Introduction to Romans
Few writings have influenced the history of Christian thought quite like Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Though the letter is short as far as literary masterpieces go, the impact of Romans has been seismic. It is a work of special magnificence in which Paul’s considerable skills as a pastor, evangelist, and theologian are given full display.
The importance of Romans might be measured by the list of scholars and saints who have struggled to elucidate its message. Origen of Alexandria seems to have been the first to attempt a detailed exposition of the letter, and he was followed by St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Cyril of Alexandria, and St. Thomas Aquinas, to name a few. Likewise, the intellectual architects of Protestantism, Martin Luther and John Calvin, hammered out several of their leading ideas on the anvil of Romans. Today the stream of research and writing devoted to Romans continues unabated. Like the rest of Sacred Scripture, which has God for its transcendent author, Paul’s Letter to the Romans has a spiritual and theological depth that is literally inexhaustible.
Author and Date
No one seriously disputes that the apostle Paul authored Romans. From ancient to modern times, only a tiny handful of exegetes, most of them writing in the 1800s, have ever challenged the Pauline authorship of the letter, and none has succeeded in disturbing the settled position of New Testament scholarship on this point. Not only is the name “Paul” attached to its opening line (1:1), but also virtually all agree that the imprint of Paul’s extraordinary mind and personality are evident throughout. The author describes himself as an “Israelite” from “the tribe of Benjamin” (11:1), as “the apostle to the Gentiles” (11:13), and as one who spread the gospel “from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum” (15:19). Taken together, these details fit the biographical profile of Paul like no other figure known to us from earliest Christianity.
To say that Paul authored Romans is not to say that Paul penned the letter with his own hand. The reader may be surprised to hear at the end of the epistle, “I, Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord” (16:22). Tertius, who is otherwise unknown, served the Apostle as an amanuensis—a scribe who either drafted the letter under Paul’s direction or copied it out at Paul’s dictation. Either way, Romans is too carefully worded and its arguments too sophisticated to cause us to think that Paul had anything but a very direct involvement in shaping both the content and expression of the epistle.
Paul appears to have sent his Letter to the Romans from the city of Corinth in Greece. There are several indicators that support this. (1) Near the end of the letter Paul indicates that he is making ready to travel to Judea with a “contribution for the poor among the holy ones in Jerusalem” (15:26). This matches the final phase of the Apostle’s third missionary tour described in the book of Acts (Acts 18:23–21:16), where we learn that Paul made a three-month stopover “in Greece” (Acts 20:2–3) just before setting out for the Jewish capital (Acts 21:15–16). (2) This correlation between Romans and Acts is reinforced by Paul’s comment that Timothy, along with a man named Sosipater, was with him as the letter was being penned (Rom 16:21). In all likelihood, these are the same individuals mentioned in Acts as “Sopater” (a shortened form of Sosipater) and “Timothy,” both of whom were with Paul in Greece shortly before the Apostle commenced his journey to Jerusalem (Acts 20:4). (3) Paul tells us that he wrote Romans while staying as a guest in the house of “Gaius” (Rom 16:23). Presumably this is the same Gaius whom Paul had baptized when he founded the church at Corinth only a few years earlier (1 Cor 1:14). (4) Paul sent his letter to Rome by the hand of Phoebe, a deaconess from “the church at Cenchreae” (Rom 16:1). Cenchreae was the Aegean seaport in southern Greece that served the city of Corinth.
Paul most likely wrote Romans in the late winter of AD 57, give or take a year. This is inferred, once again, from the overlap between Paul’s remarks in Romans and the testimony of the book of Acts. Again, as indicated by his intent to travel to Jerusalem with a relief offering for Judean Christians (Rom 15:25–26), Paul is at the tail end of his third missionary tour (Acts 18:23–21:16), which may be dated within a small margin of error to the years AD 52–57. And since Acts informs us that Paul left Greece not long before the springtime feast of Unleavened Bread (see Acts 20:6), a date for Romans around March of AD 57 cannot be far off the mark.
Christianity in the Capital
Rome was the largest and most illustrious city in the world known to Paul. As the capital of the vast Roman Empire, its political importance was unrivaled. As a bustling center of cultural and commercial activity, its power to attract intellectuals, merchants, and opportunists from across the Mediterranean world was legendary. It is hardly surprising, then, that a missionary such as Paul should perceive the strategic potential of Rome for the advance of the gospel. By winning and strengthening converts in Rome, he could use the city’s considerable influence to reach an entire civilization with the Christian message.
