Let me provide a little backdrop to myself and spiritual journey in Christ.
My mum and dad were Christian, believed in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and Evangelical in nature.
So my Christian life while living at home up until I left at 18 years was very much one of experiencing Christ, experiencing the Holy Spirit, just being saturated with Christian religious beliefs that were very Evangelical in nature.
I'd heard all the religious phrases, "saved by the bloody of Jesus", "Christ the Lamb of God", "By His stripes we are healed", and read Scripture like it is by grace we have been saved through faith, etc. While I considered myself saved and a Christian, for I'd experience God and the working of the Holy Spirit even within my own life, the Christianity I'd be brought up with was more of an experiential one and lacked sound theological doctrine.
If you asked me questions like, "how I was saved?" I'd probably have said something like, "from Jesus dying on the cross."
Q: How does that save?
A: Well, because he shed His blood for us.
Q: Why does his dying save us?
A: Because he's the Son of God and He gave his life for us.
In other words, there's a lot of religious language there. Probing deeper, I probably couldn't have gone beyond the religious language I was taught and just saturated with growing up to give any real deep theological response. Heck, I hadn't even read the Bible from cover to cover until after leaving home!
Then I did start to read Scripture. My memory is now faint, but I believe my story went something like this. Knowing I always got stuck at Leviticus or Numbers, I tried my luck with the NT. I found it surprisingly easier to read. Then I hit Romans. Things started getting more difficult to understand. Romans 2 perplexed me, with passages like:
- "12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous."
- This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
It was while reading Martin Lloyd-Jones' commentary on Romans that my eyes were opened. While reading his commentary volume that the penny dropped. Christianity made sense in a new light and the theology, the Gospel, just gained such enriching substance.
Why we needed to be saved. What it meant to be saved. God's righteousness, and something I heard less of, God's righteous wrath. Security in God's grace versus the works-based theologies of sin and guilt that a great deal of Christians preach. I'm very much in debt to Martin Lloyd-Jones, for while I was saturated with Christianity, and still consider I was saved back then, Jones gave me my first real true understanding and taste of the Gospel in a substantial way.
So then, imagine my delight when I recently came across Martin Lloyd-Jones entire set of sermons on Romans, downloadable online in MP3 format! They can be legally downloaded to and listened to here
Now, these are not something you can just rush through, and really, I don't recommend anyone just listen to them that way. If you think people like Jac, me and others just like to blabber on, we have nothing on Martin Lloyd-Jones. And yet, I don't consider his words blabber at all. The insights Jone' provides, in many cases you'll probably be glad he didn't rush through.
Also, some, presumably will find them boring I'm sure. I mean, he's talking through stuff and he's not using the style typical of modern pastors today. Just giving raw theology in a very sincere and serious manner. Unless you're just theologically inclined, then you'll need to make space to listen to them.
I'd highly recommend them, they get better as they go along. I've listened to a few already, and have again been enriched by his teachings. I'll be listening to them one-by-one alongside my wife over the coming weeks. I'd love to encourage others also to at least get a taste and listen to several. Starts off slow, but a few in they get better and better.