Except for the Gospels themselves, Paul’s letter to the Romans is the most widely read book of the Newer Testament. It has been labeled the Magna Carta of the Christian faith…not only is it theological; it’s practical. As with almost all of Paul’s letters, Romans logically connects Christian theology with Christian living.

In order to properly interpret the message of Romans for us today (Wherefore), we must first make some foundational observations: Who, What, When, Where, Why and To Whom. Failure to understand the context and background of Romans guarantees an interpretation and understanding different from Paul’s original intent.

Almost no one disputes that the apostle Paul wrote Romans (Saul was Paul’s Hebrew name; Paul his Greek name). Like his namesake, Israel’s first king, Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin (Phil. 3:5). He was also a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37; 22:25). Paul was born about the time of Christ’s birth, in Tarsus (Acts 9:11), an important city (Acts 21:39) in the Roman province of Cilicia, located in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). He spent much of his early life in Jerusalem as a student of the celebrated rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). Like his father before him, Paul was a Pharisee (Acts 23:6), a member of the strictest Jewish sect (cf. Phil. 3:5).

Miraculously converted while on his way to Damascus (ca. a.d. 33–34) to arrest Christians in that city, Paul immediately began proclaiming the gospel message (Acts 9:20). After narrowly escaping with his life from Damascus (Acts 9:23–25; 2 Cor. 11:32, 33), Paul spent 3 years in Nabatean Arabia, south and east of the Dead Sea (Gal. 1:17, 18). During that time, he received much of his doctrine by direct revelation from the Lord (Gal. 1:11, 12).

More than any other individual, Paul was responsible for the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. He made 4 missionary journeys through much of the Mediterranean world, tirelessly preaching the gospel he had once sought to destroy (Acts 26:9). After he returned to Jerusalem bearing an offering for the needy in the church there, he was falsely accused by some Jews (Acts 21:27–29), savagely beaten by an angry mob (Acts 21:30, 31), and arrested by the Romans. Though two Roman governors, Felix and Festus, as well as Herod Agrippa, did not find him guilty of any crime, pressure from the Jewish leaders kept Paul in Roman custody. After two years, the apostle exercised his right as a Roman citizen and appealed his case to Caesar. After a harrowing trip (Acts 27, 28), including a violent, two-week storm at sea that culminated in a shipwreck, Paul reached Rome. Eventually released for a brief period of ministry, he was arrested again and suffered martyrdom at Rome in ca. a.d. 65–67 (cf. 2 Tim. 4:6).

The customary formula for letters in ancient times included (a) naming and identifying the author, (b) naming and identifying the recipient, and (c) a word of salutation. Paul followed this formula in this letter to the Romans despite the lengthy digression precipitated by the phrase "the gospel of God". I love the way Paul can let a word take him down a side street…I can identify! The same formula is used in all the New Testament letters except Hebrews and 1 John.

Since Romans is primarily a work of doctrine, it contains little historical material. Paul does use such familiar OT figures as Abraham (4:1-25), David (4:6–8), Adam (5:12–21), Sarah (9:9), Rebekah and Isaac (9:10), Jacob and Esau (9:10–13), and Pharaoh (9:17) as illustrations. He also recounts some of Israel’s history (chaps. 9–11). Chapter 16 provides insightful glimpses into the nature and character of the first-century church and its members.

The overarching theme of Romans is the righteousness that comes from God: the glorious truth that God justifies guilty, condemned sinners by grace alone. Chapters 1–11 present the theological truths of that doctrine, while chapters 12–16 detail its practical outworking in the lives of individual believers and the life of the whole church. Some specific theological topics include principles of spiritual leadership (1:8–15); God’s wrath against sin; (1:18–32); principles of divine judgment (2:1–16); the universality of sin (3:9–20); an exposition and defense of justification by faith alone (3:21–4:25); the security of salvation (5:1–11); the transference of Adam’s sin (5:12–21); sanctification (chaps. 6–8); sovereign election (chap. 9); God’s plan for Israel (chap. 11); spiritual gifts and practical godliness (chap. 12); the believer’s responsibility to human government (chap. 13); and principles of Christian liberty (14:1–15:12).

Although he never named the city, it seems obvious that Paul wrote Romans from Corinth, as the references to Phoebe, Gaius, and Erastus—all of whom were associated with Corinth—indicate. Phoebe, who was given the responsibility of delivering the letter to Rome, is identified as being a member of the church at Cenchrea, the eastern harbor of Corinth.

The letter was written at the close of Paul’s third missionary journey during the "three months" he was in Greece (Acts 20:3) just before his return to Jerusalem with the offering from the churches of Macedonia and Achaia for the poor believers there (Rom. 15:26). After leaving Corinth, Paul was in Philippi during the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Acts 20:6) and desired to reach Jerusalem by Pentecost (Acts 20:16). The letter was written, therefore, in the late winter or early spring of a.d. 57 or 58.

While Phoebe’s projected trip to Rome (Rom. 16:2) was undoubtedly the specific occasion for Paul’s writing this letter, he had several other objectives in mind. The most obvious was to announce his plans to visit Rome after his return to Jerusalem (15:24, 28-29; cf. Acts 19:21) and to prepare the Christian community there for his coming. The believers in Rome had been on Paul’s heart and in his prayers a long time (Rom. 1:9-10) and his desire to visit them and to minister to them, unfulfilled to this point, was finally about to be satisfied (1:11-15; 15:22-23, 29, 32). Therefore Paul wanted to inform them of his plans and to have them anticipate and pray for their fulfillment (15:30-32).

