Romans Overview

Basic Information

Tonight

Relevant context to the book

Also tying it into our context today

What do you guys know about this book?

What are some key verses you know from Romans?

Author: Paul

Written to: The Church in Rome

Fun Fact: Paul did not plant the Church in Rome and had never visited it at the time of writing

We’ll talk about why…

We are starting in Romans but it is very different than most of the epistles

It is long (16 chapters)

Compared to 4-6 chapters

It is dense

Paul is building an argument as the letter progresses

Paul assumes knowledge of some OT stories and characters

It is primarily theological

It doesn’t go into detail in addressing many of the problems at the church itself

It is one of the most important theological documents ever written

It has shaped the teaching of Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Wesley, and more

Yet Romans is not a systematic theology

It is not Paul writing a book of doctrine and theology

It is a letter written with specific historical circumstances

Context

The New Bible Commentary

The movement of the letter is dictated by the internal logic of the gospel rather than by local issues. This does not mean that Paul wrote the letter in a vacuum: Romans is not a timeless theological treatise, but a letter, written to a specific church in a specific situation. Romans, like all Paul’s letters, is an occasional document. We must not forget the audience he had in view as he wrote.

Two Questions of Context arise

It is a letter

There is a writer and a recipient

What is happening with Paul as he writes this letter?

What is happening at the church in Rome at this time?

Paul

This is towards the end of Paul’s missionary career

We only get this information towards the end of the letter in chapter 15

The New Bible Commentary

He is on his way to Jerusalem, where he plans to hand over to the Jewish church the money that he has collected from the Gentile mission churches. From Jerusalem, Paul intends to travel to Spain in order to begin a new evangelistic work there. On his way to Spain, Paul plans to stop in Rome.

You hear about this collection in the other letters (like Corinthians and Philippians)

Paul has reached a crucial turning point in his missionary work

Listen to his words:

Romans 15:19–20 (CSB)

As a result, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum. My aim is to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named, so that I will not build on someone else’s foundation

Romans 15:22–24 (CSB)

That is why I have been prevented many times from coming to you. But now I no longer have any work to do in these regions, and I have strongly desired for many years to come to you whenever I travel to Spain. For I hope to see you when I pass through and to be assisted by you for my journey there, once I have first enjoyed your company for a while.

The New Bible Commentary

Paul believed that the work God had given him to do—to plant strategic churches through which the gospel could be proclaimed—was finished in that area. Just as early American pioneers felt crowded and moved on whenever they could see the smoke from someone else’s cabin, so Paul felt ‘crowded’ by the number of Christians where he was ministering and wanted to move on to what we might today call ‘unreached peoples’.

So that is where Paul is at, but what about the church in Rome?

The Church in Rome

The New Bible Commentary

Probably Jewish pilgrims from Rome, converted through the preaching of Peter on the Day of Pentecost, planted the gospel among the large Jewish population in the capital city (Luke notes in Acts 2:10 that Jews from Rome were present on that day).

The New Bible Commentary

The expulsion (which is probably to be dated in AD 49) would have had a significant effect on the make-up of the Christian community in Rome: Gentiles, who had up to this point comprised a minority of the believers, were now left as the only Christians in the city. Therefore, although Jews had been allowed to move back to Rome by the time Paul wrote to the Romans—Priscilla and Aquila, for instance, had returned (Rom. 16:3–4)—Gentiles were in the majority in the church, and had come to dominate both its leadership and theological tone.

Jews expelled

some years later could come back

The church had taken a gentile tone

There was conflict between these groups

So this is what is happening with both Paul and the local church

But like I said, there is not much that talks about Paul or the church’s situation until the end of the letter

For the most part it is a theological essay/speech written

Purpose

Why Did Paul Write Romans?

The New Bible Commentary

The most likely answers can be grouped into two major categories: those that focus on Paul’s own situation and those that focus on the situation of the Roman Christians.

The New Bible Commentary - Paul’s Situation

Paul may have been writing to introduce himself to the Romans and explain what it is he believes with the purpose of gaining support from them for his mission to Spain.

The New Bible Commentary - Rome’s Situation

Paul wrote in order to heal a division within the church at Rome. The division was specifically one between Gentile Christians (the ‘strong’) and Jewish Christians (the ‘weak’), and this explains why Paul spends so much time in the letter carefully setting forth his theology as it relates to these two groups.

The New Bible Commentary

This was especially important because false rumours about what Paul preached had reached the Romans (see 3:8). He had apparently earned the reputation in the early church of being anti-law and anti-Jewish. Paul sought to show that this was not the case.

So this is why it was written

But what is it about?

Themes & Key Verses

The New Bible Commentary

If, then, we are to identify a single theme for the letter, it must be ‘the gospel’. The word is prominent in the introduction (1:1–2, 9, 15) and conclusion (15:16, 19) of the letter

This letter is filled with so many amazing verses but if I was to choose a single theme verse it would be Romans 1:16.

Romans 1:16 (CSB)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.

So Romans is primarily about:

The Gospel

I get this outline from the Bible Project Video (Watch it!)

Reveals God’s Righteousness (1-4)

Romans 1:16–17 (CSB)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

Humanity is depraved and in need of a savior

God is righteous in his judgement

Even the law cant’ be fully kept and the Jews aren’t any better off

But true righteousness comes through faith

Romans 3:22–24 (CSB)

The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Then Paul goes to both Abraham and David and shows how it was their faith not their works that had made them righteous

And Gods mission is not just justifying people by faith

But the purpose of it all is to create a new humanity

Creates a New Humanity (5-8)

Sin has reigned since Adam

Through Jesus, God is making a new humanity to dwell with him

There is a new life in Christ

Romans 8 - The Pinacle of God’s work in creating a new humanity

We are free from condemnation

Set free from the law of sin and death

God has given us his Spirit

We are adopted into God’s family

We have a great hope that we should deeply long for

We eagerly wait for this hope with patience

The Spirit intercedes for us

God is working everything together for our good

The Pinacle

Romans 8:31–32 (CSB)

What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?

Romans 8:33–34 (CSB)

Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.

Romans 8:35 (CSB)

Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

Romans 8:37–39 (CSB)

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This New Humanity are God’s own children who will not be cut off or forsaken

God himself intercedes for us and works everything together for our good

Even though this New Humanity includes Gentiles it still...

Fulfills God’s Promise to Israel (9-11)

God fulfilling Israel’s promise brings...

Unifies the Church (12-16)

God both fulfills his promise to Israel while extending grace to the gentiles

With all of the amazing grace God has given us Paul then tells the church

Romans 12:1–2 (CSB)

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

So Paul urges the Christians in Rome (Jew and Gentile) to live at peace with each other

Conflict is inevitable

But our duty as Christians is to extend peace and love to others

Romans 12 is an amazing chapter on how we are to live with and relate to each other

Conclusion

Then Paul wraps up his letter with the context we talked about in the beginning

Telling them of his plans to travel to Spain to bring the gospel there

Read!

Romans is such an amazing letter that we could all be built up from

I know it can seem daunting but I highly encourage you to read and meditate on Romans 8 & 12