Romans

I’m finally ready to start writing about what I’ve been learning. I’m currently going through 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament)but want to backtrack and try to write about some things from reading Romans and Romans (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) by Thomas Schreiner.

The first thing that struck me is that according to Schreiner, “The ultimate reason for a mission to the Gentiles was not the salvation of the Gentiles but the proclamation of the name of Jesus Christ.”

That can be tied in with what Garland says in his commentary on 1 Corinthians. He quotes Litfin (1994: 261) outlining five steps of persuasion in Greco-Roman rhetoric (which would be very common in Corinth): (1) attention, (2) comprehension, (3) yielding, (4) retention, and (5) action.

Galand says Paul left the third step, yielding, to the persuasion of the Spirit.

To the Corinthians Paul preached Christ crucified which was foolishness to the Corinthians. (1 Cor. 1:18-25) With no art of persuasion in preaching how else could they believe except through the Holy Spirit? It’s only through the Holy Spirit that we are baptized and saved, not through persuasion and intellectual knowledge.

Here is a great quote from John MacArthur:

The decision of yielding, surrendering and then acting, is between the hearer and God, not between the hearer and the preacher. It is the Holy Spirit’s work.Preaching is proclaiming saving truth, sanctifying truth, and strengthening truth from Scripture, the rest is up to the Holy Spirit. So Paul says, I was entrusted with the proclamation. That’s all that I can do. All I can do is to get their attention and bring comprehension. The message is the Scripture, and since the message is the Scripture, beloved, it should be patently obvious to everyone that the proper kind of preaching should be “expository preaching.” That is the only legitimate way to be true to the divine message.

You know as well as I know that I could manipulate people with stories. I mean, you could tell a tear-jerking story and effect emotional trauma on people. You can move people with things other than the Scriptures, but you are working on their feelings and not on their mind. The message is Scripture. And if the message is Scripture and the preacher is to preach the message he has to preach the Scripture; and preaching the Scripture means you must exposit the Word.

This found at Reformed Geek. Follow the link and discussion for more.