A second purpose Paul had for writing this letter was to present a complete and detailed statement of the gospel message he proclaimed. Paul was eager "to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome" (1:15) and he wanted them to know what it was. Romans is a very full and logical presentation of the Triune Godhead’s plan of salvation for human beings, from its beginning in man’s condemnation in sin to its consummation in their sharing eternity in God’s presence, conformed to the image of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

A third purpose for writing this letter is not as obvious as the first two. It is related to the tension between the Jewish and the Gentile segments in the Christian community at Rome and a possible conflict between them. Paul was hounded in his ministry by the Judaizers, who followed him from city to city and sought to lead his converts away from liberty in the gospel (Gal. 5:1). The letter to the Galatians is Paul’s classic though not his only response to the Judaizers. Their attacks on Paul incorporated physical violence about the time this letter to the Romans was written (Acts 20:3). Whether the Judaizers had reached Rome before Paul or not, the Jew-versus-Gentile issue looms large in this letter. Paul did not take sides, but he carefully set forth both sides of the question. On the one hand he emphasized the historical and chronological priority of the Jews—"first for the Jew, then for the Gentile" (Rom. 1:16; cf. 2:9-10). He also stressed the "advantage . . . in being a Jew" (3:1-2; 9:4-5). On the other hand he pointed out that "since there is only one God" (3:30), He is the God of the Gentiles as well as the God of the Jews (3:29). As a result "Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin" (3:9) and alike are saved by the Lord Jesus Christ and His redemptive and propitiatory sacrifice. Furthermore, in order to bring believing Gentiles into His program of salvation, extending His grace to all human beings, God temporarily halted His specific program for Israel as a chosen nation, since that nation through its official leaders and as a whole had rejected in unbelief God’s Son as the Messiah. During this period God continues to have a believing "remnant chosen by grace" (11:5) "until the full number of the Gentiles has come in" (11:25) and God takes up again and fulfills His promises to Israel as a nation.

Related to the Jewish-Gentile tension that runs throughout this letter is a muted but definite undertone that questions God’s goodness and wisdom and justice as seen in His plan of salvation. No complaints against God are voiced, but they are implied. As a result this letter to the Romans is more than an exposition of Paul’s "gospel of God’s grace" (Acts 20:24), a declaration of God’s plan of salvation for all human beings. It is a theodicy, an apologetic for God, a defense and vindication of God’s nature, in spite of the existence of evil, and His plan for saving people. It sets God forth "to be just and the One who justifies the man who has faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26). It exults in "the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God" (11:33) and challenges the readers, "Let God be true, and every man a liar" (3:4).

Paul simply addresses his letter "to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints" (Rom. 1:7); he did not address it to "the church in Rome." That a church did exist in Rome is obvious, because Paul sent greetings to the church that met in the home of Aquila and Priscilla (16:5). Probably several churches were in Rome; perhaps this multiplicity of churches is why Paul addressed the letter to "the saints" instead of to "the church."

Were these believers in Rome Jews or Gentiles in ethnic background? The answer is both. Aquila, for example, was a Jew (Acts 18:2), as were Andronicus, Junias, and Herodion, all three identified as Paul’s relatives (Rom. 16:7, 11). According to the historian, Josephus and others, a large Jewish colony lived in Rome (cf. Acts 28:17-28). But Rome was a Gentile city, the capital of a Gentile empire in which all Jews, believing and unbelieving, formed a small minority. In addition, though Paul never failed to witness and to minister to Jews, his calling from God was to be "the apostle to the Gentiles" (Rom. 11:13; cf. 15:16). So it is reasonable to conclude that his readers were mostly Gentile in background.

Since the Apostle Paul had not yet visited Rome, how had the Christian faith been introduced to the city? Apparently no other apostle had yet reached Rome, in the light of Paul’s stated purpose to be a pioneer missionary and to open virgin territory to the gospel (15:20). In particular, it is evident that Peter was not in Rome at that time because Paul expressed no greetings to him, a grievous error if Peter indeed were there.

Perhaps a partial answer to the founding of the church at Rome is the fact that "visitors from Rome" (Acts 2:10) were in the crowd that witnessed the miracle of Pentecost and heard Peter’s sermon. Some of them probably were among the 3,000 converts that day and returned to Rome as believers in Jesus Christ to propagate their faith. Other believers migrated to Rome through the years since Pentecost, for Rome was a magnet that drew people from all over the empire for business and other reasons. Aquila and Priscilla are good examples. They had lived in Italy before (Acts 18:2), and undoubtedly returned as soon as circumstances permitted. Phoebe (Rom. 16:1-2), apparently the courier of this letter, is another example. She did not go to Rome primarily to deliver Paul’s letter; she delivered Paul’s letter because she was making a trip to Rome. Humanly speaking, Paul seized this opportunity to communicate with a group of Christians he was deeply interested in and planned to visit as soon as possible.

Just as Paul’s absence of greeting to Peter in chapter 16 is evidence that Peter was not in Rome at the time, so his numerous greetings to individuals reveal the impact of Paul’s ministry on the establishment and the development of the church in Rome (28 persons are named or referred to, plus several groups). Many of the believers there were Paul’s converts or associates in other parts of the empire. As a result Paul had a proprietary interest in the Christian community of Rome. He considered the church there one of his, as this letter bears witness.

That question will not be completely answered in a lesson or two…please join me in asking the Holy Spirit to lead us into all the truth He has for us as we begin our study of Romans…for however long it takes!