Most Meaningful Book of the Bible

I am curious as to which book of the Bible you all find the most interesting or most meaningful to you. For me, it is, and always has been, the book of Romans.

Here are my biggest reasons why:

1) Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." This verse very succinctly and accurately sums up the entire Bible. No fluff, no happy-clappy ideals, just the pure Gospel truth. And I really like that.

2) Romans has been described as the book on Justification by Grace through Faith Alone. This was one of the battle cries of Martin Luther during the reformation. In this sense, I mean the Lutheran definition of Justification, which basically is that the only way to be saved is through grace by faith, that you have no choice in the matter and that you have no say in the matter, other than to believe in what God has said and done, and that Christ's substitutionary death was for all mankind.

3) Martin Luther said in his preface to the Epistle of Romans in his translation of the Bible, "This epistle is the very heart and center of the New Testament and the purest and clearest Gospel. It well deserves to be memorized word for word by every Christian man; and not only that: A man ought to live with it day by day, for it is the daily bread of souls. One cannot read it too often or too thoroughly or consider it too often or too well; and the more one deals with it, the dearer it becomes and the sweeter it grows upon the tongue..."

4) Martin Luther closed this preface with, "Thus we find in the epistle all that a Christian ought to know, and that in great abundance, namely, what the Law is, what the Gospel is, what sin and punishment are, what grace, faith, righteousness, Christ, God, good works, love, hope and the cross are, and what our attitude toward all men ought to be, toward saints and sinners, the strong and the weak, friend and foe, and toward ourselves. And all this excellently supported by Scripture and proved by examples, some of them Paul's own and some taken from the prophets, so that there is nothing left to be desired here. Wherefore it would seem that Paul intended this epistle to be a kind of summary of the whole Christian Gospel, and to open up for us the Old Testament. For there is no doubt that if a man has well learned this epistle by heart, he has the light and the power of the Old Testament for his own. Therefore every Christian should be familiar with this epistle and practice its teachings constantly. May God grant His grace to that end."

I'd love to hear your comments on Romans, and also your pick for the most meaningful book of the Bible to you, and your reasons why.

And yes, I will try to be more faithful in updating this blog. I have so many wonderful ideas floating around, and just never spend the time typing them out. I have a (take this with a grain of salt here) shorter paper for school on Justifications for the Southern Secession which I'm thinking I will post here as soon as I finish it.

Sarah