Romans

1. INTRODUCTION (1:1–17)

Paul begins his letter with an epistolary opening, which was customary for Greek Hellenistic letters (1:1–7), and an introductory section, in which he expresses thanksgiving to God, indicates the reason for writing the letter, and describes the background for his planned visit to Rome (1:8–15). In 1:16–17 Paul succinctly summarizes the main theme of the letter.

A. Sender, address, and salutation (1:1–7). 1:1. The first word, typical for ancient letters, is the name of the sender. Paul introduces himself with his Latin name, Paul(l)us (Gk Paulos); his Hebrew name was Saul (see Ac 7:58; 8:1, 3; 9:1, 4; 13:9). Paul underlines three realities that explain who he is: (1) He is a “servant” of Jesus Christ; his life totally belongs to Jesus Christ, to whom he thus owes total allegiance. (2) God called him to be an apostle, who carries the gospel to others (Gl 1:15–16; 1 Co 15:5–7). (3) Paul has been “set apart”—that is, consecrated and commissioned—“for the gospel of God.” The message he proclaims is the “good news” (Gk euangelion, “gospel”) of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ for the salvation of Jews and Gentiles.

1:2–4. The reference to “the gospel of God” (1:1) prompts Paul to describe the message he proclaims. (1) The gospel, which has been promised by God through his prophets (1:2), is God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. (2) The gospel of God concerns Jesus Christ (1:3–4). (3) As far as Jesus’s human nature (“flesh”) is concerned, he is of royal messianic descent. Jesus fulfills OT promises and Jewish expectations (2 Sm 7:16; Is 11:1, 10; Jr 33:14–18). (4) Jesus was declared to be “the powerful Son of God”; that is, he was installed in the messianic office as God’s Son, who is invested with God’s power (Ps 2:7). (5) Jesus’s resurrection from the dead marks the beginning of the new age of God’s Spirit, who gives life and holiness (Ezk 37:1–14). (6) Jesus the Messiah is “Lord” (Gk kyrios), exalted by God to be the ruler of the world.

1:5–6. The reference to Jesus Christ then prompts Paul to add a description of his own apostolic ministry. He has received the grace of being an apostle through the mediation of the risen and exalted Lord Jesus Christ. The plural “we” (1:5) is a writer’s plural, not a reference to all Christians; the structure of the epistolary prescript (“a to b, greetings”) clarifies that Paul still describes himself as the sender. The goal of his work as God’s envoy is to lead Gentiles to faith in the gospel and thus to faith in God himself and in his Son Jesus the Messiah and Lord. Faith in the one true God and in his Son Jesus Christ involves, by its very nature, obedience—loyalty to God’s sovereignty and submission to God’s will. The scope of Paul’s missionary work is focused on polytheists, pagans who worship other deities (Rm 11:13–14; Gl 2:8–9).

1:7. The addressees are described in 1:7a. They live in the city of Rome. They are loved by God. They have been called by the holy God of Israel. They are holy on account of the holiness of God, who both charges and enables them to live holy lives. In the light of what Paul will say about human beings in 1:18–3:20, the statement that the recipients are “loved by God” expresses the miracle of salvation.

The epistolary opening ends with the salutation (1:7b). Paul transforms the ordinary Greek greeting, chairein (“greeting”; cf. Ac 15:23; 23:26; Jms 1:1), into a vehicle of blessing upon the Roman believers and a summary of his most central concerns. He blesses them with “grace” (charis), reminding them of the undeserved love of God revealed in Jesus Christ (3:24). He blesses them with “peace” (Gk eirēnē; Hb shalom), the traditional Jewish greeting, which here in the context of “grace” refers to the peace with God that God himself has granted those who believe in Jesus Christ (5:1–11).

B. Thanksgiving and petition (1:8–15). 1:8. Paul first expresses his thanksgiving to God, praying to God “through Jesus Christ.” He is convinced that now, when God’s righteousness has been revealed in Jesus Christ (3:21–22), God can be approached only through faith in Jesus the Messiah.

1:9–12. Paul now mentions the reasons for writing the letter. He solemnly asserts that he writes as a missionary who serves God, whose service is dependent on and made effective by the Spirit of God, whose sphere of service is the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus the Son of God, and whose service includes unceasing prayers for the churches (1:9). He informs his readers that he has been praying to visit Rome, while acknowledging his uncertainty as to when and how this might be carried out (1:10). He longs to meet the Christians in Rome and is confident that God would use his presence in the Roman congregation to consolidate their obedience (1:11) and to encourage them in their faith, and he is certain that he would be encouraged and strengthened himself (1:12). But he recognizes that this has not been God’s will so far (1:10).

1:13–15. Paul describes the background for his plans. The “fruitful ministry” (1:13) that he intends to carry out in Rome includes the strengthening of the faith of the Roman Christians (1:15; cf. 1:11–12). According to 15:24, 28, Paul wants to visit the Roman Christians in order to involve them in his mission to Spain. He asserts that he has been commissioned to proclaim the gospel to all people (1:14): to the “Greeks” (that is, to the elites of the Greco-Roman world) and to the “barbarians” (Gk barbaroi; that is, the uncivilized whom the elites despise), to “the wise” (those who are formally educated) and to “the foolish” (the uneducated and the uncultured). He preaches to all people.

C. Theme of the letter (1:16–17). Paul asserts that he is not ashamed of the gospel (1:16). He knows from experience that the gospel is an embarrassing message because it is “the word of the cross” (1 Co 1:18). The message about a Jewish man who was executed by Roman authorities by crucifixion and yet who is the messianic Savior of the world is a cause for revulsion to Jews and foolish nonsense to Gentiles (1 Co 1:23).

Paul summarizes in 1:16–17 the following convictions about the gospel: (1) The gospel has power to achieve what it promises. The emphasis on wisdom that characterizes orators is replaced by the effectiveness of the message about Jesus. (2) The gospel grounds salvation. Through it, God rescues human beings from judgment (1:18–32; 5:9; 8:1); restores the glory of sinful human beings (3:23; cf. 5:3; 8:23, 30); integrates Gentile believers into the people of God (4:11–12); establishes peace and access to God’s grace (5:1–2); imparts the gift of the Holy Spirit (5:5; 7:6; 8:1–11); and causes the believer’s adoption into God’s family (8:15–17). (3) The power of the gospel is effectively experienced by people who believe God’s revelation in and through Jesus Christ. (4) The gospel is the power of God, who saves people irrespective of their ethnic background (1:16). (5) The ongoing proclamation of the gospel reveals “the righteousness of God” (1:17), God’s action by which he brings people into right relationship with him. The passive voice (“is revealed”) clarifies that God himself reveals his righteousness to sinful humanity. Paul’s explanation of this righteousness being “from faith to faith” will be fleshed out particularly in chapter 3. Paul quotes Hab 2:4 to confirm that God’s righteousness can be attained only on the basis of faith.

2. THE GOSPEL AS THE POWER OF GOD FOR SALVATION TO EVERYONE WHO HAS FAITH (1:18–15:13)

A. The justification of sinners on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ (1:18–5:21). In the first main section of the letter, Paul explains the gospel as the saving revelation of God’s righteousness, which rescues sinners, whether pagans or Jews (1:18–3:20), on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ (3:21–5:21).

Paul begins with a statement concerning the revelation of God’s wrath on account of human sinfulness (1:18), followed by a description of the nature of human sin (1:19–23) and the consequences of sin (1:24–31), thus confirming the legitimacy, severity, and scope of God’s judgment (1:32). He then argues why his Jewish dialogue partner is not exempt from the revelation of God’s wrath (2:1–3:20).

1:18. Paul now answers the questions implicit in 1:16–17: Why has God manifested his righteousness in the gospel of Jesus Christ? Why can salvation be received only through Jesus? The description of human sinfulness begins with the assertion that God’s wrath, which brings judgment and condemnation, “is revealed from heaven.” The object of God’s wrath is the universal failure to respect and honor the glory of God and the universal reality of sin, which causes death in God’s creation (cf. 5:12). Paul asserts that the reality of God’s anger is made manifest in the present. The gospel reveals the culpability of humankind and the consequences of sin, visible in the intellectual and moral decadence of human society.

1:19–23. Paul confirms the divine verdict of verse 18. The presupposition of sin is the knowledge of God, who has revealed himself to humankind (1:19–20a). What can be known about God is his power and divine nature; these are invisible realities, but they are manifest in the works of creation. Paul’s formulation “what can be known about God” is deliberately careful: the works of creation reveal God’s eternal power and divine nature. Because humankind has seen God’s power and divine nature in the works of creation, nobody has an excuse for suppressing this truth (1:20b). The reason God reveals his wrath against the godlessness and the wickedness of the human race is the universal refusal to acknowledge God. People refuse to give God the Creator the glory that he deserves, and they refuse to be grateful to God for his good gifts (1:21a).

The result of this twofold refusal is unfolded in five statements that explain the present manifestation of God’s wrath. (1) Human thinking has become “worthless” and doomed to self-deception (1:21b). (2) Human existence has become disabled and distorted (1:21c). (3) Human beings have a warped and illusory self-image, as their claims to wisdom fail to recognize the truth that they have become fools (1:22). (4) Human beings exchange the glory of God for the copy of an “image” (1:23a). Instead of acknowledging God in worship and actions, they prefer distorted images. While Paul thinks here primarily of the pagans who worship idol images, his language also echoes the incident of the golden calf when the Israelites “exchanged their glory for an image of a grass-eating ox” (Ps 106:20). (5) People produce and then worship images that are likenesses of human beings and of animals (1:23b; cf. Is 44:9–20). [General Revelation]

1:24. God’s reaction to the suppression of the truth is described. God handed over the human race to the control of their own desires. They are thus forced to suffer the consequences of their willful distortion of the truth about God. The result of human beings left to their own resources is polluted behavior, which separates them from God and results in death, and which dishonors their own bodies.

1:25–27. Paul elaborates on the nature and the consequences of sin. As people venerated creatures rather than the Creator, they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. In 1:25 Paul interrupts his description of idolatry to praise God. The “amen” invites the readers to concur and join him. In 1:26–27 Paul explains for the second time God’s response to humankind’s assault on his honor and dignity. God delivered them up to dishonorable passions, including the exchange of natural sexual relations with unnatural sexual relations among women and among men (homosexuality). God created man and woman, male and female (Gn 1:27) to become “one flesh” (Gn 2:24). Paul’s language denies same-sex sexual activity as right or good.

Paul declares that “God’s wrath is revealed from heaven” (Rm 1:18). In the OT, wrath is God’s response to sin (Ex 15:7; 32:10–12; Nm 11:1; Jr 21:3–7); it should not be confused with capricious or irrational passion. The prophets link God’s wrath with a future day of judgment (Is 13:9, 13; Zph 1:15, 18; 2:2–3; 3:8; Dn 8:19).

Paul proclaims God’s wrath against those who have “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles” (Rm 1:23). The Roman forum contained many temples devoted to pagan worship. The columns in this photograph mark the remains of at least five different temples.

1:28–32. Paul mentions for the fifth time humankind’s suppression of the truth about God (cf. 1:18, 21, 23, 25). Failure to acknowledge God leads to a mind that is worthless, not because it is uninformed or uncultured (which could be rectified through education) but because it perversely rejects truth about God and truth about nature. This is why people do things that are improper (1:28). The following catalog, which lists twenty-one types of evil behavior and characteristics of unrighteous people (1:29–31), explains that these evils are described not as problems of every individual but as the collective reality and experience of the human race. Paul concludes this depressing albeit realistic description of the human condition with a final affirmation of human culpability for their sins (1:32).

2:1–2. Jewish readers likely agreed with Paul’s indictment of humankind in the previous paragraph. However, Jews believed that they had a privileged position before God. In 2:1 Paul shifts his style to employ diatribe, interacting with a dialogue partner. This interlocutor is not imaginary, since Paul had conversations with pious Jews who would have emphasized their exemption from God’s judgment on account of their status as members of God’s covenant people. Paul does not clarify immediately the Jewish identity of his discussion partner. In 2:2 Paul asserts that what he says of God’s judgment is in accordance with the facts: God judges those “who do such things” (1:19–32).

2:3–6. In 2:3–4 Paul challenges his dialogue partner that his judgment of others results in his own self-condemnation. The rhetorical questions are designed to demonstrate the false assumptions of Paul’s Jewish critic. In 2:5 Paul takes up verse 1 and explains why Paul’s interlocutor is not exempt from judgment. Despite the warning of Dt 10:16, he has failed to recognize his hard and impenitent heart, a condition that will result in God’s condemnation. In 2:6 Paul quotes the scriptural principle that God’s judgment will be according to people’s deeds (Ps 62:12; Pr 24:12). The implication is that God has no favorites. God treats all human beings the same—condemning sinners on judgment day as a result of their sinful acts, and saving sinners on judgment day on the basis of their faith in Jesus.

2:7–11. Paul clarifies the “doing” that leads either to eternal life or to eternal condemnation (2:10). People who persevere in good works seek glory and honor and immortality; these are the marks of those for whom God’s glory and honor are priorities—they will receive eternal life (2:7, 10). These people are committed to God’s Messiah, in whom the promises of the prophets regarding obedience to God’s law, empowered by the Spirit, have been fulfilled (see 2:28–29). In contrast to people who do good works and who receive from God eternal life, there are people who are selfish, who disobey the truth, and who are won over by unrighteousness; their destiny is God’s wrath and judgment in the future and anguish and distress in the present (2:8–9a). All of this is true both for Jews and for Greeks, because God the judge is impartial (2:11). The phrase “first to the Jew” (2:9b) clarifies the target of Paul’s argument: the assumption of Paul’s dialogue partner is that he has privileges with regard to the day of judgment; this claim collapses in view of God’s impartiality.

The OT teaches that God will judge people according to their deeds (Ps 62:12; Pr 24:12; cf. Is 3:10–11; Jr 17:10; Hs 12:2). Jesus and the early Christians, including Paul (Rm 2:6–10), accepted this principle (Mt 16:27; 25:31–46; 2 Co 5:10; 1 Pt 1:17; Rv 20:12–13; 22:12). However, the NT also clearly teaches that salvation is not a reward for good deeds but comes only by grace (Ac 15:11; 18:27; Rm 3:24; 5:12–21; 11:6; Eph 2:4–9; Ti 3:7).

2:12–16. Paul introduces the law into the discussion for two reasons. The law records God’s covenantal standards, and pious Jews appealed to the law as God’s good gift that distinguished them from the pagans. Paul argues that what determines the outcome of God’s judgment is not the possession of the law as such but one’s obedience to it. Pagans who do not have the law will be condemned for their sin “without the law” (2:12). Jews who live with the law yet transgress it will be judged by the law. For the Jews who have heard the law read and explained in the synagogues, this means that they are deemed to be righteous in God’s judgment only if they remain faithful to the covenant obligations (2:13).

