CONTENTS
CONTENTS
Romans is not greatly taken up with local issues (as is, e.g., 1 Corinthians). It is true that Paul is apparently not unmindful of certain happenings at Rome. Thus he has a good deal to say about positions taken up by Jews. It would be pointless to mention such views unless the Roman Christians knew that Jews did teach such things (2:17; 3; 4:1; 7:13; 9:31–32; 11:11, etc.). There are references to antinomian objections to Christian discipline (3:8, 31; 6:1, 15; 7:7ff.) and to Gentile arrogance over against the Jews (11:18ff.), and a warning against people “who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned” (16:17). Paul knows of the faith of the Roman Christians (1:8) and of their obedience (16:19). He speaks of the “strong” and the “weak” in such a way as to lead to the conclusion that both groups were represented at Rome (14:1–15:13). But, though such aspects of the epistle show that Paul had some knowledge of conditions at Rome, the letter is much more concerned with teachings which are timeless and which do not arise from contemporary Roman circumstances. It may be significant that Paul nowhere indicates that he had had communications from the church at Rome as he had had, for example, from the Corinthians (they had written to him, 1 Cor. 7:1; Chloe’s people had given Paul news, 1 Cor. 1:11; and Stephanas and others had come from Corinth, 1 Cor. 16:17; there is no equivalent in Romans).
The letter is not to be understood apart from Paul’s own experience. He had been brought up an orthodox Jew, a loyal Pharisee, fanatical to the point of persecuting the Christians. But on the Damascus road he had come face to face with the risen Christ. This encounter revolutionized his entire way of thinking and living. He saw now that God had been active in Christ and that it was through the cross that he had brought salvation to mankind. Grace, not law, was decisive. Romans puts great stress on the divine initiative and on the centrality of grace. Paul is not taking his own experience as normative. An important section of the epistle is taken up with God’s dealings with Abraham, and another with his activities with his own people Israel. But while God might deal with people in different ways, he has always acted by the way of grace.
By the time he wrote this letter Paul had been a Christian preacher for something like 20 years. He had three months without pressing commitments (Acts 20:3). He may well have felt that this was a good time, as the projected visit to Rome was a good occasion, to set out in order a summary of the gospel and its consequences as he understood them. In view of the uncertainties surrounding his reception at Jerusalem he may have thought that if he could secure the approval of the Roman Christians this would have good results at Jerusalem too (though there appears to be no way by which any Roman approval could have been known in Jerusalem in time to be of help to him).
After these preliminaries Paul states briefly the thesis of his letter, stressing the power of God manifest in the gospel and the importance of faith (1:16–17). Then he proceeds to a massive argument in which he shows that all people, Gentiles and Jews alike, are sinners and in danger of the judgment of God (1:18–3:20). This leads to the tremendous thought that by sending Christ to die on the cross God has opened the way for people to have right standing, “righteousness” before him. This means that their sin is put away, and that they are not required to earn their salvation by their own merit. Not that this is a new discovery. Paul goes back to Abraham to show that this had always been God’s way.75 Then he goes right back to Adam to show that the entail of sin which has shackled the human race from the very first has been broken in Christ. Though he puts such emphasis on justification by faith, Paul is not insensitive to the need for upright living; his doctrine that forgiveness is God’s free gift in no way opens the door to a sluggard Christianity bereft of moral effort. He then goes on to the importance of a clean break with sin and to the gift of the Holy Spirit which enables the believer to walk in the ways of God (chs. 6–8).
Following this he gives himself over to a subject which clearly concerned him deeply, namely the problem posed by the fact that, though the Jews were God’s own people, they had rejected God’s Messiah when he came. For three chapters Paul wrestles with the question of whether God has rejected his people and concludes that God has acted and always will act in mercy (chs. 9–11). In the final major section of the letter (chs. 12–15) he writes of the way in which the life of faith is to be lived in the actual world in which we find ourselves, and he rounds it all off with a section of greetings and the like (ch. 16).
This is a massive treatment of great themes, themes which are right at the heart of the Christian faith. Romans does not offer much that is new. In his earlier writings Paul has given expression to many of the themes he develops in this epistle.76 But there is a sustained depth in Romans which is unmatched, and a concentration on the great, central doctrines of the Christian faith.77 When these great thoughts are lost sight of, what remains is not authentic Christianity. But when they are affirmed, essential Christianity is proclaimed. Perhaps this is why Romans has a way of coming to the fore at any time of revival of vital Christianity.
One point that is often overlooked and should be stressed is that Romans is fundamentally a book about God.78 It is obvious to all that Romans is concerned with the gospel, with salvation, and so on. But many students seem not to have noticed Paul’s preoccupation with God. The thought of God dominates this epistle. The word “God” occurs 153 times in Romans, an average of once every 46 words. This is more often than in any other New Testament writing (except the short 1 John). Acts has the word 166 times, but since it is so much longer this works out to once in 110 words. The only other books with more than 100 occurrences are Luke with 122 and 1 Corinthians with 105. And not only does “God” occur in Romans more frequently than in any other writing, it occurs more often than any other theme in that book. Apart from a few prepositions, pronouns, and the like,79 no word is used in Romans with anything like the frequency of “God”. Next is “law” (72 times), then “Christ” (65), “sin” (48), “Lord” (43), and “faith” (40). Statistics must always be used with caution, but these figures draw attention to the important fact that in Romans the one great theme is God. Paul writes on a number of topics, but everything is related to God. He sees law, for example, not in the abstract but in relation to the way of God. He sees Christ as bringing about “the righteousness of God”. He sees sin as sin against God. And so on. Romans may truly be described in a way that no other book can be, as a book about God. It is perhaps this that gives it its importance and its appeal.80