Yesterday I promised that this week on Things Unseen, we'd take a quick overview of Paul's letter to the Romans, and I said it divides fairly neatly into four sections.

Well, the letter can be divided in different ways, but this is a simple division that may be helpful

to us.

The first section of the letter goes from chapter 1 verse 1 to chapter 3, verse 20.

Chapter 1 verses 1 to 15 is an introduction.

Paul had never been to Rome, but he'd long wanted to go. In fact, by the end

of the letter, he indicates he's hoping to come soon. He felt his ministry from Jerusalem all the way

round to Elyricum was now drawing to a close, and that God was calling him to go west, to Spain,

and who knows where else. And he hoped to get to

Rome en route. And it looks that he was hoping that the churches in Rome might help him, support

him in his new mission, maybe the way the church in Antioch and some of the other churches

had helped him. So one of his reasons for writing Romans was to present his credentials, as it were,

to say, this is the gospel I preach. He knew that what he had taught had sometimes been twisted by people,

and he wanted to set the record straight. And in addition, as it is clear from Chapter 16, he seems

to have known a remarkable number of church members in Rome, and he'd probably heard from

them of some of the issues facing the church, and he wanted to help them. So there's quite a lot

going on in Romans.

In chapter 1, verses 16 to 17, he begins his exposition of what he calls My Gospel.

He's not ashamed of it, because it's the good news of God's saving righteousness.

Sinners can be justified by faith in Christ and by faith alone.

In other words, the gospel answers the question,

how can a sinful man be righteous before a holy God?

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