Story of my Books # 15 - Romans

Book # 15 was a commentary on Paul’s letter to the Romans for Zondervan’s Story of God Bible Commentary series!

Now, asking a New Testament scholar if he or she would like to write a commentary on Romans is like asking Tom Brady if he would like to throw ball in the Superbowl or asking Ash Barty if she’d like to try her backhand slice in a grand slam tennis final. It’s kind of like the thing you’ve been training, playing, and hoping for YOUR WHOLE LIFE.

So I took to this task with gusto and enthusiasm.

Yes, I know, there is a proliferation of Romans commentaries, every monk and his mascot is writing a commentary on Romans. The funny thing is that even John Calvin said the same thing in the sixteenth century. If I may paraphrase, “I know people will say we already have too many commentaries on Romans, what could I possibly say that is new or better, but nobody has said everything that needs to be said, and I reckon what I have to say might prove to be useful to some.” Pretty much the same deal for me.

BUT WRITING THIS COMMENTARY WAS HARD WORK.

The problem was that Scot McKnight road me like a camel through the Arizona desert constantly reminding me that this commentary was for pastors, not scholars, at least 40% had to be about application. Now, in some places, the exegesis was relatively straightforward, dense - yes, debated - obviously, but I’ve played exegetical mixed martial arts for a while now and I can dodge and punch my way through the debates of Pauline scholarship. But constantly having to ask, “Well, so what?” or “How can I illustrate this point, apply it, or show how it makes a difference?” that was the super-super hard part.

To be honest, I read a lot of so-called application commentaries and they all sucked. Their application was like “now believe this!” But belief is not application! Application should be - long pause - something applicable to the practice of your Christian life, faith-in-action, and ministry. But it was hard, and I laboured on this a lot, and several times Scot told me, “Try again!”

I don’t doubt there are some better commentaries on Romans that deal with the technical stuff of Greek, context, and interpretation, but in terms of being a commentary that offers an intermediate analysis of the text and provides genuine illustration/application for the preacher, I thought I did an okay job.

But hey, I enjoyed writing this book, it forced me to work through the whole letter, not just the “main event” parts like Rom 3:21-26 and Rom 8:1-3, but the whole book. And let me tell you, I gained a new appreciation for the importance and relevance of Romans 12-16, the neglected part of Romans, it contains some of the most important stuff in the letter!

Maybe I’ll write another commentary on some NT text one day, but I have no more plans to do so.