Introduction to Romans

Title and authorship

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle — the letter opens with the longest self-introduction Paul ever wrote, seven verses before the readers are even addressed, because the writer and the congregation had never met. Rome's church was not his plant. He says so with care: I long to see you Romans 1:11, he has been hindered these many times Romans 15:22, and his own rule was to preach not where Christ was already named Romans 15:20.

That distance shapes the whole document. Writing to strangers, Paul cannot appeal to shared history, settle local disputes by personal authority, or assume his gospel is known except by rumor. So he lays the entire thing out, from the wrath of God to the mercies of God, in the most sustained argument in Scripture — a letter that reads like a treatise because its author was introducing himself with the only credential that mattered.

Two other hands touch the letter. The scribe names himself, uniquely in Paul's correspondence: I, Tertius, who write the letter, greet you in the Lord Romans 16:22 — the amanuensis breaking the frame for one sentence. And the letter's likely carrier is named with a commendation: Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the assembly that is at Cenchreae, to be received worthily of the saints and assisted in her business Romans 16:1–2. The most influential letter in Christian history traveled in a woman's luggage.

And though Paul had never visited, chapter 16 greets a remarkable roll of people he already knew — Priscilla and Aquila, his fellow workers from Corinth and Ephesus, Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow prisoners... who also were in Christ before me Romans 16:7, and household after household. The empire's roads had scattered his friends to the capital ahead of him.

Date

The letter dates itself by travel plans, and they are stated with unusual precision.

Paul writes at a hinge of his life's work: from Jerusalem and around as far as to Illyricum, I have fully preached the Good News Romans 15:19, and having no more any place in these regions Romans 15:23 — the eastern Mediterranean is, by his accounting, covered. The next field is named twice: I will go on by you to Spain Romans 15:24 Romans 15:28, with Rome as the staging post and, he hopes, the sending base.

But one errand comes first: now, I say, I am going to Jerusalem, serving the saints. For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem Romans 15:25–26. The collection that occupied two chapters of 2 Corinthians is complete — Macedonia and Achaia have given — and Paul is about to carry it. The letter therefore sits after 2 Corinthians, on the eve of the Jerusalem journey.

The greetings fix the writing place. Gaius is host of the whole assembly Romans 16:23 — the Gaius Paul baptized at Corinth. Erastus the treasurer of the city sends greetings, and Phoebe serves at Cenchreae, Corinth's eastern port Romans 16:1. The letter comes from Corinth, during the stay Acts records there at the close of the third journey.

And Paul asks for prayer about Jerusalem in terms that proved prophetic: that I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea Romans 15:31. He reached Rome — as a prisoner. Spain, the letter's stated horizon, is the journey Scripture never records.

Backgrounds

The congregation Paul addresses is one he knows only by report — your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world Romans 1:8 — and by the friends already inside it. What the letter assumes about them can be read off its argument.

It assumes a mixed body. Paul addresses the Jew directly — indeed you bear the name of a Jew, and rest on the law Romans 2:17 — and the Gentile directly: I speak to you who are Gentiles Romans 11:13. The gospel is for the Jew first, and also for the Greek Romans 1:16, and the letter's central agony is what has become of the first Romans 9:3.

It assumes house-scale meetings: greetings go to the assembly that is in their house Romans 16:5, and to clusters of names that read like separate gatherings — those of the household of Aristobulus, those of the household of Narcissus, the brothers who are with them Romans 16:10–14. Rome's church was a network of rooms, not a single hall.

And it assumes friction over practice. Chapter 14 legislates for a real quarrel: one man has faith to eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables Romans 14:2, one esteems one day as more important while another esteems every day alike Romans 14:5 — food and calendar disputes of exactly the kind a mixed Jewish-Gentile fellowship generates, sharpened if, as the expulsions and returns of Jews under the emperors suggest, the congregation's balance had recently shifted.

Over all of it stands the capital itself. Paul writes to the seat of the power that will eventually execute him, instructs subjection to its authorities Romans 13:1, pays it no compliments, and treats it mainly as a way station on the road to Spain Romans 15:24.

Theology and purpose

The thesis is stated in two verses and the rest of the letter unfolds them: I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes... For in it is revealed God's righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, "But the righteous shall live by faith" Romans 1:16–17.

The vocabulary counts tell the story of the argument. Righteousness falls in 30 verses, faith in 34, law in 51, sin in 39, grace in 21. The letter is a sustained collision of those five words, and its structure is marked by three great therefores: justified by faith, we have peace with God Romans 5:1; there is therefore now no condemnation Romans 8:1; and the whole doctrine cashed out — therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice Romans 12:1.

