Romans
Author: Paul
Paul writes to the church in Rome about the gospel he preaches and about Jews and Gentiles living as one people.
Outline
The gospel and the verdict (1–3)
Gentile idolatry and Jewish advantage both end under sin, and righteousness is offered through faith in Jesus Christ.
Abraham, Adam, and the Spirit (4–8)
Faith is counted as righteousness, death reigned through Adam, and the Spirit frees those who are in Christ.
Israel (9–11)
Paul grieves over his kinsmen, traces a remnant, and expects a mercy wide enough to include Israel again.
One body in Rome (12–16)
Worship, civil authority, the weak and the strong, and a list of names show what the argument is for.
Key verses
Romans 1:16–17
Paul is not ashamed of the gospel, because in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
Romans 3:23–24
All have sinned, and all who believe are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:1
There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans is the longest of Paul’s letters and the one he wrote to a church he had not founded. He wants to visit Rome on the way to Spain, and he wants the believers there to understand the gospel he preaches among the Gentiles. The letter is not a detached essay. It is an argument addressed to a mixed community, Jewish and Gentile, that must share one table and one Lord. The opening announces the subject. Paul is a servant of Jesus Christ, separated unto the gospel of God, concerning his Son, and he is not ashamed of that gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
The first three chapters close every exit. Gentile religion, which knew God from the things that are made and exchanged the glory of God for images, is without excuse. Those who judge others while doing the same things are without excuse as well. Jewish possession of the law is a real advantage, because the oracles of God were committed to them, but the law does not make its hearers righteous if they break it. Paul piles quotations from the psalms and the prophets. There is none righteous. Every mouth is stopped, and all the world is guilty before God. By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight. The turn is not a softer verdict. It is a righteousness of God apart from the law, witnessed by the law and the prophets, through faith in Jesus Christ, unto all who believe. All have sinned. All who believe are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood. Boasting is excluded. God is the God of the Jews and of the Gentiles.
Abraham is the test case. He was counted righteous before circumcision, so he is the father of all who believe, whether they share the sign or not. Peace with God, access, and hope follow. Adam is the other head of the race. By one man’s offense death reigned. By one man’s obedience many are made righteous. The letter then faces the obvious abuse. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul’s answer is the baptism he assumes his readers know. They were buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. The old self was crucified with him. Chapter 7 describes a person who knows the law is good and still does the evil he hates. Chapter 8 answers with the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, freeing from the law of sin and death. There is therefore now no condemnation. The Spirit bears witness that they are children and heirs. Suffering is not a sign that the love has failed. Nothing in creation, Paul says, can separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
The grief of chapters 9 through 11 is personal. Paul could wish himself accursed from Christ for his kinsmen according to the flesh, to whom belong the adoption, the covenants, the law, the worship, the promises, and the Messiah. The word of God has not failed. A remnant remains, chosen by grace. Gentiles have been grafted into the olive tree and are warned not to boast against the branches. Israel has experienced a hardening in part, until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, and so all Israel will be saved. The doxology that closes the section is the right size for the mystery. God’s judgments are unsearchable. Of him, and through him, and to him are all things.
The last chapters are the argument in ordinary life. Present your bodies a living sacrifice. Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. The gifts differ, and they belong to one body. Love is without hypocrisy. Overcome evil with good. Be subject to the higher powers. Owe no one anything except love. The weak and the strong must receive one another, because Christ received them, and they must not destroy a brother for whom Christ died. Whatever is not of faith is sin. Paul greets a long list of names, women and men, and he warns against those who cause divisions. The letter ends the way it began, with the gospel made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. Romans is that case, written so a church at the center of the empire would know why Jew and Gentile stand on the same grace.