2024-09-22 Romans Introduction

The Book of Romans

An Introduction

Good morning and welcome to the Countryside Vineyard, those in person and those in TV Land.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Joe Fager and I’m one of the Pastor’s here.

This morning, we will be starting a brand new series going verse by verse through the Book of Romans.

Specifically, this morning I am going to give you an introduction to this book, often called the greatest book ever written.

We will be spending almost exactly one year studying this fascinating often challenging book.

We are going to look at the who what why where when, and I’ll give a brief overview of what kind of topics we’ll be looking at over the next year.

One of the greatest Christian thinkers and prolific writers of all time, Augustine (4th-5th Century), had a Holy Spirit encounter from reading Romans. It was from reading Romans that he owes his salvation.

Martin Luther attributed Romans as the reason he was in Christ and began his crusade to reform the church. Remember before he started his commentary on Romans he was a pastor, but according to him an unconverted one.

There are many stories of other great Christian leaders who owe everything to the book of Romans.

So let’s get started.

But before I begin to teach, let’s Pray…

Authorship – There is no question that Paul wrote Romans. This is one of the few letters attributed to Paul that scholars don’t really question. But, there is on point about Romans and Paul that is unique to Romans, and that is that Paul did not plant the church in Rome, which we will see early in our study. Paul had never been to Rome at the point at which he wrote this letter. Every other letter Paul writes is to an audience that he is familiar with and who are familiar to him. Of course as we will see, some of the Christians in Rome knew him, but the majority of the church would not have known him at all.

Date – When did Paul write this letter? According to the records in the Book of Acts, and the internal evidence in Romans, Paul wrote Romans right before he made his final visit to Jerusalem to bring the donations from all his churches to the Christians who were suffering there. It was this fateful trip that saw Paul become a prisoner and which eventually led him to Rome, where he would eventually face the executioner.

That puts the writing of this letter right about 56-57 AD. This makes Romans the sixth book that Paul wrote. The two letters to the Thessalonians, the two letters to the Corinthians, and Galatians would have preceded this letter.

Audience – Though some manuscripts omit the phrase, in Rome, (verse 7 and verse 15 of Chapter 1), scholars almost unanimously believe that the intended audience was the churches of Rome.

Notice I said churches. There were likely many churches in Rome as it was one of the largest cities in the world of that time. These would have been house churches led by lay persons.

When I say lay persons, I mean no Apostle seems to have been to Rome to lead the church there. Eventually we know that both Peter and Paul were executed in Rome, but at the time when Paul wrote this letter there were no Apostles there (about 25 years after Pentecost).

So who established and led the churches in Rome?

In Acts 2:10 at Pentecost Luke records that there were visitors from Rome both Jews and converted gentiles. These all heard the gospel from Peter and then went back to Rome. From these people then it is easy to deduce that the churches in Rome were established and grew.

According to Paul’s greeting to the church of Rome, it is assumed that the church is a strong one. Romans 1:8 “First I thank God through Christ Jesus for you all, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.”

What was the make-up of the church in Rome?

From Paul’s language in the Book of Romans we can be sure that the church is a mix between Jews and gentiles. At times he seems to be speaking to Jews directly (2:17-24), and at others he seems to be speaking to gentiles directly (9:3-5; 11:13-32), so there is no doubt that the church was a mix.

However, external evidence seems to indicate that at the time Paul wrote Romans, the church would have been mostly gentile with a small Jewish minority.

There is no doubt that in 49 AD (6-7 years before Paul wrote Romans) Claudius Cesar expelled all the Jews from Rome.

From Suetonius (private secretary to the emperor Hadrian) we learn that in a.d. 49 Claudius had “expelled from Rome Jews who were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus.” This is a likely a Latin reference to the Greek Christos which is a reference to Jesus the Christos (Christ). The Jews in Rome were fighting over whether Jesus was the Christ (Messiah), so Claudius just expelled them all. By about the time Paul wrote Romans they would have been trickling back in. So according to all this it is safe to say that the church at Rome was majority gentile, with a minority of Jews. Also, in chapter 16 where Paul makes a bunch of personal greetings, we see that some names are Jewish and others are gentile, so the church was a mix between the two.

