The book of Romans is considered to be one of the most influential books in the Bible. Romans 13:13 was central to the conversion of the famous church father Augustine. The most prominent leader of the Protestant movement, Martin Luther, found the key to justification by faith in Romans 1:17 and transformed society by sharing his discovery with the rest of the world. Another Protestant reformer, John Calvin, believed that understanding Romans gave a person the key to understanding the whole Bible. Several hundred years after Luther, hearing a portion of Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans read during a sermon would be the turning point in the spiritual life of John Wesley, who in turn sparked a spiritual revival that began in England but would ultimately influence believers around the world.
Author:
The author of the book of Romans was Paul, who wrote thirteen (maybe fourteen) of the twenty-one epistles in the New Testament. An epistle is just a fancy word for a letter. Of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament, four are biographies about the life of Jesus; one recounts the history of the early church; one is a book of prophecy, and the rest are all letters written to specific churches, individuals, or the church at large. The authors of the letters to churches expected them to be read out loud among the various groups of Christians meeting in the area.
In Paul’s Jewish culture, there were only two groups of people in the world: Jews and non-Jews, known as Gentiles. Although he was surrounded by Gentiles in his youth, he embraced his Jewish heritage and religion. He studied under the greatest rabbi of his time and excelled in his studies. He became a zealous Pharisee who took the initiative to protect the purity of His people from contamination by the strange followers of The Way who claimed that Jesus was the Messiah. Paul was ambitious and expected that he would rise to the highest levels among the religious leaders of the Jews. God, however, had a different plan for Paul that would lead him far from Jerusalem and the insular views of his people. The day would come when the devout Hebrew of the Hebrews would declare that there was no longer Jew nor Gentile, but only followers of Jesus.
Paul is the Greek name that the author of Romans was known by among the Gentiles. He was actually born with the Jewish name Saul in the Gentile city of Tarsus, which was located about 400 miles north of Israel in present-day Turkey. His family were devout Jews of some influence in Tarsus since they also held Roman citizenship. Growing up, Paul learned the trade of tentmaking/leather working. This profession would serve him well in whatever location he found himself. There were times when he was supported by donations from church members and could spend all of his days and nights spreading the gospel, but more often he had to support himself with his trade and perform his missionary work whenever he could find the time and opportunities.
Paul was well educated in both the Jewish and Greek cultures. While always living as a devout Jewish follower of Jesus, he could quote Greek poets and philosophers with ease. With his diverse background and experiences, Paul was steeped in the knowledge of both the scriptures and the wider Gentile world of the Roman Empire. Saul/Paul grew up with a mixed heritage that led to him being able to speak and write fluently in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, as well as understanding two quite divergent cultures. As a result, Paul had the ability to study the Old Testament scriptures in their original languages and explain them to Gentile believers in fluent Greek. In short, Saul of Tarsus/Paul the apostle to the Gentiles was the perfect combination of theologian and evangelist to lead the way in forging a united brotherhood among the Jewish and Gentile believers in the early church.
Purpose of the letter to the Romans:
Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles and much of his writing involved applying the Jewish scriptures to the lives of Gentile believers. Thus, Paul’s letters involved complex theology that took the timeless principles of the Jewish scriptures and applied them to the uncharted issues of the early churches. Paul had a great need to write many letters to provide pastoral guidance to the inexperienced Gentile believers after he left an area where he had established a new church. He was usually addressing serious problems that had arisen since he had last visited a city. However, even though Paul had started many of the churches who were the recipients of his letters, this was not true in the case of the book of Romans. The churches there had been formed and developed entirely independent of Paul.
At the time that Paul wrote the letter to the Romans in about A.D. 57, he was residing in the city of Corinth. This was his second residency in this city. However, he did not plan on staying there for much longer. Paul was preparing to enter a new mission field. Up to this point in his missionary career, he had worked in Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece, so he had used the church in Antioch (Syria) as his home base. Now, Paul wanted to branch off into the new territory of Spain and was writing to the Romans in the initial stages of moving his home base there.
Paul had another purpose in writing to the Roman church. Although he had never been to Rome and had not taken part in the spread of the gospel in that city, he considered himself responsible for them. Many of the Roman church members were Gentiles, and Paul had been given his commission to be the apostle to the Gentiles by Jesus Himself. Later, Peter and James would agree that the Gentiles would be primarily Paul’s responsibility. Thus, Paul needed to shepherd this important center of Gentile Christianity. Since Paul did not personally know most of the recipients of the letter and he was not addressing specific problems of the Roman church, he took the opportunity to systematically lay out the fundamentals of the gospel message instead.
Organization and Message:
In chapters one to eight, Paul presents the gospel. He explains how God saved the human race through the Messiah Jesus. This section can be broken down into smaller sections. In Romans 1-3:20, Paul paints a dark portrait of humanity’s condition ending with the idea that all have sinned, both Jew and Gentile. Using quotes from the Old Testament, Paul shows how every part of our body is rotten. We are sick from top to bottom. Then in Romans 3:21-24, Paul presents the solution—justification and redemption. Paul enlarges on these gospel themes in chapters three to eight. Chapters nine through eleven discuss Israel’s lack of belief and God’s faithfulness. Basically, these chapters discuss Israel’s rejection of the gospel. The final chapters (12-16) are a guide for living as a Christian.
Paul explains justification and redemption through several different models. One approach is the legal model. He equates sin with disobedience to God’s law and says that we avoid death because of Jesus’ substitution for us. Jesus’ resurrection proves that the Father has accepted that substitution. In this model, our response is simple reception of the legal action. We trust God and accept the life that we have received. Paul points out that our ethical response to such mercy is to live a life of loving gratitude. The second model that Paul uses is the ransom model. In this approach, Paul treats sin as if it is a cosmic power that must be defeated. Jesus’ death provided victory over the power of sin. His resurrection gives us power over both sin and death. Our response to this redemption by Jesus is to become connected to God through participation in baptism and to accept Jesus as a living presence in our lives. Our ethical response to this redemption is to not form allegiances to others outside of our relationship with our Savior. In the legal model, Paul explains how Jesus has saved us from the penalty of sin. In the ransom model, Paul explains how Jesus has saved us from the power of sin. Basically, we have been saved from our legal problems caused by sin by being pardoned, and we have been saved from our addiction to sin through our union with Jesus.