A verse-by-verse pastoral exposition of Paul’s letter to the Romans, preached weekly by Pastor Hugh Mackay. Begun September 2024; expected to finish late 2026.
Romans is the most theologically comprehensive letter in the New Testament — the early church’s most sustained argument for what the gospel actually is and what it actually does. We are taking it slowly because it deserves to be taken slowly.
Read the full series introduction →Romans was written by the apostle Paul to a church he had never visited — a mixed congregation of Jewish and Gentile believers in the imperial capital, sometime around the year 57. Paul writes to introduce himself, to prepare the way for a planned visit, and to set out, with more care and precision than anywhere else in his letters, the gospel as he understands it.
For nearly two thousand years Romans has done its work in the church through readers and preachers who slow down with it: Augustine in a Milanese garden in 386; Luther in his Wittenberg lecture hall in 1515; Calvin in Geneva in the 1540s; Wesley at Aldersgate in 1738; Karl Barth in the trenches of the First World War.
We do not preach Romans to rehearse those moments — we preach Romans because the same God still speaks through this letter today, in our city, to our congregation. The pace is slow because the freight is heavy.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Romans 1:16
If you’d like to read alongside the series, here are the works on the pastors’ desks — from accessible to technical.
Every sermon is published Monday morning to all major podcast platforms. Choose where you’d like to listen.