Book Description

Excerpt from Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans Coleridge calls the Epistle to the Romans the profoundest book in existence. Chrysostom had it read to him twice a week. Luther, in his famous preface, says This Epistle is the chief book of the New Testa ment, the purest gospel. It deserves not only to be known word for word by every Christian, but to be the subject of his meditation day by day, the daily bread of his soul. The more time one Spends on it, the more precious it becomes and the better it appears. Melanchthon, in order to make it perfectly his own, copied it twice with his own hand. It is the book which he expounded most frequently in his lectures. The Reforma tion was undoubtedly the work of the Epistle to the Romans, as well as of that to the Galatians; and the probability is that every great Spiritual revival in the church will be connected as effect and cause with a deeper understanding of this book. This observation unquestionably applies to the various religious awakenings which have successively marked the course of our century. The exposition of such a book is capable of boundless progress. In studying the Epistle to the Romans we feel ourselves at every word face to face with the unfathomable. Our experience is somewhat analogous to what we feel when contemplating the great masterpieces of mediaeval archi tecture, such, for example, as the Cathedral of Milan. We do not know which to admire most, the majesty of the whole or the finish of the details, and every look makes the discovery of some new perfection. And yet the excellence of the book with which we are about to be occupied should by no means discourage the expositor; it is much rather fitted to stimulate him. What book of the New Testament, says Meyer, in his preface to the fifth edition of his commentary, less entitles the expositor to spare his pains than this, the greatest and richest of all the apostolic works? Only it must not be imagined that to master its meaning nothing more is needed than the philological analysis of the text, or even the theological study of the contents. The true understanding of this masterpiece of the apostolic mind is reserved for those who approach it with the heart de scribed by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount, the heart hungering and thirsting after righteousness. For what is the Epistle to the Romans 2 The offer of the righteousness of God to the man who finds himself stripped by the law of his own righteousness (i. To understand such a book we must yield ourselves to the current of the intention under which it was dic tated. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.