One of the most enlightening books of the Bible, and indeed of all literature, is St. Paul’s great Epistle to the Romans.

Paul was by nature and training a logician, perhaps the greatest logician of all time, and in this case his words were Spirit-inspired, so that we have in his Epistle to the Romans a powerful logical argument about God and man, condemnation and justification. It is wonderful thus to have God’s plan of salvation explained for us. This is all too lacking in modern evangelism.

The doctrinal argument of Romans begins with a demonstration of the moral depravity of man. It says, even to the self-righteous:

“Thou art inexcusable…” (2:1).

The Apostle then goes on to show that the Law was given, not to help men to be good, but “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought in guilty before God” (3:19). The conclusion:

“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (3:20).

The Apostle presses his argument further by showing how the Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself as a satisfaction for sin that we might be “justified freely by [God’s] grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (3:24). His conclusion again:

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without [apart from] the deeds of the law” (3:28).

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:1).

Next he shows how those who trust in Christ are “baptized into Christ” (6:3), made one with Him by faith. The final conclusion:

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1).

And the Apostle closes the doctrinal part of this great epistle by exclaiming:

“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? …Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (8:33,35).

Our advice to those who have questions about salvation: Study Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, thoughtfully and prayerfully.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

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