The method is argument with a live opponent. Ten times the letter raises an objection and strikes it down with May it never be! Romans 3:4 Romans 6:2 Romans 7:7 Romans 9:14 Romans 11:1 — Paul debates an imagined interlocutor through the whole book, which means the hard questions are not evaded; they are scheduled. And the warrant is Scripture throughout: the formula it is written falls in 16 verses, the densest quotation of the Old Testament in any New Testament letter.

The shape is three movements. Chapters 1–8: the gospel argued — all under sin, righteousness through faith apart from law with the law established rather than voided Romans 3:31, Abraham as exhibit, Adam and Christ as the two heads, union with Christ against sin, the law vindicated and the flesh convicted, and no condemnation rising to no separation Romans 8:39. Chapters 9–11: the anguish of Israel — whether the word of God has failed, answered by remnant, stumbling, olive tree, and a mercy wider than the argument's darkest moment: God has bound all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all Romans 11:32, closing in doxology. Chapters 12–16: the living sacrifice — bodies presented, love without hypocrisy, authorities, and the weak and strong taught to welcome one another as Christ also received you Romans 15:7.

The letter ends where it began, in a sentence that frames all sixteen chapters: the gospel made known to all the nations for obedience of faith Romans 1:5, the phrase returning in the closing doxology.

Additional notes

Note — foreknown, predestined, and where the chain aims. The sequence of 8:29-30 begins with knowing: whom he foreknew, he also predestined — the predestining is said of the foreknown, and the letter does not reverse that order. What they are predestined to is stated in the same breath and is often skipped: to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers Romans 8:29. The destination is family resemblance — firstborn here as elsewhere a word of rank and belonging among many brothers Colossians 1:18. Chapters 9–11 then argue God's freedom in mercy with full severity — the potter, the clay, Jacob I loved — and it matters where Paul's own argument lands: asked whether God has rejected his people, he answers May it never be! Romans 11:1; the hardening is in part and purposeful Romans 11:25; and the conclusion of the whole three chapters is that he might have mercy on all Romans 11:32, followed not by a decree but by a doxology about unsearchable judgments Romans 11:33. The purpose clauses govern; the letter draws no negative inference from election, and none is drawn for it here. Honest readers have long differed over these chapters, and the blocks say what the text will support.

Note — the days of Romans 14. One man esteems one day as more important. Another esteems every day alike Romans 14:5. The context is a dispute about eating — the chapter opens with meat and vegetables Romans 14:2, and the day-keeping is immediately glossed by the table: he who observes the day, observes it to the Lord. He who eats, eats to the Lord... and he who doesn't eat Romans 14:6. The days in view belong to the same order of contested practice as the foods — fasts and observances over which Roman house churches divided. The verse names no institution, and the weekly Sabbath rests on ground this chapter never discusses: blessed and made holy at creation Genesis 2:3, before any of the practices here disputed existed Exodus 20:11. What the chapter teaches is stated in its own terms: full assurance in one's own mind, and no despising across the table Romans 14:3. Honest readers differ on the reach of the verse, and the difference is old.

Note — the I of Romans 7. For the good which I desire, I don't do; but the evil which I don't desire, that I practice Romans 7:19. Whether the wretched man is Paul remembering life under the law, or the believer's continuing struggle, is one of the oldest open questions in the letter's interpretation, and the text gives each reading something: I was alive apart from the law once Romans 7:9 looks backward, while the present tenses of 7:14-25 sound like a live report. The blocks keep what is certain in front: the law is holy, and righteous, and good Romans 7:12 — the chapter's stated purpose is to acquit the law while convicting sin — and the cry of 7:24 has an answer on the next line and in the next chapter: there is therefore now no condemnation Romans 8:1. The chapter describes a person the gospel answers; which person, honest readers still weigh.

Note — the authorities of Romans 13. The subjection commanded is real and grounded: there is no authority except from God Romans 13:1. The text itself defines the authority it describes — a servant of God to you for good, a terror to the evil work and not to the good Romans 13:3–4 — and it stands immediately after the instruction to bless persecutors and overcome evil with good Romans 12:14 Romans 12:21, written by a man repeatedly jailed by the powers he describes. The passage is read here as what it is: the ordinary case, stated to a church in the capital, of government as God's servant for civic good — not a blank endorsement of whatever a ruler does, which the passage's own definition excludes.

Outline

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