According to Chuck Swindahl, there's one book in the Bible that could revolutionize your faith and anchor your soul against the storms of life. Can you guess what it is? Today on Insight for Living, Chuck presents his first message in an in-depth study of Romans. This isn't just another Bible study. It's an opportunity to lay a solid spiritual foundation that has changed lives for centuries.
From Martin Luther to everyday Christians, the Book of Romans has sparked revivals and personal transformation. Are you ready to build your faith on solid ground? Chuck titled this message, Romans, Our Doctrinal Constitution. If you have a Bible near you, would you please turn to the First chapter of the letter to the Romans. I want to cover 16 chapters in 40 so minutes.
The era of miracles has not yet ended. We'll do our best. Let me read several sections through this letter. to sort of give you that sense of overview. As you follow along.
Chapter 1, verse 1. Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. Verse seven. To all who are beloved of God in Rome. called as saints.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father. and the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God. for salvation to everyone who believes.
To the Jew first. And also to the Greek, for in it The righteousness of God is revealed. from faith to faith. As it is written, But the righteous man shall live. By faith.
Chapter 3, verse 21. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God. Through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for There is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short Of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace.
through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Chapter 5, verse 1. Therefore. Having been justified by faith, We have peace with God. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace.
in which we stand and we exult. in hope Of the glory of God. Toward the end of chapter eight, beginning at verse thirty-five. 835 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril?
Or sword? Just as it is written, For your sake, we are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep. to be slaughtered. But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer.
Through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life. Nor angels. nor principalities. Nor Things present, nor things to come, nor powers.
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing. Will be able to separate us from the love of God. Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Of course, chapter 12, beginning at verse 1. An overview would be incomplete without this.
Great reminder. Therefore, I urge you. Brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living. And holy Sacrifice. Acceptable to God.
which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world. But be transformed. By the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is. That which is good.
and acceptable and perfect. One more, the 13th verse of the 15th. Chapter 15.13.
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.
So that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the book of Romans on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook by going to insight.org slash offer. Chuck titled today's message, Romans, Our Doctrinal Constitution. The letter to the Romans is the premier doctrine of Christian truth.
Truth. It is the document. What the Constitution is to our United States, the letter to the Romans is to the Christian faith. Anyone who hopes to grow deeply in his or her understanding of the truth. Must ultimately anchor his or her mind in the letter to the Romans.
Every biblical expositor I know loves to guide people on the journey. that takes them through these 16 chapters. Yeah. And I need to warn you ahead of time, the journey will be neither easy nor brief. As a matter of fact, some have shaped their entire ministry.
on the letter to the Romans. Back in 1927, when Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse became the senior pastor of the 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Mm-hmm. He wanted to establish his congregation in the truth, and so, not surprisingly.
He began. In the letter to the Romans, and for three and a half years. He stayed in the letter to the Romans. That isn't the record. As a matter of fact, Martin Lloyd Jones preached Romans for 13 years.
And so I decided not to go there. Listen to Barnhouse's words. My first Sunday in that pulpit found me giving an exposition of the first verse of the epistle. The second Sunday, I started with the second verse, and as I did not finish by the time it was necessary to pronounce the benediction. I said, as I had when I had been teaching history in the university, we will suspend our study at this point.
And we'll begin from here in our next meeting together. For three and one half years, I never took a text. Outside of the Epistle to the Romans. I saw the church. transformed.
The audience filled the pews and then the galleries. and the work went on with great blessing. But just as important as the transformation of the church. There was the transformation of the preacher. The disciplined necessity.
of treating every verse in an entire epistle formed habits of study that organized the mind of the preacher for the whole of his task. Twenty years later, Dr. Barnhouse had the opportunity to take the message of the gospel. to the airways. It was unusual back in the mid-40s for that to occur.
but the door opened and he walked through it. Not surprisingly. He decided to teach the letter to the Romans on the radio And he spent even longer than three and a half years going through it over the airways. Unknown to Dr. Barnhouse, there was a mother of three children living in Houston, Texas.
who decided to tune in on that gospel broadcast. and she urged her three teenage children to do the same. They were not quite as interested as their mother, but they did listen. And since I was the youngest of the three, I remember thinking. If I'm ever grown and married and involved in a church, I want to be in a church where this kind of truth is taught.
By the pastor. Little did I know what my future held. Fast forward to my mid to later twenties. And you'll find me on the front row of virtually every class I took at Dallas Seminary. One in particular comes to mind because it was on Romans.
taught by one of my Greek professors named Dr. S. Lewis Johnson. who was by then known for his course in Greek. on Romans.
As I listened to him lecture from one day to the next, Not only did I occasionally wipe tears from my eyes, I also was reminded. These words sound a lot like The words of Donald Barnhouse that I used to hear over the radio. When I was a young teenager.
So after one class, I finally worked up the courage to walk up front and ask Dr. Johnson, Have you ever heard? of Donald Barnhouse. Dr. Johnson from Charleston, South Carolina.