Oddly enough, precious little is known about the beginnings of Christianity in Rome. Questions about when, where, and under what circumstances residents in the capital first made contact with the gospel remain unclear. Nevertheless, there is broad agreement among scholars that Christianity first took hold in the city’s synagogue community.
Figure 1. Main hall of the Roman-period synagogue next to the gymnasium-bathhouse complex at Sardis, third century AD. [© Baker Publishing Group and Dr. James C. Martin]
Historical evidence indicates that Jewish migrants settled in Rome as early as the second century BC; by the middle of the first century AD there could have been as many as fifty thousand.1 According to one ancient source, a sizable number of Jews living in first-century Rome were descendants of captives taken to Italy from Roman military campaigns in the East and subsequently freed by their masters.2 These Jews, like those throughout the empire, were accorded special protections and exemptions that allowed them to observe their religious customs without compromise.3 Their freedoms included the right to assemble for worship, the right to collect the annual sanctuary tax for the temple in Jerusalem, the right to abstain from court proceedings on the sabbath, and the right to decline otherwise compulsory military service. Archaeology has thus far produced the names of more than twelve synagogues established in ancient Rome,4 along with catacombs, indicating that a Jewish community thrived on the west bank of the Tiber in the first century.
It is not difficult to imagine that faith in Jesus as the Messiah would first find a home in the Roman synagogues rather than among the pagan inhabitants of the city. Ancient testimony suggests that a continuous flow of traffic and communication passed between Rome and Israel in the first century,5 not least because of the annual pilgrimage festivals, which brought Jewish families from across the Roman Empire to worship in Jerusalem every spring (Passover, Pentecost) and fall (Tabernacles). In fact, the book of Acts states that Roman Jews were in attendance at the feast of Pentecost in AD 30 when the Holy Spirit first drove the apostles into the streets of Jerusalem with the gospel (Acts 2:10). It is certainly possible that some of these Roman pilgrims not only witnessed the event but also returned to Italy as baptized members of the newborn Christian Church (Acts 2:41). Or perhaps Roman attendees at a subsequent feast were the first to carry home convictions about the messiahship of Jesus. Regardless, it would only be a matter of time before “the power of God” released through the gospel (Rom 1:16) would make itself felt in the Jewish quarter of the world’s most prestigious city.
There is also a tradition that the apostle Peter came to Rome near the beginning of the reign of Caesar Claudius (AD 41–54).6 Admittedly, some have questioned whether Peter ever traveled as far as the capital, especially at so early a date, but the relevant sources have not been sufficiently discredited to rule out the possibility that he had dealings with the Roman church at a point prior to the arrival of Paul’s letter. The tradition need not mean that Peter founded the Roman church in the sense of making the first converts in the capital.7 It is just as possible that he helped to organize and encourage a small community of believers that was already in existence.8
In any case, Peter was almost certainly not in the capital when Paul wrote his Letter to the Romans. If Peter was, in fact, ministering in Rome in the mid-50s, Paul likely would have referred to him in the epistle, at the very least as someone to be singled out for greeting in the list of names in 16:3–16. Further, nothing Paul says in Romans convincingly undermines the tradition that Peter ministered in Rome in the 40s. Commentators sometimes read Paul’s remarks in 15:20—that his missionary policy was not to “build on another’s foundation”—to exclude the possibility that Peter or any other missionary could have played a significant role in establishing the Roman church. But if anything, this passage indicates that Paul, in sharing his gospel with believers in Rome, was making an exception to his usual practice. Normally the Apostle would steer away from places “where Christ has already been named,” but in this case he does just the opposite. Paul is eager both to write to the Roman Christians (1:15) and to visit them in person at his earliest opportunity (15:24, 32).
What is beyond dispute is that the Christian community in Rome was already well-established by the time Paul wrote his epistle. Not only does Paul claim that he has desired to visit the Roman Christians “for many years” (15:23), which presupposes that their church’s history stretches back for some time, but also he tells the congregation, “Your faith is heralded throughout the world” (1:8) and “Your obedience is known to all” (16:19). This is a church that has existed long enough to have stirred the admiration of Christians everywhere.
The Christian Community in Rome
Little can be said with certainty about the social and economic situation of the believers addressed by Paul, except that they likely represented a cross section of Rome’s urban population. Based on the reception of Christianity in other major cities in the first century, one can probably envision a modest number of affluent and perhaps politically influential persons amid a congregation that consisted mainly of folks from the middle and lower classes, from artisans and merchants to manual laborers, slaves, and former slaves.
