Dear Friends,
Our overburdened national health service may be struggling a bit in places, but before you reach for a bottle of 'Good Old Days' medicine you need to read the health warning on the side of the bottle - or at least a little more of this article!
In the early nineteenth cenury there lived a man called Charles Hodge. He was an American Christian theologian and writer. For most of the five years between 1833 and 1838 he suffered a debilitating pain in his thigh ( which he called 'rheumatism') For most of this period he was confined to a couch with his leg in a splint. He was most heroically treated with violent counter irritants. His hip, thigh and knee were over and over again blistered, cupped, rubbed with tartar emetic, and iodine; treated with issues, setons and the moxa ie: burnt with actual fire from the hip to the knee. If that sounds gruesome just imagine what it felt like! But amazingly through all of this he continued to work. His Princetown students regularly met him for lectures around his bed!
And, he continued to write.
One of the things that occupied his mind throughout this time was a commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Romans - arguably one of the most important and influential letters ever written. In their introduction to the book 'Reading Romans through the Centuries' Jeffrey P Greenman and Timothy Larson make the following statement:- If one were to endeavour to exercise the influence of Paul's letter to the Romans from the history of Christian thought, it would be difficult to set any limit on how radical the surgery would have to be, or guarantee what would be left over once it had been completed. They go on to quote James Dunn who claimed that Romans is ' the first well -developed theological statement by a Christian theologian which has come down to us,and which has had an incalculable influence on the framing of Christian theology ever since - arguably the single most important work of Christian theology ever written.'
It was only after he understood the meaning of Romans 1:17 and it's teaching on justification by faith alone, that the great Martin Luther was freed from his spiritual bondage and became the courageous leader of the Protestant Reformation. That same truth as explained by Luther had a major effect upon the life of John Bunyan, who wrote The Pilgim's Progress. And there is the famous story of John Wesley. He reluctantly attended a meeting at Aldersgate where someone was reading from Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. 'About 8:45 pm while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart was strangely warmed. I felt that I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.'
- We all need to know God's way of salvation through faith in Christ alone.
- We each need to believe in Christ - to fully trust him in our hearts as Saviour.
- We need to experience that personal assurance of forgiveness that Wesley felt.
- We need to live in the light of the Gospel of God and do some good in the world.
The Epistle to the Romans is the sixth book of the New Testament. It seems to be of little interest to many of the more superficial minds that move in Christian circles today. But to any who wish to think seriously about their personal relationship with God, Romans provides rich and rewarding reading and can be a source of great rejoicing!
Eddie Jones (Pastor)