Footsteps #222

In fulfilling his promise to the church at Corinth, Paul did return to them.  It was during this third visit to Corinth that he wrote his most significant letter. Romans 16:1-2 indicates that he probably wrote Romans in the Greek city of Cenchreae, which was near Corinth. (He had a haircut here also –see Acts 18:18) His mention of Phoebe, a resident of greater Corinth, establishes that place as the likely background for the letter to the Romans. Because Paul travelled a lot, the city of origin gives us the clue to the date of writing. Paul had established the church in Corinth on his second missionary journey (A.D.49-52 see Acts.18:1-18). On his third missionary journey (A.D. 53-58) he visited Greece again (Acts.20:2-3) and received an offering for the believers in Jerusalem (Rom.15:25-26). Therefore, the letter to the Romans was most likely written in the early months of A.D.58. Galatians, (his 1^st letter) you may remember, had been written in A.D.49 after the council of Jerusalem. 

Repeatedly this little book has changed the course of church and world history. Augustine of Hippo found victory over his special problems when, in the book of Romans, he met Jesus as his Saviour from sin. Martin Luther more than 1000 years later had a similar experience. A man tormented by conscience, Luther noted that “If ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery, it was I.” But religious practice just didn’t do it. He was driven to despair until he discovered Christ’s righteousness in Galatians and Romans. “Thereupon,” he wrote, “I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise…” The result was the Protestant Reformation!  

Two hundred years later John Wesley, found himself in utter despair. In that condition in 1738, he heard someone reading Luther’s “Preface to…Romans” “I felt,” he penned, “my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that had taken away my sin, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” The result was the rise of the Methodist movement. Reading Romans changes people! It Changed me 50 years ago!