More significant for the interpretation of Romans is the question of the ethnic and religious background of Paul’s original audience. Views range from identifying the Roman Christians as predominantly Jewish, to predominantly Gentile, to some combination of the two. On this matter scholars rely on a degree of guesswork; but it seems likely that both Jews and non-Jews counted themselves members of the church in the imperial capital.
That some Jewish Christians formed part of Paul’s readership is clear from his list of personal contacts in Rome (16:3–16).9 Three of the individuals he greets are identified as his “relatives” (16:7, 11), by which Paul means his Israelite kinsmen; two more, Prisca and Aquila (16:3), are generally considered a Jewish-Christian couple (Acts 18:2). Beyond this, Paul occasionally speaks in Romans as though Jewish ears were attending to his words. When the Apostle comments in 7:1, “I am speaking to people who know the law,” it is fairly certain that he has in mind readers steeped in the teachings of the Torah. Also, early in the letter Paul conducts a rhetorical dialogue in which he speaks to various issues and concerns peculiar to one who professes to be “a Jew” (2:17; 3:1). This is part of a pattern in Romans in which Paul defends himself and his teaching against Jewish objections, whether actual or potential (3:27–31; 9:1–3; 10:1–3). One does not get the impression from Romans that converts from Judaism formed a dominating presence in Rome’s Christian community, but they were certainly among the recipients of the letter.
More obvious is that Paul counted his Roman readers “among . . . the Gentiles” (1:13). This is apparent from passages such as 11:13, where Paul declares, “Now I am speaking to you Gentiles,” after which he cautions non-Jewish disciples against a prideful disdain for unbelieving Israel. Likewise, if the list of Paul’s acquaintances in 16:3–16 is any indication, Gentile Christians in Rome must have outnumbered Jewish Christians by a wide margin. Of the twenty-six persons who receive a greeting, a full twenty bear native Greek and Latin names. Still, nothing like an exact proportion of Jews to Gentiles can be determined. The majority of scholars are content to say that the Christians in Rome were mostly Gentiles, with an appreciable number of Jewish believers among their ranks.
Assuming this to be a reasonable judgment, we might then ask: How did the church in Rome come to have more Gentiles than Jews by the time Paul sent his letter? The problem is acute given the common belief that Roman Christianity initially took root in the synagogue community. At least two considerations can help answer this.
First, numerous Gentiles in the Roman world were attracted to Judaism and observed its religious customs in varying degrees. In other words, synagogue communities in the †Diaspora (i.e., in lands outside Israel) were already places where Jews and Gentiles came together for fellowship and worship on a regular basis. Some Gentiles chose to become Jewish converts or proselytes, which means they embraced the full yoke of the Torah, beginning with circumcision. However, a greater number of Gentiles attached themselves to the synagogue in more limited ways. They became what are often called “God-fearers”—persons who admired the moral ideals of Judaism and worshiped the God of Israel but stopped short of circumcision and complete conversion to the Jewish religion. Thus the Roman church, although it originated in the synagogues, probably did not start out as a purely Jewish community. The earliest group of disciples in Rome likely included Jews and Gentiles from the start, even if members of Jewish descent were at first more numerous.
Second, the shift from a Jewish to a Gentile majority in the Roman church by the mid-50s is best accounted for by the Edict of Claudius in AD 49. This imperial decree expelled the Jewish community from Rome because of disturbances in the local synagogues instigated by a certain Chrestus.10 According to most scholars, “Chrestus” is not the name of a troublemaker in the community, but a variant spelling of the Latin name Christus, or “Christ.” In other words, it seems that the upheaval in Rome’s synagogue community was caused by sharp disagreements between those who believed that Jesus was the Messiah and those who did not. The book of Acts shows that tensions of this sort could be expressed not only in heated debate but also in persecution and violence.11
Whatever the precise nature of the unrest, Claudius found it a nuisance, and so he ousted the Jewish community from the capital. And since Christian Jews were indistinguishable from non-Christian Jews in the eyes of the authorities at this early date, the decree suddenly deprived the Roman church of its Jewish membership, leaving only God-fearing Gentiles behind to carry on without them. It was not until the death of Claudius in AD 54 that the decree effectively expired, allowing Jews to reestablish residency in the capital. For at least five years, then, the church in Rome was a purely Gentile community, and no doubt one that continued to expand and grow with new members. The return of Jewish-Christian exiles in the mid-50s would explain the presence of a Jewish minority in the Roman church as well as the friction between Gentiles and Jews reflected in the letter. Numerous scholars find this to be a plausible reconstruction of the historical situation addressed by Paul.
