READ IT! - Introduction to Romans 1-6

Readings for this week

Monday: Ezekiel 48
Tuesday: Romans 1
Wednesday: Romans 2
Thursday: Romans 3
Friday: Romans 4
Saturday: Romans 5

Sunday: Romans 6

Context of Paul's Letter to the Romans 

Why did Paul write to the Romans? 

Paul’s letter to the Romans is the longest book he ever wrote, but we don’t really know for sure why he wrote it. Unlike his other letters, Paul does not appear to be addressing conflicts or responding to questions from the different churches he started. In fact, Paul had never even visited the church in Rome before he wrote to them. 

It would seem that one of Paul’s goals in his letter to the Romans is to give to them a clear presentation of his theology. It’s almost like he’s sending them his resume in the hopes that they will accept him. Paul hopes to one day go to Rome and he hopes that this letter can help create a good first impression. He has pretty much spread the Gospel to the entire eastern half of the Roman Empire, and now he wants to head west. He is hoping that the church at Rome will be a good base camp for him as he heads even further west, all the way to Spain. He hopes that they will support his mission. 

In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul continues to emphasize that Jesus came into the world not just to save Jews, but to save all people. This is really his main theme. This is good news for the Romans, but it’s not new news. They’ve heard this all before. Paul, being a Jew himself, is eager to let these non-Jewish Romans know that he is on their side. There had been some prejudice in the early church and some of the Jewish Christians had been telling the non-Jewish Christians that they weren’t really saved. Paul wants the Roman Christians to know that he’s not too keen on this kind of prejudiced attitude, so they can feel comfortable supporting him on his missionary journeys throughout the empire. 

The Church in Rome 

We don’t know who exactly started up the church in Rome, but it was around long before Paul ever showed up. It’s possible that the folks who started the Roman church had been Roman Jews who were visiting Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit showed up. They then took the Gospel message they heard Peter preach on the Day of Pentecost back to Rome with them to spread it there. 

But by the time Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome, he was writing to mostly non-Jews there. 

Where did all the Jews go? 

The Roman Emperor Claudius didn’t like the Jews very much because they were always fighting about whether or not they should worship Christ as God, so he kicked them all out of Rome - both the Jews who believed in Jesus and the Jews who didn’t. They eventually got to move back after Claudius died, but in the meantime the church in Rome had grown to become a fairly large church without the Jews being involved much. 

In Paul’s letter to the Roman church, he points out that there should be no division in the church – Jews and non-Jews are no different from each other. All people are equally sinners, and all people can be saved from slavery to sin through faith in Jesus. It’s not about being a good moral Gentile, and it’s not about being a Torah-following Jew. It’s about faith in Jesus. Morality is never moral enough, and the Torah only points out to us how messed up we are already. Jesus is our only hope. 

Introduction to Romans 1-6 

Chapter 1 

The introduction to the letter provides some general notes about Paul. He introduces his apostleship here and introductory notes about the gospel he wishes to preach to the church at Rome. Jesus' human line stems from David. Paul, however, does not limit his ministry to Jews. Paul's goal is that the Gentiles would also hear the gospel. 

First, Paul says he thanks God for them because of their famous faith. He says he is always praying for them and hopes he will be able to visit them. He says he hopes to visit so that he might be able to give them a spiritual gift to make them strong, and that they might encourage each other. He says he has been prevented many times from visiting. He says that he is obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish, and that is why he’s so eager to preach the gospel to the Romans. He says he’s not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. He says the gospel reveals God’s righteousness from beginning to end, and he quotes scripture: “The righteous will live by faith.” 

In the next part of the letter Paul discusses justification… the imputation of righteousness. First, he discusses the guilt of the Gentiles, saying that God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against the evil of humanity. People suppress the truth even though God has revealed himself plainly to them. He says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” He says that they didn’t glorify God even though they knew God, and they became fools in the dark while claiming to be wise, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 

He then discusses the results of Gentile guilt, saying that because of this God gave people over to the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator. Because of this, people were given over to shame and lust, and women started having sex with women and men with men... And they suffered greatly because of their error. Furthermore, since they didn’t think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. Paul says that they have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. He says that even though they know that God’s Law says that such actions deserve death, they keep on doing them and approve anyone else who does, too.

Chapters 2-3 

Paul then says that the Jews he’s talking to have no excuse because the things they judge the gentiles for all the same things that they themselves do. He asks them why they show contempt towards God’s love by condemning the gentiles for doing the things they do… do they really think God will let them get away with that? He says they take advantage of God’s patience and they apparently don’t realize that God’s kindness is intended to lead to repentance. He says that because of their stubbornness and their unrepentant hearts, they are storing up wrath against themselves for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. He says that God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” 

He says that to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, God will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. He says that there will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.

