Paul establishes his position theologically as he writes the letter to the Romans. You want to know what I believe as an apostle of Christ? Here it is. The letter to the Romans is a personal statement of his doctrinal beliefs. Imagine possessing the spiritual equivalent of a Z-PAC.
A powerful remedy that conquers the infection of doubt, confusion, and spiritual weakness.
Well, today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl explains how the Book of Romans serves as Christianity's ultimate antibiotic. fighting against false teaching and faltering faith. Paul's letter to the Romans isn't medical theory. It's a practical masterpiece that has transformed preachers, ignited reformations, and anchored countless believers when the storms of life move in. If you missed Friday's introduction, we'll begin today with helpful highlights.
But first, Chuck begins our study with prayer. Thank you for breathing out your word through men. time. Thank you for preserving The message that you revealed Through the miracle of inspiration, Father, thank you for your word. The inerrant authoritative, infallible, Word of God We live in a day where others' words have now replaced the eternal words.
At least in the public's mind. In this difficult era, it is hard to hear again. Your words We pray that the scales will be lifted from our eyes. And that which has blocked our hearing will be removed. That we might see and hear.
And be comforted and encouraged by your revealed word. May the truth that appears in this letter. Emerge. May it make its flight through our minds. Deep within our hearts.
so that our actions are transformed. Just as our minds. Father, I pray that you will cause us to glean from these. 16 chapters in the weeks and months ahead. Truth to live by.
Truth to die for. Ours is a troubled era. The battle for men and women's souls and for youth's minds. is raging. And rather than simply throwing a fit or screaming at the top of our voices, we pray that your truth may equip us.
With sufficient ammunition to do battle. In a world that's lost its way, guided by an enemy who knows exactly. where he's going. We pray that we will grasp. the value of doctrine.
as it establishes us For what remains in our lives, those surprises, those unexpected events. Those things we will call tragedies. And those joys and promotions and delights. that are before us. Anchor us, our father, to the bedrock.
of truth. And remind us that your Son Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today. and forever that it's all his story.
Now our Father, our eyes are upon him. Knowing that you will sustain this work. Only as long. as your Son receives the glory. It is in His name we pray.
And all God's people said, Amen. You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the Book of Romans on your own, be sure to purchase Volume 1 of our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study by going to insight.org/slash offer. Chuck titled today's message, Romans, Our Doctrinal Constitution. 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. 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. 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. Yeah. 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. Is 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. 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. While you're looking at the verse, notice the little word as is italicized. It doesn't mean, as in our case, that font often means emphasize this. This is a term added by the editors to make the verse a little more clear and understandable. Literally, the Greek reads, called saints.
These are Romans. Set apart to God. Romans. means little to us today, but in those days it was the most powerful city in the empire. was known as the Imperial city.
It was there where Caesar sat. It was there where the decisions were made and edicts were formed that shaped the lives of those in the vast Roman Empire. Paul had never been to Rome, so he did not establish the church. Peter has not been to Rome, in spite of what you may have been taught in your Roman Catholic roots. Peter is not the founder of the church at Rome, no apostle is.
The best we can determine is that from the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2. In Jerusalem, there left a group of people, or one or two people, who made their way ultimately to Rome, and through their testimony, their influence, their sharing the gospel, a pocket of people was formed. In the city. of wrong. It was there that they faced life.
as it really was.
Now, never doubt it, Paul longed to be there, though he had never been there before the writing of the letter. Look at chapter 1 verse 11. I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you. Verse 13. I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you and have been prevented so far.
so that I may obtain some fruit among you also. That's a preacher's way of saying I need some money. And the result of your giving me money will allow me to ultimately reach my goal. And what is that? His goal is ultimately to go to Spain.
You know that because of chapter 15.
So let's go there, chapter 15, verse 22. Intriguing thought. He comes to the end of the letter and explains that he hopes to come through Rome on his way west. For this reason, chapter 15, 22, I have often been prevented from coming to you, but now, with no further place for me in these regions, And since I have had for many years a longing to come to you, whenever I go to Spain. For I hope to see you in passing and to be helped on my way there by you, hint, hint, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while, but now I'm going to Jerusalem serving the saints.