Reasons for Writing the Letter
Paul had several reasons for writing Romans. Most of these are made explicit in the opening and closing parts of the letter, especially in 1:8–15 and 15:14–33, while others may be inferred from a reading of the letter as a whole. At least three primary aims can be identified.
1. Paul wrote to make personal contact with the Roman Christians in advance of an anticipated visit. With the exception of those named in 16:3–16, the Apostle was not directly acquainted with the believers in Rome. His missionary travels had not yet taken him as far west as Italy, and yet he desired to visit the Roman Christians in person and to strengthen them in their faith (1:11–13; 15:23). He felt himself obligated (1:14–15) as “the apostle to the Gentiles” (11:13) to preach the gospel in the epicenter of the Gentile world (15:15–16). In view of these facts, Romans may be considered Paul’s letter of self-recommendation, wherein he takes the opportunity to introduce himself and his teaching as a way of preparing for his arrival.
2. Paul wrote to establish a partnership with the Romans in bringing the gospel to Spain. Thanks to his tireless efforts in the 40s and early 50s, the foundations of the Church had been solidly laid in the eastern Mediterranean (15:19), and Paul felt it was now time to turn his attention to the West (15:23–24). He saw Rome as a potential base of operations for his projected mission to Spain, much as the church in Syrian Antioch had sponsored his evangelization efforts in the East (Acts 13:1–3; 15:35–41; 18:22–23). In sending the letter, the Apostle hoped to gain the Romans’ support—spiritual, logistical, and financial—so that this next phase of missionary activity could be successfully launched (Rom 15:28–32).
3. Paul wrote to sort out a pastoral problem that had come to his attention. It is fairly certain that the church in Rome was experiencing internal tensions between Jewish and Gentile believers. Divergent perspectives on the plan of God, exacerbated by mutual struggles with ethnic and religious prejudice, appear to be the leading causes of the trouble. Judging from Paul’s comments, it seems that some Jews boasted of being the chosen people of God. They therefore put a high premium on the rituals of the law that served as badges of Israel’s †election, things such as circumcision, feast day observances, and dietary regulations (2:23–25; 4:1–11; 14:1–9). Some, in fact, may have considered themselves superior to uncircumcised Christians (2:17–23), perhaps as having a special claim on God, as though he was not equally the God of the Gentiles (3:27–31). A number of Gentile Christians, for their part, apparently came to think of themselves as a replacement for Israel, as though God had rejected his beloved people of old (11:1–24). Theirs was the boast of the latecomer who thinks that he supersedes and supplants the predecessor. The result was that certain Jewish and Gentile disciples were condescending and unwelcoming toward one another (15:7). The influx of returning Jewish Christians into a flourishing Gentile church in Rome likely occasioned or intensified these types of friction and disunity.
Themes and Theology of the Letter
Most scholars agree that Romans is the crown jewel of the Pauline Epistles. It is one of the fullest and richest expositions of the Christian gospel ever captured in writing; some have gone so far as to call it a compendium of all Christian doctrine.12 This latter assessment is certainly overstated, since too many essential topics are unmentioned in the letter to consider it a synopsis of Paul’s whole theology.13 Still, along with the Letter to the Hebrews, Romans is the closest thing we have to a formal theological treatise in the New Testament.
Romans is all about the drama of sin and salvation. Paul’s thoughts range widely over a landscape of theological and pastoral matters, yet each can be traced back to this inner core of Pauline preaching. Underlying the doctrinal exposition of Romans is a story in which God and the human family are estranged and reconciled again, thanks to the saving righteousness of the Father, the death and resurrection of the Son, and the sanctifying action of the Spirit. Together the Persons of the triune God have done for the fallen race of Adam what it was helpless to do on its own—namely, to raise it from the bondage of sin and death to the grace of new life in the family of God. Paul’s achievement in Romans is to showcase this truth as the distilled essence of Christianity. The gospel is nothing if not a message of unmerited grace, of God’s love redeeming a world undeserving of such a blessing (5:8; 6:23; 8:15; 11:32).
The theology of Romans may be summarized under four headings: (1) God’s righteousness as the basis of salvation, (2) the benefits of salvation for humanity, (3) the salvation of Israel in particular, and (4) the responsibilities that salvation places on the Christian community.