Purpose and Content

Why did Paul write Romans?

There are two primary reasons that Paul wrote Romans.

To introduce himself and solicit help for his trip to Spain.

Paul says he is done with his work in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. He has planted multiple churches over the past two decades and now wants to move west to Spain. It is assumed that just as Antioch in Syria was his base of operation for his evangelism of the east, so he wished to make Rome his base for evangelism to the west.

15:23-24 But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, 24 I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

To promote Jewish and gentile unity.

This is the main theme of the book. The single most important purpose. Paul has heard about the struggles in Rome, and he wants to bring Jews and gentiles under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

He accomplishes this by interweaving to main themes.

First is the justification of guilty sinners by God’s grace alone in Christ alone through faith alone, irrespective of either status or works.

Status meaning whether Jew or gentile, slave or free, circumcised or uncircumcised. Paul says we are all guilty before God and need to be justified by him, and that only comes through faith in Christ and Christ alone.

Second is to redefine the people of God (true Israel)

no longer…

according to descent,

circumcision or culture,

but according to faith in Jesus

So that all believers are the true children of Abraham, regardless of their ethnic origin or religious practice.

So ‘there is no difference’ now between Jews and Gentiles, either in the fact of their sin and guilt or in Christ’s offer and gift of salvation

3:22-24 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

10:11-13 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The single most important theme of Romans is the equality of Jews and Gentiles.

Content of Romans

The letter apart from the opening greeting and closing greeting can broken down into four main parts.

The case against humanity. (1:18-3:20).

The revelation of God’s righteousness in the gospel is necessary because of the revelation of his wrath against unrighteousness (18). The wrath of God, his pure and perfect antagonism to evil, is directed against all those who deliberately suppress what they know to be true and right, in order to go their own way. For everybody has some knowledge of God and of goodness, whether through the created world (19f.), or through conscience (32), or through the moral law written on human hearts (2:12f.), or through the law of Moses committed to the Jews (2:17f.).

The apostle divides the human race into three sections—

depraved pagan society (1:18–32),

critical moralizers whether Jews or Gentiles (2:1–16),

and well-instructed, self-confident Jews (2:17–3:8).

He then concludes by accusing the whole human race (3:9–20). In each case his argument is the same, that nobody lives up to the knowledge which he or she has. Even the special privileges of the Jews do not exempt them from divine judgment. No, ‘Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin’ (3:9), ‘for God does not show favouritism’ (2:11). All human beings are sinful, guilty and without excuse before God. The picture is one of unrelieved darkness.

The extent of God’s Grace toward all humans- 3:21-8:39

This section has a lot of parts but the essential theme of the section is to show that God extended his grace to us through Christ.

And that through his grace he gave us a new way to live, that is in the Spirit.

The Plan of God (9-11)

This section answers questions like.

Why Israel in the first place?

Why didn’t God just send Jesus instead of Abraham?

Why did it take so long?

Why all the messiness of salvation history?

The Response of the believer. (12-15:14)

Opening this section, Paul says “In view of God’s mercy.”

And that is the theme of the rest of the instructional portion of the letter.

In view of God’s mercy this is how you should respond.

This is how you Christians should live because of what God did for you.

In summary, Romans is often cited as the most important book of the Bible as it explains the events that the gospels portray. Obviously, they are just as vital, but for practical, how then should I live, what should I believe terms Romans is the absolute most comprehensive explanation of everything. That is why it is first amongst the letters (epistles). The church has always placed Romans in a place of priority.

So, practical tips as we go through Romans. I encourage you this week to read Romans before we start going through it. If you take notes, I encourage you as you read, jot down any questions you have at first glance. “I wonder what Paul meant when he said “ x ”? What does it mean to “_____?”

Jot these down maybe in the front of your notebook, and reference these questions as we come to them, and see if we answer them in the lesson. If not then you can ask however was teaching that section if they have any insight to your question.

My point: Don’t just read, and don’t just sit here and listen. Get to know Romans by asking questions of the text. By reading ahead and forming your own questions. This is what we mean when we say study the Bible.

Let’s engage with this book!

In Jesus’ name