01 The Book of Romans-The Gospel Manifesto Pt 1 The Good News

Unashamed, Undeserved, Unstoppable

Part 1: The Good News

By Louie Marsh, 4-27-2025

 

Four quotes about the book of Romans,

 

10 Little Known Facts About Ancient Rome

 

1. Gladiator blood was recommended by Roman physicians to aid various ailments, including epilepsy and infertility.

2. Purple clothing was a status symbol and reserved only for emperors or senators. To achieve the color, a dye was made from murex seashells. It was treason for anyone other than the emperor to dress completely in purple.

3. Left-handed people were considered unlucky. The word “sinister” was originally the Latin adjective “sinister”/”sinistra”/”sinistrum” that meant “left” but took on the meanings of “evil” or “unlucky” by the Classical Latin era.

4. Emperor Caligula often appeared in public dressed in women’s clothing.

5. In the first century B.C., the poet Gaius Valerius Catullus addressed two of his critics, another poet Furius and a senator Aurelius, in a poem considered so vulgar and obscene that it was not translated outside of Latin until the 20th century.

6. Romans thought the early Christians were practicing cannibalism when they heard about them eating bread and wine as symbolic representations of the body and blood of Christ.

7. People would socialize at communal toilets. Rome had over 140 public toilets. Video slide

8. While Romans were extremely hygienic, they did not use soap. Instead, to get clean they would apply perfumed oils to their skin and then scrape it off with a tool known as a strigil.

9. Not everyone wore togas. Only free-born Roman men were allowed to wear togas (as a sign of Roman citizenship), while Roman women wore stolas.

10. Urine (because of the ammonia it contains) was used to clean clothes. The urine was collected by fullones (the Ancient Roman version of dry cleaners) from around the city.

 

1) Why is the Gospel so important?

 

· The Gospel comes from GOD

 

¹  Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, Romans 1:1 (ESV)

 

· The Gospel is proved by SCRIPTURE

 

²  which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, Romans 1:2 (ESV)

 

· The Gospel’s Substance is JESUS CHRIST

 

³  concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh ⁴  and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 1:3-4 (ESV)

 

· The Gospel’s purpose is OBEDIENCE BY FAITH.

 

⁵  through whom we have r