Welcome to a year in the Bible with daily grace. The Bible tells one big story of

redemption and we want to spend five minutes every day journeying through the Bible from start to finish, and exploring how all of it

points to Jesus. Hey everybody welcome back to a year in the Bible with daily grace. My name is

Crystal and today we will be discussing the book of Romans chapters one

through three. The apostle Paul wrote this letter around AD 54 to the church in Rome during an

interesting time in the life of these believers. Just a few years earlier the Roman Emperor Claudius had expelled Jews

from the city, leaving Gentile converts to figure out how to lead and even start house churches in the absence of their leaders.

Slowly though the Jewish Christians were able to come back into Rome and back into these

churches. Now some churches at this point were made up of Jewish and Gentile Christians, but others were just Jewish or just Gentile churches.

So you can see how some confusion and division might develop within the local church.

So what is Paul's reason for writing this letter to the Romans? Well Paul

wanted to clearly articulate the gospel and how we are to live in light of it.

He also wanted to do it in such a way that it unified this fractured Roman church.

We will see the theme of a unity woven all throughout this letter and

Paul emphasizes that the only thing that will bring true unity to these Christians

is the gospel itself. It's clear from the first few words of Romans

that Paul was on a mission. He deeply desired to see the gospel proclaim to all people

including those in Rome.

Commentators will often call Romans 1, 16 through 17, Paul's thesis for the letter.

He recognized the power of the gospel and that salvation is available to anyone who believes.

It is not just for the Jew, but it is also for the Gentile.

And he also emphasizes how the righteous shall live by faith.

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