Romans Romans
Romans
The letter to Rome is by common consent not only Paul’s masterpiece but one of the most astonishing pieces of writing on any subject from any time or culture. It is dense, fast-paced, combative and lyrical by turns. It wrestles with some of the hardest problems in philosophy or theology and ranks with anything Plato or Aristotle ever wrote—except that it is much shorter, covers more ground, and draws together the traditions of Israel while taking on the traditions of Greece. And also Rome! The letter presents—in writing to a small, disjointed group in Caesar’s capital!—a picture of Jesus as the true “son of God,” the world’s rightful Lord, summoning all people to believing allegiance because the “good news” of his reign brings “salvation,” “justice” and “peace.” In every element of that sequence Paul is claiming that in Jesus you can see the truth of which Caesar and his rhetoric were a mere parody.
The ostensible purpose of the letter is to introduce Paul to the church in Rome ahead of his projected visit, and to solicit support for his intended trip to Spain. But there were problems in the Roman church as well. A large number of Jews had been expelled by the emperor Claudius in the late 40s, and had returned to Rome after Claudius’s death in AD 54; but many ordinary Romans, including it seems some Jesus-followers, had not been happy about this, with some of the non-Jewish Christians supposing that the message of Jesus was now for Gentiles only. Tensions were in the air, too, between the different house-churches, which probably took different views on such matters as food laws, keeping of holy days, and the like. What from one point of view, then, is a general letter setting out Paul’s mature view of “the gospel,” from another point of view is sharply focused on the need for Gentile Christians to understand the strange dynamic of God’s dealings with Israel, and on the need for unity.
The four “movements” of this letter (chapters 1—4, 5—8, 9—11 and 12—16) form a symphonic whole. The overarching theme is the covenant faithfulness of the one God: Paul draws on the Old Testament to stress that the one God has been faithful to his promises to, and through, Abraham, by creating from the wreck of idolatrous and sinful humankind a single forgiven family marked out by the same “faith” or “faithfulness” that Jesus embodied in going to his saving death. This is set out briefly in the first section (1—4), providing a platform from which Paul can survey the entire narrative of creation and humankind, from the failed vocation of the first human to the glorious promise of resurrected humankind in a newborn created order (8.18–30).
This, however, only heightens the tension left unresolved in chapters 1—4: what has God been doing with Israel? Chapters 9—11 answer the question in terms of the Messiah himself and his inauguration of the covenant renewal promised in Deuteronomy. Those who believe in his resurrection and confess him as Lord are the new covenant people. God will save “all Israel,” but only “if they do not remain in unbelief” (11.23). His main message in chapter 11 is a sharp warning to Gentile Christians not to suppose that God has finished with his ancient people.
This then opens the way for the appeal of chapters 12—16, which is general in chapters 12 and 13 and specific in 14.1—15.13. Underlying it all is the true worship, which means being transformed by the renewal of the mind and the offering of one’s whole self to God (12.1–2). This leads to a bracing and outward-facing ethic, and particularly to patterns of reconciliation, and ultimately shared worship, among Jesus-followers of all backgrounds. Paul’s travel plans round off chapter 15, and chapter 16 provides a long list of greetings to Paul’s many friends, and some relatives, in the different Roman house-churches.
Romans
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a. The New Testament for Everyone, Third Edition. Copyright © 2011, 2018, 2019 by
Nicholas Thomas Wright, The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. All rights reserved. Published by Zondervan, 2023.
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