Reading through Romans

Reading Through Romans

Chapter 1a

In the year a.d. 57, Paul was on his third missionary journey, getting ready to go back to Jerusalem with an offering from the churches in Greece. Although he knew he had enemies in Jerusalem, he was already thinking about his fourth missionary trip.

Paul wanted to go to Spain, and the best travel route would take him through Rome. This could work out well, Paul thought. There are already Christians in Rome, and they might be willing to support my trip to Spain, just as the Antioch church supported my earlier missionary journeys and the Macedonian churches supported me while I was in southern Greece.

So Paul decided to write to the Roman Christians to let them know that he planned to come to Rome and then go to Spain—and that he would appreciate some support. However, Paul had a problem: the Roman Christians might have heard some erroneous rumors about what Paul preached. To prevent misunderstanding, Paul explains what the gospel is, so they will know what they are being asked to support.

But that is only the first half of Romans. In the second half, Paul deals with some problems that existed in the Roman churches—especially the tension between Jewish Christians and gentile Christians. Paul uses part of his letter to discuss Jew-Gentile relationships in God’s plan, and Christian conduct and love for others. He tries to give these Christians some doctrinal foundation for unity.

We do not know whether Paul made it to Spain, but his letter was a tremendous success in other ways. It has been valued throughout church history as the most doctrinally complete letter that Paul wrote. It is the letter that sparked the Reformation. It is the letter that influenced Martin Luther and John Wesley and countless others. It provides the benchmark for all studies of Paul’s theology, and because of that, it is a cornerstone for understanding the doctrines of the early church.

Paul begins, as Greek letters normally did, by identifying himself: Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God... (v. 1, TNIV throughout). Paul identifies himself as a slave who has been commanded to spend all his time on the gospel. He is sent by the master with the message of God.

Greek letters normally began by naming the sender, and then the recipients. But Paul is so focused on the gospel that, before he names the readers, he goes into a five-verse digression about the gospel. In effect, he puts his message at the top, before he even gets to the Dear so-and-so line. This makes it clear that his letter is about the gospel:

The gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures... (v. 2). Paul begins by linking the gospel to the Old Testament promises (as he also does in 1 Cor. 15:3-4). This provides a point of stability for gentile readers, and some reassurance for Jewish readers.

God’s message is regarding his Son. It is about the Son of God; the promises found in the Old Testament are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, ...who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David (Rom. 1:3). The gospel is again connected with the Old Testament past; Paul's words will appeal to his Jewish readers and remind the Gentile readers of their Jewish roots. The Son is a descendant of King David. However, by saying "as to his earthly life," Paul implies that something more than human life is involved. This person at the center of the gospel is not merely a human; he is also the Son of God in a way that other people are not.

Verse 4: who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus was powerfully demonstrated to be God’s Son by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus, although a human descendant of David, was shown to be more than human by his resurrection into glory.

But the gospel does not stop with Jesus. It also includes us. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to faith and obedience for his name’s sake (v. 5). Paul will say more about grace and obedience later in his letter. But he says here that "we" have not only received grace, but also apostleship. Paul is referring to his commission to take the gospel to the gentiles, and by "we" he means the small number of people who were working with him in this special mission, such as Timothy. They have received the grace of spreading the gospel.

He connects the gospel to the readers in verse 6: And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. The gospel says that believers belong to Christ.

After this introductory description of the gospel, Paul gets back to the normal letter format by announcing who the letter is written to: To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 7).

Paul does not greet "the church of God that is at Rome." He does not speak of it as a unity. (Chapter 16 suggests that there were several house churches.) Nor does he write to any particular church leaders. Instead, perhaps because he is not sure how this letter will be delivered, he addresses it to all the believers.

Greek letters often included a prayer of thanksgiving to one of the gods, and Paul adapts this custom, thanking the true God: First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world (v. 8). This tells us that Paul prayed through Christ, and it also tells us that "all the world" doesn’t always mean the entire earth. In this case, it means the eastern Roman Empire. It was a figure of speech, not a geographical fact.

