Paul for Everyone: Romans, Part One (For Everyone)

Wright is extremely well researched and knows his stuff. He drops tons of interesting facts (e.g., in Rome, a city of 1 million at the time Paul wrote the letter, there were probably 100 Christians meeting in various homes: that was the "Church of Rome") and explains the meanings of many, many words used. He goes right to the heart of the issues Paul was dealing with and of the points he was driving at, as he understands quite fully the culture of Rome and of its tiny group of Christians living there. Wright has tremendous respect for Paul and for this marvelous letter and his excitement for his material shines though. In my opinion Wright's little homey vignettes don't always light it up, as not every verse from Paul is equally important, but it is great to have a feel for the meaning and import of every paragraph as even the lesser ones illuminate the greater ones. Rich and powerful blessings are found in better understanding our great Paul through the eyes and heart of N. T. Wright! It is brilliant, lively and extremely useful!

Having read several N.T. Wright works in the past I knew that Romans was a book that he has a special admiration for. I picked this volume for that reason. Wright has a gift for tackling difficult subjects and explaining them in a way that “everyone” can understand. He did not disappoint. The big picture Biblically, historically, culturally, socially, etc. is always the context in which he explains scripture. I recommend this commentary highly and look forward to reading Part 2.

It is easy when reading Romans to get lost in the overall purpose of Paul's writing - e.g., to forge unity between the Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome as a prelude of that church becoming a base for his hoped-for travels to Spain. Whether he ultimately made it there or not is speculation. But the divisions between these two factions of the church in Rome were real and needed sorting out. In the process Paul gives us a glorious overview of how God was faithful to his covenant to Israel, favored the Abrahamic covenant of faith yielding justification compared to the civil society covenant of Moses but was now driving Paul to encourage all nations to see His grace in building a forever family under the lordship of Jesus the Christ. Easy to read, but profound to contemplate.

With his background of biblical studies and theology, NT Wright present clear and concise understanding of the Gospel as presented by the Apostle Paul. But not just at a scholarly level, but at a level that everyone can understand. He uses everyday stories of life to demonstrate the meaning of complex topics, all written in everyday language that all can understand. Whenever I take on a study in the New Testament, I turn first to NT Wright’s Everyone series.

I haven't read part 2 yet, however I thoroughly enjoyed this commentary. My goal this year (2019) has been to really read, dig into and understand Paul and his letters. In the past I've found Romans to be a challenging book, but now feel more of an understanding of the beauty of this book, and how I want its message to be something that helps me have a deeper relationship with God.

Romans will always be one of the more frustrating of Paul’s letters, and that’s saying a lot. Writing in the first century, as a Jew steeped in religious tradition and thoughtful knowledge, Paul can seem to be impenetrable. N. T. Wright wades in and actually makes Paul more accessible. However, Wright himself can be perplexingly opaque. He seems to enjoy stringing compound sentences together with parenthetical comments and should-be footnotes into “what-the—“ paragraphs. Still, if you spend the time and reread as necessary, he does eventually unlock the mysteries of the ancient brain of Paul.

It’s clear that he is not just writing as a professor but as someone who is living and working amongst real people and making these so-called deep truths vibrant alive and powerful not for the elite and the smart but for ordinary Christians living in the real world!

This is a great book, and I love the Kindle version for the ability to highlight text and create notes. However, right away the author points out that there's a glossary of important terms in the back. Oops! Hard to use this in a Kindle version and then skip back to where we left off. So I ordered the paperback version as well and am glad I did.