For Gentiles, who do not have the law, this means that if they carry out the law, they will be justified on the day of judgment (2:14–15). Even though these Gentiles have not received the law as a birthright as the Jews did, they embody the law. The first witness that testifies on their behalf is their new heart, which is inscribed with the requirements of the law, promised in Jr 31:31–34 for the time of the new covenant. The second supporting witness is their conscience, perhaps the assurance from the presence and the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives (cf. Rm 9:1). The third supporting witness is “their competing thoughts,” which constitute a defense for them. This demonstration will take place in the future, on the day when God will judge how Jews and Gentiles have responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ (2:16). Note that Paul makes similar statements about the Christian believer’s obedience to the law in 2:25–29 and in 8:3–4.

2:17–20. Paul takes up the objections of his Jewish dialogue partner, who argues that Israel’s covenant status places Jews in a different position from that of the Gentiles. Paul insists that the Jewish covenant privileges, which he does not deny (3:1–2; 9:4–5), do not exempt them from God’s judgment. In verses 17–24 Paul evaluates the claim that the Mosaic law constitutes a fundamental advantage of Jews over Gentiles.

Paul cites the claims of his Jewish dialogue partner (2:17–20). (1) He proudly calls himself a Jew, identifying himself with the beliefs, rites, and customs of Israel’s tradition (2:17). (2) Jews rely on the law in the sense that it is divine revelation. (3) Jews boast in God; their special relationship with God will vindicate Israel on the day of judgment. (4) Jews know the will of God, as God has revealed in the law the proper ways in which his people should conduct themselves (2:18). (5) Jews approve of what is superior; they know what really matters, since they have been instructed in the law. (6) Pious Jews are convinced that they are a guide to the blind (2:19; cf. Is 42:6–7), probably a reference to the attitude that Israel has been called to be a leader of other nations (Mt 15:14; 23:16, 24). (7) Jews are a light to those who are in darkness since they have been given the light of the law (Ps 119:105). (8) Jews are instructors of the foolish (2:20); they can provide moral guidance to the Gentile world. (9) Jews are teachers of children—that is, the Gentiles who have an immature grasp of the way of truth. (10) Jews have “the embodiment of knowledge and truth” in the law—what the philosophers and the religions of the world long for and claim to offer, the Jews possess.

2:21–24. Paul confronts his interlocutor’s boast with reality. Paul first asks a series of four rhetorical questions. The (implied) positive answers to these questions explain “the same things” (2:1) that Jews practice but condemn in the Gentiles. Paul asserts that his dialogue partner fails to teach himself what he teaches others. Just as the Gentiles will be condemned because of their idolatry and immorality (1:18–32), so he is subject to the same condemnation because of his transgressions of stealing, adultery, and robbery of pagan temples (2:21–22). These charges are based on the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:4–5, 14, 15; Dt 5:8–9, 18, 19). The charge of temple robbery could refer to actual plunder of pagan temples or to the use of objects taken from pagan shrines (in violation of Dt 7:25–26) or to the committing of sacrilege in general. Paul’s accusation is not out of the ordinary when we compare it with charges of the prophets (Is 3:14–15; Jr 7:8–11; Ezk 22:6–12) and of Jesus (Mt 23:1–39; Lk 11:39–52) and with Jewish literature of the time.

Paul does not target all Jews as individuals; rather, he addresses his interlocutor’s claim that Israel has a privileged position over the Gentiles on account of its possession of the law. He argues in 2:23 that even though his dialogue partner takes pride in the law, he dishonors God by breaking the law. Paul argues, using the quotation from Is 52:5, that just as Israel’s disobedience in the past brought shame on God and the exile on Israel (cf. the larger context in Is 50:1–3), so now those who transgress the law dishonor God by their disobedience (2:24).

2:25–29. Paul takes up the significance of circumcision, the mark of the covenant that was of central importance for Israel’s self-understanding (Gn 17:9–14). Paul does not deny the value of circumcision for the Jewish people but insists that it has value in the context of the final judgment only “if you observe the law” (2:25a). The criterion in God’s court on judgment day is not the possession of the mark of circumcision but obedience to the law. Jews who break the law in effect become non-Jews (2:25b).

In verses 26–29 Paul shows again (cf. 2:14–15) how Gentiles (who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ) have become members of the people of God. When uncircumcised Gentiles keep the just requirements of the law, they will be reckoned as circumcised (2:26), as legitimate members of God’s people. There is a reversal that will become manifest on the day of judgment. The Gentile believers who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will judge the Jews who possess the law and have the mark of circumcision but break the law (2:27). Jews can forfeit their covenant relationship with God through wickedness, and non-Jews can be reckoned as members of God’s (new) covenant people through their obedience.

In 2:28–29 Paul describes the identity of these uncircumcised (non-Jewish) yet obedient people: they are incognito Jews (not “outwardly” but “inwardly”) who have a circumcision of the heart—they have experienced God dealing with their most basic spiritual problems. The circumcision of the heart was known in the OT (Dt 10:16; Jr 4:4; 9:25–26; Ezk 44:9); its reality was expected for the future (Dt 30:6), in the time of the new covenant (Jr 31:31–34), when God would place his Spirit in the hearts of his people (Ezk 36:26–27), resulting in the removal of all uncleanness, in a new heart and a new spirit, and in full obedience to God’s statutes. Paul asserts that this reality has arrived: Gentiles have received this inward circumcision not because they possess the written letter of the law but because God has given them the promised Holy Spirit and transformed them. They are true members of God’s people.

3:1–4. Paul knows that his argument in chapter 2 will provoke objections. He is willing to air these objections since he is dealing with serious questions, which have immense implications for the understanding of God, of salvation, and of who belongs to God’s people.

In 3:1–4 Paul notes objections that insist the privileges of the Jews cannot have been annulled. Paul grants that his dialogue partner has a point—Jews indeed have an advantage over Gentiles (3:1–2). The reason for this answer is Paul’s belief that the Jews have been given God’s authentic self-revelation (the word “first” in 3:2 implies further privileges, which Paul will list in Rm 9:4–5). The second argument of Paul’s Jewish opponent (3:3) links the premise of Israel’s divine election with Paul’s argument in 2:17–29. The question is raised of whether the unfaithfulness of some Jews nullifies God’s faithfulness to Israel. Paul protests against the suggestion that he holds such a view (3:4; see 9:1–11:36).

3:5–8. Paul allows his opponent to voice the objection that Paul’s teaching turns God into an unrighteous judge and leads into libertinism. This is a direct attack on Paul’s theology, which, if it can be sustained, has two serious consequences. In the first part of this attack (3:5–6) the opponent summarizes the opinion of Paul with a seemingly blasphemous proposition. The statement “our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness” implies the apparently logical inference that if sinners by their unrighteousness provoke God to manifest his righteousness (God forgives sinners), then God cannot punish sinners for their unrighteousness. This argument is designed to draw out the conclusion that, if Paul is correct, God’s righteousness stands in contradiction to God’s judgment of wrath; in other words, if Paul is right, God is unjust.

The second part of the attack (3:7) intensifies the objection of verse 5 by relating it to verse 4—Paul’s theology is blasphemy because he holds that lying to God (which is what sinners do) provokes not God’s wrath but a demonstration of his truthfulness, which increases his glory. If this is the case, why are sinners still condemned as sinners? The implication is stark: if there is no difference between the righteous and sinners, any judgment must become meaningless. The final and decisive part of the attack (3:8) consists in the accusation that Paul has a blasphemous ethic. The dialogue partner argues that if Paul is correct, one might as well do evil so that good may come. If there is no theological possibility of a divine judgment, the ethical difference between good and evil becomes void. For Paul, at least for the time being, such a conclusion marks the end of any meaningful discussion: “Their condemnation is deserved!”

Summary. Paul will explain his answer to the questions of 3:1–8 in reverse order in chapters 6–8 and in chapters 9–11. After a further explanation of the sinfulness of the Jewish people in 3:9–20 and an exposition of the revelation of God’s righteousness in Jesus Christ as the solution to the plight of humankind in 3:21–5:21, Paul expounds the reality of God’s righteousness in the lives of Christian believers (6:1–8:39) and the reality of God’s righteousness in the present and future history of Israel (9:1–11:36).

3:9. In 3:9–20 Paul summarizes his conclusion from chapter 2: Jews, though having advantages, are not treated differently from the Gentiles, since both Jews (2:1–29) and Gentiles (1:18–32) are guilty of sin. They are “all under sin”; that is, both Gentiles and Jews outside of the kingdom of the Messiah are slaves of sin, evident in their present behavior as well as in their destiny in God’s judgment, in which nobody has any excuse.

3:10–18. Paul provides biblical evidence for his assertion that Jews have no advantage over Gentiles because they are sinners. In 3:10–12 he quotes Ps 14:1–3, which laments the oppression of the righteous in Israel by evildoers. In verses 13–15 Paul shifts his attention to the wrongs done to the neighbor, citing a series of eight pronouncements against enemies of the people of God. In 3:13–14 he cites Pss 5:9; 140:3; and 10:7 for sins of human speech—deadly deceit, poison, cursing, and bitterness. In 3:15–18 he cites Is 59:7–8 (Pr 1:16) and Ps 36:1 for sins of human conduct—murder, destruction, strife, and rejection of God. Isaiah 59 in particular focuses on sin within Israel, not just of the righteous in general. Paul’s quotations support his larger point, that judgment will come upon the unrighteous regardless of whether they are Gentile or Jew.

3:19–20. Paul concludes his indictment of sinners; 3:19 confirms that Paul has also been addressing Jews in the preceding series of quotations. It is Jews who are “subject to the law.” Since 1:18 Paul has silenced “every mouth” by proving that the whole world is accountable to God. He established in 1:18–32 the sinfulness of the Gentiles, which needed no further proof. He established the sinfulness of Jews in 2:1–3:18, against the objections of a Jewish dialogue partner, whom he sought to silence with phenomenological and biblical evidence.

Paul concludes in 3:20 with an allusion to Ps 143:2 and perhaps Gn 6:12, asserting that final justification by God does not take place on the basis of obedience to the works prescribed by the law. No “flesh” has the ability to obey the law. In 8:3–4 Paul will argue (as he did in 2:13–14 and in 2:25–29) that the Spirit provides the people of God the power to fulfill the law. Paul informs his interlocutor that the law merely leads to the knowledge of sin but does not solve the root of the problem. In the new messianic age, in which the promised new covenant has become a reality, the law does not have power to free sinners from sin; it can only reveal their actions and efforts as sin.

3:21. Paul describes how God “now”—when Jesus the Messiah has come—has demonstrated his righteousness as a result of Jesus’s atoning death (3:21–31). Faith in Jesus Christ creates the universal people of God, consisting of Jews, the ethnic descendants of Abraham, and of Gentiles, whom God wanted to bless through Abraham (4:1–25). Jews and Gentiles who entrust themselves to Jesus Christ have peace with God, the hope of sharing the glory of God, the love of God, and the Holy Spirit (5:1–11). God’s triumph over sin in and through Jesus Christ solves the problem of the power of sin, which, since the fall of Adam, has brought condemnation and death (5:12–21).

Paul explains the revelation of God’s saving righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ in two parts: he explains (1) the significance of God’s action in the death of Jesus Christ, providing atonement for sins and redemption (3:21–26), and (2) the universality of justification by faith in Jesus Christ (3:27–31), which corresponds to the universality of the sinfulness of humankind (1:18–3:20).

Paul begins in 3:21a with the fundamental assertion that God’s saving action took place apart from the law, independently of the Mosaic law, for both Gentiles and Jews. The disclosure of the “righteousness of God” is God’s faithful love demonstrated in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ and his resurrection. God saves the ungodly and the disobedient, the very people who assaulted his glory and who did not obey his will. This new reality is scriptural: the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it (3:21b; cf. Rm 1:2; 4:1–25; 9:25–33; 10:6–13; 15:8–12). The gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ that Paul proclaims is the fulfillment of God’s promises for the new covenant; it is not a new religion but the climax of God’s plan.

3:22. Paul explains the revelation of the saving righteousness of God in verses 22–26. The means of salvation is not the “works of the law” (3:20, 28) but “faith in,” or “the faithfulness of” (see the CSB footnote), Jesus the messianic Savior. Some interpret the Greek phrase “faith of Jesus Christ” in terms of the “faithfulness” that Jesus himself had; in other words, Jesus was faithful to accomplish the work that God had given him. Others interpret it in terms of Jesus Christ as the source or object of faith; that is, Paul writes about the faith given by Jesus Christ or with Jesus as its object.

3:23–24. The availability of salvation is universal (“all”), without distinction between idolatrous polytheists and pious or impious Jews. The target of salvation is sinners (3:23), people whose behavior suppresses God’s truth and ignores God’s will, people who have lost the glory of living in God’s presence (a reference to Adam’s fall). The nature of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is justification, God’s acquittal and redemption of the sinner who faced condemnation on the day of judgment but who now is declared righteous and thus set right with God and free from sin (3:24). The manner of salvation is that of an unmerited gift. The motivation of salvation is God’s grace, the undeserved love of God.

The means of salvation is also redemption, deliverance from the hopeless human condition of 1:18–3:20. “Redemption” sometimes refers to a ransom that has been paid (cf. 1 Co 6:20; 7:23; also Mk 10:45); many see an allusion to the OT motif of redemption in a new exodus, a new covenant, and a new creation (Is 43:14–21; 48:20–21; 52:1–2; Ezk 20:33–38; Hs 2:14–23). The facilitation of salvation is bound up with Jesus the Messiah. It is in and through Jesus’s death and resurrection that the new epoch of salvation has been inaugurated and that both idolatrous pagans and lawbreaking Jews are delivered from sin and death. In 3:24, Paul uses for the first time in Romans the phrase “in Christ Jesus” (which occurs over eighty times in his letters), which describes the “location” or sphere of God’s intervention in the history of humankind for the salvation of sinners.

3:25–26. The locale of salvation is the cross, where Jesus Christ became the new place of God’s atoning presence. The Greek term hilastērion (“atoning sacrifice”) is best understood against its background in the OT, where it designates the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant, on which blood was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement (Lv 16; cf. the reference to “blood” in 3:25). Jesus’s death redeems the unrighteous from God’s wrath, cleanses sinners from sin, and breaks the power of sin. Because Jesus is the sinless sacrifice and dies in the place of sinners, sinners live. The phrase “God presented him” describes Jesus’s death as a public manifestation of God’s grace (3:26). Jesus died in public, in full view of the citizens of Jerusalem.

