Paul’s Letter to the Romans

And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Matthew 4:19

(click here for another)

The gospel had spread rapidly to Rome in the early years of Christianity, and, as would be expected in the world's capital at that time, it was a cosmopolitan community. In particular, the relationship between Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) was an important issue. Caesar expelled Jews from Rome on a number of occasions, but each time they came back the issue had to be faced again. The Jew/Gentile issue is one of the main unifiying strands of Paul's letter. He shows how both Jew and Gentile have fallen short through sin, and that God's promise is now available to both on the basis of faith (not Law). God had not cast off His people, but would ultimately restore them to Himself, but in the meantime the gospel message of salvation through faith was available to all who would hear.

Romans provides the fullest, most rigourously argued and defended presentation of the gospel message to be found in the Bible. Some have thought of it more as a treatise or statement or defense of the gospel Paul preached, and it is certainly facscinating to have such an account. Among the notable topics which Paul deals with often more extensively than elsewhere in the Bible) are: the guilt of man, the atonement, justification by faith, baptism, the parallels and contrasts between Adam and Christ, new life in Christ, Jew and Gentile in God's purpose, and predestination. Quite a formidable list!

Although Paul knew many of the individuals from the Roman Christian congregations (see chapters 15 and 16), he had not visitied them and did not know them as a group. As 'the apostle to the Gentiles' it seemed logical that he remedy this gap in his knowledge, and, planning to visit them shortly and perhaps use Rome as a base for further missionary activity in France and Spain, it made sense for him to write to them and open the channels of communication, setting out the not-uncontroversial gospel message that he preached. It's usually assumed that Paul wrote Romans during his three-month stay in Corinth in AD57.

Romans is one of the New Testament letters, written by the apostle Paul. It is the fullest explanation of the gospel which Paul preached, but many of its themes can be traced in his other letters. There is a particularly strong similarity between some of the topics Paul deals with in Romans and Galatians, though Galatians is a much more polemical letter since Paul has to counterract more wrong doctrine (whereas in Romans he can simply state the truth). Topics like justification, faith, circumcision, the Law and the roles of Jew and Gentile are important in both letters.

It's common to think of Romans in three major sections (though as the pdf argues, there is more of a thematic unity and progression than this analysis suggests).

• Chapters 1-8 are the theoretical or doctrinal basis of the letter.
• Chapters 9-11 explain the roles of Jew and Gentile in God's purpose
• Chapters 12-16 deal with practical living and Paul's personal greetings

Romans 1:16-17 provides a remarkably concise summary of all the major themes of Romans. Almost every significant word of the passage turns out to be one of the key words of the book as a whole, found many more times through its chapters: (a)shame(d), gospel, power, salvation, believe/faith, Jew, Gentile, righteousness, just(-ify,-ification), live/life. Each one of these terms can be profitably traced through the rest of the letter.

Anyone who is interested in the gospel message as originally preached by the apostles in the first century has a lot to learn from Romans. A particularly powerful point is the way Paul lays out his argument in the first few chapters. He shows, both from logical reasoning and from Old Testament scriptures, that human beings are all sinners and not worthy, in their natural state, to come before God. It's human nature to want to justify ourselves, to make excuses, to blame others, to think the problem lies somewhere else other than with ourselves. But Paul will not allow his readers to do this. We must all recognise ourselves to be guilty before God. We must stop talking - stop defending, stop justifying - and become silent before Him (chp 3:17). Once we've stopped talking, we can't start listening to what He has to say. Only then will we be ready to receive the salvation that He offers through faith, and by His grace.