Thoughts and Quotes on "Romans" - Part 1

God has used the book of Romans more than any other book of the Bible to open my eyes to see the glory of the gospel. Over the next few days I am going to post some great quotes and thoughts concerning this great book that F.F. Bruce called, "The Gospel According to Paul." May God use these quotes and thoughts to stimulate a desire in you to read and study it in order to know God. A number of great men have been saved through reading through Romans. Today I am going to give excerpts from the accounts of some of these men.

AUGUSTINE
Augustine took up Romans and began to read Romans 13:13b-14 and then he said, "No further would I read,"he tells us, "nor had I any need; instantly, at the end of this sentence, a clear light flooded my heart and all the darkness of doubt vanished away." F.F. Bruce's Commentary on Romans in the Tyndale New Testament Commentary, p. 58 ; see Confession viii. 29.

MARTIN LUTHER
"I had indeed been captivated with an extraordinary ardor for understanding Paul in the Epistle to the Romans. But up till then it was not the cold blood ab out the heart, but a single word in Chapter 1, "In it the righteousness of God is revealed," that had stood in my way. For I hated that word "righteousness of God,"...Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that he was placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God, and said, "As if, indeed, it is not enough, that miserable sinners, eternally lost through original sin, are crushed by every kind of calamity by the law of the decalogue, without having God add pain to pain by the gospel and also by the gospel threatening us with his righteousness and wrath!" Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience...At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, "In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, 'He who through faith is righteous shall live.'" There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live." Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. There a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me." Click here to read the entire account.

JOHN WESLEY
John Wesley was listening to someone read Martin Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans and later he wrote in his journal, "while he (Martin Luther) was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken my sins away, even mine; and saved me from the law of sin and death."F.F Bruce's Commentary, p. 59; see also Wesley's Works (1872), Vol. I, p. 103.