The effects of Jesus’s death are appropriated “through faith” in Jesus Christ (3:25)—that is, by responding with trust, confidence, and commitment. Another effect of salvation is the demonstration of God’s righteousness (3:26); God, through the Son, demonstrated his righteousness by taking on human flesh as the sacrifice that fulfills the terms of his covenant with Israel. A further effect of Jesus’s death is the final, ultimate forgiveness and elimination of sins. While in the past God’s forbearance left the sins committed beforehand unpunished, Jesus’s sacrificial death was God’s final answer to the problem of sin.

3:27–28. In 3:27, Paul returns to the theme of Jewish boasting. He asserts that this boasting is excluded. Jewish privileges do not nullify the full acceptance of Gentiles into God’s people. In 3:28 Paul asserts that the works of the law are not determinative for justification. In other words, both Jews, with their privileged position as recipients of the law, and Gentiles, who lack that privilege, are made right with God and set free from sin through the work of God’s Messiah alone. [Justification by Faith]

3:29–30. Paul gives a theological argument for his conviction. God’s final solution to the problem of the reality of sin among Gentiles and among Jews is not justification through obedience to the law, because then only Jews could be saved (since only Jews possess the law). The truth is that “there is one God” (3:30). This formulation reflects the basic confession of Jewish monotheism (Dt 6:4). Since there is only one God, and God is impartial, there can be only one means of justifying sinners. This is what Paul has argued in 3:21–26, read in the context of 1:18–3:20: members of God’s covenant people (the circumcised Jews) are justified before God by faith in Jesus Christ, and idolatrous polytheists (the uncircumcised pagans) are justified through that same faith.

While the Jews believed there was only one God (Rm 3:30), the Gentiles came from polytheistic backgrounds. This altar to an unnamed god found on the Palatine Hill in Rome (at the Velabrum) may have been part of the early city of Rome. The inscription reads in part, “whether to a god or goddess sacred.”

3:31. Paul asks whether his assertions nullify the law. He assures that this is not so (“Absolutely not!”). He does not abolish the law; rather, he “uphold[s]” the law. Later passages show what Paul means: those who accept by faith the revelation of God’s saving righteousness in Jesus Christ keep the law, which contains God’s holy, just, and good commandments (7:12). Believers in Jesus Christ encounter the law no longer as the law of sin and death (as sinners who face eternal condemnation) but as the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (as people who have received the Spirit of the new covenant and who have been given new hearts of obedience) (8:2–4).

4:1–3. Paul links his rejection of boasting (3:27–31) with Abraham, whom he describes as the fundamental paradigm for God’s people, the prototype of justification for both Gentiles and Jews. Paul argues in 4:1–16 that Abraham was justified by God not on the basis of works of the law but on the basis of faith. Abraham was regarded as the first converted Gentile (from Ur of the Chaldeans, Gn 15:7) and as the first Jew who was circumcised and received God’s covenant (Gn 15; 17). Contrary to the traditional Jewish understanding of Abraham, Paul argues that Abraham, as the Jews’ ancestor according to the flesh (4:1), was declared righteous apart from works of the law (i.e., circumcision) (4:2).

4:4–15. When Abraham was justified, he was an ungodly idolater who had no works of the law (indeed, no law!) God could reward (4:4–5). Paul then reaffirms his point through David, whose transgressions of the law were forgiven and who was reckoned by God as righteous (4:6–8, quoting Ps 32:1–2). The blessing of justification God pronounces on sinners such as David is valid not only for Jews such as David but also for Gentiles such as Abraham before his circumcision (4:9–12). [Imputation]

Abraham’s circumcision was a “seal of the righteousness” God granted him on account of his faith in God’s promises (4:11a). Abraham is thus the ancestor of the new people of God: the ancestor of the uncircumcised Gentiles who have come to faith and who are graciously granted righteousness by God on the basis of the faithful work of Jesus (4:11b), and the ancestor of the circumcised Jews who have also come to faith (in God’s saving revelation in Jesus Christ; cf. 4:21–22). In 4:13–15 Paul explains that God’s promise to Abraham regarding his blessing for the families of the earth—he was promised that he would “inherit the world” (4:13; cf. Gn 12:3)—was not fulfilled through the law, since if it were through the law, Gentiles would be (at least mostly) exempt.

From the beginning when God made a covenant with Abraham, God planned for his covenant community to include people of all races and nationalities (Gn 12:3; 17:5; Rm 4:16–17).

4:16–25. Paul provides a profile for the authentic faith of the people who belong to God’s (new) covenant, using Abraham the converted Gentile as the prototype of all his offspring (4:16). Abraham is the father of all who have faith, whether Jews or Gentiles. Abraham received the gospel in advance in order that God would bless the nations through him (Gl 3:8). His faithful commitment to God’s promise (4:20–21), in spite of the barrenness of Sarah’s womb (4:19), resulted in his becoming the father of many nations, the faith-father of both Jews and Gentiles (4:17–18). Abraham’s committed trust in God’s promise to bring life from death prefigures the committed trust in God raising Jesus from death to life that grounds the justification of Jewish and Gentile believers (4:22–25).

5:1–2. After the blessing of justification for sinners (3:21–31), and after the blessing of the Gentiles’ becoming members of God’s new covenant people (4:1–25), Paul draws a conclusion (“therefore”) in 5:1–2a of the revelation of God’s saving righteousness through Jesus Christ: peace with God. The sinners of 1:18–3:30 have been granted peace with God, as they have come to faith in God and in his work of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Paul now describes what kind of boasting God’s people truly possess—not in the works of the law to the exclusion of Gentiles. Rather, Paul speaks about three boasts. Paul’s first boast is that Christians have confidence in the hope of sharing the glory of God (5:2b), which has been forfeited as a result of sin (3:23) and will be finally and fully restored on the day when believers are transformed into the image of the Son (cf. 8:29).

5:3–10. Paul’s second boast is that Christians can rejoice in their sufferings (5:3a), because suffering for the sake of the gospel leads to endurance, which in turn develops Christian character, which in turn bolsters the hope of sharing the glory of God (5:3b–4). This chain (hope → suffering → endurance → character → hope) is the basis for Paul’s assertion that “hope will not disappoint us” (5:5).

Paul then describes the love of God. Sinners who have come to faith in God’s saving righteousness through Jesus Christ have received from God not wrath but love, poured out through the Holy Spirit, who is the effective presence of God in the hearts of believers (5:5). God granted his saving love at a time when the believers were helpless and ungodly sinners (5:6, 8). The effective demonstration of God’s love was in the past, when Jesus Christ died for people who were neither righteous nor good but enemies (5:7, 10). Jesus’s death guarantees the demonstration of God’s love in the future day of judgment, when God will justify believers on account of the death and resurrection of Jesus (5:9).

5:11. Paul’s third boast is that Christians have confidence in God himself. This is based on the work of Jesus Christ and is the result of the sinner’s reconciliation, which they enjoy now, in the present. God himself, in the beautiful work of Father, Son, and Spirit together, has initiated the reestablishment of the broken relationship between humanity and God.

5:12. Romans 5:12–21 concludes the first major part in Paul’s letter and prepares for the second part, in which Paul explains the reality of the revelation of God’s saving righteousness in the life of believers. In this section, Adam stands for the sinfulness of all humanity (1:18–3:20), while Jesus Christ stands for God’s solution to the problem of the human condition (3:21–5:11).

In 5:12 Paul sets up a contrast between two men. One man is responsible for sin in the world, resulting in death, which has spread to all people. Death is described as an unnatural state and as a force at work in the world (Paul personifies both “sin” and “death” through much of the letter): it was not originally part of the world; it entered God’s creation through Adam (whose name means “man”). Death is both physical and spiritual (cf. 5:16, 18, the reference to condemnation). Adam’s sin brought about a situation in which all people are separated from God by their sin and thus suffer death, and in which every human being without exception commits sins. People are sinners because they sin (1:18–3:20), and thus they die as a result. Sin and death are inseparable realities—where there is sin, death follows.

5:13–17. Paul interrupts his contrasting comparison at the end of verse 12 (until 5:18). He needs to clarify the place of the law. In 5:13–14 Paul addresses the relationship between sin and death in the time from Adam to Moses. Sin existed in the world before the law was given, which is proven by the fact that the people who lived in the time between Adam and Moses both sinned and died. During this time, sin existed, but it could not be quantified and punished as transgression of the law. It was rebellion against God, albeit not in terms of breaking the Mosaic law, even if people did not violate a specific commandment, as Adam did. The larger point is that Adam provided a type of Jesus Christ, the second Adam (1 Co 15:47–48). Adam is a pattern because he is the representative of the old epoch. He is the man who inaugurated the history of the human race as a history of idolatry and disobedience. His fate reveals the effective universality of sin.

Paul then clarifies the dissimilarity between Jesus Christ and Adam. While the death of “the many” (all people) is the result of Adam’s disobedience, the effect of Jesus’s action is an overflowing abundance of the gift of God’s unmerited grace (5:15). The reality of justification cannot really be compared with the sin of Adam. The effective power of God’s saving justification granted to sinners who have committed countless sins is incomparably greater than the power of sin that resulted from a single transgression of one human being (5:16). While the descendants of Adam are subject to the power of death, believers who belong to Jesus Christ receive the gift of grace, which they experience as righteousness and as dominion over the power of sin and death in this life and in the life to come (5:17).

5:18–19. Paul completes the contrasting comparison between Adam and Jesus Christ. Adam’s sin led to the condemnation of every single human being, while Jesus’s righteous act, his obedience to the point of death on the cross (cf. Php 2:8), leads to the giving of life to sinners who receive what they have lost because of their sin (5:18). The phrase “justification leading to life for everyone” cannot mean that every single human being is saved as a result of Jesus’s death (universalism), especially since Paul affirms a future judgment of the wicked. The character of Jesus’s obedience is universal in the sense that it is available to all, but only those who acknowledge Jesus as Lord (5:11), who are “in Christ” (3:24; 6:11; 8:1), benefit from his death and resurrection. In 5:19 Paul restates and explains verse 18: Adam’s disobedience resulted in the sinfulness of humankind, while Jesus’s obedience resulted in God’s saving righteousness being extended to sinners.

5:20–21. Paul’s conclusion clarifies again the role of the law and summarizes God’s purposes in the history of salvation. The Mosaic law was added to the already-existing nexus between sin and death, with the result that the trespass increased (5:20). The increase of sin, which the law caused, is the specific definition of sin as transgression of the will of God revealed in the law. As sin did its work with universal effectiveness, God’s grace proved all the more powerful. The increase of grace, which results from Jesus’s obedience, is the restoration of life to justified sinners. Thus the history of humankind, seen as history governed by God, is a history of salvation in two stages. The time when sin ruled, consigning people to death, is followed by the time when grace rules, extending to sinners righteousness and eternal life, on account of the work of Jesus Christ our Lord (5:21).

B. The reality of justification by faith in the life of the Christian (6:1–8:39). In the second main section of the letter, Paul explains the reality of God’s saving righteousness in the life of the Christian. Believers in Jesus Christ cannot possibly trivialize sin, since they have been freed from the slavery of sin (6:1–23). There has been a fundamental change from tolerating sin to being in the Spirit and living according to the will of God (7:1–8:17). While believers suffer in the present world, they suffer in hope (8:18–30), assured of their ultimate triumph on account of the love of God (8:31–39).

6:1–2. Paul argues in chapter 6 that while sin has not yet been eliminated as a present reality, believers in Christ who have been declared righteous do not regard sin as something insignificant, because they have understood the implications of their conversion. When they came to faith, they were united with Christ, who died because of sin and who was raised from the dead (6:1–14). The fact that believers are “not under the law but under grace” does not mean they tolerate sin. Rather, they have been freed from the slavery of sin, with the result that they are consistently devoted to righteousness and holy living (6:15–23).

In 6:1 Paul repeats the sacrilegious proposition of his Jewish dialogue partner (3:8), but as a question put forward by the justified sinner of 3:21–5:21. The objection is based on a false inference—namely, that Paul’s teaching regarding the justification of sinners by God’s grace implies that an increase in sin (which God forgives) leads to an increase in grace (God can forgive more sins). Paul protests against the suggestion that the reality of God’s righteousness saving sinners by grace encourages people to go on sinning (“Absolutely not!” 6:2). He answers the questions of verse 1 with the assertion that believers in Jesus Christ, who died for sinners, will not continue to live in sin because they have “died to sin”—and dead people cannot sin.

6:3–4. In 6:3–10 Paul gives a theological explanation; in 6:11–14 he gives an ethical explanation. He begins with a reminder of a theological truth he expects the Roman Christians to know already: faith in Christ establishes a union with Christ with respect to his death (6:3). For speakers of the Greek language the term baptizō (“baptize”) refers not to a particular ritual but to the act of immersion. Paul asserts that sinners who have come to faith were “immersed into” the Messiah Jesus, which means that they share his fate. Since Jesus died on the cross—the place where God was graciously present to atone for sins—the believer’s immersion into Jesus Christ is an immersion into his death and resurrection (6:4).

6:5. Paul goes on to argue that since faith in Jesus Christ establishes a union with his death, it likewise establishes a union with his resurrection. As Jesus was raised from the dead through the glorious power of God the Father, so believers participate in his resurrection, which enables them to live a new life in Jesus. And this is the reason they cannot sin deliberately or live carelessly. The newness of the life of the Christian believers is the new life of the Spirit (7:6), the life of the new creation (2 Co 5:17; Gl 6:15), the life of the new humanity (Eph 2:15). Paul speaks in 6:5 of the believer’s future resurrection. Believers are enabled to live a new life on account of the power of God, which was manifested in Jesus’s resurrection and is at work in their lives by virtue of their union with Christ.

6:6–7. Paul restates what he said in verses 3–5, explaining why Christians cannot continue sinning. Since union with Christ is a union with his death, it is a union with Jesus’s crucifixion (6:6). The purpose of Jesus’s death and the purpose of the believer’s union with him is the destruction of the “body ruled by sin,” the liberation from the power of sin that has enslaved Adam’s descendants (1:18–3:20). In 6:7 Paul explains why believers cannot be slaves to sin: dead people are no longer controlled by the power of sin. Believers who have been identified with Jesus’s death have been freed from the enslaving power of sin and its consequence, God’s condemnation. This does not mean that Christians no longer sin. Believers have been freed from sin and its consequences, but they are not yet free from temptation, or from the possibility of sinning, or from the reality of committing sins. But sinning is not the state of affairs that believers consider to be normal and acceptable.

