical and religious reasons. Paul writes to them to admonish them to be one in Christ. It is the longest and most systematic unfolding of the apostle’s thought, expounding the gospel of God’s righteousness that saves all who believe. It reflects a universal outlook, with special implications for Israel’s relation to the church.
Paul at that time was about to leave for Jerusalem with a collection of funds for the impoverished Jewish Christian believers there, taken up from his predominantly Gentile congregations. He planned then to travel on to Rome and to enlist support there for a mission to Spain. It is a wide ranging letter and one of the most important in the Christian scriptures.
