ROMANS
Romans . . . Easily the most influential letter in the history of the Christian church! Let’s begin (as usual) with noting some of the social-historical background.
Paul wrote this letter around AD 57. There was a large Jewish population in Rome in the 1st century and consequently, probably a large Jewish constituency in the church at that time (which would explain much of the Jew—Gentile issues within the letter). In fact, like most churches of that day, the Roman church was originally Jewish in its origin, but the demographic began to change dramatically after Gentiles started to convert in large numbers, while most Jews continued to reject Christianity, on the one hand; and after Emperor Claudius expelled Jews from Rome in AD 49. The Jewish Christians would also have been affected by this decree (Question: Why would this have been the case?). So eventually, Gentile Christians became the dominant sector of the Roman church. Hence, when Paul penned Romans, the church would have been predominantly Gentile.
What prompted Paul to write this letter? Likely a combination of 3 factors were in play. First, Paul wanted to evangelize Spain using Rome as the base for his mission (cf. Rom 15:22-28); but to do this he would need the church’s support—and he’d never been to Rome before (although he knew some of their number). Second, the Roman church had heard a lot about him—since Paul was a controversial figure—so Paul writes to introduce himself to the Roman church in order to set the record straight about some of his beliefs and theology. Third, Paul seeks to address the strained Jew—Gentile relations in the Roman church.
That’s all I’ll say about the background to the letter. As a side note, Romans is the longest letter in the NT. Warning: don’t count length by chapters b/c, as I mentioned earlier, chapters and verses were instituted in the 1500s—and were not a part of the original text. So, Romans comes first, before all the other letters and right after Acts.
The basic outline of Romans is: the introduction (1:1-15), a description of Paul’s theology (1:16-11:36), Paul’s ethical exhortations (12:1-15:13), and his concluding remarks (15:14-16:27). Let’s begin with his introduction.
Paul begins by introducing himself and his message to the Romans (1:1-15). He refers to himself as an “apostle” (Rom 1:1, 5). This might seem to us like, “Well, duh”; but remember: the veracity of his apostleship had been doubted and undermined by many—which is why he takes great pains to defend it (e.g., 1 Cor 9; 2 Cor 11; Gal 1).
Given the mostly Gentile but significant Jewish constituency of the church at Rome, I find it interesting that Paul describes Jesus first as being the “Son of David” (1:3)—which was a very Jewish description for Jesus—then as being the “Son of God” (1:4), which was a more universal moniker. This Jewish then Gentile order comes to a more explicit expression when he describes how the gospel proceeds in the world: it’s to the Jews first, then after, to the Gentiles (Rom 1:16). Clearly from Acts, this is how Paul proceeded (and Peter, too). As Paul will later make clear in his letter, salvation is from the Jews (beginning with God’s covenant with Abraham) but for everyone. And Paul is also clear: the gospel he preaches is justification by faith (1:16-17). As we’ll see with Paul, works can never cut it with God!
The first 3 chapters of the letter reveal why works can never make someone right with God. From 1:18-3:20, Paul paints an extremely bleak picture of the human dilemma. He says that all human beings are justly subject to God’s fearsome wrath (1:18). In fact, God has revealed enough of himself in creation (theologians call this “general revelation”) so that all people are totally without excuse before God (Rom 1:18-20; cf. Ps 19:1-3). Despite knowing in their heart of hearts that there is a God to be worshiped, people have rejected God; so he was wiped their hands of them and “given them over” to themselves: leading to ever increasing immorality (1:21-32).
This abounding immorality is a sign that humans are under God’s wrath. Paul says that even though God revealed himself especially through his word (theologians call this “special revelation”) to just one people, the Jews, people without the Law still stand condemned (2:1-16). On the one hand, they sin against God; on the other hand, never mind the Law—Gentiles fail to live up to their own God-created conscience (Rom 2:15). But just in case the Jewish believers get too puffed up and look down their noses at Gentiles, Paul the Jew says that people with the Law—i.e., the Jews—also stand condemned b/c they have failed to live up to the Law (2:17-29; Peter would say “amen” to this: see Acts 15:10). After lambasting Gentiles and Jews separately, Paul then lambastes both groups in 3:9-20 (note how many times “all” or the equivalent pops up in these verses). Question: Given his corporate rebuke in 3:9-20, why do you think Paul spends so much time chastising each group individually?
Thankfully for us, having painted an utterly dire situation that all human beings are in (i.e., “the human dilemma”), Paul gives us some good news in the rest of chap. 3. It’s actually really great news, but the Greek word for “gospel” means “good news.” He says that people can stand justified before God by faith in Jesus Christ (Rom 3:21-24).