Romans: Vol. I

Book Reviews

Aug 11

Romans: The Gospel of Grace (Vol I: A Study of Romans 1-8)
By: Kristin Schmucker, The Daily Grace Co.

I had never heard of The Daily Grace Co. before but a friend shared with me they were having a sale and I was in need of a new devotional book so I purchased some Bible studies.

This is the first one I’ve done so far.

I chose Romans because my pastor had just started preaching through Romans. This was an excellent study to do alongside the preaching. It allowed me to continue processing the sermons and reinforce the teaching throughout the week.

This company is (I think) endorsed by The Gospel Coalition if you’re wondering what theology will be taught, and if I’m wrong, they at least both hold the same beliefs. The Daily Grace Co. statement of faith can be found here.

The format of the book is organized in 8 weeks— each week with 5 days of study and a weekly review page. It would work great as a weekly group Bible study or you can do it solo like I did. If it’s just you, you can set a slower pace but I felt the design was very doable for my busy life. Each day’s reading was focused on a few verses at a time and had 2 short pages of exposition, followed by 3-4 questions to answer.

It didn’t take long to complete each day and if I missed a few days, it still worked out to line up with the weekly sermons.

The book is beautifully designed— the color scheme, photographs, layout— and has nice glossy thick magazine-type pages. I’ve included some pictures below to give you an idea.

But there is nothing fluffy about the content. I was worried that such a pretty book wouldn’t have much meat, but the exposition was right on track with my pastor’s preaching and focused on the big themes of Romans: our sin and depravity, grace and hope, justification, and a contrast of life before and after the Spirit.

There is the emphasis that we are dead in our sin and cannot save ourselves. We need a Savior. There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. Jesus’ death and resurrection paid the due price for our sins and offers us hope and eternal life. We are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to Christ. The Spirit enables us to pursue and desire righteousness.

There weren’t any anecdotes, illustrations, or trendy language. It was straightforward verse by verse teaching.

One of my favorite things about this study was the incorporation of Scripture memory. And it was fortuitous to select Romans because the passage we are working on memorizing is Romans 8 which is one of my favorite chapters in Scripture and one I had tried to memorize in college.

Each week there are 2-3 verses to memorize. By the end of volume 1 we have memorized Romans 8:1-21. Volume 2 will continue through the rest of Romans and will memorize the final verses of Romans 8. I feel like I’m fairly good at memorizing so for me, this pace was fine, but again, any pace is fine— it’s not about checking off the boxes but about spending time in God’s Word however that works for you.

I would write my answers to the questions in a separate notebook (because I didn’t want to ruin the beautiful book, ha!) and would also write down each week’s memory verse. Because there were daily readings, I would spend the first couple minutes of my quiet time going back over the memory verses I had memorized thus far. This was an effective way to reinforce the memory and keep up with it.

Scripture memory is so vital to our walk with the Lord— to have his Word buried in our hearts and minds, dwelling on it, and being able to recall his words of truth in times of need strengthens our faith and trust in the Lord. After all, Scripture is God’s very words and his Word is powerful.

I love that this study encourages and helps us to treasure God’s Word.

If you are looking for something short, theologically sound and to the point, yet pleasing to the eye and fun to open each day, this is for you!

I am moving on to Volume 2, so stay tuned to see how the study finishes up and to see which Bible study I do next!

Pro Tip: I have learned since taking advantage of the aforementioned sale that The Daily Grace Co. actually has sales quite often. Their prices are pretty good. Most of the studies during sales are between $5-10 dollars and cover specific topics or just go through a certain book of the Bible. You can browse here. (FYI- I don’t receive any kickback for any purchases you make)

Or use my affiliate link to buy from Amazon HERE.