Ariel’s Bible Commentary – The Book of Romans

The epistle to the Romans is unique, being the first time in history that theology had been systematized in written form. The first eight chapters in Paul’s theological treatise deal with the theology of God’s righteousness. No human being can meet God’s standards of righteousness, yet He has provided righteousness through salvation in Yeshua the Messiah, which includes justification, sanctification, and glorification. Thus, the chapters end with Paul’s assurance that absolutely nothing can separate believers from the love of God.

Before going on to apply these truths to the believer’s life (chapters 12-16), Paul first addresses God’s righteousness in His relationship with Israel (chapters 9-11), for at the end of chapter 8, the believer might wonder what was to become of God’s many promises to Israel that had been laid out in the Hebrew Bible. Israel today is largely a people in a state of unbelief. It does not appear that God’s promises to His people were kept in Paul’s day, let alone two thousand years later. If this was or is true of Israel, how can the believer today trust that there is indeed nothing that can separate him from the love of God? If the gospel is for the Jews first, as Paul writes in Romans 1:16, why are so few Jews saved? How do Gentiles know they can trust God if His promises to Israel have not been fulfilled?

In this commentary, Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum addresses these and other critical issues whose proper understanding can truly revolutionize any believer’s walk with the Lord. The author is the foremost Messianic Jewish scholar of this generation and is therefore well qualified to discuss the Jewish context of the epistle to the Romans. As a dispensational theologian, he offers his readers a truly unique commentary that draws them closer to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.