Paul gave God the credit for these people’s faith. He didn’t thank the people for believing—he thanked God, because God is the one who enables people to believe. Of our own, we would turn away. Whatever faith we have, we need to thank God as the one who gives us that faith.

In verse 9, Paul calls God as his witness, to stress that he is telling the truth: God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times. People today might say, God knows that I pray for you every day.

Paul puts in a few extra words, adding that he serves God with his whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son. He is keeping the gospel in the discussion, keeping his role as a servant in the context. These are his credentials; this is what his life is about. Paul’s authority does not rest on himself, but on his role as a servant of God. He is doing only what God wants, and if that’s true, then the people need to listen to what he says.

In verse 10 he adds something else: and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. Paul is telling them that he hopes to visit them. This helps create a relationship between the author and the recipients.

I long to see you, he says in verse 11, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong. He wanted to strengthen them—but he quickly adds, that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith (v. 12). Paul would be encouraged by them, as well—at least, he hopes he would be!

If I were there in person, he seems to be saying, we would both benefit. But since this is only a letter, the communication can go only one way, and this letter is Paul’s attempt to give them a spiritual gift to strengthen them.

Paul’s plan is not a spur-of-the-moment idea. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles (v. 13).

Paul has often thought of going to Rome. Even when Paul lived in Jerusalem, he would have met people from Rome and would have heard stories of its famous buildings. And Paul has already gone as far as Greece—why not go farther, to the capital of the Empire, where many Jews had already gone? But so far, circumstances prevented Paul from doing it.

Why did Paul want to come? He wanted a harvest—he wanted more people to accept the gospel of Christ. Although many Jews lived in Rome, Paul focused on the gentiles. They were his primary mission field, even if he went to the synagogues first. In the synagogues, Paul could find gentiles who were prepared to receive the gospel.

I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome (vs. 14-15). Paul wanted to preach to everyone, and that’s why he wanted to preach in Rome, as well.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, he says in verse 16. He has already used the word gospel twice and given a couple of descriptions of it. He has stressed that this is his calling in life, his duty before God. He is not ashamed of the gospel—and he doesn’t want the Romans to be ashamed of it, either. He describes it again in verse 16: It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. The gospel is the way that God saves people.

Technically, we are saved by grace, by what Christ has done for us. But the gospel is the means by which we learn of that salvation and the way in which we receive it. The gospel is the power of salvation because it tells us about salvation. God uses the gospel to bring salvation to everyone who accepts the message, to everyone who trusts in Christ (since Christ is the center of the message, accepting the gospel means accepting Christ as well). Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because it is the message of eternal life. It is nothing to be ashamed of—it is something to be shared with everyone, both Jews and gentiles.

Why is it a message of salvation? Because in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith " (v. 17, quoting Hab. 2:4). The gospel reveals the righteousness of God. Righteousness means more than strict justice—it says that mercy is more important than justice. As Paul will explain, justice generally says that sin must be punished, but the gospel reveals that true righteousness involves mercy and grace.

What does Paul mean when he says that this righteousness is by faith? He is not saying that God is righteous by faith—he is not talking about the way that God is righteous. No, he is talking about righteousness that comes from God to people. It is his gift to them; they are then in a right relationship with him.

This righteousness is by faith from first to last, or literally, "from faith to faith." The meaning of this phrase is often debated, but perhaps the best explanation is that righteousness comes from God's faithfulness and instills our faith in response. Paul is not trying to explain it at this point; he is tossing out a phrase that will make his readers want to continue to see how he will explain it.

This gift of righteousness is not what justice demands, and it is more than mercy demands. It is grace, a gift we did not deserve—and that is good news. The gospel reveals righteousness between God and us, and with that righteousness comes many benefits, from forgiveness to glory. Paul will have more to say about that in later chapters. For a study of Romans 1:18-32, click here.