1. The Righteousness of God
Before all else, Paul contends that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God (1:17).14 By this he means that God has shown himself faithful to his covenant commitments of old by accomplishing his greatest saving work in Jesus Christ (3:21–26). Paul elucidates this theme throughout Romans with an eye toward two developments in the early Church that demanded careful explanation: (a) Christianity’s acceptance of Gentiles into the messianic community without requiring their submission to Jewish rites such as circumcision; and (b) widespread unbelief in the gospel among Jews, which could seem to call into question the veracity of the Church’s proclamation. Because these missionary situations raised questions about God’s plan for Israel and the world, Paul labors in Romans to vindicate the faithfulness of God by delineating the various ways the Lord is accomplishing salvation for all people. He is not content simply to assert God’s “fidelity” (3:3), “love” (5:8), “kindness” (11:22), and “truthfulness” (15:8) without support; he shows how God’s actions in Christ confirm the divine promises to the patriarchs (15:8), the testimony of the Mosaic law (3:31), and the expectations of the prophetic writings (16:26).
In particular, Paul expounds God’s righteousness with reference to God’s covenants with Abraham and David. He contends that the Abrahamic covenant, which included promises of Abraham’s universal fatherhood (Gen 17:4) and worldwide blessings through his †elect offspring (Gen 22:16–18), reaches fulfillment as Jews and Gentiles come to faith in Jesus Christ and receive his salvation on equal terms (Rom 1:16; 3:28–30). For believing Jews, the true significance of circumcision as a sign of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 17:10–14) is fulfilled when they exercise the faith of Abraham (Rom 4:12) and observe the Torah from the heart (2:25–29). That only a †remnant of Israel has come to embrace the gospel (11:1–5) is no argument that the word of God has failed, since Scripture reveals that the Israel of faith has always been a chosen subset of Israel according to the flesh (9:6–8). Likewise, in reference to believing Gentiles, Paul insists that their faith is counted as “righteousness,” just as Abraham’s was before he was circumcised (4:3–5, referring to Gen 15:6), and that their imitation of Abraham’s trustful reliance on God makes them his spiritual children, fulfilling the divine pledge that Abraham would become “the father of many nations” (Rom 4:16–17, referring to Gen 17:4). All this was made possible, Paul says, because the Father did not spare his only Son but handed him over to death, just as father Abraham willingly surrendered his beloved Isaac, so that the blessings of the covenant could flow out to all nations (Rom 8:32, alluding to the episode in Gen 22:1–18).
Less appreciated but no less important is Paul’s announcement that God has also fulfilled his covenant of kingship with David. This was the Lord’s threefold pledge to enthrone David’s offspring forever, to make his heir a “son” by royal adoption, and to establish the heir’s rule over Israel and the Gentiles together (2 Sam 7:12–14; Pss 2:7–8; 89:3–5, 20–38). It was precisely this complex of promises that defined most of the messianic expectations in the first century, and Paul makes them a vital part of his gospel exposition in Romans. From the start, he gives Jesus the title “Christ” (Rom 1:1), a reference to the “Anointed One” or “Messiah” of ancient Jewish theology.15 Lest this go unnoticed, Paul affirms that Jesus was born of the royal line of David according to the flesh (1:3) and that God raised him to an immortal life of kingship as “Son of God in power” (1:4). Not only does this verify God’s faithfulness to Israel, who received the strongest assurances that the Lord’s covenant with David would not falter (e.g., Ps 89:34–36), but the Davidic kingship of Jesus has direct implications for the nations beyond Israel as well: “The root of Jesse shall come, / raised up to rule the Gentiles” (Rom 15:12), Paul reminds his readers, citing Isa 11:10. In Paul’s vision, the risen Jesus is enthroned as Messiah and Lord “at the right hand of God” (Rom 8:34), where he intercedes for Israel and the nations and summons all to submit to his lordship (10:12) with “the obedience of faith” (1:5).
2. The Reconciliation of the World
Paul establishes in Romans not only the fact of salvation in Christ but also the need for salvation by all. He prepares to announce the good news by reviewing the bad news of human rebellion against God. Paul turns a spotlight on sin in several places in Romans, but especially in 1:18–3:20. Here, at the beginning of the letter, Paul rails against the idolatry and immorality that prevail in the non-Jewish world of Greeks and barbarians (1:18–32); but he brings charges against Israel as well (2:1–3:20). He agrees with fellow Jews that divine judgment rightly comes against pagan depravity (2:2); nevertheless, he contends that his Jewish brethren, by transgressions of the Torah, are likewise “under the domination of sin” (3:9) and in need of salvation (1:16; 11:26–27). This he establishes with multiple quotations from the Psalms (Rom 3:10–14, 18, 20) and Isaiah (Rom 2:24; 3:15–17), so that no one can dispute that “all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God” (3:23). Ultimately, Paul traces humanity’s need for mercy and reconciliation with God back to the first man, Adam, whose primordial disobedience caused sin to infect his progeny on a universal scale (5:12). Thanks to him, death claimed lordship over the entire human race (5:17) and condemnation came to all (5:18). In this fallen state, the descendants of Adam—Jews as well as Gentiles—are branded “enemies” of God (5:10) and left “helpless” to do anything about their predicament (5:6).
