Where do your thoughts wander when your mind isn't busy with practical matters? When you read Paul's letters, it's clear his thoughts always escaped to the Gospel - the Good News of what God's done for us through Christ at the cross was the passion of his life. Although not the first chronologically, Romans is first canonically in terms of the order of Paul's writings in the New Testament. In that sense it's pushed to the forefront – and hence the book's title.

Even if you're already familiar with the Gospel, join me as we follow Paul's expert and Spirit-filled defence of it. He'll soon be standing for the defence of the Gospel before Caesar's tribunal at the heart of the Empire, but here in the pages of his letter to the Romans he's already set out a wonderfully orderly 8-part defence of the Gospel that systematically defeats every conceivable objection to it: (1) Introduction (2) Condemnation (3) Justification (4) Sanctification (5) Glorification (6) Predestination (7) Transformation (8) Conclusion.