What's that all about? He has a collection of money that he's received while he has been in Macedonia and Greece. The monies were given so that the church of Jerusalem and there around it that was suffering at the time might be supported and strengthened to go on. He said, I've got to take the money back to Jerusalem, but never doubt it. I want to come through Rome on my way to Spain.
Paul never got to Spain, but he did get to Rome.
However, he didn't go because he bought a ticket and enjoyed the journey across the Aegean and Adriatic to the center of Rome. He got there because of the government. You see, he was arrested in Jerusalem when he went back with the money. And they arrested him, and he finally appealed to Caesar. And they said, Finally, to Caesar, you will go.
And he ultimately made his way to Rome thanks to the government that got him there in chains. I understand that. I thought I'd see the other side of the world on my own, someday buy a ticket, but the government helped me get there thanks to the military. I wound up there in a Marine Corps uniform, seeing the Far East through different eyes. And I am grateful to God at the time I wasn't, but ultimately I have been.
Paul said, I plan to get to Rome, but. I'm going to be on my way to Spain. He had his heart set on yet beyond Rome, to regions that have never been reached. Never doubt it. At heart, Paul is not a scholar.
Paul is not a world traveler. Paul is not simply an apostle. Paul is a missionary. At heart, Paul's desire was to get To a place where no one had really laid much of a foundation, ultimately, to get to Spain. I love the way one man writes of this.
Oh. Oh, here it is. He never saw a ship at anchor, but he wished to board her. To carry the good news across the seas, he never saw a range of mountains blue in the distance, but he wished to cross them. And to bring the story of the cross to those who had never heard it, he saw the whole West lying in front of him, virgin territory to be won for Christ.
But if he was to launch a campaign in the West, he needed a base of operations. There was only one such base possible, and that. was Rome.
So we have the Romans receiving the letter. When did that happen?
Well, we mentioned Macedonia earlier. We don't have a verse of scripture that gives us a date or even says it was from here Paul wrote the letter to the Romans. But as best we're able to piece together the story of Paul's journeys, about Acts 20, verse 3, he is in Macedonia and most likely worked his way down to the streets of Corinth. And there he was holed up in a place where he and Tertius together would write the letter to the Romans. From Corinth, Probably around 58, AD 58.
I mentioned in passing the city of Corinth, And I want to return to that statement for just a moment. When we get to the depravity of humanity, as Paul writes of it in chapters 1, 2, and 3 of this letter, we are going to read some of the rawest, most Um Mm. Definitive language used in any part of the scripture for sin. I call that section Cinerama in Panorama. You're going to see depravity on parade, and it will not be.
politically correct. Thank God.
So it will be the truth. You will not hear it anywhere but the scriptures, but you will hear it here. The reason I mentioned Kor, it's believed by most New Testament serious New Testament students that he got his illustrations of depravity. By sitting in that room. Looking at the Corinthians' life and lifestyle.
If it happened in Corinth, you can believe it was to the extreme.
So, when he writes of depravity, while it tells us the story of our lives, It also is descriptive of what he was witnessing in that era of AD 58 when he wrote the letter with Tertius by his side.
Now the purpose. Let me divide the answer or the purpose of the letter into two parts. First, there's a personal purpose. We've already alluded to that. Second, there's a theological purpose.
The personal purpose is to prepare them for his visit. If you're going to have someone come and not only be with you, but to minister to you, you need to know his credentials. You need to be sure that this person Is doctrinally straight. By now, I'm sure Paul had his critics who have gone ahead of him to Rome, and the word is out on him, much of it. maligning him And erroneously presenting him to the people of the church in Rome, Paul establishes his position theologically as he writes the letter to the Romans.
You want to know what I believe as an apostle of Christ, here it is. The letter to the Romans is a personal statement of his doctrinal beliefs. It also would assist them as they seek to be solidified in their beliefs. Which brings me to the second: the doctrinal reason. Or purpose.