6:8–10. Paul then explains what the believer’s union with Jesus’s resurrection means. As believers are incorporated into Christ’s death and resurrection, they will live with him in the future of God’s ultimate triumph over death (6:8). The reason is that Christ, whom God raised from the dead, will not die a second time (6:9); this means that those who are united with Christ’s death will not die a second time either. Death no longer has any power over Jesus, and thus death no longer has power over believers, as their death has already taken place (on the cross). In 6:10 Paul explains why the power of death has been canceled: when Jesus died, he “died to sin”—that is, to break the power of sin, which owns sinners by imposing the death sentence (5:21; 7:9–11, 15–20). As the power of sin has been broken once for all, the risen Christ lives for the glory of God.

6:11–14. Paul explains his assertion in 6:2 that believers have died to sin and thus cannot go on sinning. Believers, who are incorporated into Christ, must consider themselves dead to sin and thus ready and enabled to live for the glory of God (6:11). This is possible as the result of their union with Christ and their participation in the liberation from the power of sin that he provides. They are no longer controlled by sin, which always results in death. Now God is their master. The implications of this new reality are spelled out in 6:11–12. Believers must not allow sin and desire to take over again. Sin can be tempting; both temptations and acts of sin are not ideas but realities that continue to be possibilities for believers. Since Christ triumphed over sin and death, believers in Christ must not allow themselves to come under the enslaving power of sin again, as their union with Christ’s resurrection enables them to resist sinful desires.

Statue of Paul in the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls in Rome.

Since sins are committed by the members of the human body, Paul challenges the believers not to allow their bodies to promote wickedness (6:12–13). Paul promises that sin will no longer rule over believers (6:14). Sin must no longer be their lord, because they belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers in Jesus Christ are “not under the law.” Rather, they are “under grace”—their life in the present and their life in the future are determined by the grace of God, who has forgiven their sins through Jesus Christ.

6:15–23. Paul restates the question of verse 1, suggesting that some might argue that living under grace gives permission to sin (6:15). He forcefully rejects such a conclusion and explains its fallacy, emphasizing that there are only two options: obedience to sin or obedience to righteousness. Believers should know that they are slaves of the master whom they obey, which is either sin or God (6:16). If people obey sin, the result is death, eternal separation from God (Gn 2:17; 3:24). If people obey God, the result is righteousness, the grace of God’s gift through Jesus Christ, and life in the presence of God. Paul’s thanksgiving (6:17) clarifies that believers do not occupy neutral ground in the battle between sin and righteousness. They were once enslaved to sin (1:18–3:20). Since they were united with Jesus Christ, they have become obedient to God. It was God who liberated them from the power of sin and its death sentence and subjected them to the power of righteousness (6:18).

When Paul uses the language of slavery with regard to God and righteousness, he speaks in human terms (6:19). In their past, believers were slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness. In their present new life they are slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. People are either subject to the tyranny of sin and lacking in righteousness (6:20), which eventually results in death (6:21), or they are subject to the lordship of God and liberated from the power of sin, with the result of a holy life and the confidence that they will have eternal life (6:22–23). Being slaves to sin has no advantage, while obedience to God and his righteousness yields the fruit of sanctification.

7:1–3. Paul explains in 7:1–8:17 the change in ownership of human beings, who are enslaved either by sin or by Jesus Christ. After a succinct introduction (7:1–6) he explains that, before their conversion, believers were ruled by sin and death (7:7–25). As the result of their being united with Christ, they are ruled by the Spirit of life, who helps them to live according to the will of God (8:1–17). [Law and Grace in Paul’s Letters]

Paul begins with a reference to the legal principle of Jewish law: the law is binding on a person only during the lifetime of that person; once the person has died, he or she is free from the stipulations of the law (7:1). Paul illustrates this principle with the law of marriage. The law binds a married woman to her husband (according to Jewish law, women cannot divorce their husbands). In the case that her husband dies before she does, she is no longer bound to her husband (7:2). On the one hand, this means that if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she will be identified and punished as an adulteress (7:3). On the other hand, if her husband dies, she is free from the law concerning her husband and thus free to marry another man.

7:4. Paul concludes from the legal example that the law has authority over a person only as long as the person lives and that believers, who are united with Jesus’s death, are freed from the power of the law. Believers in Christ no longer belong to the law, and thus they are free to belong to someone else—God. As a result of their incorporation into Christ, believers experience the power of resurrection in their lives, allowing them to bear fruit for God.

That Paul envisions some ongoing relevance for the law seems likely in light of 8:1–4 and 13:8–14. Part of Paul’s intended contrast is between the new life lived in the power of the Spirit and the old life lived under the law but without the redemptive and renewing work of Jesus.

7:5–6. Paul’s assertion that the sinful passions were “aroused through the law” (7:5) would be provocative for Jews, who believed that the role of the law was to curb sin, not to stimulate sin. Paul will explain in verses 7–11 what he means. When the fundamental self-centeredness of human beings encounters the law, which formulates God’s will and which demands unconditional love for God and neighbor, the sinful ego reacts and asserts itself; and thus sinful passions are stimulated and sinful actions ensue.

The phrase “but now” marks the change of ownership that has taken place (7:6). Paul is quick to clarify that the problem was not with the law, which was a good gift. Rather, the problem was with human flesh, susceptible to sin and death. The new reality is conditioned by the revelation of God’s righteousness through Jesus Christ, by the presence of the Holy Spirit, and by the fulfillment of the promises that in the new covenant God’s Spirit will give to God’s people the desire and the ability to keep the statutes of the law (Jr 31:31–34; Ezk 36:26–27). Paul explains verses 5–6 in the next two sections: the old life in the flesh (7:5) is explained in 7:7–25, and the new life in the Spirit (7:6) is explained in 8:1–17.

7:7. Paul next describes the rule of sin. The assertion in verse 5 (and the statements in 3:19–21; 5:20) may suggest to some readers that the law itself is sin. Paul energetically rejects such a conclusion. He explains his “Absolutely not!” in verses 7–12: the law belongs on God’s side and is thus opposed to sin. The problem is sin, not the law. Paul recounts the history of the encounter between the “I” and sin. The identity of the “I” (Gk egō) is widely disputed. It is best understood as not being autobiographical (Paul recounting his own experience). Rather, Paul describes in this passage the encounter between human beings and the reality of sin, with the narrative of Adam’s fall (Gn 3) in the background.

The history of the “I” begins with the knowledge of sin, which is possible only in the context of the law. Paul explains verse 5: the sinful passions became effective when “I” became acquainted with the desire for what was forbidden. The commandment “Do not covet” (Ex 20:17) is not only the tenth commandment; it also points to God’s prohibition of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden (with the punishment of death in the case of noncompliance; Gn 2:17; 3:3, 11). And it points to the biblical truth that uncontrolled desire is the manifestation of human self-centeredness and self-worship, and thus idolatry. As desire is operative in sin, the law is operative in the commandment not to covet. As “I” encountered the law in the commandment not to covet, and as “I” did not obey this commandment, “I” made the acquaintance of sin.

7:8–10. Paul describes in 7:8–11 how sin came from outside to the “I.” Appearing as a personified entity, sin used the commandment as an opportunity to produce the desire for what is forbidden, which then became a base of operations for sin (7:8). The statement “Apart from the law sin is dead” explains the function of the law. When there is no law or commandments, sin is inactive and powerless. God’s enemy was able to attack Adam and Eve in Eden only because there was the commandment of Gn 2:17. The potent power of sin is death, an effect that takes place only when there is a law that represents the will of God and that thus defines what constitutes rebellion against God, the consequence of which is death. The time when “I” was alive in absence of the law (7:9) is the time in paradise before the fall, when everything was “very good” (Gn 1:28–31; 2:7–15), the time before the arrival of the commandment of Gn 2:16–17.

The great reversal in the history of the “I” happened “when the commandment came,” which was used by sin to spring to life (7:9). The result of the encounter with the law, which was (mis)used by the sin of covetous self-absorption, was the death of the “I” (7:10). Human beings lost the life they had before this encounter. This result of the encounter is ironic, because the commandment that had been given to promote and protect life (Gn 2:17; cf. Lv 18:5; Dt 30:15–20) in fact resulted in the death of the “I.”

7:11–12. The cause of the death of the “I” was not the commandment but sin, which used the commandment for its own purposes (7:11). Sin’s mode of operation is described with the word “deceive,” which takes up Gn 3:13, where Eve laments that the serpent has tricked her. When we interpret Gn 3 not only as the story of the fall of Adam and Eve but also as the fundamental narrative of human existence, we see that sin deceives in three ways. (1) Sin distorts the divine commandment by emphasizing seemingly negative aspects of God’s will. (2) Sin lets humans believe that disobedience against God’s commandment will not be punished with death. (3) Sin uses God’s own law to cast doubt on the goodness of God and thus on the very identity of God, seeking to provide a reason for preferring self-determination over subjection to God. Genesis 3 demonstrates that the strategy of sin worked: Adam and Eve were deceived, as they believed the serpent; rather than improving their situation through their self-asserting action, they were driven from Eden.

Paul highlights the deception of sin with the statement that “I” was killed as a result of my doing what sin suggested “I” do—to desire what God has forbidden and to actively disobey God (7:11). Paul formulates his preliminary conclusion as an answer to the objection of verse 7—the law is holy since it is the law of God, who is holy (7:12). To eliminate any doubt about what he means, Paul clarifies that he does not speak in generalities: the commandment, the voice of the law in its specific stipulations, is also holy. Paul pushes further: the commandment is not holy in some general sense; it is righteous because it formulates God’s demands, which lead his people to righteousness, keep them from harmful and fatal desires, and thus protect them from sin. And it is good because it represents God’s goodwill, which preserves and promotes life.

7:13. Paul clarifies the role of the law (which is good) and the character of sin (which deceives). He repeats the objection of verse 7: if the law is good, and if the law pronounces the death sentence, then the law is responsible for my death. Paul’s protest clarifies again that it is not the law but the operation of sin that is responsible for my death. Paul shows that the divine purpose regarding the function of the law (after the encounter between the “I” and sin) is twofold. (1) The law reveals sin as sin. It proves that sin misuses God’s good gift of the law. It uncovers sin’s deception of human beings. It shows that following the desires suggested by sin leads to death, not to the fulfillment of the promises made by sin. (2) The law increases sin “beyond measure.” As the law unmasks sin with regard to the consequences of sinning, the true character of sin is demonstrated—it always leads to death.

7:14–16. In 7:14–23 Paul describes the historical reality of the “I,” which now belongs to sin and which is controlled by the death sentence of the law. Paul begins by describing the “I” as the place of conflict between sin and the law, between “what I want” and “what I do.” The origin of the law is God’s Spirit (7:14). However, God’s holy law with its just and good commandments does not have the intended effect in human beings. Since “I” belong to the sphere of the flesh, which opposes God, “I” am a slave living under the control of sin. The conflict between the law, which has been usurped by sin, and the “I” is a conflict inside human beings—between what “I” want and what “I” do. “I” understand what “I” want, but “I” do not understand that “I” do what “I” hate (7:15). “I” want to do the good that God reveals (and the law demands) and refrain from evil. Human beings, created by God, who is good and holy, feel aversion when they do the evil and impure things that the law prohibits. Their guilty conscience confirms that the law is good (7:16).

7:17–20. Paul demonstrates that in the conflict between the “I” and sin, it is sin that dominates. “I” discover “sin living in me,” as in a house (7:17). “I” am forced to acknowledge that “nothing good lives in me” (7:18). Human existence in the “flesh” or “sinful nature”—the life in opposition to God and his will—is not good, as humans were before the fall. “I” realize that “I” have only myself to blame: “I” know what is right, but “I” cannot do it. Despite recognizing what is good and wanting to do it, we practice the evil in which we do not want to be involved (7:19). This historical reality demonstrates that my actions are influenced by sin, the occupying force controlling the “I” (7:20).

7:21–23. The final description of the human predicament reveals a contrast within the law itself. As the law has been usurped by sin, manipulated in pronouncing the death sentence rather than promoting life, “I” find this law active in my experience, unable to do good, but very much capable of doing evil (7:21). Having been created in God’s image, “I” delight in God’s law “in my inner self,” which has not yet moved into action (7:22). However, “I” find “in the parts of my body” that, rather than being obedient to the law, “I” am obedient to sin. The law of God has been manipulated by sin—when the law encounters sin, it pronounces the death sentence. Thus the law of God has become “a different law,” a law misused by sin that leads to death rather than to life (7:23).

7:24–25. The desperate cry “What a wretched man I am!” (7:24) expresses the hopelessness of the fleshly condition. “I” am controlled by sin and realize that my body is owned by death. As a sinner “I” will suffer the death penalty stipulated by the law. The despondent question in 7:24 acknowledges that human beings cannot save themselves. In 7:25a Paul gives the answer to the question—God himself has solved the problem of the sinful human condition through Jesus Christ for all people who acknowledge Jesus as Savior and Lord. Romans 7:25b is a concluding summary of verses 14–24. Created in God’s image, “I” want to serve God and obey his law. But the fleshly “I” is under the law, which has been usurped by sin and which is therefore encountered as law that pronounces the death sentence.

8:1–2. Paul now turns to a description of the life of Christian believers who are ruled by the Spirit of life, who helps them live according to the will of God. In 8:1–4 Paul explains his exclamation of thanksgiving in 7:25, elaborating what he has said in 7:6. Believers, who have been incorporated into Christ and who have thus been freed from the control of the law, which leads to death, are enabled to fulfill the law through the power of the Spirit. Believers, who are “in Christ Jesus,” are not under condemnation (8:1) because they have died with Christ (6:1–11), who atoned for their sins through his death (3:21–31).

In 8:2–4 Paul describes the liberation from the miserable situation of 7:7–24. The death sentence produced by sin through the law was canceled because God’s Spirit freed believers from “the law of sin and death” (8:2)—that is, from the law under the power of sin, which leads to death (7:13–23). The liberation God granted through his Spirit on account of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ brought about a change in the law. The condemning law has become the law of the new covenant, whose effect is determined by God’s Spirit, and it thus promotes and protects life.

8:3–4. God did what the law could not accomplish. When the law encountered fleshly beings, who lived in opposition to God, it was unable to help them, as it had to pronounce the death sentence (8:3). God saved them from their hopeless predicament when he sent Jesus, whose mission it was to die as a sin offering for the atonement of sins. The death of Christ, who died for sinners, marks God’s condemnation of sin and its power over human existence. The result of Jesus’s death and resurrection is the fulfillment of the law by believers, who are “in Christ Jesus” and who are thus dominated no longer by the power of humankind’s opposition to God but by the power of God’s Spirit (8:4). The passive verb (“be fulfilled”) indicates that the obedience of the believers is the work of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. 13:8–14).

