Romans - Unlikely Convert

In rabbinic tradition, every word of Scripture is considered to have seventy faces and 600,000 meanings! PETE GREIG
“None is righteous, no, not one;11 no one understands;    no one seeks for God.12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;    no one does good,    not even one.”13 “Their throat is an open grave;    they use their tongues to deceive.”“The venom of asps is under their lips.”14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;16 in their paths are ruin and misery,17 and the way of peace they have not known.”18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”…… For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. ROMANS 3:10-18, 23-25
UNLIKELY CONVERT.
“It is the chief part of the New Testament and the perfect gospel… the absolute epitome of the gospel.”Martin Luther
“The [book of Romans] compendium of Christian doctrine.”Philip Melanchthon
“When anyone understands this Epistle, he has a passage opened to him to the understanding of the whole Scripture.”John Calvin
“The cathedral of the Christian faith.”Frederick Godet
“Romans is beyond question the most dynamic of all New Testament letters even as it was written at the climax of Paul’s apostolic career.” Richard Lenski
“The most profound work in existence.”Samuel Coleridge
Because of all this, Romans is different than many of the other letters Paul wrote churches. Other New Testament letters focus more on the church and its challenges and problems. The Letter to the Romans focuses more on God and His great plan of redemption.David Guzik
“God is the most important word in this epistle. Romans is a book about God. No topic is treated with anything like the frequency of God. Everything Paul touches in this letter he relates to God. In our concern to understand what the apostle is saying about righteousness, justification, and the like we ought not to overlook his tremendous concentration on God.”Morris
The word “God” occurs 153 times in Romans; an average of once every 46 words – this is more frequently than any other New Testament book. In comparison, note the frequency of other words used in Romans: law (72), Christ (65), sin (48), Lord (43), and faith (40). Romans deals with many different themes but as much as a book can be, it is a book about God.
The people of Rome were tolerant of most religious expressions. However, that tolerance was largely limited to religions that were polytheistic -- meaning, the Roman authorities didn't care who you worshiped as long as you included the emperor and didn't create problems with other religious systems.Sam O’Neal
“It’s easy to hide a good thing when the world violently says that good thing is a bad thing.” 
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,[e] as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”[f]ROMANS 1:16-17
This is why Paul is not ashamed of a gospel centered on a crucified Savior. He knows that the gospel – the good news of Jesus C