Scot McKnight is walking through Romans—one of my favorite NT books—this summer. He begins his stroll with an intro of sorts, Apostle of Grace, and then moves onto Gospel of Grace, which has this nifty bit at the end:Now, if I’m asked what Paul means by gospel in Romans there are two words that sum it up the best: Jesus Christ. (And you can explain term each at length.) But, this must be learned by all of us: the only thing the Church has to offer to anyone, anywhere, and at any time is Jesus Christ. When I’m asked how I “evangelize,” especially in light of my book Embracing Grace, I simply say what for me is the only thing that needs to be known: talk about Jesus and try to get people to consider following Jesus. [emphasis McKnight's]There are two more entries, Paul’s prayers for Rome (which mentions Paul’s use of the spiritual discipline of “prayer of the hours”) and The Gospel that makes things right (where, to my delight, he mentions he’s friends with and quotes from work by Doug Moo. My friend Susan and I worked through Romans together last year, I using Moo’s NIV Application Commentary and Susie a more developed volume. Heh, sometimes reading McKnight is like walking into a room and seeing old friends. I experienced the same thing when I read the first few graphs of Jesus Creed, which mentions some more of my favs: Thomas Merton, Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, St. Augustine and Brother Lawrence.)
Anyway, good stuff, so follow along.
(Image: Paul of Tarsus by Rembrant from Wikipedia Commons)