8:5–8. Paul describes two modes of existence. There are people who are dominated by opposition to God (the flesh), and there are people who are dominated by the presence of God in their lives (the Spirit). People’s relation to Christ indicates to which group they belong (8:5). There is a stark contrast between the destinies of the two groups. People who live in opposition to God march toward eternal death. People who live in the power of the Holy Spirit have eternal life and peace with God, as the condemnation of God’s judgment has been removed (8:6). People whose values are controlled by the flesh are hostile to God—they do not submit to the will of God revealed in the law, they cannot keep the law, and thus they cannot please God (8:7–8).

8:9–11. The application in 8:9–11 emphasizes the following four truths. (1) Believers are not in the flesh, as their values and lifestyles are no longer determined by the sinful world, which opposes God (8:9). (2) Believers are “in the Spirit” and influenced by the Spirit of God, who lives in them and empowers them to overcome sin (7:17). The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ—the Spirit of the new covenant, which has been inaugurated by the liberating work of Jesus Christ. (3) The presence of the Spirit has transferred believers from being owned by sin to being owned by Jesus Christ. (4) The presence of the Spirit, due to the presence of Christ in believers’ lives, guarantees that they will not be burdened forever with their corruptible bodies (8:10–11). The Spirit is a life-giving Spirit, who will grant them eternal resurrection life on account of both God’s saving righteousness and the resurrection of Christ through the power of God.

8:12–13. Paul challenges believers to grasp their new existence “in the Spirit” as ethical obligation. They have been liberated from the slavery of the values and actions of a life lived in opposition to God (8:12), an existence resulting in death (8:13a). Since they have been transferred to the gracious dominion of Jesus Christ, who has given them the Spirit of God, who is holy, they will and can and must resist the sinful impulses of the body and as a result obtain eternal life (8:13b). The battle against temptation and sin is the responsibility of the believer, while the power for the victorious outcome is from the Holy Spirit.

8:14. Paul explains in 8:14–17 that God’s Spirit bears witness to the believers that they truly belong to God’s people. People who inherit eternal life belong to God’s family; they are “God’s sons,” led by God’s Spirit. People who have come to faith in Jesus Christ and who have received God’s Spirit have been adopted into God’s family, both Jews and Gentiles. The community of Christian believers functions as God’s adopted sons and daughters when they are united with Jesus Christ the Son of God. [Adoption]

8:15–17. The exclamation “Abba, Father!” (8:15) expresses the dynamic intimacy and closeness of the believer’s relationship with God. The Aramaic word means “father” and was used by Jesus when he addressed God his Father (Mk 14:36). Believers have the assured confidence that God is their loving Father (rather than their judge who condemns), because the Spirit bears witness together with their own spirit that they are God’s children (8:16). Just as children are heirs of their father, Christians are “heirs of God” since they are “coheirs with Christ” (8:17). The reality of the union between believers and Jesus Christ makes them “heirs of God”—they will inherit everything that God has promised, the supreme benefit being life in the very presence of God. The assertion at the end of 8:17 is surprising only at first sight: the condition of receiving God’s inheritance in the glory of God’s new world is faithfulness and perseverance in suffering. Christians are not there yet; they still live in a world where the flesh exerts influence through temptation to sin.

8:18. In the concluding section (8:18–39) of his description in chapters 6–8 of God’s saving righteousness through Jesus Christ in the lives of the believers, Paul reflects first on believers’ suffering in the present (8:18–30) and then on the triumph of God’s grace in the future (8:31–39). Their present suffering is nothing in comparison with the future glory that awaits them (8:18). The life of a Christian is often accompanied by suffering—the distress of everyday living, the pain of illnesses, and the afflictions of discrimination and persecution. But these sufferings seem insignificant, and thus bearable, when we see them in the light of the glory of God’s new world, which he will usher in before long.

8:19–22. Paul explains that the sufferings of believers should be understood in the context of a fallen creation in which distress, pain, and death are part and parcel of human existence (Gn 3:14–19). Since Adam’s fall, creation is no longer “very good” and waits for restoration and perfection. The promised consummation of God’s salvation is not a restoration of paradise, however, but the glorification of the children of God in a new heaven and a new earth (8:19). Creation changed as it was impacted by the futility of human existence, which became the dominating reality on account of Adam’s sin. The present state of creation is distressful, but there is hope because God promised the restoration of a perfect world (8:20). One day, when believers in Jesus Christ will be glorified as God’s children in the consummation, creation will be liberated from being subject to the control of decay and corruption (8:21). At the moment, creation is suffering pain, waiting for the birth of God’s new world (8:22).

8:23. As human beings are part of creation, they participate in the distress and the pains of creation. This is true for Christian believers as well, precisely because they have the Spirit of God, who has given them insight into the causes of the distress of creation and into the deadly consequences of sin, which affects creation. The presence of the Spirit is the “firstfruits” of the consummation, God’s pledge that believers will indeed share the glory of Jesus Christ the Son of God, with the redeemed bodies of God’s new and perfect world (1 Co 15:35–57). The anguished cry of Rm 7:24, in which the groaning of 8:23 finds expression, is answered here with reference to the glory of the future consummation.

8:24–27. Paul elaborates on the situation of the believer. The salvation of believers is a reality because of the effect of the atoning death of Christ. But the physical completion of their salvation has yet to come. Believers are saved in hope (8:24). This hope stands in contrast to seeing, as it is directed toward the invisible reality of God’s perfect world. This means that, as believers live in hope, they wait patiently for the consummation (8:25). Believers are not alone, even though they live in a world darkened by sin, waiting for God’s future to arrive. They have God’s Spirit, who helps them in their weakness (8:26) and intercedes on their behalf (8:27).

8:28–30. Paul concludes by emphasizing that God is working all things that may happen to believers, including the sufferings of the present time, for their “good” (their salvation). This is a fact because those who love God have been called according to God’s purpose (8:28). While the relationship of foreknowledge and predestination (8:29) is debated among Christian interpreters, the goal of God’s saving activity is clear. It is the glorification of the believers—they will share the glorious form of Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God, and live as members of God’s family (8:30). As they respond to God’s call with faith, sinners receive the unmerited gift of God’s righteousness, and they will be glorified by God in the glorious future of his new world. This does not mean, however, that since their ultimate salvation is guaranteed believers in Jesus can live in any way they please; this is why Paul exhorts believers to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Php 2:12).

8:31–34. Paul now speaks of the future triumph of believers. The implied answer to his opening rhetorical questions (8:31) is a basic summary of the good news, which Paul has been describing since 3:21. The central assertion of the gospel is the certainty that God is “for us”—a reality that became effective for the salvation of sinners in the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ (8:32). The consequence of the fact that God gave his Son for sinners is the guarantee that he will give “everything” to those who have identified with Jesus Christ.

In 8:33–34 Paul explains the conviction that nothing can stand against us. He describes the future trial in God’s court of law, in which a potential enemy might bring charges against believers. God and Christ appear as the believers’ advocates, whose actions render the accusations null and void. Because God is the judge who pronounces believers in Jesus Christ to be righteous, having canceled their guilt and the death sentence of the law, there is nothing left that could effectively accuse God’s children.

8:35–37. In 8:35–39 Paul explains further why believers cannot be condemned on the day of judgment. He asks whether there is anyone or anything that might separate believers from the love that Jesus Christ has for his people, who share in his death and resurrection and whom he protects through intercession before the throne of God (8:35). Trials and experiences of suffering—such as hardship, distress, persecution, famine, lack of clothing, peril, or mortal danger in war—are prophesied for the tribulation of the last days (Mk 13:8; Rv 6:8). The quotation from Ps 44:22 confirms that the people of God will indeed experience suffering, which always characterizes the lives of the righteous (8:36). But suffering and distress, particularly as a result of believers’ faith in Jesus Christ, cannot separate them from Christ. On the contrary, suffering in union with Christ leads to glorification with Christ, to a triumphant victory, which means infinitely more than merely the end of suffering (8:37).

8:38–39. In the last two verses of the central section (chaps. 6–8) of his letter, Paul celebrates the believers’ triumph over death and the spiritual powers of darkness as a result of the love of God in Jesus Christ. The power of God’s love guarantees victory over not only suffering and tribulation but also all forces that oppose God in this world. There is no power that can separate the believer, who is loved by God and protected by Christ, from God’s final and glorious salvation—not even death, the last enemy of believers (1 Co 15:26), or hostile forces that seek to control the earth and the heavenly world. Since the hostile powers are part of God’s creation (8:39), they are subject to the power of God, who has triumphed over death through Christ’s death and resurrection.

Because believers are “in Christ Jesus,” whom they acknowledge as Lord, they participate in God’s triumph over the powers of evil and over sin and death. This is the reason why believers are assured of their glorification in the consummation of God’s new world (8:30). Christian believers are justified sinners who join the praise of God’s grace in the midst of the suffering and the distress of a sinful world.

C. The reality of justification by faith in salvation history (9:1–11:36). In the third main section of his letter, Paul turns his focus to Israel’s history and the present status of his compatriots in light of the revelation of Jesus Christ. As many of Paul’s fellow Jews have rejected the gospel, Paul asks, has God then rejected Israel (cf. 11:1)? After he emphasizes his intense concern for the salvation of the Jews (9:1–5), Paul first proves false the suggestion that the Jews’ unbelief shows that God has failed to keep his promises to Israel (9:6–29). Second, Paul argues that the responsibility for Israel’s unbelief lies with unbelieving Jews themselves, who have not subjected themselves to Jesus as Messiah (9:30–10:21). Paul then rejects the conclusion that God has totally rejected Israel. There are indeed Jews who are believers, and Jews will continue to find salvation through faith in Jesus Christ in the future (11:1–32).

9:1–5. The present unbelief of many of his Jewish compatriots pains the apostle to the utmost, a fact that Paul underscores with the solemn affirmation that he speaks the truth (9:1). Jewish unbelief grieves Paul greatly (9:2). The cause for his grief is apparent from Paul’s argument in the larger context. His intense concern for the salvation of the Jews is expressed in dramatic fashion: if it could lead to the salvation of his people, Paul would wish to be cursed and thus cut off from Jesus Christ (9:3; cf. 10:1). Paul’s wish is similar to Moses’s plea after the Israelites reject the Lord and worship the golden calf (Ex 32:32). He knows that such a wish cannot be fulfilled (cf. Rm 8:35–39). The theological significance of the Jews’ refusal to believe in Jesus Christ becomes obvious in 9:4–5. Since Israel was God’s chosen people, who had privileges that the Gentiles did not possess, Israel’s unbelief raises the question of God’s covenant faithfulness (9:6). Paul ends the enumeration of Israel’s privileges with a doxology directed at Jesus the Messiah (9:5). [The Privileges of Israel]

To show that God has been faithful to his promises all along, Paul retells the story of Israel in Rm 9–11. He tells about the patriarchs, the exodus, the prophets, and the exile to show how God has brought salvation to the world through the Messiah.

9:6–13. Paul argues first that those who are heirs to the promise constitute the true membership in Israel. The word of God has not been rendered invalid. The point is that “not all who are descended from Israel are Israel” (9:6), and not all Abraham’s descendants are “Abraham’s children” (9:7a). In 9:7b–9 Paul proves this to be the case first with reference to Isaac. From the two sons of Abraham (born of two different mothers), God chose Isaac, not Ishmael, as the person for whom his promise of offspring would be fulfilled (Gn 21:12). This means for the purpose of God’s election that biological descendants of Abraham are not automatically children of God. Rather, it is God’s promise that causes some of Abraham’s natural descendants to be God’s children (9:8). This is confirmed by Gn 18:10, 14—Isaac was the promised son, not Ishmael (9:9).

Paul’s second proof, in 9:10–13, is the example of Jacob. From the two sons of Isaac (born of the same mother as twins), God chose Jacob, not Esau. Not all the sons of Isaac were sons of God’s promise. The fact that God chose Jacob over Esau, the second-born over the firstborn—even before they were born—illustrates the purpose of God’s election. Being loved by God is dependent not on works but on the call of God (9:11–12). The word of promise by which God made his choice is Gn 25:23, confirmed by Mal 1:2–3 (quoted in 9:12–13).

9:14–21. Second, Paul argues that it is God’s free mercy that makes people members of the true people of God. Paul repudiates the conclusion that God is unjust/unrighteous. This objection (9:14) follows naturally from what Paul has argued: if God elects people to be his children without regard for birth and works—without regard for affiliation with Israel—does this not call into question God’s covenant faithfulness? Is God not unjust? Paul dismisses this objection. God is the sovereign Creator of the world. Paul’s argument again proceeds in two stages. First, the freedom of God’s mercy revealed to Moses (Ex 33:19) demonstrates that affiliation with God’s election is the result of God’s mercy, not the result of human desire or effort (9:15–16). Second, the freedom of God’s power and judgment visited on Pharaoh (Ex 9:16) demonstrates that history is the work of God’s sovereign omnipotence (9:17–18). God grants mercy to some, while he decides to harden the hearts of others, though in the example of Pharaoh, Pharaoh hardened his own heart as well.

The objection of 9:19 challenges whether anyone can resist God’s will (or “desire”). Paul counters with a fundamental theological truth: human beings are not competent to question God (9:20). Paul confirms this truth with the parable of the Creator and the creature (Is 29:16; 45:9). God is the almighty Creator; human beings are his creatures. It is absurd when creatures accuse their Creator. In 9:21 Paul confirms the same truth with the parable of the potter and the clay (cf. Jr 18:6). The potter has full control over the clay; the vessels he fashions cannot complain.

9:22–29. The application of this truth is compelling. As God has acted in the past without regard to ancestry or works of the law, so he has shown mercy to believers in Jesus Christ in the present, and in particular to Gentiles. In Jewish literature Esau and Ishmael are often viewed as outsiders/Gentiles, cut off from God’s covenant, but God has shown mercy to Gentiles through Christ, not just to those who bear the marks of Abraham’s lineage. God’s actions with regard to the “objects of wrath” are linked with the unbelieving Jews: God has endured them with much patience, but they have been made for destruction (9:22). In 1:18–3:20 Paul demonstrates that God’s wrath against the unbelieving Jewish people (as against pagans) is not arbitrary but the consequence of their own actions of disobedience.

Paul uses the image of a potter and clay to describe God’s authority over what he has made (Rm 9:21).

© MarinaGrigorivna.

God’s actions with regard to the “objects of mercy” are linked with believers: God bestowed mercy on them for the glory of eternal life in the future, with the goal that the riches of God’s glory are being proclaimed in the present (9:23). In 9:24 Paul identifies the “objects of [God’s] mercy” with “us”—that is, with believers in Jesus Christ, whether Jews or Gentiles. The final application of this truth in 9:25–29 confirms the reality of divine election with the authority of Scripture—Hs 2:23 and Hs 2:21 announced God’s calling of the Gentile believers (9:25–26); Is 10:22–23 and Is 1:10 announced Israel’s restriction to a remnant that will be saved (9:27–29).

