Romans.
Romans.
§ 257. Of the thirteen Pauline Epistles, the first is Romans, not in terms of the time of its writing but in dignity, for it is correctly called “the key to theology” because of the majesty of the things with which it deals. The occasion for its writing was this: There were at Rome both Jews and Gentiles who had been converted to Christ. The Jews were taking for themselves a sort of prerogative because of the divine covenant and their circumcision, urging the ceremonies of the Law and seeking to be justified partly by faith in Christ, partly by their works. The Gentiles, on the other hand, with high arrogance held the Jews in contempt as if God had rejected them. Also, many of them were using their freedom under the Gospel as license for the flesh. The apostle, therefore, wished to advise both with this Epistle.
Origen, preface to his commentary, concludes that Paul wrote this letter at Corinth on the basis of the following reasons: (1) Because he commends to the Romans Phoebe, whom he calls “a servant of the church at Cenchreae” (Rom. 16:1). But Cenchreae is the port of Corinth. (2) He greets them in the name of a certain Gaius, his “host,” about whom he writes to the Corinthians that he baptized him there (1 Cor. 1:14). (3) He greets them in the name of “Erastus, the city treasurer,” who, he writes, had remained at Corinth (2 Tim. 4:20). (4) The postscript added to this Epistle bears witness to the same thing.
Romans consists of sixteen chapters in which he joins to his introduction a treatment consisting both of a legal accusation of Gentiles and Jews—that both are guilty of sin—and of evangelical teaching concerning gratuitous justification and the consequent renewal of the life of justification. An epilogue follows this treatment.