Here at Park Hills, we have started a new reading plan. Many have asked for the rationale behind why these passages are being read and why start in Romans and Genesis. Perhaps this will help with the understanding of my reasoning.

We are going to spend many months in Ephesians, and rightfully so. As Pastor Mark quoted Martin Lloyd Jones on Sunday, it is “the most sublime and most majestic statement of the Gospel.” This book deserves our time and energy. We all can hope to grow much in our faith as we see 1) what Christ has done for us, 2) what we receive IN Christ (look for that phrase) and 3) how then we should live. We are excited for this sermon series! So we will read Ephesians a few times in the reading plan. However, I don’t want you to read it 20 times and get bored with it, so it will come in doses.

So why start in Romans and Genesis? To start, one must see God’s story in the law of Moses to begin to grasp His goodness to us as we receive grace in Christ. Therefore we will work through the Law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) and I will hope to blog along as things get interesting or complicated. To see God’s story through the faithful – Noah, Abram, Joseph and Moses – one sees how He works and what His holiness means for us. So that explains why the Law is going to be tackled in our reading plan.

Romans is perhaps the most significant theological treatise in the New Testament. The epistles explained the “how” of living out the Gospel, and Romans starts us off by seeing God’s answer to the sin problem. Romans shows us how messed up we are (end of chapter 1) and God’s response (3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 8:1) followed by our response (10:13, 12:1). Paul’s letters have a pattern and a thought process that will be fun for us to see as we read. So, we will be rotating through all of Paul’s church epistles throughout the reading plan and will be commenting along the way. Enjoy!