We will start our study of the Epistle of Romans. Before we start, I want to share a
few things with you. To show how we are going to study this letter. First, we will break the
letter into a series of verses. It might be one, might be ten. But it will deal with an idea or a
concept. Then we will break it down into smaller verses, maybe into a phrase or even a word. I
want to get you to understand the meaning of the section we are studying and how that should ection fits into the more significant purpose of the letter. That being said. I’m going to use The King James version of the Bible. It is readily available. Feel free to use your preferred version.

Our first section is going to be verses 1-17. It’s going to deal with the salutation (1-7.) Paul’s
desire to visit Rome (8-15.) The power of the Gospel, or the thesis statement. (16-17.) Now
some people will outline verses 16 and 17 in another stand-alone section. Either way, you can
do whatever works for you in the study.

If you have read any of Paul’s salutations in his other letters. You will understand that Paul is
reserved in his greeting to the Romans. He sort of dishes around. Compare this to his greetings to the Galatian church. There is a big difference.

Why? The reason is that Romans is Paul’s resume to the house churches of Rome. Paul tells us in Romans 15 that he wants to evangelize in Spain. Rome would be much closer than his
mother church in Antioch, over on the eastern side of the Mediterranean. Also, Paul needed to
clear up some confusion about the Gospel that he preached. Paul’s gospel was very misunderstood. He had to clear up any misunderstandings that the Romans might have.

Next time we will get into the letter proper, beginning with verse 1