Other great theologians influenced by studying Romans were Martin Luther who discovered in Romans that salvation was not achieved by works but by faith. "The just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:17), he discovered and this conviction resulted in the Reformation of the Church.

John Wesley, founder of Methodism, came to America as a missionary in 1735. Soon after reaching Savannah, Georgia Wesley met Bishop Spangenberg, leader of the Moravians in America who asked him: "Do you know Jesus Christ?" Wesley answered: "I know He is the Savior of the World." Said Spangenberg "True, but do you know He has saved you?" As a missionary Wesley was not very successful and was in ill health. So he returned to England. At a meeting of an Anglican society in London, he heard someone read Luther's preface to the Commentary on Romans. He recorded a transforming experience: "About a quarter before nine, while he (Luther) was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given to me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." (Williston Walker, A History of the Christian Church, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926, pp. 511-13)

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Karl Barth (1886-1968), Swiss theologian, read and wrote a book on Romans (Roemerbrief, 1919) which not only changed his thinking, but started a new theological movement. He became a leading theologian of the twentieth. Barth wrote numerous books, including Church Dogmatics. It is alleged that an American student asked Barth to summarize his theology. His response: "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so." Millions of others have been transformed by the truth of the Bible. This is a factor in the endurance of Scripture through the centuries.

3. God's Word survives because it is a "love letter" from God. Kierkegaard held that one should read the Bible as a letter from a loved one, not as a newspaper. Read it in reverence and love. Linger over its words. Savor them because you are being addressed by One who loves you very much. For God is love and love "endures all things." Faith and hope will cease in heaven, but love lasts forever (1 Cor. 13:7-13).

The miracle is that despite all the puny preaching about the Bible it survives. My professor of preaching in seminary declared he was tired of hearing "musty preaching." He meant negative preaching such as "you must do this and you must do that." There is a positive side also to preaching. Jesus came preaching about good news of redemption. Positive preaching requires rigorous mental discipline. It is, as Phillips Brooks described, the bringing of truth through personality. Ultimate Truth is not a program or a philosophy but a Person, Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. (John 14:6) Paul was determined to preach not himself but Christ Jesus as Lord. (2 Cor. 4:8) This is positive preaching. Preaching yourself is a pretty shoddy thing to pan off on a congregation.