“Romans has a particular practical purpose. Paul was eager to make Rome his base of operations in the western Mediterranean - specifically his projected trip to Spain - as Antioch had been his base in the east. This was a more complex challenge than it sounds , since as it becomes clear, the Roman church consisted of several house churches with significantly different viewpoints....So Paul not only nails his colors to the mast on basic issues of the Gospel itself, (but) of how that message about Jesus is the ground for justification by faith, (and) of how that in turn is the key to church unity across ethic boundaries …if we summarized Romans it might read ‘God Demonstrates his own love for us: the Messiah died for us while we were still sinners’”
