How a Book on Romans Led to a Marine's Salvation

Above my computer screen hangs a portrait facsimile of D.M. Lloyd-Jones, affectionately called the Doctor. I was a newly born-again Christian in my early 20s as I entered my pastor’s office. Wide-eyed staring at all the books filling the shelves in his study, I asked him which book would he recommend for me to read.

He pulled from his shelf a sermon series on Romans Chapter 6 by Lloyd-Jones. This was my first acquaintance with the Doctor and this book not only changed the direction of my theological maturity, but resulted in what I can only describe as an unction of the Spirit.   

As I read this book, Lloyd-Jones took me deeper into the Gospel, explaining who I am as a new man in Christ and how I have been set free from the bondage of sin. I had never read anything like this before. He explained with such power what it means to be united to Christ—crucified, buried, and raised—and made new. From this angle of the new man throughout the book, he describes what a Christian is, one who is essentially united to Christ, has died to sin, and lives to God!

This was so freeing and a breath of fresh air because the exhortation was mainly to realize the truth about myself in Christ more than how I ought to behave. This put me on such a solid ground as a new Christian in coming to realize my new identity, my new self, and what it means to be a Christian that it produced in me exceeding joy.

I was in the Marine Corps Reserve at the time when I finished reading this book and was sent on two weeks of active duty service. I was still rejoicing in the Spirit, knowing my new self in Christ. Near the end of our training we were allotted free recreation time. The platoon was outside engaged in different activities. I was engaged with two Christian brothers in lively conversation about what it means to be a Christian.

They reasoned from the perspective of the evidence of signs and gifts of the Spirit. I reasoned from the perspective of Romans Chapter 6 and being united in Christ as a new man. The debate went on for some time, but I kept coming back to Romans Chapter 6, explaining what I learned from Lloyd-Jones on who the Christian is as one baptized into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, whose old self is dead, and the new man alive in Christ. This alone would not do for them and they walked away defeated and angry.

Unbeknown to me, and to my surprise as I turned around, the whole platoon had gathered behind me to listen. As I walked through the crowd, a little embarrassed, one Marine pulled me aside and asked me to tell him more.

This man was so vile of nature and speech that he completely threw me off guard. The two of us went into the barracks alone and I opened my pocket Bible and started reading out loud to him from the book of Romans. As I read, tears began streaming down his cheeks. He was the first man I ever led to Christ.

Even more surprisingly, as I was leading this man to Christ, the platoon outside was abuzz over the Gospel they heard. I was called to the office of my commanding officers who wanted to know what was going on, what church I belonged to, and what I said. They too heard the Gospel.

This continued to the end of the day when as squad leaders, I, with another squad leader who was my close friend and a Christian brother, checked our troops in bed. Before we turned the lights out, some of the troops jokingly said, tell us a bedtime story. My friend took the lead and told them the story of Jesus. You could hear a pin drop as he told the Gospel story. They were ripe to hear after what they heard me share earlier.  

Did reading this book stir all of this? I would say that it stirred me in an incredible way by expositing the truth of Romans 6. The real stirring was certainly the Spirit of God who used this book to prepare me to proclaim the Gospel truth that Paul wrote in Romans. The Spirit stirred others when this truth was proclaimed in their hearing and caused to be born again the man who wept with me. I will never forget that summer and nothing like that has ever happened again.

That book and that experience has shaped my life to this day. After that experience, I purchased and read twice the then seven volume series of Romans by Lloyd-Jones. In reading this series, I also learned from the Doctor how to exposit Scripture, reasoning and asking questions, in my own Bible study. He became an example to me on what to read from the best Reformed and Puritan literature that represents “experimental” Christianity, both head and heart experience.

There is so much literature available in both book and electronic formats and short reads seem to be the current attention span. The old Reformed and Puritan writers are not short reads. Lloyd-Jones now 14 volume set on Romans is not a short read, but it is not commentary. They are rich sermons that will ground you in the Gospel that Paul preached. Who knows, picking up the volume on the New Man may also stir your spirit in truth and joy to proclaim the Gospel and bring a despairing sinner to Christ.