9:30–33. Paul next addresses the situation of unbelieving Israel. Many of the Jewish people insist on attaining righteousness through the law, rejecting Jesus Christ, while many Gentiles have believed in Jesus and thus have been declared righteous (9:30–33). Unbelieving Israel’s zeal is misguided, as they have failed to subject themselves to God’s righteousness established through Jesus Christ, who fulfills the ultimate purpose of the law (10:1–13). Israel has no excuse for unbelief, as God has sent messengers to proclaim the good news of Jesus, a message that should have caused the Jewish people to come to faith (10:14–21).

Paul first comments on the Gentiles. They did not participate in the pursuit of righteousness through the law, because they did not have the law. And yet they have attained righteousness—through faith in Jesus Christ (9:30). The situation of the believing Gentiles is contrasted with the situation of the unbelieving Jews. The members of God’s people according to the flesh (Israel) who pursued righteousness through the law did not attain the law (9:31). The reason for this failure is that they did not follow the law to its intended goal, namely, Jesus Christ (cf. 10:4). Israel pursued the works of the law and stumbled over God’s Messiah (9:32). They thus stumbled over “the stumbling stone” promised by God (9:33; quotation of Is 8:14; 28:16) and rejected the stone that God placed in Zion. The reason for Israel’s exclusion from salvation is therefore unbelief in Jesus Christ, in whom all people are to trust, both Jews (Israelites) and Gentiles.

10:1–4. Paul asserts again that he desires and prays for the salvation of his fellow Jews (10:1; cf. 9:1–3). They are zealous for God (10:2), passionately determined to do God’s will and defend God’s honor (cf. Elijah in 1 Kg 19:10, 14). But their zeal is “not according to knowledge” since they do not recognize that God revealed his righteousness in Jesus the Messiah (10:3). They continue to pursue the law, and their own righteousness through the law, but they have failed to understand its ultimate purpose. Since God grants righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, the law, which is ineffective for redemption because of human flesh (cf. 7:1–8:8), is insufficient. Since Christ is the “end,” or “goal” (Gk telos; see the CSB footnote), of the law (10:4), to pursue obedience to the law apart from Christ is to miss its fundamental purpose. Righteousness is granted to “everyone who believes,” whether they are Jew or Gentile (cf. 9:14–24).

Paul testifies that his fellow Jews have “zeal for God” (Rm 10:2). Paul was himself, before his conversion, extremely zealous (Gl 1:14); he had a zeal for God’s honor that manifested itself in his persecution of the followers of Jesus (Php 3:6). Now that he is himself a follower of Jesus, Paul has refocused his zeal to spread the gospel, first to Jews, and then to Gentiles.

10:5–13. Paul confirms this truth through scriptural quotations. Moses said that Israelites who do the things required by the law will live (10:5; cf. Lv 18:5). Now, however, the Messiah has come, and he is present in the gospel that is being preached, as promised by the Scriptures (Dt 30:11–14; cf. Dt 9:4; Ps 107:26). The episode Paul references in Dt 30 is the promise of restoration to Israel after exile, an exile brought on by their idolatry. Their returning to God through the circumcision of their hearts would result in their receipt of life. This “message” in Dt 30 is not in heaven or beyond the sea but rather in their hearts (10:6–8). The word of God that brings God’s saving righteousness is the confession of allegiance to Jesus Christ as Lord.

In 10:9–10 Paul explains this confession as twofold. The confession by mouth is the affirmation that the crucified, risen, and exalted Jesus is Lord. The confession by heart is the affirmation that God raised Jesus from the dead and thus vindicated him as the place of God’s atonement for the sins of Jews and Gentiles (3:25). The reference to the heart connects back to the promise of restoration in Dt 30. Paul then describes the new epoch of salvation through faith in Christ. Scripture confirms (Is 28:16; cf. Rm 9:33) that it is those in Christ who appear as righteous people before God (10:11). This principle has universal validity. The new order of salvation in which faith in Jesus the Messiah leads to righteousness applies both to Jews and to Greeks (Gentiles), since Jesus Christ is the Lord of all people who believe in him (10:12), a truth confirmed by Jl 2:32 (10:13).

10:14–17. Paul proceeds to survey possible explanations for Israel’s widespread unbelief in Jesus as Lord. First he surveys the process of the proclamation of the gospel. The Christian confession presupposes faith in Jesus Christ; faith in Jesus Christ presupposes hearing the message about Jesus Christ; hearing about Jesus Christ presupposes preaching; preaching presupposes preachers who have been sent by God, which according to Is 52:7 and Nah 2:1 is a necessity (10:14–15). Ultimately Paul argues that the Jewish people who have rejected Jesus have no excuses (10:18). They have not believed the gospel, despite the fact that God’s message has been proclaimed to the Israelites (10:16). This disbelief was prophesied by Isaiah, who lamented the fact that Israel had not believed the message of the suffering and the exaltation of the servant of the Lord (Is 53:1). Paul’s summary in 10:17 asserts that saving faith comes from the apostolic message, a message specifically about the Messiah and his death and resurrection. [Evangelism]

10:18–21. Paul then asks questions that may exonerate Israel. Perhaps Israel has never had a chance to hear the word of God (10:18). Paul dismisses this explanation. Israel has indeed heard, because the words of God’s messengers have been heard in the entire world (Ps 19:5). Another explanation may be that Israel did not comprehend the message they heard (10:19a). Paul dismisses this explanation as well. The Jews have not only heard the message about the messianic Savior but have also indeed understood the message. Paul confirms this with two witnesses, Moses (10:19b; quotation of Dt 32:21) and Isaiah (10:20–21; quotation of Is 65:1–2).

The problem of Jewish unbelief is that they are disobedient and resistant to God’s Messiah (10:21). Israel’s rebellion against the Lord was answered by God with a provocation to jealousy—he called a new people from among the Gentiles who have understood God’s revelation (10:19). As in the prophecy of Isaiah, God is found by the Gentiles who did not ask for him (10:20). As in the days of Isaiah, God has extended an invitation to Israel that was rejected (10:21). It is unbelieving Israel’s fault alone, not God’s, that the Gentiles have attained God’s saving righteousness in God’s Messiah while Israel has failed to do so. The knowledge that unbelieving Israel lacks (10:3) is due to their unwillingness to accept the apostolic message as God’s word of salvation.

11:1–6. Paul points out that it would be wrong to conclude that God has rejected Israel and that Jews cannot find salvation. There is a remnant of Jews who have come to faith (11:1–10). More important, Israel’s unbelief has caused the gospel to be proclaimed among the Gentiles, whose experience of God’s saving grace is meant to make Israel jealous (11:11–24), prompting Jews to repent and to find salvation as well, in fulfillment of God’s promises (11:25–32).

In view of Paul’s argument in chapters 9–10, the conclusion that God has rejected Israel (11:1a) might seem plausible, but Paul rejects such a conclusion. First, there are descendants of Abraham who have heard, understood, and accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul mentions himself as a case in point (11:1b). The fact that he has received God’s saving righteousness proves that God has not rejected his people (11:2a; cf. Ps 94:14; 1 Sm 12:22). Second, God has maintained a remnant of believing Israelites whom he reserved for himself in accordance with his unmerited love for his covenant people. Paul mentions Elijah and the seven thousand faithful Israelites who did not abandon the Lord as a case in point (11:2b–4; 1 Kg 19:10, 14). The conclusion is formulated in 11:5–6. God in his grace has chosen a remnant. It was always only a remnant of Israelites who remained faithful to God, and the salvation of this remnant is due to God’s grace.

11:7–10. The consequences for Israel are spelled out. The nation as a whole has not attained the salvation that the Jewish people have been seeking. God’s chosen remnant has found salvation, while God has hardened the rest (11:7). The truth that God hardened the majority of Jews is explained as conforming to the pattern of God’s dealings with Israel in the past. Paul cites from all three parts of the Hebrew canon: from the Torah in 11:8b (Dt 29:4), from the Prophets in 11:8a (Is 29:10, the phrase “a spirit of stupor”), and from the Writings in 11:9–10 (Ps 69:22–23). Moses asserts that the people of Israel did not see and hear the word of God; they did not keep the law and thus faced God’s judgment of exile. There is, implicitly, hope for future redemption. Moses speaks of a time when God will bring Israel back from exile, a time when he will circumcise their heart so that they will love the Lord their God with all their heart and soul (Dt 30:6). As in the time of Isaiah (cf. Is 29), the people’s rebellion was met with God’s hardening judgment before a time of restoration would come. Paul refers to David in 11:9–10 to make the point that, as David once pronounced a curse on his enemies, so now Jesus the Son of David, the crucified and risen Messiah, a stumbling block for Jews (cf. 1 Co 1:23), brings judgment on unbelieving Israel.

In Rm 11:9–10, Paul applies Ps 69 to the Jewish rejection of God’s Messiah. The “table” as “a snare and a trap” (Rm 11:9) may refer to the table fellowship of pious Jews, which excludes the Gentiles (and Jewish sinners). What these Jews have failed to understand is that, through Jesus Christ, God has created a new people, consisting of believing Jews and believing Gentiles, with a new table at which Jesus’s death and resurrection are remembered (1 Co 10:21).

11:11. Paul asks whether Israel’s failure to believe in the gospel of Jesus the Messiah means that Jews have fallen away permanently from fellowship with God (11:11a, reformulating 11:1). Beginning in 11:11b he explains why he rejects the conclusion that Israel’s failure is permanent. Two arguments are important. First, Israel’s disobedience has resulted in the salvation of the Gentiles. In Paul’s ministry, the rejection of the gospel by local Jews often resulted in his turning to Gentiles, among whom a greater number of people believed (cf. Ac 13:45–48; 18:6; 28:24–28). Second, the salvation of the Gentiles is meant to provoke Israel to jealousy.

11:12–14. Paul then explains these two arguments. First, if Israel’s fall leads to the salvation of the Gentiles, the salvation of Israel cannot be excluded as a possibility (11:12). God has not given up on the Jewish people—they will be saved when they come to faith in Jesus as Israel’s Messiah and Savior. Second, Paul’s ministry also aims at the salvation of Israel (cf. 1:16). The salvation of the Gentiles is meant to provoke a yearning for salvation among the Jewish people so that some of them might be saved (11:13–14). Paul hopes that unbelieving Jews will become jealous when they see what happens when believing Jews (the remnant) and Gentiles come to faith in Jesus Christ, forming communities in which the new covenant people of God live together, with their lives transformed by the Holy Spirit. The unbelieving Jews would then realize that the followers of Jesus Christ have obtained the covenantal promises of God and thus be provoked to acknowledge the truth of God’s saving righteousness through Jesus Christ.

11:15–16. The ground for this hope is expressed in 11:15. If Israel’s rejection of the gospel contributed to the reconciliation of the “world” (here, the Gentiles) with God, then the acceptance of the gospel by an increasing number of Jews will lead to an even more astounding benefit—the climactic event of the resurrection of the dead, which is expected at the juncture of this age and God’s new world.

Paul applies these truths to the assembly of Gentile believers and Jewish believers. The example of the dough of the firstfruit offering, which renders the whole lump holy (11:16a; cf. Nm 15:17–21), demonstrates that Israel as a whole is consecrated to God on account of the election of the patriarchs and the promises given to them. The same point is made with the example of the roots and the branches (11:16b; cf. Jr 11:16). If the roots of Israel (the patriarchs) are holy, then the branches are holy as well. All who belong to God’s people participate in the election of the patriarchs.

11:17–21. Paul restates the illustration of the roots and the branches in terms of an allegory of the olive tree and wild shoot (11:17). The olive tree is Israel (Jr 11:16–19; Hs 14:6–7); the wild shoots are the Gentiles. The Gentile believers—probably the majority in the church in Rome at the time—must not boast over the unbelieving Jews (11:18). If God removed some branches (unbelieving Jews) from the olive tree (Israel), and if God grafted wild shoots (the Gentile believers) into the olive tree, then they have no reason to boast. Without the promises given to Abraham, God would not have admitted the Gentiles into his people. The decisive factor in the removal of the branches (the unbelieving Jews) and in the grafting in of the wild shoots (the believing Gentiles) is the Jews’ rejection of Jesus as Messiah (11:19–20a). Faith excludes (ethnic) arrogance. The only proper response to what God has been doing is to stand in awe before God. Arrogance provokes God’s judgment. Paul thus warns the Roman believers to watch their attitude and refrain from arrogance against unbelieving Israel, lest they be removed from the tree (i.e., God’s people) as well (11:20b–21).

11:22–24. Paul summarizes his exhortation for Gentile believers. God’s kindness and severity are not possessions that can be taken for granted. God’s kindness rests on the Gentile believers only if and when they acknowledge him. If they reject God’s kindness, they will experience God’s severity (11:22). There is always the possibility that Jews will come to faith in Jesus the Messiah and will be grafted back into the olive tree, “if they do not remain in unbelief,” because nothing is impossible in view of God’s power (11:23). If God could graft wild shoots into the olive tree, then he can graft the original branches back into the olive tree (11:24). Gentile Christians are mistaken if they think that the unbelief of the Jewish people excludes them forever from God’s saving grace, which is granted through Jesus Christ.

11:25–26a. Paul now proceeds to explain the mystery of Israel’s salvation. He begins by underlining God’s sovereignty, warning the Gentile believers not to be proud. The “mystery” is the divine plan of salvation, which has been hidden but which God now has revealed to his people (11:25a; cf. Dn 2:18–19, 27–30; 1 Co 15:51; Eph 1:9; 3:3–4, 9; 5:32; 6:19). Paul’s exposition here focuses on three elements. First, God has hardened a part of Israel (11:25b). At present there are Jews who have rejected Jesus as Messiah and Lord and who have not received God’s salvation (cf. 9:27; 11:7, 14, 17), but God has not rejected the Jewish people as a whole. Second, the period of hardening comes to an end when the “fullness of the Gentiles” has come in, that is, the completion of God’s ingathering of the nations. Third, the salvation of “all Israel” takes place “in this way” (11:26a). [Will “All Israel” Be Saved?]

In speaking of the people of God as an olive tree (Rm 11:17), Paul draws on one of the most familiar images in Israel. This ancient tree (with new shoots) is found east of Jerusalem at the Church of All Nations.

© Kim Walton.

11:26b–27. Paul provides scriptural confirmation from Is 59:20–21 and 27:9 (with allusions to other OT passages). The first citation explains the means by which Jacob’s ungodliness is removed. This will happen through the deliverer who comes from Zion (11:26b)—in other words, through Jesus Christ. The context of the OT passages suggests that the new covenant, to which believing Gentiles and believing Jews belong, is the promised covenant in which the problem of sin has been solved once and for all, something that the law could not do. The second citation (11:27) emphasizes God’s covenant that removes Israel’s sins, recalling the promise of a new covenant in Jr 31:31–34.

