10. The Argument of the Epistle. It is a key to opening the treasures of Sacred Scripture.
Therefore, Paul, informing both Jews and Gentiles, and leading them into the Royal way and path of the righteousness of God, which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes,[1] with perfect clarity discourses of that righteousness, by which a sinner is justified, and so shows how the Gentiles were not able to obtain that by the works of natural law: nor by the works of any Mosaic law, of which the Jews, inflated with conceit, were growing proud; but by faith apprehending, and appropriating for itself with confidence, the righteousness of Christ, to be justified before the tribunal of God: and demonstrates that under the new covenant not only are the Jews, who were think that just for themselves, with all others scorned, sharers of that grace; but also the gentiles, equally comprehended in that promise made to Abraham (to whom, nevertheless, he was also commending humility): finally, he prescribes to those justified by faith the norm for rightly instituting, and the various duties of, a life worthy of Christ. In a word, let me say that it embraces in a most artful manner almost all things that pertain to saving faith and a life pleasing to God; and so it is a key for opening the treasures of Sacred Scripture, and a Lydian Stone[2] of the Catholic religion and Church.
Dr. Dilday's Lecture: "Romans, Part 2"