He says that all who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. And he says that it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. And he says that when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them. And adds that this declaration will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ. 

Paul asks the Jews if they think they are superior because they know what the Law says. They consider themselves to be teachers of the blind and ignorant… and yet, they do not follow their own teachings, and they cause God to be dishonored. And Paul quotes scripture again: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” 

He says that circumcision has value if they observe the law, but if they break the law, they have become as though they had not been circumcised. And he adds that if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, they will be regarded as though they were circumcised. He says that an outward-only Jew is not the real deal, and that circumcision isn’t just a physical thing… it is spiritual. 

Paul asks rhetorically if there’s any advantage in being a Jew or being circumcised. And he concludes there is because the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God. And he adds that just because some were unfaithful, this did not nullify God’s faithfulness. He says, “Let God be true, and every human being a liar. 

He then refers to a popular argument that said that we should sin even more if our sin makes God’s righteousness stand out more clearly… leading to the conclusion that God’s wrath is not justified. But he says that this is a foolish argument because, of course, God is correct to judge the world… and the people who argue for that position deserve damnation. 

But then Paul jumps back and says that the Jews don’t have any advantage because they, like the Gentiles, are all under the power of sin. 

And he quotes the psalm that says: 

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one…” 

And he says that the law speaks to those who are under it, so that every mouth will be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. 

In the next section of the letter, Paul discusses salvation - the universal provision of righteousness. Paul says that God’s righteousness has been revealed apart from the Law… and that even the Law and the Prophets said this would happen. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith in order to demonstrate his righteousness. He says the reason he did this was because he had left peoples’ sins from the past unpunished in order to usher in his righteousness presently, showing himself to be the one who justifies people who have faith in Christ. 

Paul says that boasting is excluded not because of any law but because of faith because people are justified by faith apart from the works of the Law. God is the God of both Jews and Gentiles. And he says that faith doesn’t get rid of the Law… but it fulfills the requirements of the Law. 

Chapter 4 

Paul says that Abraham could not boast about being justified by works. Scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Paul says that people who work receive wages out of obligation, but people who don’t work but rather trust God receive righteousness as a credit for their faith. 

Paul asks if this “blessedness” is only for the circumcised, and he concludes it is not because Abraham received credit for righteousness before he was circumcised. And his circumcision was a sign of what he had already received credit for. He says that Abraham is the father of all the uncircumcised and all the circumcised who share the same faith. 

Paul says that it was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. He says that “those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.” He concludes that the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. 

Paul says that against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” He knew full well that his body was as good as dead at age 100, and that Sarah’s womb was also dead, but he didn’t lose faith in God’s promise. 

Paul says that the words “it was credited to him” were written just about Abraham, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. 

Chapter 5 

Paul says that since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Jesus who gives us access to the grace in which we now stand and who gives us hope in God’s glory even in the midst of suffering. He says that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope… and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

He says that at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. He adds that it’s a rare thing for someone to die on behalf of a righteous person (though they might consider it for just a good person) … but God shows his own love for us in this: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

He says that since we have now been justified by Jesus’ blood, he will also surely save us from God’s wrath… because if God was willing to be reconciled to us through his own son’s death while we were still his enemies, then of course we will be saved through the life of Christ! 

In the next section of the letter, Paul discusses sanctification - the impartation of righteousness. Paul says that just as sin came through one man bringing death to all, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through the one man Jesus. Because all people sin, all people die from Adam on… people didn’t need to wait for the law of Moses to arrive in order to break it because sin isn’t just about breaking commands. But sin isn’t accounted for when the law is unknown... even though death still reigned over those who never had the Law. And Adam was only a pattern of the one to come. But Paul says that the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! One sin damned the whole world… but one act of righteousness gave life to the whole word. 

Paul says that the law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Chapter 6 

Paul then discusses the rationale for sanctification. He refers to a popular argument at the time that claimed we should sin even more if more sin leads to more grace, and he says that this is not at all correct because being “dead to sin” means you don’t sin by default. He says when you were baptized you were baptized into Christ’s death and were buried with him in this way so that we also will be raised from death with Christ and be able to live a new life. He says if we are united in his death then we will be united in his resurrection… and this means that our old sinful selves were crucified so that sin his no ruling power over our new selves. And he says that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again because death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 

In the same way, Paul tells the Romans to count themselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. He tells them to not let sin reign in their lives or to offer the parts of their body as instruments of wickedness because sin is no longer their master since they are no longer living under the Law but under grace. 

Paul then refers to a popular argument of the time that said we should keep on sinning because we not under the law but under grace so it doesn’t matter. Paul says this is wrong because the one to whom you offer yourself to obey is the one to whom you are a slave – whether your master is sin who gives death or obedience who gives righteousness. He says they used to be slaves to sin but now they have become slaves to righteousness… which is freedom. He says that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”