The Letter to the Romans: A Short Commentary

In the wake of two magisterial commentaries on first the Gospel of Matthew and then the Gospel of John, noted theologian and exegete Frederick Dale Bruner turns his scholarly attentions to Paul’s letter to the Romans. In this concise commentary, he relays his findings on what he calls the “Fifth Gospel” and its central claim that “through the Father’s love, Jesus’s passion, and the Spirit’s application of this passionate love, human beings can have a perfectly right relationship with God—by simple faith in His Christ.”

As he did in his commentaries on Matthew and John, Bruner engages historical interpreters of Romans from Origen to Cranfield—including Augustine, Chrysostom, Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin—while offering his own lucid translation of the text and relevant pastoral applications. Bruner also engages with other contemporary interpreters who “have spent much of their scholarly lives mining the gold down deep” in Romans, as he humbly admits that his “conversation with Paul’s texts is almost as often a conversation with these fellow miners, who have given their lives to understanding exactly what Paul said and meant in his deep sentences.” The result is a holistic understanding of the book of Romans informed not only by one scholar’s lifetime of ministry, teaching, and learning, but also by the full depth and breadth of church tradition.