But this is not a problem without a solution. For Paul, the tragedy of spiritual bondage is merely a backdrop against which the gospel shines brighter, for it reveals that “God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all” (11:32). Salvation has now come through Jesus Christ, whose sacrificial death brings forgiveness of sins (3:24–25) and opens the way for reconciliation between the Father and the family of Adam (5:10). Paul articulates this vision of salvation primarily in terms of justification and divine adoption. Justification is the action of God toward one who believes in Jesus (3:26), an action that pardons the sinner and makes him or her righteous in the sight of God (5:19). This is Paul’s way of saying that justification establishes the believer in a right covenant relationship with God. Indeed, he labors in Romans to distinguish the messianic age from the Mosaic age by stressing that membership in the covenant community is secured by faith in Jesus the Messiah and not by observance of Mosaic ritual laws (3:20, 28). Rather than something that is merited or earned by legal practices such as circumcision (4:2–5), justification is a free gift of grace (3:24) bestowed on the circumcised and uncircumcised alike who believe (3:30). Divine adoption, though often underappreciated, is arguably the premiere blessing bestowed on the Christian.16 Paul has important things to say about this in Romans, where he proclaims that believers united with Christ and led by the Spirit (8:10–11) are the sons and daughters of God (8:15–17). God’s adopted children are rescued from the fallen family of Adam, raised to a new standing in the divine family of the Father, and so counted younger siblings of Jesus, “the firstborn among many brothers” (8:29).
Strictly speaking, justification and adoption are two ways of describing the same thing. Not only do they represent two dimensions of a single reality—salvation by grace through faith in Christ—but a close reading of Paul also reveals that both are actualized in the liturgical context of baptism. It is in the sacrament that the benefits of Jesus’ dying and rising to new life are applied to the believer in a transformative way (6:3–4; see 4:25; 1 Cor 6:11; Titus 3:5). Once justified as adopted sons and daughters, the community of faith lives at peace with God (Rom 5:1) and is drawn forward by the hope of sharing the glory of God (5:2). Central to this future hope is the final justification of the faithful before the divine judge (2:6–7, 13) along with the resurrection and redemption of their bodies from suffering and decay (8:18–21, 23).
3. The Restoration of Israel
Romans also deals with the relation between the gospel and the people of Israel, a subject to which Paul gives focused attention in chapters 9–11. Reflection on this topic was occasioned by the fact that “not everyone” in Israel “heeded the good news” (10:16). Disbelief in Jesus as Messiah and Lord was common enough that Paul could speak about it in summary terms as Israel’s “transgression” (11:11) and “disobedience” (11:30). He charges that many of his kin had stumbled (9:32) and become like branches severed from the trunk of an olive tree “because of unbelief” (11:20). This was a source of “constant anguish” for Paul (9:2), who prayed and worked tirelessly for the salvation of Israel (10:1; 11:13–14).
The widespread failure of Israel to accept the righteousness of God in Jesus (10:3–4) raises theological questions about the justice and reliability of God, which Paul is anxious to defend and clarify. As usual, he tackles these issues by turning to the Old Testament. There he finds a consistent pattern in the way God accomplishes his purposes in history. Paul demonstrates, for example, that the Lord advances his plan of redemption through an elect remnant of Israelites (9:27–29; 11:2–5). These are the chosen recipients of his mercy, while others among the covenant people are hardened (9:16–18). God, according to biblical teaching, is sovereignly free to dispense his blessings, just as a potter is free to determine the shape to be given a lump of clay (9:19–23). Indeed, he is now extending his grace to Gentiles as well as Jews (9:24–29), since he is Lord of both (10:12). The point of these observations is to demonstrate that God is not unjust in his ways (9:14) and that his word to Israel has not failed (9:6).
