Romans Introduction

Why did Paul write to the Christians in Rome?

While Romans was a new kind of letter for Paul to write—he had previously written at least nine of the New Testament letters—he was not thinking through ideas for the first time. Romans is an exposition of ideas he had tried, tested, and worked out in detail. In Romans Paul poured out his Jesus-focused teachings that together say more than the sum of their parts. Tom Wright says that we should listen to Romans in the way we would listen to a symphony—not just for the big tune (theme) but for the larger whole to which all the parts contribute.

Romans was designed to make vital points to the church in Rome. Although Paul had yet to visit Rome, he had friends there and knew quite a bit about what was happening. Being the most influential city in the world, Paul wanted the church in Rome to be as strong and as grounded in Jesus as possible. He wanted Jesus to be declared the true Lord right under Caesar’s nose, no matter what the cost might be to Christians. Rome was the most strategic city of Paul’s day, and Paul had to get there.

From reading the names in Romans 16, there appears to be a variety of house-churches in Rome worshipping Jesus but not necessarily being in relationship with one another. He saw potential long-term danger and decided to draw upon his lifetime of biblical and pastoral reflections to keep the young Jesus movement from leaving its Jewish and scriptural roots. The Jews had been banished from Rome by Claudius in AD 49. With Nero’s accession to the throne in 54, he revoked Claudius’ edict. The church which had begun in a Jewish synagogue context had become a completely Gentile phenomenon by AD 54 with the Jews removed from the city for five years. For Paul the danger was the loss of a movement based on messianic eschatology into a religion no longer grounded in its Jewish origins and God’s Old Covenant promises. He wanted a religion of rescue and public witness rather than one of private devotion.

As Paul planned to come to Rome, he likely wrote the letter in Corinth in the spring or summer of AD 57. He hoped to use Rome as a mission base to reach farther west into Spain. He did not want to align himself with one or two house-churches while ignoring the rest. The house-churches were separated from each other with different codes of practice. They probably used different songs, spoke with different accents, and regarded one another with suspicion. The unity he argued for in Romans was vital for his own mission and for the future of the church. The conflict in Rome was not primarily ethnic—different races and cultures—but theological. There were different convictions about the status of God’s covenant and law and about salvation as well. Paul wrote with a vision for Christian theological unity.

To simplify the situation, there were likely representatives of “Judaizing Christianity,” who regarded Christianity as simply part of Judaism and required their followers to observe the Jewish law. With most of the Jews absent from the city, the Gentile Christians became supporters of a law-free gospel. Paul determined in Romans to make a fresh statement of the apostolic gospel, which would not compromise any of its revealed truth and at the same time resolve the conflict between the two groups, bringing unity to the church. This led Paul to redefine the people of God, no longer according to descent, circumcision, or culture, but according to faith in Jesus.

When this letter arrived in Rome with Phoebe from Cenchreae, she read it out loud and likely expounded it too, answering questions from her Roman Christian listeners. Here we have evidence of a woman presiding at a Christian gathering and preaching as well! In Romans we get a rare glimpse of the early church.

According to N. T. Wright, “Romans is like a symphony in four movements, each with its own integrity but also with multiple links to the other parts. It is full of interlocking lines of thought, not least through its complex invoking of scripture. The four movements are clear: chapters 1-4, then 5-8, then 9-11, then 12-16.