Said Chuck. It was Donald Barnhouse who led me to faith. In Jesus Christ. No other person could have reached me. But Barnhouse did.
In fact, it was when he taught. The letter to the Romans. My heart. was changed. Isn't it wonderful how truth has a way of cycling?
And I will say to you without one moment's hesitation, if you will allow the truth of the letter to the Romans. find its way deeply into your soul. You will never be the same. It will equip you for whatever you have before you, and you nor I. knows what that is.
It will help you know how to live. It will give you courage in knowing how to die. It will assist you in what could be called life's. contingencies and heartaches. It will also keep you level and stabilized when things go well.
for you. and you prosper. The letter to the Romans is the absolute bedrock. of Christian truth. Ignited by the Spirit of God.
It will transform you and me.
Now, because this journey will be neither brief nor easy, I. Must encourage you to concentrate. And to do what those in this post-Christian era do not enjoy doing. Think. You will at times be intimidated.
You will occasionally be confused. That's all par for the Course. You will find yourself scratching your head in one place and wanting to leap from the seat where you're sitting in another occasion. You will see a truth and you will wonder how in the world that squares with what you have always been taught before. And on other occasions, you will see a truth and it will underscore what you have believed for much of your life.
Be ready. For change. J. Sidlo Baxter called Romans the St. Paul's magnum opus.
Chrysostom had the letter read to him once a week. calling it the cathedral of the Christian faith. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the great poet, wrote the most profound writing in existence is the letter to the Romans. Martin Luther said it is the true masterpiece of the New Testament. F.F.
Bruce acknowledged, very ordinary men and women have been affected by it too. Indeed, There is no saying that Of what may happen when people begin to study the letter to the Romans.
So, Let those who have read thus far be prepared. For the consequences of reading farther, you have been warned. And the colorful Vernon McGee once said: this epistle is the greatest document on our salvation. William Newell, Romans is The gospel. You will find it underwritten time and time and underscored time and time again.
The gospel will come through in all shades and colors and settings.
Now, today we don't want to get into the minutiae of the verses, we want to take an overview. I remember when my family and I moved to Los Angeles back in the early 1970s, knowing that I would be probably pretty confused when it came to how to get around that Vast city, a person sent me something that I was grateful for for the rest of my years there, almost 25 years there. He sent me a large map. of the freeway system of Los Angeles. I remember putting it on my study wall.
I remember memorizing the freeway system. Truth be told, I was never lost. in Los Angeles. Thanks to the freeway system that I memorized in the overview of the entire city. Several years earlier, we had lived in Boston as I ministered at a church in Waltham, Massachusetts.
A friend took me up at that time to the tallest building in Boston, which is the Prudential Building. And we walked around the top of the Prudential Building and we looked over all the city. He would point out: over here is the road that leads to the Cape. There on the north side is Logan Airport. Here is Cambridge, where there's Harvard.
There's the city where you live in Waltham. Here is Starrow Drive, and over here is Route 128 that circles the city. Just pointed it all out. And I remember after that, for the next two years, we were woefully lost. It didn't work like that in Los Angeles, but in Boston, you got to understand.
The guy who laid out the streets. He's a very sick man. And he started with the little wooden wagons and carriages that worked their way down and around. And then he reduced the size of the streets by half again. Then he let him double park as a result.
So finding a way around Boston is a tough thing. Finding your way through Romans will at times be as clear as the freeway system in LA. At other times, you'll want to throw your hands up and say, it's the most complicated thing I believe I've ever read. It's all part of the letter to the Romans. Remember.
Great treasure is deep. It is never found easily or quickly. But it's always worth the dig. Today, I want to answer at least five questions that would come to the mind of anyone who approaches the letter to the Romans. First, most obviously, is who wrote it?
Second, who received it? Third, when was it written, and while we're on that subject, from where? What is the origin or the occasion of the letter? Fourth, Why was it written? Why do we have 16 chapters with the name the letter to the Romans on them?
Why was it written? And number five, What is its message? We get those five questions answered and remembered, we are on our way to a better understanding of Romans. We don't have to wonder who wrote it because the very first word in the very first verse. announces who he was.
Paul. We've met Paul before in other letters, but this one. is his finest.
However, Paul does not strut his stuff and come across as an arrogant, well-known preacher, though he certainly was well-known by the time he wrote it. He identifies himself first in relation to his master Christ. as a bond slave. There is no more lowly term for oneself than a bond slave. Doesn't mean anything to us because we don't live, thankfully, in an era of slavery.
But a bond slave in the first century was the lowest form of animal life. You had no will of your own. You were owned by your master, and he could do with you whatever he or she pleased. You were chattel. in his ownership.
A piece of property, a human tool. Paul identifies himself in this. Lowly term. bond slave. Before I go any further, what a great thing to remember.