Those believers in the central city of the world needed to know where they stood. and what they believed. And how to defend against theological error, which I often refer to as theological infection. Germs are spread by cults. false teachers and they are among us.
By the hundreds. False teachers have a smooth and persuasive Way of coming across that if you're not prepared to detect the error, you will be caught up. in their teaching. You need to have the truth. to stand against the infection.
of error. I put it this way: the best protection against the infection of false teaching. is the antiseptic. of doctrinal truths. Mm-hmm.
Let me read that again. The best protection against the infection of false teaching. is the antiseptic. of doctrinal Truths. Every once in a while, I will get sick, or you will get sick.
Thankfully, we are not sickly people, but when we are sick, we seem to make up for lost time. We get really sick. Ultimately, we're so sick we have no other choice but to call our doctor, you know, the last resort. And you call the physician, he wants to see you, or she wants to see you, and there's a brief examination. Usually, that is followed with a prescription.
And they'll say, if you will take this regularly, it will help counteract. the disease.
Sometimes it's an antibiotic. They don't give them often or freely, but on occasion, you'll get an antibiotic. One of the powerful antibiotics I've learned is the ZPAC.
Okay? You've probably taken it. You take two the first day, then you take one the next day, and by the fourth day you're flying, baby. No, not really, but you are on your way to recovery.
Something about this pill or these pills gets you through the sickness.
Something about the truth will get you through the error. As you learn the truth and allow yourself to absorb it, you will find that it has given you the foundation you've needed. Cynthia and I are familiar with a couple who have moved into a new home, but the other, oh, several months ago, they heard a crack. And he looked up and he saw a crack in the wall, not at the corner, the normal little place where you'd see a crack, but this is in the wall, and he noticed it. Another one down lower, and his wife said, Well, you should see the one in the bathroom.
So he walks and he sees this in the bathroom. And after a while, the windows won't open very easily, and the door doesn't close, several parts of the house. By and by, they find out that the home was built above Fill dirt, and the fill dirt covers a ravine. Oh. So he can fish from his house and didn't realize it.
He says, as he tries to get through the difficulty of it all, he calls it a crackhouse. He says, I'm living in a crackhouse. What's the problem? He's got a foundation problem. And if they don't put some piers in all the way down to what's called blue rock, all the way down to where there's a solid base, that house is going to crumble and fall, even though it's new.
You and your faith will find the necessity to have peers in your life. They are never easy to put in. It is always messy. It is always expensive. But if you don't have them in a place where your foundation is shaking, you will not recover from the foundation problems.
The same for the letter to the Romans. You need the peers of this letter to submit you and to anchor you into the truth. Chuck Swindahl is building a strong case for our study in the Book of Romans. His first message in the series is called Romans, Our Doctrinal Constitution. And there's a lot more teaching ahead here on Insight for Living.
As a complement to these daily programs, we offer an interactive Bible study workbook. This resource is in our popular Searching the Scriptures Bible Studies format, which follows the same Bible study method that Chuck uses to prepare his sermons. To purchase Volume 1 of the Bible Study on Romans, go to insight.org/slash offer. or call us at 800-772-8888. By the way, did you realize that the Insight for Living mobile app provides all of Chuck's sermons for the Romans series in their entirety for free?
This allows you to hear each study on Romans from start to finish at your convenience. Just download the Insight mobile app from your favorite app store. Or if you prefer owning a permanent record of Chuck servants on C D or MP3, Volume 1 of the Study on Romans is available. Just call us at 800-772-8888. These opportunities to deepen your understanding of the Bible are enjoyed by thousands of listeners around the world.
That's because friends like you financially support Insight for Living. We're especially grateful for those who give a monthly automated donation. We call them our monthly companions. And today, as a special offer to our monthly companions, we're offering a free PDF download of the first chapter in Chuck's commentary on Romans. The special offer is also available to anyone who decides to become a new monthly companion.
Signing up is easy. Just go to insight.org slash monthly companion. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindahl continues his study in the Book of Romans, Our Doctrinal Constitution. Tuesday 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, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
