Getting the Whole Story

My attention was drawn by a friend yesterday back to the book of Romans. He was shocked by a mis-reading of his in ch 4. He had thought that vs 15 said that law brings death, but blanched a bit when he realized that is says that the law brings wrath! On considering this a moment, I was suddenly confronted by the idea that my friend, being a good pentecostal boy and raised in a pentecostal church, might have no idea what the law actually means. So often do we, as pentecostals, throw away the Old Testament, not realizing that our understanding of the New Testament, the Covenant we hold on to by faith which is sealed with Jesus Christ's own blood, is greatly diminished as a consequence.

Myself, raised a traditional Lutheran with Sola Scriptura ringing soundly in my ears am a little better off, but it was not until entering Bible College that I grew to understand the Law and Grace more fully.

I love the book of Romans. This epistle of Paul's, along with Galatians, is the deepest and most detailed laying out of the Gospel that we have. Not only does it go into salvation and the maintenance of salvation, but the amazing Grace of our God who not only forgives us of our sin, but changes us and strengthens those who walk in His Spirit to live a holy life overcoming our sin! Seriously I love it, but would not comprehend it if I had not studied the Old Testament and the Law also. My challenge to any readers that may happen to come along is this. When we read the Word, do we read the whole of the Word that the Lord has supplied us with? Do we think that we are so far out of the jungle, so to speak, that we do not need to study the whole of God's specific revelation of Himself and His ways that He has preserved in the Bibles we so casually peruse?