Paul’s reading of Scripture is intended to show that Israel’s stumbling in the present follows the pattern of Israel’s stumbling in the past. One should not be surprised—much less skeptical of Christian claims—to witness Israel resisting the gospel, with only a remnant responding in faith (11:5–7). The Lord brings a “hardening” upon part of Israel (11:25) so that salvation might come to the Gentiles (11:11). But Israel is not thereby a rejected people (11:1–2). On the contrary, the chosen people are still “beloved because of the patriarchs” (11:28). In fact, as they watch the nations come to faith in the Messiah, God aims to provoke Israel to a jealous imitation of Gentile belief (10:19; 11:13–14) that will reattach them to the olive tree of the Lord’s messianic community (11:23–24). Paul stands in awe of “this mystery” and its glorious realization when “all Israel will be saved” (11:25–26). He marvels at the way God uses even disobedience, first among Gentiles and then among Israel, to bestow his mercy on all (11:32).
4. The Requirements of the Christian Life
Intermittently throughout Romans, Paul translates his theological vision into practical instructions for Christian living. Speaking generally, he urges readers to walk “in the newness of life” they received in baptism (6:4). Believers must fight against the enslaving power of sin (6:12–14) and yield themselves to obedience, which leads to righteousness (6:16), sanctification (6:19), and ultimately eternal life (6:22). To achieve this, they must offer body and mind as a sacrifice to the Lord (12:1–2) and remain steadfast in prayer (12:12). Suffering plays a critical role in this as well, as Paul ascribes to it the power to sculpt a Christian’s character (5:3–4) and conform the believer more closely to Christ (8:17). Regarding particular attitudes and actions, Paul urges disciples to practice humility (12:3, 16) and generosity (12:13) and so conquer evil with what is good (12:21). As members of the body of Christ, believers are expected to use their spiritual gifts for the upbuilding of the whole community (12:4–8); as citizens in the world, they are bidden to pay taxes and to honor rightful government authorities (13:1–7). Those who observe these standards will become more like Jesus, who “did not please himself” (15:3) but made himself a “servant” to all (15:8 RSV).
Fundamental to Paul’s moral and spiritual catechesis in Romans is the conviction that Christian living is possible only by the grace of the Spirit (8:11). Once empowered from within, the children of God can finally put to death the sinful deeds of the flesh (8:13) that impede their ability to obey the law of God (8:7). In other words, the Spirit enables the baptized to fulfill “the righteous decree of the law” that was otherwise unattainable for fallen human nature (8:4). Paul appears to have in mind the specific decree to “love one another” (13:8), which constitutes the fulfillment of the law (13:10). This level of obedience, which comes from the heart (6:17), is the outworking of divine grace, since “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us” (5:5). The love required by the law is a love powerfully and abundantly supplied by the Spirit.
Challenges for Interpreting the Letter
Many readers find Romans to be almost as frustrating as it is fascinating. It is one of the most loved of the Pauline Letters, and yet it does not yield its secrets willingly. Critics say this is because Paul is a clumsy and confused thinker. The truth of the matter, however, is just the opposite. Paul is one of most brilliant theologians the Church has ever known, and so his thoughts frequently soar at an altitude that few others are able to reach or sustain.
Romans is a demanding read. This seems to have been evident already in apostolic times—possibly Peter had Romans in mind when he admitted that “there are some things hard to understand” in Paul’s Letters (2 Pet 3:16). All of us are sure to find parts of this letter that make for slow sledding. But this is not a bad thing. Taking the time to read carefully through Romans and to ask intelligent questions along the way can bring tremendous rewards. After all, Paul did not write with the intention of being obscure or of having his teaching misconstrued. He has precious wisdom to offer, but we won’t receive it without some exertion.
A few things should be kept in mind when reading Romans: (1) Paul’s writing style is terse and tightly packed. Few have the ability to stuff a maximum of meaning into a minimum of words like the apostle to the Gentiles. Consequently, the impression derived from a surface reading of his words rarely penetrates to the depths of what he is trying to say. This is an argument for mulling over Romans and reading it attentively several times over. (2) At the same time, we need to be careful not to lose sight of the forest for the trees by fixating on words and phrases to the neglect of the whole message of the letter or its larger units. Paul is notorious for building his arguments over the course of several chapters at a time. If we fail to see this, we risk missing the big picture of what Romans is all about. (3) From start to finish, Paul measures the truth of his gospel against the teaching of Scripture. In fact, of the whole collection of Pauline Letters, none is more densely concentrated with references to the Old Testament than Romans. And despite occasional charges to the contrary, he is not guilty of mere proof-texting—of plucking verses from the Bible that appear to support his assertions regardless of what they actually mean. On the contrary, Paul’s biblical exegesis in Romans is contextual exegesis. This means, on the one hand, that Paul is aware of the original contexts and meanings of his scriptural references and, on the other, that he generally considers that information relevant. Readers who are less familiar with the Old Testament than Paul will need to go back and investigate the original contexts of his biblical citations. A precise understanding of his teaching often depends on our willingness to do this type of background work.
