THE INFLUENCE OF ROMANS

      In the summer of AD 386 Aurelius Augustinus, native of Tagaste in North Africa, and now for two years Professor of Rhetoric at Milan, sat weeping in the garden of his friend Alypius, almost persuaded to begin a new life, yet lacking the final resolution to break with the old.  As he sat, he heard a child singing in a neighbouring house, Tolle, lege!  Tolle, lege!  ('Take up and read!  Take up and read!).  Taking up the scroll which lay at his friend's side, he let his eyes rest on the words:  'not in rioting and drunkeness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.  But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof' (Romans 13:13b-14).  'No further would I read,' he tells us, 'nor had I any need; instantly, at the end of this sentence, a clear light flooded my heart and all the darkness of doubt vanished away.'  What the Church and the world owe this influx of light which illuminated Augustine's mind as he read these words of Paul is something beyond our power to compute. 

The Epistle of Paul to the Romans; An Introduction and Commentary by F.F. Bruce; The Tyndale Press 

The men of PGBC are currently studying the Book of Romans. 

Next Week's Scripture Study and Questions:



Romans 14 - 15:13 (February 13, 2012)

See the drop down above on "Romans" for Prior Study and Discussion.

Romans 3:21-26

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who beleive.  For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  (NKJV)