Reasoning with Romans: Best Commentaries on Romans
We want to get the book of Romans right, especially if we’re trying to get its message across to people in our churches.
JI Packer claims that “All roads in the Bible lead to Romans, and all views afforded by the Bible are seen most clearly from Romans, and when the message of Romans gets into a person’s heart there is no telling what may happen.” It is claimed by some to be the greatest letter ever written. John Calvin asserted that “When anyone understands Romans, he has a passage opened to him to the understanding of the whole Scripture.”
If these claims by these giants of the faith have even the faintest glimmer of truth in them, we want to get the book of Romans right, especially if we’re trying to get its message across to people in our churches.
Below are some resources and commentaries that I have found helpful in my own study of Romans for preaching and for personal discipleship.
Note: I have organized them categorically in terms of commentary type or style (Academic/Scholarly, Verse by Verse/Accessible, Homiletical/Popular Level).
Academic/Scholarly – Commentaries that have extensive historical analysis and research behind them as they also deal extensively with the text in the original language, and have clearly consulted the bulk of the available and relevant literature, both critical and evangelical.
Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans – Baker Exegetical Commentary on the NT
Schriener is consistently faithful, rigorous, insightful, pastoral, and textual. This volume on Romans is no exception. His work is thorough, deep, clear, and helpful for the preacher hoping to get into the text of Romans. He deals consistently with the original language and yet does not lose the one who has little to no training along those lines.
Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans – Pillar New Testament Commentaries
The Pillar New Testament Commentary set is consistently one of my favourites. This volume in the set is a must have for expositors. I once heard DA Carson say that works by Leon Morris are worth selling the shirt off one’s back to buy. He is evangelical in his commitment to Scripture, Christocentric in his hermeneutic, crucicentric in his focus on Romans’ message, just like the apostle who wrote the letter itself.
Verse by Verse/Accessible – Commentaries that provide helpful and enlightening historical insights while commenting in fair depth on every verse in the book, without going too deep into text criticism or the original languages. These commentaries deal helpfully with the theology of the books at hand.
John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans – Eerdmans Classic Biblical Commentaries
Along with helpful discussion about the issues surrounding Romans’ authorship, historical context, Paul’s literary purposes, dating, and more, Professor Murray provides verse by verse explanation of the text of Romans that gets to the heart of the doctrinal, practical, and timeless message of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome.
John Calvin, Acts 14-28 and Romans 1-16
I almost never get into the pulpit to preach a sermon unless I have taken the time to look at what Calvin says about a book. This applies most definitely to his work on Romans. Calvin is relentlessly careful with his handling of the text, but is also gentle, pastoral, sensitive to matters of the heart, all the while filled with Reformation convictions. Karl Barth claimed that he “could gladly and profitably set myself down and spend all the rest of my life just with Calvin.”
Homiletical/Popular Level – Commentaries that provide summarizing insights that read more like a sermon and deal more with application than interpretation. These can be particularly helpful to reference toward the end of the sermon preparation process.
John Stott, The Message of Romans – The Bible Speaks Today
The strength of this volume is Stott’s handling of the structure of Paul’s letter to the Romans. He is sparklingly clear in the way he articulates the claims and concerns of Paul. He speaks powerfully into the implications of the gospel for today as he demonstrates a thorough familiarity, not only with the Biblical text but with the array of commentaries available to him. Having access to Stott’s homiletical outlines is akin to cheating. I try to leave my access to Stott’s work on Romans to the end of my preparation to preach. If I don’t use him to check my work I’ll be tempted to steal his work.
The Banner of Truth gives us access in their 14-volume set of sermons on Romans by D. Martynn Lloyd-Jones. The Doctor spent many years expounding Romans in his ministry. His sermons on Romans are profoundly centered on God. Sinclair Ferguson has said that “if you meet someone who went to hear Lloyd-Jones expound Romans, there is a mark on their lives that you could tell that this person was there and they have never forgotten it.”
Tim Keller, Romans for You: Seeing History from Heaven’s Perspective
This two-volume work offers to take readers “verse by verse through a book of the Bible in an accessible and practical way.” These volumes have value both for preaching preparation and for personal devotional study. Keller’s depth of insight into the gospel implications for the heart and life of the believer make this resource a must-have.
There are few resources I refer to more in pastoral ministry than Luther’s little commentary on the book of Romans, especially his introduction to the work. The book played a pivotal role in his own conversion. He says, “I had indeed been captivated with an extraordinary ardor for understanding Paul in the Epistle to the Romans.” He weaves the themes of righteousness by faith and sin by unbelief through his work on the book. Readers will be helped by Luther’s faithful comments for preaching and discipleship.
Other Helpful Romans Resources
While Knowing God is by no means a book that exclusively deals with the book of Romans, I find myself reaching for it time and time again when I prepare to preach on Romans. It’s in this book that Packer claims that Romans is where the heart of the gospel itself, the doctrine of propitiation, is discovered. Throughout this classic work by Packer, he refers to Romans again and again. He says,
“Paul’s letter to Rome is the high peak of Scripture, however you look at it. Luther called it ‘the clearest gospel of all.’ ‘For when any one understands this Epistle,’ wrote Calvin, ‘he has a passage opened to him to the understanding of the whole Scripture.’ Tyndale, in his preface to Romans, linked both thoughts, calling Romans ‘the principal and most excellent part of the New Testament, and most pure Euangelion, that is to say glad tidings and that we call gospel, and also a light and a way in unto the whole Scripture.’”
Anyone who studies Romans to preach should be able to pull Knowing God off their shelves for help.
T. Desmond Alexander, Brian S. Rosner, D.A. Carson, Graeme Goldsworthy (editors) - New Dictionary of Biblical Theology
This volume provides an article for every single book of the Bible, aiming to show where the book stands in the whole of the Biblical canon. The article on Romans by Douglas Moo is a masterpiece. Any serious student of the Bible should do what they can to get access to the NDBT. Along with the articles on every book of the Bible, it also offers articles on every major theme of the Bible that runs from Genesis through to Revelation.
