The opening of the letter is quite striking.

In Greek, the first two words are Paulus Doolos.

Paul a slave of Jesus Christ.

Paul is saying right at the beginning, I am a man under authority. I am a man who belongs

to another. I am a man who takes orders. And the orders I take come from Jesus Christ.

I am the servant, the slave of Jesus Christ.

It can be easy when reading a letter in the New Testament to speed through the opening lines

charging ahead to get to the meat of the letter, but the details matter and they help us

understand the book's purpose and intent. I'm glad you're with us for this Tuesday

edition of renewing her mind as we spend a week carefully considering portions of Paul's

letter to the Romans. This week's messages come from a new overview of Romans taught

by Ligonier's chairman, W Robert Godfrey.

You can request this 23 part series for yourself

at renewing your mind.org with a donation of any amount.

The Apostle Paul's opening of Romans isn't merely a formality, but there is intention

behind every word, even him stating that he is a slave of Christ. Here's Dr Godfrey from his brand new series

not ashamed. Last time we tried to get oriented to the letter of Romans, tried to see what Paul was

setting out to do, that he wasn't writing a systematic theology covering every point,

but he was focused on particular problems

particular issues that critics had apparently raised against him and he's

trying to make clear his response to those criticisms.

The criticism seemed to have been guarded enough and perhaps vague enough that he doesn't come on gangbusters against the Romans the way he did against the Galatians.

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