Yeah. He was no self-serving preacher. He was no conceited prophet. He was not a man out for himself trying to make a name or draw a crowd, though every generation you will find preachers like that. Matter of fact, it reminds me of the story of the old country preacher who was not in that category.
He wasn't educated, he murdered the King's English, but he loved Christ. And he did his best teaching the scriptures. On one occasion, he listened to one of these slick. Self-appointed prophets. He heard him as he smoothed his way through the section and referring to himself again and again, and was sort of turned off by him, so much so that when the sermon was over, he worked up the courage to walk up front and ask the young preacher.
Was you sent or did you just went? Yeah. I love that question. The Apostle Paul would tell you he was sent. As a matter of fact, when it came to his spiritual gift, he is called an apostle.
And when it came to his work, verse 1 tells us, he is set apart for the gospel of God. What stands out is that Paul was not a self-appointed preacher, but a humble. Servant. of the Lord Himself. Take a quick glance while we're on the subject of who wrote it.
Over to chapter 16.
Now remember, we're getting an overview, so don't get your hopes up. We're not through yet, but we're in chapter 16, and I need to acquaint you with a name you won't find anywhere else in the Bible. Chapter 16, verse 22 is a man whose name is pronounced. Tertius. We know nothing of tertius.
We don't know his background. We don't know where he was born. We don't know anything about his life. All we know is that he writes this. One verse.
I Tertius. who write this letter Greet you and the Lord. But I thought Paul said he wrote it. Verse 1 of chapter 1. Tertius says he wrote it.
You need to understand what we mean by he wrote it. Tertius was, to use now a dated term, He was Paul's secretary. Stenographer. Through Paul's mind and through Paul's lips came the truth of the letter. Through Tertius Pen came the characters that form the words of the letter.
Tertius is actually the one, the scribe, who writes the letter onto Papyrus. I love the way Bishop Mule describes this. Thus, we enter in spirit the Corinthian citizen's house. In the sunshine of the early Greek spring. And find our way invisible and unheard to where Tertius sits with his reed pen.
and strips of papyrus. And for Paul is prepared to give him word by word, sentence by sentence. this immortal message. The Lord is busy. The Lord is speaking through his servant.
The scribe is busy with his pen as the message of Christ is uttered through the soul and from the lips of Paul. It's that great writing. As Paul is led by the Spirit of God through his mind and lips to give the truth of the letter, Tertius is guided by the Spirit in the writing of the letter exactly as God would breathe it out. Theopneustos is the Greek term found over in the letter to Timothy where God breathed out His word. Never doubt it.
The watershed issue of every generation is the inerrancy of Scripture. If you have been through higher learning, you have had a professor that has taken his shot at scripture. If you have been in circles that are academically oriented with no spiritual life, you have had the inerrancy of Scripture questioned, criticized, and attacked. Mm-hmm. But never doubt it.
What we have in the scriptures, at least in their original autographs, the original document written by Tertius, given by Paul, originated by the Holy Spirit, is the God-breathed message. of the living God. We have in Holy Scripture the reliable, authoritative. Absolutely. inerrant word of God.
Paul dictated it, if you will. Tertius. wrote the words.
Now the next question. Who received these words from the apostle? Chapter 1 again, verse 7. To all who are beloved of God. In Rome.
Called as saints. With his first message in our study of Romans, you're listening to the Bible teaching of Chuck Swindahl. This is Insight for Living, and you know Paul's letter to the Romans is one of the most profound theological books in the Bible. and we'll be diving deeply into the riches of this book together. To increase your understanding of Romans, let me recommend you request a copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook.
Because of the scope and depth of Paul's letter, we're offering the Bible study for Romans in two volumes. This popular resource gives you access to the methodology that Chuck used to prepare his sermons, while jotting down your own personal observations. To purchase the Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook for Romans Vol. 1, call us at 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org slash offer. Last October, Chuck Swindahl preached his very last sermon as the senior pastor of Stonebriar Community Church.
It was the weekend of his 90th birthday. In his final sermon, Chuck reflected on the last words of the Apostle Paul, who in his letter to Timothy looked back on his lifetime of service to Christ. We'd love to send you a copy of Chuck's compelling farewell sermon in booklet form. It's called Look Beyond. And we'll send it to you when you include a donation to support the Ministry of Insight for Living.
Let me say a word of thanks to all those who consistently support Chuck's teaching ministry. Because of your generosity, Insight for Living is available to millions of listeners on the radio, YouTube, our website, our mobile app, and all the different digital platforms that are so popular these days. We couldn't provide these resources without your support. Be sure to mention you'd like to receive Chuck's booklet called Look Beyond when you write to us at InsightForLiving. Post Office Box 5000.
Frisco, Texas, 75034. To make a donation online, go to insight.org/slash donate. Or call us at 800-772-8888. Yeah. I'm Bill Meyer.
Join us on Monday when Chuck Swindahl continues his study in the letter to the Romans right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Romans, Our Doctrinal Constitution, was copyrighted in 2006, 2010, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindahl, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
