Lloyd-Jones on Romans

CHAPTER 23 The Apostle and the Doctor: Lloyd-Jones on Romans

Stephen Westerholm

In a recent review of a volume on modern interpretations of Romans, I. Howard Marshall commented on one notable omission from the discussion:

If we ask who has been the most influential interpreter of Romans in the church in the twentieth century, one strong candidate is David Martyn Lloyd-Jones. You do not hear about him in academic circles. Quite simply, he was the finest preacher and expositor of Romans in the evangelical wing of the church, and John Calvin and Martin Luther will have been the major influences upon him. He did not always get it right, but of the breadth of his influence in the U.K. there can be no doubt.1

Lloyd-Jones was minister at Westminster Chapel in London from 1939 until 1968.2 Over the last twelve-and-a-half years of his ministry (October 7, 1955 to March 1, 1968), he preached a series of 372 sermons on Romans on Friday evenings, October to May, to “five or six hundred” eager listeners.3 The series— and his ministry at the Chapel—ended abruptly after a sermon on Romans 14:17 because of ill health, though Lloyd-Jones was able to devote time in his retirement to editing these sermons for publication. After his death in 1981, the work was continued by his wife and daughter, assisted by others; the four- teenth and final volume in the series (on Rom 14:1–17) was published in 2003.4

1 Marshall, Review of Modern Interpretations of Romans. 2 From 1926 to 1939, he had served as minister at Sandfields, Aberavon in Wales. 3 Brencher, Lloyd-Jones, 80. 4 Volumes in the series were published from 1970 until 2003 by Banner of Truth Publishers. According to the preface to the final volume, sales of individual volumes had long since passed a million (a figure, we are told, that does not even include sales of volumes published by Baker Book House in the United States from 1970 to 1997). The order of their publication did not follow the order in which the sermons were preached (e.g., the first volume to be published covered Rom 3:20—4:25). For purposes of this paper, however, volume numbers follow the latter sequence: volume 1 thus covers the sermons on Rom 1:1–32; vol. 2 covers 2:1—3:20; vol. 3 = 3:20—4:25; vol. 4 = 5:1–21; vol. 5 = 6:1–23; vol. 6 = 7:1—8:4; vol. 7 = 8:5–17; vol. 8 = 8:17–39; vol. 9 = 9:1–33; vol. 10 = 10:1–21; vol. 11 = 11:1–36; vol. 12 = 12:1–21; vol. 13 = 13:1–14; vol. 14 = 14:1–17. References to the volumes are given throughout this paper by volume

“In his day, Lloyd-Jones was probably the most influential and widely quoted evangelical in Britain”;5 to this day, his writings are highly recommended reading among those touched by the much-discussed revival of Reformed theology6—a revival in which (and in the interest in these circles in the works of Puritan theologians) he played a decisive role. He is, moreover, widely cred- ited with reviving expository preaching, and must himself be ranked among the great preachers of the twentieth century.7 For many readers interested in theology today, Martyn Lloyd-Jones needs no introduction. Still, it is undoubt- edly the case that “the Doctor”8 has few readers outside the circles in which he is revered9—so there is a point, after all, in drawing attention to a remarkable treatment of Romans.

1 Sermons, Not Lectures

Lloyd-Jones repeatedly insisted that his Friday night addresses on Romans were sermons, not lectures (4. Preface, 301; 9.25; 11.148).10 Sermons differ from lectures in their purpose, mode of delivery, and content; and in each respect, it is clear that Scripture must be preached.11

number and page, with a dot between them, so as not to confuse them with Scripture references, which separate chapter and verse with a colon. 5 Brencher, Lloyd-Jones, 1. 6 Cf. Coffey, “Lloyd-Jones and the Protestant Past,” 323–25. 7 Brencher, Lloyd-Jones, 48, 225, 232. Emil Brunner found in the sermons of Lloyd-Jones “reformed preaching at its finest.” Kendall, “Foreword,” 2. 8 Lloyd-Jones abandoned a highly successful career as a physician to enter the ministry (for which, in fact, he had no formal training, though his gifts as a preacher were immedi- ately evident); the transition was much publicized and sufficiently remarkable in itself to attract many to hear him preach. 9 Brencher, Lloyd-Jones, 195–96, 233. 10 Cf. Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, 71–99. Along similar lines, he insisted that the Friday night meetings in which he preached on Scripture were “services,” occasions “for worship. I am one of those who do not recognize any consideration of the Word of God which is not accompanied by worship. The Bible is not an ordinary book—it is God’s Book. . . . Therefore, every time we consider or study the Bible we are, of necessity, wor- shipping” (1.1; cf. 14.212). 11 Lloyd-Jones is well known for his emphasis on the exalted role of preaching in the life of the church; see the nine sermons on Rom 10:14–17 (10.252–355); also his Preaching and Preachers.