1. Harry J. Leon, The Jews of Ancient Rome, updated ed. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995), 135–36.
2. Philo of Alexandria, Embassy to Gaius 23.155.
3. Policies favorable to the Jewish population of the empire were put in place by the Caesars Julius and Augustus. See E. Mary Smallwood, The Jews under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian, 2nd ed. (Leiden: Brill, 1981), 120–38.
4. The evidence, drawn from Jewish burial inscriptions, is briefly surveyed in Wolfgang Wiefel, “The Jewish Community in Ancient Rome and the Origins of Roman Christianity,” in The Romans Debate, ed. Karl P. Donfried, rev. and expanded ed. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995), 85–101.
5. For instance, Acts 28:21 implies that written communication between Roman and Judean Jews was not out of the ordinary. There are also stories of Palestinian rabbis making visits to Rome (†Mishnah Abodah Zerah 4.7; Erubin 4.1).
6. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.14. Jerome, On Illustrious Men 1.1, specifies that Peter arrived in Rome in the second year of Claudius.
7. On the one hand, a Christian writer from the fourth century claims that the Romans had not “received their faith in Christ from any of the apostles” (Ambrosiaster, Commentary on Romans, preface, in Commentaries on Romans and 1–2 Corinthians, trans. and ed. Gerald L. Bray, Ancient Christian Texts [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2009], 1). On the other hand, the fifth-century historian Orosius attributes the beginning of the Roman church to the evangelization of Peter (History against the Pagans 7.6). Irenaeus, a bishop of the late second century, also states that the church in Rome was “founded and organized” by Peter and Paul (Against Heresies 3.3.2), although this is generally taken to refer to the apostles’ activities in the mid-60s, when both ministered and suffered martyrdom in Rome. The Catalogus Liberianus of AD 354 also names Peter as the founder of the church in Rome.
8. Even scholars who are unpersuaded that Peter was in Rome this early nevertheless find it probable that Christianity had come to the capital by the early 40s. See, e.g., Raymond E. Brown and John P. Meier, Antioch and Rome: New Testament Cradles of Catholic Christianity (New York: Paulist Press, 1983), 103.
9. I hold that ch. 16 is an integral part of Paul’s original Letter to the Romans, even though a few modern scholars dispute this.
10. The edict is first mentioned by the Roman historian Suetonius (Life of Claudius 25.4). The date of the edict, however, is given by the fifth-century Christian historian Orosius (History against the Pagans 7.6.15). The latter’s testimony agrees with Acts 18:2, which indicates that around AD 51 Paul crossed paths in Corinth with the Jewish-Christian couple Aquila and Priscilla, who had “recently” come from Italy on account of Claudius’s eviction.
11. Acts 13:16–50; 14:1–7, 19; 17:1–9, 13; 18:5–6, 12–17; 19:23.
12. This was the view of Martin Luther’s protégé, Philip Melanchthon.
13. For example, Romans has little or nothing to say about the Church and its various ministries, about the centrality of the Eucharist in Christian worship, about the return of Jesus in glory and the events of the end times, and so forth, even though these are vital subjects of discussion in some of Paul’s other letters.
14. Romans has even been called “a large-scale map” of the righteousness of God. See N. T. Wright, “Romans and the Theology of Paul,” in Pauline Theology, Volume III: Romans, ed. David M. Hay and E. Elizabeth Johnson (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995), 30–67, quotation from p. 36.
15. The NABRE varies its translation of the Greek Christos. It is rendered “Christ” when used as a direct reference to Jesus, but “Messiah” when referring to the chief blessing promised to Israel (Rom 9:5). Readers should be aware that the underlying Greek term is the same in all instances and that Paul uses the title “Christ” with its full messianic significance intended.
16. See Trevor J. Burke, “Adopted as Sons (ΥΙΟΘΕΣΙΑ): The Missing Piece in Pauline Soteriology,” in Paul: Jew, Greek, and Roman, ed. Stanley E. Porter (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 259–87; Martin W. Schoenberg, OSC, “St. Paul’s Notion on the Adoptive Sonship of Christians,” The Thomist 28, no. 1 (1964): 51–75; J. M. Scott, Adoption as Sons of God: An Exegetical Investigation into the Background of ΥΙΟΘΕΣΙΑ in the Pauline Corpus (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1992).