11:28–32. Paul’s summary of God’s plan of salvation begins with the assertion that, “regarding the gospel,” the unbelieving Jews are the enemies of the Roman believers (11:28; cf. 11:11–12). Gentile believers should note that the Jews, as God’s chosen people, are loved by God because of the promises given to the patriarchs (11:16–17). God’s gracious gifts (9:4–5) and God’s call to salvation cannot be revoked (11:29); this means that the Jewish people are not hopelessly lost.

In verses 30–31 Paul explains the mystery of verses 25–26, focusing on salvation. The Gentiles presently receive God’s mercy: the time of disobedience was followed by a time of mercy due to the disobedience of many of the Jewish people, which brought the Christian missionaries to the Gentiles (11:30). The Jews are presently disobedient for the sake of extending mercy to the Gentiles, but the time of disobedience is followed by a time of mercy (11:31). If the last clause in verse 31 explains the phrase “and in this way all Israel will be saved” in verse 26, then Paul asserts that Israel receives salvation in the same manner in which Gentiles receive salvation—as mercy, if they do not persist in their rejection of Jesus Christ (cf. 11:23). Israel receives God’s mercy “now”—through the process in which the Gentiles receive salvation, which causes Jews to become jealous, which in turn leads them to faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul concludes in 11:32 with the statement that God’s saving action involves the inclusion of both Jews and Gentiles in the sin of disobedience (cf. 1:18–3:20) as well as in God’s mercy (cf. 3:21–5:11). The basic characteristic of salvation history is the justification of the godless as the work of God’s sovereign grace.

11:33–36. The prospect of ever more Gentiles and Jews coming to redemptive and restorative faith in Jesus Christ prompts Paul to erupt in praise of God’s righteousness. The first stanza (11:33) consists of two exclamations. Paul first praises the depths of God’s riches (the salvation he grants to pagans and Gentiles), the depth of God’s wisdom (his justification of sinners), and the depth of God’s knowledge (his actions in salvation history). Then Paul praises God’s mysterious actions. God’s judgments are unsearchable, as he grants righteousness to the unrighteous. God’s ways are inscrutable, as his mercy elects Jews and Gentiles to form the people of his new covenant. The second stanza (11:34–35) formulates three rhetorical questions, which take up the terms of 11:33 in reverse sequence. Nobody has comprehended the mind of God (Is 40:13a), nobody has advised God (Is 40:13b), and nobody has ever given anything to God (Jb 41:3). The third stanza (11:36) expresses the glorious sovereignty of God the Creator and Savior. Everything is from God since he is the cause of the old and the new creation, everything is through God since he is the power of the old and the new creation, and everything is to God since he is the goal of the old and the new creation. The paragraph ends with a doxology praising God’s glorious majesty, inviting the Christians in Rome to respond with “Amen.”

D. The reality of justification in the Christian community (12:1–15:13). In the fourth main section of his letter, Paul returns to the life of the followers of Jesus. Paul’s discussion of theological realities (indicatives) moves now to the responsibilities of believers (imperatives). He expounds further on the believers’ obedience, based on the power of love, in various areas of everyday life. The life of the believer is a life of self-sacrifice for God (12:1–2), made possible because of the ministry of the gifts of grace (12:3–8) and because of the reality of God’s love (12:9–21). Christians continue to have obligations to civic authorities (13:1–7). They fulfill the law through love (13:8–10). They are obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ in light of the imminent arrival of God’s new world (13:11–14). Paul exhorts the believers in Rome not to quarrel about religious matters related to food (14:1–12). Everyone should be willing to renounce their freedom out of love for fellow believers (14:13–23), following the self-sacrificial example of Jesus Christ (15:1–6), motivated by the present fulfillment of God’s promises to the patriarchs (15:7–13).

12:1–2. Paul signals in 12:1 that here begins a longer section in which he will draw out consequences of the gospel for everyday living. He begins with the fundamental charge that believers in Jesus Christ must consecrate their whole person (here designated as “bodies”) to God. That believers yield their entire life to God is “true worship,” the appropriate response to the mercies God extends to sinners. This total commitment is the “sacrifice” that believers offer to God, a reality in which they are alive (cf. 6:11, 13; 8:13) and holy (cf. 1:7; 11:16). They are thus acceptable to God since the stain of sin has been removed and the failure to properly worship God (1:25) has been reversed through Jesus Christ.

Holy living and worship of a holy God entail distance from the values of an unholy world where humankind is spiritually dead as a result of sin (12:2; cf. 7:10–11). Since the age to come penetrates into the present evil age through God’s saving righteousness in Jesus Christ, Christians who live out the logic of the gospel must resist the values and thought patterns of the secular world, transform their values as God’s Spirit renews their thinking, and discern the will of God for their everyday living.

12:3–5. Paul’s exposition of the life of the believers and of the Christian community focuses on the church as the body of Christ (12:3–8), on love as the criterion of behavior (12:9–21), on believers’ obligation to civic authorities (13:1–7), on the fulfillment of the law (13:8–10), and on the urgency of the present time in view of Christ’s return (13:11–14).

Several of Paul’s Letters have a theological section followed by a more practical section (e.g., Rm 1–11; 12–16; Eph 1–3; 4–6; Gl 1–4; 5–6).

Paul begins with an affirmation of his apostolic authority (12:3a)—what follows is not his personal opinion but the will of God. He urges believers to base their self-esteem not on secular values (such as social position, wealth, influence) but on the one faith God has given to every believer (12:3b). The identity of Christians is tied not to one’s personal preferences but to faith in Christ. The church is not an assembly of individuals who have their own personal interests, values, and claims but a corporate entity that can be compared with the human body, which consists of many members but is a unified whole (12:4–5). The identity of this body and the function of its members are determined by Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Co 12; Eph 4:1–32). Being a Christian links fellow believers in a larger body, in which everyone serves the whole by serving one another.

12:6–8. Paul lists seven gifts that God in his grace has given to believers and with which they serve other believers. They are prophecy (spontaneous revelations received from God for the benefit of the believers; cf. 1 Co 14:29–33), serving, teaching, encouraging, sharing, leading, and acts of mercy. Since there is overlap between the gifts, Paul does not describe a clearly defined set of ministries. This is confirmed by the diversity of the list of spiritual gifts in 1 Co 12:8–10, 28–30; 13:1–3, 8; 14:6, 26. Paul’s point is that believers should respond to the promptings of God’s grace in active participation in the fellowship of Christians, serving with humble and openhearted commitment to one another while maintaining the unity of the faith.

12:9–13. Paul clarifies that the diversity of believers and their ministries can constitute one body only if their lives are controlled by love (12:9a; cf. 1 Co 13). The gifts of the Spirit are functions of the body, while love determines how the members of the body function. Love is the commitment, esteem, and affection believers have for each other as a result of having been saved by God’s love (Rm 5:5, 8; 8:39) and Christ’s love (Rm 8:35). Since all good gifts can be manipulated and devastated by human beings, Paul emphasizes that the love God has poured into our hearts (5:5) must be kept genuine, protected from evil, and focused on what is good, as an expression of commitment, affection, and esteem for the other believers (12:9b–10).

The basic attitude and behavior of Christians must be determined by diligent discipline and earnest eagerness, by an enthusiastic spirituality, by the consistent commitment to serve Christ as Lord (12:11); by rejoicing in view of the hope of sharing the glory of God, by patient endurance in suffering, by perseverance in prayer (12:12); by helping to alleviate the practical needs of other believers, and by providing hospitality for strangers (12:13).

12:14–21. Paul expands beyond the internal relationships of believers within the congregation to include the relationship with their secular contemporaries. The criterion of love applies not only to believers’ behavior in the church but also to their behavior in general. If they are discriminated against and persecuted, the proper response is to bless (12:14), not to engage in payback or to take actions that are evil (12:17, 19). Since Gentile Christians have no official permission to meet regularly, Paul advises that Christians avoid trouble. These exhortations are not simply tactical, however. They are themes of OT and Jewish tradition (Ex 23:4–5; Pr 20:22) and, more specifically, the application of Jesus’s teaching (cf. Mt 5:44; Lk 6:27–28; for 12:18 cf. Mk 9:50; Mt 5:9).

Paul knows that life, including the life of Christians, is not free of trouble. He thus exhorts that believers have genuine empathy with others, whether they suffer or have success (12:15). He calls believers to live in harmony with one another, which is possible if they banish pride, if they associate with people held in low esteem (as Jesus did and commanded; see Mt 5:3–5; 11:29; 18:4; 23:12), and if they abandon feelings of superiority (12:16). Paul knows that it may not always be possible to live at peace with every person (12:18), as the hostility of people who reject the gospel is all too often an unfortunate reality. If they suffer from their neighbors, they must leave matters in the hands of God, who will repay any injustice on the day of judgment (12:19). However, Christian believers do not simply endure suffering passively. They seek to transcend it by doing good to their oppressors, extending hospitality and kindness (12:20; see Pr 25:21–22). Paul ends with the command not to let the evil that others inflict control them but to courageously commit to do good so that evil may be overcome (12:21).

13:1–5. Paul then addresses behavior toward the ruling civic authorities(13:1–7). This is the next logical step after behavior toward fellow believers (12:9–13) and unbelievers (12:14–21), including those who persecute Christians. Paul gives two commands (13:1, 5, 7). (1) Believers must “submit” to official government authorities; in other words, believers obey the edicts, rules, and regulations issued by government officials (13:1, 5). (2) Believers must pay taxes; this is a specific example of submission to civic authorities (13:7).

Paul explains the basic reason why Christians must submit to authorities: the biblical truth that God has ordained and appointed all governing authorities (13:1; cf. Pr 8:15–16; Is 45:1–7; Dn 4:17, 25, 32). It follows that anyone who resists the divinely appointed authorities resists God himself and will incur God’s (and the rulers’) judgment (13:2). The divine institution of governing authorities is reflected in the fact that they promote good conduct and punish bad conduct (13:3–4). When they fulfill this function, they are “God’s servant[s].” (And when they don’t, such as the Roman emperors who persecuted Christians, they are still accountable to God.) The approval for good behavior is the public commendation of people who made extraordinary contributions to the city (e.g., financing of public works). Such commendations were recommended by the city magistrates and then inscribed in stone (honorary inscriptions). The sanction for bad behavior is punishment, meted out by police officials and other governmental powers. Because it is God who institutes the authorities, obedience is a matter of theological principle. It is motivated not only by fear of being punished but also by the concern for a good conscience (13:5).

In Rm 13, Paul does not address the problem of secular states that explicitly or implicitly reject the rulers’ responsibility toward God (both the Greeks and the pagans recognized some type of divine accountability). Romans 13 (submission to the state as a God-given authority) therefore must be balanced by Rv 13 (obeying God rather than the state when the state becomes an agent of evil).

13:6–7. The application of the principle of 13:1 is spelled out in 13:6–7 with regard to the payment of direct and indirect taxes (tribute and custom tax). These taxes must be paid, as they are demanded by the ruling authorities, whom God has instituted (13:6). The background of this specific example is probably the unrest in the city of Rome at the time, caused by the increase in direct and indirect taxes under Nero. With the last two obligations—respect and honor—Paul returns to his admonition to acknowledge the legitimate jurisdiction of the divinely instituted governing authorities (13:7).

13:8–10. Paul returns to love as the fundamental criterion of behavior. Loving others—being actively concerned for others, having affectionate regard for and interest in others—is an obligation (13:8a). The people to be loved are Christians but also the neighbor who is the enemy (12:14, 17, 21). The reason and motivation for loving others is given in 13:8b–10. Believers who love others have fulfilled the law; they have properly done what the law asks (Rm 8:4; cf. Mt 5:17–20). The commandments of the law, which establish human relationships—no adultery, no murder, no stealing, no envious desires (cf. Ex 20:13–17; Dt 5:17–21)—are summed up in the commandment to love others as much as one loves oneself (Lv 19:18, the most frequently cited passage of the Pentateuch in the NT; see Mt 5:43; 19:19; 22:29; Mk 12:31, 33; Lk 10:27; Gl 5:14; Jms 2:8). Paul does not reduce the law to one single commandment; he formulates the substance of proper obedience to the will of God. The law thus still has relevance for followers of Christ, though Paul has discussed its limitations earlier in the letter.

Paul instructs the Romans to be subject to the governing authorities. This includes paying taxes (Rm 13:6). This Roman sestertius coin shows the image of Emperor Nero. Taxes were the main source of income for the Roman Empire during the first century AD and were levied on the provinces Rome conquered.

© Baker Publishing Group and Dr. James C. Martin. Courtesy of the British Museum, London, England.

13:11–14. While the admonition to submit to governmental authorities and to pay taxes suggests that, in many ways, life goes on for Christians as it always has, Paul points out that the expected return of Jesus Christ is near. Final salvation is closer than it was a few years ago (13:11); the day of the revelation of God’s glory and the day of God’s judgment is near (13:12). Christians know that the last days have arrived (cf. Gl 4:4; 1 Co 10:11; Heb 1:1–2; 9:26; Jms 5:9; 1 Pt 1:20). The nearness of the end, which is the beginning of the glorious inheritance of believers, should motivate them to live by the power of God.

The present reality is described as night, a time of darkness, full of the evils of excessive feasting, drinking bouts, sexual promiscuity, violation of all bounds of what is socially acceptable, quarrels, jealousy, and the tendencies of the flesh (13:13–14). Christians live in the context of this reality, which they must confront (cf. 12:1–2). Paul calls them to be wide awake, to stop being involved in the evil practices and traditions of pagan society, to do battle with temptation and sinful values and lifestyles, to live honorably and transparently (“as in the daytime”), and to be transformed by their union with Jesus Christ, who is Lord.

14:1–12. In 14:1–15:13 Paul takes up the theme of unity in diversity, addressing the conflict between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians (cf. 15:7–9). The controversy concerns dietary practices (14:2; cf. 14:21) and the observance of certain days (14:5–6). Paul’s discussion highlights, again, the nature of the people of God as the community of the new covenant, in which the old boundaries between Jews and Gentiles are no longer permissible. The controlling principle is not the specifics of obedience to the law but the reality of God’s love (14:15; cf. 12:3, 9–10, 14–17, 21; 13:8–10).

The critical debate in Rm 14–15 is not about whether Christians can dine in pagan temples and eat food sacrificed to idols (as in 1 Co 8–10); nor is it about whether Gentile Christians must be circumcised (as in Rm 3:30–4:12 or Gl 2–4). Although Paul discusses the relationship between “weak” and “strong” Christians in both 1 Co 8:1–11:1 and Rm 14:1–15:6, the groups defined as such are not identical in each passage, and his message in each has distinctive contours.

