Sermons

In the early years of the Christian church there was a small number of evangelists and apostles who were telling the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. Paul became especially well known because of his wide-ranging ministry and because he was the first to carry the Gospel to the greater gentile community, but his ministry, like that of the other apostles, began firmly rooted in Judaism. The Jews who were dispersed around the Mediterranean were the first targets of his preaching and his earliest successes were in Jewish communities and congregations. In this, one of his earliest letters back to churches he has established, Paul addresses several of the foundational principles of Christianity that were topics of great controversy at the time. Salvation by faith, the role of grace, and the status of the Law are all dealt with in this short letter.