Supernaturally brilliant.

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Jeff

“What is merely human, however brilliant, will not pull us out of the ditch we have fallen into. But the words that Jesus spoke to us, they are spirit and they are life.”
—Ray Ortlund, Jr., preface to Supernatural Living for Natural People: The Life-giving Message of Romans 8

In the eighth chapter in his Epistle to the Romans, Paul takes the words, work, will and ways of Jesus to the depths our hearts need. Personally, I cannot get enough of it, and have wore out a few Bibles over the last decade from underlining and revisiting the life-giving words of this chapter.

Luther said our Bibles should be so worn from use that they almost automatically open to Romans, and especially to a crease in the binding at the brilliant eighth chapter.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” —Romans 8:1

Whenever I need renewal and revival in my heart, I turn to this chapter, drawer from the deep well, plenty of water for this thirsty soul.

Romans: the more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes.

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Jeff

On Romans:

“This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian’s while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul. It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well. The more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes.”

—Martin Luther, The Letter of St. Paul to Romans, written 1546

Chart source: Mark Barry, Visual Unit