In his discussion of the divisions between the “weak” and the “strong,” Paul first argues that Christians who are weak in their faith (14:1) must stop condemning their fellow believers who are less confident (14:3–5, 10, the strong of 15:1), because only God himself has the right to judge (14:10–12). Believers also must not despise one another, because God has welcomed all believers (14:3, 10). Rather, followers of Christ must be convinced that the details of their personal behavior honor Jesus Christ the Lord and express their thankfulness to God (14:5–6), acknowledging that they are accountable to God (14:12). Believers can have differences of opinion, which should be tolerated (14:1, 5–6). The identity of Christian believers is not tied up with diet and religious holidays but with the Lord Jesus Christ. This means that believers who are united with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection seek to please God in all things, having been liberated from the fundamental human sin of setting their own priorities and constructing their own values (14:8–9).

14:13–23. Paul next discusses renouncing one’s freedom out of love. Christians who are strong in their faith have the responsibility not to damage believers who continue to adhere to Jewish dietary laws and Sabbath observance. Paul agrees theologically with the strong: no food, no beverage, no day of the calendar is ritually unclean (14:14, 20). The kingdom of God is not linked with food and drink but established and present in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (14:16–17). The strong have faith before God (14:22). However, they threaten to damage the weak, who could stumble and lose their footing (14:13) or be injured and ruined (14:15; cf. 14:20–23). This happens if the strong eat and drink what the weak cannot because they think that such behavior makes them unclean (14:14). Paul refers to what happens when Gentile Christians share meals with Jewish Christians who still keep the dietary laws (for Christian meals, see 1 Co 11:17–34). If the behavior of the strong causes the weak to follow their example and eat food their faith does not allow them to eat, this thus damages them, as they are convinced that they have rebelled against the will of God (14:15). As a result of the damage that their faith suffers, they doubt (14:23). Doubt is incompatible with faith (cf. Rm 4:19–21), and everything that is not done from faith is sin (14:23).

Even though Paul implicitly challenges the weak to have a faith that is strong, he calls on the strong to change their behavior. His straightforward command is not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else that causes injury to the faith of other believers (14:21). Paul’s fundamental criteria for Christian behavior are acting out of love for fellow believers as a manifestation of God’s love (14:15; cf. 5:5, 8); evaluating the importance of differences of personal behavior in the light of the righteousness God has given, the peace that Jesus Christ has obtained, and the joy of the Holy Spirit (14:17); safeguarding the continued growth of the church (14:19; cf. 1 Co 14:1–5); and respecting “God’s work” (14:20), which is the faith of all believers, and the existence and the unity of the church.

15:1–6. Before Paul concludes his discussion of the controversy between the strong and the weak in 15:7–13, he reminds believers of the basis of their Christian identity. In 15:1–2 Paul summarizes the primary responsibility of the strong. Those who are strong in the faith can and must accept the scruples of the weak as their own burden (cf. Gl 6:2) by not eating and drinking what the weak cannot eat and drink. They must keep in mind the purpose of being a body of believers, which is the continued growth of all Christians.

In 15:3–4 Paul explains the main reason for his advice: Jesus, as their example, did not live to please himself. Rather, he denied himself by submission to God’s will, which took him to the cross (cf. 2 Co 8:9; Php 2:5–8). Psalm 69:9 confirms this: as the righteous person who is devoted to the Lord (Ps 69:10) is insulted by his enemies and also by his own family (Ps 69:8, 28), so Jesus was despised by the Roman authorities and by the Jewish leadership. In the same manner that the Messiah was willing to be insulted for God’s honor, the Gentile believers should be willing to give up the focus on their personal interests, even if they are ridiculed by pagan friends and neighbors for following Jewish scruples.

Paul ends with a prayer wish for the unity of the strong and the weak (15:5–6). This is a unity expressed in Gentile believers and Jewish believers living together, which requires perseverance and encouragement, and honoring God with one voice. [The “Weak in Faith” in Romans 14:1–15:6]

15:7–13. Paul summarizes the section on the controversy between the strong and the weak, and, at the same time, he concludes the main body of the letter. In 15:7 he asserts that mutual acceptance and unity are fundamental values. All believers have been accepted by Christ, with whom they are united by faith. The glory of God is the primary concern and reality of those who honor the Creator, as he must be honored by his creatures, who live in his presence. In 15:8–9 Paul explains how Christ accepted both Jews and Gentiles. Christ came as a servant for the Jews who waited for messianic salvation (Rm 2:1–3:20); Jesus’s death and resurrection brought the salvation that confirms the promises of salvation given to the patriarchs (9:1–11:36). Since God’s promises included the families of the earth, the Gentiles also have benefited from the coming of Jesus. The promise to the fathers has been fulfilled (2:25–29; 4:9–22; 9:4, 8–9), the Gentiles have received God’s mercy (1:16–17; 3:21–31; 9:15–18; 11:30–32), and the failure of humankind to honor God (1:21) has been reversed.

Marble statue of Dionysus (AD 40–60), known as Bacchus in Roman mythology, who was the god of wine and agricultural activity. Some Jewish Christians refused to drink wine because it might have been a libation offering in the pagan temples. Paul’s criterion for refraining from drinking is when it may cause another believer to stumble (Rm 14:21).

© Baker Publishing Group and Dr. James C. Martin. Courtesy of the British Museum, London, England.

The quotations from Ps 18:49 (cf. 2 Sm 22:50); Dt 32:43; Ps 117:1; and Is 11:10 confirm God’s promise that both Gentiles and Jews together would honor and glorify God (15:9–12). In his second prayer wish (see 15:5–6) Paul prays that the God who gives hope will fill both Jewish and Gentile believers with joy and peace, both of which result from faith (15:13).

3. CONCLUSION (15:14–16:27)

Paul concludes his letter with information about his travel plans (15:14–33), recommendations of Phoebe (16:1–2), greetings to coworkers in the Roman churches (16:3–16), and an admonition with regard to dangers facing the churches in Rome (16:17–20). The letter ends with additional greetings (16:21–24) and a doxology (16:25–27).

A. Paul’s missionary work and future travel plans (15:14–33). Paul describes his missionary work as focused on outreach to pagans. This is the reason he wants to visit the churches in Rome, whom he hopes to involve in his planned mission to Spain.

15:14–21. Paul assures the Roman Christians that his long and, on occasion, bold letter does not question their spiritual maturity or their independence (15:14–15a). He writes to them because of the missionary commission he has received from God. Paul describes his calling and his work as gifts from God, not the result of his will or ambition (15:15b). He is a servant who has been directed by his superior authority, Jesus Christ, to focus his proclamation of the gospel on the Gentiles (15:16a). Paul’s missionary work is an act of sacrifice in which the converted Gentiles are offered as a sacrifice pleasing to God (15:16b). As the Gentiles accept the saving righteousness of God through Jesus Christ, they glorify God, as they always should have done.

The process of Paul’s missionary ministry is word and deed, both oral proclamation and hard work (15:18). The power that makes his missionary proclamation effective is Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Signs and wonders (which include conversions, healings, and speaking in unlearned languages) testify to the presence of God in his ministry (15:19a). Paul has preached the gospel in an arc from Jerusalem to Illyricum. If we trace Paul’s movements on an ancient world map—he preached in Jerusalem, Syria (Damascus, Arabia/Nabatea, Antioch), Cilicia, Galatia, Asia, Macedonia, Achaia, and apparently Illyricum (perhaps the travels described in Ac 20:1–3)—he moved in an arc from Jerusalem in a northerly, then westerly direction toward Rome and Spain (15:19b). Paul had decided at some point that he would work as a pioneer missionary in cities and regions where no missionaries had preached before, rather than help consolidate churches that others had established (15:20).

15:22–33. Paul asserts that there are no places left in the regions of the eastern Mediterranean in which pioneer missionary work needs to be done (15:23). Paul plans to begin pioneer missionary work in Spain (15:24, 28). He informs the Christians in Rome that he wants to visit them, as he hopes that they will assist him, probably with logistical help—funds, information, letters of introduction, escorts, perhaps translators.

In following Jesus’s command to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, Paul has planned a mission trip to Spain (Rm 15:22–29).

Rather than traveling from Corinth (from where he writes his letter) to Rome directly, Paul will first visit Jerusalem (15:25). In the churches of Macedonia and Achaia (and also Asia; see the list of Paul’s travel companions in Ac 20:4), he has organized a collection for the poor Christians in Jerusalem (15:26–27). The Christians in Judea apparently still suffered from the effects of a severe famine in AD 46–48 (cf. Ac 11:27–30; Gl 2:10). Paul anticipates that his visit to Jerusalem will not be easy (15:30–31). He expects fierce opposition from unbelieving Jews, and he does not rule out the possibility that traditionalist Jewish Christians might reject gifts from Gentile Christians. He asks the Christians in Rome to pray that his life may be preserved. Paul ends by praying for the Roman Christians, asking God, who is the source of peace, to be with every one of them (15:33).

B. Greetings (16:1–24). Paul’s greetings relate to Phoebe, coworkers who are presently in Rome, dangers facing the church, and further coworkers and friends.

16:1–2. Phoebe is a Christian sister who serves as a worker in the church in Cenchreae, one of the two ports of Corinth. The use of the word “servant” (Gk diakonos) in 16:1 does not suggest menial service only (see the CSB footnote). Paul often uses it for missionary preaching and pastoral teaching (1 Co 3:5; 2 Co 3:6; 6:4). He asks the Roman Christians to welcome her as a fellow believer and to assist her in any matter in which she needs help (16:2). Some suggest that Paul has asked Phoebe to organize the logistical details of the mission to Spain and that he asks the Roman Christians to support her in these efforts. Phoebe was evidently wealthy: she had been a benefactor to Paul and to other Christians, which means that she had provided financial help to missionaries. She may have also delivered the letter on Paul’s behalf.

Paul Writes Romans during His Third Missionary Journey

Paul writes to the Roman Christians from Corinth. He has been coordinating a collection from the churches in Macedonia and Achaia, and he now plans to continue on to Jerusalem to deliver that gift. He then intends to travel to Rome.

16:3–15. In the longest list of greetings in any of his letters (16:3–16), Paul greets twenty-six individuals and at least five house churches. These greetings express the affection that Paul has for his former coworkers and other believers in Rome, resulting from the new life they share (note the frequent “in Christ” or “in the Lord”). Many of the believers in Rome he knew personally. Some had been his coworkers for many years (e.g., Priscilla and Aquila, 16:4–5a). The list illustrates why Paul can be confident that there are experienced believers in the churches in Rome who can instruct the Christians responsibly and competently (15:14).

The inclusion of eight women, whom Paul acknowledges with joy and thanksgiving, illustrates the importance of the ministry of women in the early church. The presence of Greek, Latin, Roman, and Jewish names and the presence of the names of slaves and freedmen (e.g., Junia [16:7], Ampliatus [16:8], Tryphaena and Tryphosa [16:12], and Asyncritus [16:14]) attests to the cultural and social diversity of the house churches in Rome. House churches met in the homes of Priscilla and Aquila (16:5), Aristobulus (16:10), and Narcissus (16:11). The “brothers and sisters” in 16:14 and “all the saints” in 16:15 probably represent two further house churches. [Paul’s Coworkers]

16:16. Believers greeted each other by kissing (16:16a; cf. 1 Co 16:20; 2 Co 13:12; 1 Th 5:26; 1 Pt 5:14), a sign of familial affection—probably not only in church but also when they met in public. This was a potent expression of the transforming power of the gospel, particularly when wealthy believers greeted Christian slaves. Paul sends greetings from “all the churches of Christ” (16:16b)—that is, from all the churches that he has established and that know and support his ministry. This greeting expresses the universal scope of the gospel and the unity of the believers that results from the truth of the gospel.

16:17–20. Paul adds a postscript, perhaps in his own hand (cf. Gl 6:11; Col 4:18). He urges the believers to watch out—that is, to identify and evaluate people who cause dissensions and who question the gospel, and to keep away from them (16:17). These people are not interested in Jesus Christ. They are absorbed with their own appetites, and their smooth talk and eloquence can easily detract from the truth of the gospel (16:18). There is no agreement on the identity of these troublemakers.

Paul knows that the Roman Christians have become obedient to the gospel, which is cause for joy and at the same time the basis from which they can identify and avoid evil teachings (16:19). He assures them that the influence of Satan in the world in general, and in the activities of troublemakers in particular, will be short lived because God will soon consummate his victory over the serpent (Gn 3:15). The benediction in 16:20 prays for a continued experience of what they already have: grace from God, who has given them peace.

16:21–24. Final greetings to the Christians in Rome are conveyed by coworkers in Corinth, prominent among them Timothy, who had worked with Paul in Macedonia, Achaia, and Asia (16:21). Paul dictated the letter to Tertius, who was a secretary (16:22) and was perhaps one of the slaves of Gaius, Paul’s host (16:23a). Both send their greetings, indicating that they are both Christian believers and thus part of God’s universal family and also of Paul’s mission. Erastus, “the city treasurer” (16:23b), is probably the same Erastus who is mentioned in an inscription acknowledging his benefaction that paid for the pavement in front of the theater, given in gratitude for being appointed to the aedileship, a municipal office with wide-ranging administrative duties.

This inscription, found in Corinth, reads, “Erastus, in return for the aedileship, laid the pavement at his own expense.” This may be the same Erastus Paul mentions in Rm 6:23.

C. Final doxology (16:25–27). The letter concludes with a doxology, which ascribes glory to God. The long sentence summarizes the central themes of Paul’s letter: the power of God (1:16), the gospel Paul proclaims (1:1–6; 2:16), the message of Jesus the Messiah (1:3, 9; 3:21–31), the nature and the consequences of the gospel as the mystery God promised in the prophets and that he has now revealed (1:16–17; 11:25), the importance of the Scriptures (1:2; 3:21), the present time (“now,” 16:26) as the time in which God saves Jews and Gentiles (3:21–5:21), the obedience to the will of God the Creator and the merciful Savior among Jews and Gentiles (1:5; 6:1–8:39), the wisdom of God’s revelation of saving righteousness (1:18–5:21; 9:1–11:36), and the work of Jesus the Messiah, whose death atones for the sins of humankind and whose resurrection grants new life to Gentiles and Jews (3:21–8:39). These truths and realities confirm that all the glory of all the ages belongs to God (16:27). “Amen” emphasizes Paul’s commitment to these truths and invites the Roman Christians to join in the praise of God the Creator and the Savior.

The entire OT points forward to Christ as the revelation of God’s righteousness (Rm 16:25–26; cf. Rm 1:2; 3:21).