Romans: the righteousness of God in the gospel

Romans is Paul's letter to the church in Rome, which he had not yet visited. The longest of his letters, it sets out step by step the gospel that all have sinned and that God justifies them by faith in Christ.

Rembrandt van Rijn (and workshop?), The Apostle Paul, c. 1657 · Source

About the book

The New Testament holds thirteen letters under Paul's name. They are not arranged by date. The nine to churches come first and the four to individuals after them, and within each group they run roughly from longest to shortest: Romans stands first because it is the longest. His earliest is usually thought to be Galatians or 1 Thessalonians, and the map under the Jesus tab, which sets the letters in the order they were written, places Romans after 2 Corinthians.

Letters of that time opened with the sender, the recipients and a short greeting. Paul names himself "a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle" (Romans 1:1), addresses the saints in Rome, and in place of the usual greeting wishes them grace and peace from God. Thanksgiving, prayer, the body of the letter and greetings follow. Paul dictated: Tertius wrote Romans down (Romans 16:22). A messenger carried it, and it was read aloud to the gathered church (1 Thessalonians 5:27).

That Paul wrote Romans, the church's tradition and scholars agree almost to a person. He was about to take the gift of the churches of Macedonia and Achaia to Jerusalem (Romans 15:25-26), which fits his three months in Greece (Acts 20:2-3), and he commends Phoebe of the church at Cenchrea, the port of Corinth (Romans 16:1). So the letter is dated to about AD 57, from Corinth, in the map's era of the church (c. AD 30–90).

Paul had not founded the church in Rome, nor yet visited it (Romans 1:13). It held Jewish and Gentile believers. Paul hoped to see them on his way to Spain (Romans 15:24), and before coming he set out the gospel he preached.

How it unfolds

The worn first parchment page holds Greek text with a small Latin translation written above each line, and red initials here and there. — Codex Boernerianus, Romans 1, 9th century (Saxon State and University Library, Dresden) · Source

Paul states his theme in 1:16-17 and unfolds it in four parts.

Chapters	What it says
1–4	All have sinned; all are justified by faith, as Abraham was
5–8	New life in Christ and the Spirit: Adam and Christ, baptism, the law, the Spirit
9–11	God's faithfulness and Israel
12–16	A living sacrifice: life in the church and the world, the weak and the strong, greetings

Key passages

The theme:

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek. For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
Romans 1:16-17

Here, Matthew Henry writes, "the apostle opens the design of the whole epistle" Matthew Henry. Paul first shows that Gentile and Jew alike stand guilty before God: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:23-24). Those justified through faith "have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1); "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1), and nothing in all creation can separate them from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:38-39). Justification is taught at length in Faith and justification, in the doctrine course, and Grace alone, faith alone, in the Reformed course.

In chapters 9–11 Paul grieves over Israel's unbelief, yet holds that "It is not as though God’s word has failed" (Romans 9:6). Churches explain the election of these chapters differently (Grace and election). From chapter 12 Paul turns to the life that grace makes:

Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12:1-2

The book and Christ

Under a tall tree in a garden, Augustine sits with his cheek on his hand reading a book open on his knees, while a friend standing beside him holds out a hand toward him; a stone house and a hillside town lie behind. — Benozzo Gozzoli, Saint Augustine Reading the Epistle of Saint Paul, 1464–1465 (Sant'Agostino, San Gimignano) · Source

Romans opens with "the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures" (Romans 1:2), the gospel of God's Son, descended from David and declared Son of God with power by his resurrection (Romans 1:3-4). The righteousness of God given through faith is "attested by the Law and the Prophets" (Romans 3:21). So Paul explains faith from Abraham in Genesis, calls Adam "a pattern of the One to come" (Romans 5:14), and says that Christ came "to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs" (Romans 15:8). As the risen Jesus explained himself from Moses and all the Prophets (Luke 24:27), Romans reads the Old Testament as one story that leads to Christ.

Romans has turned many to Christ. In 386, in a garden in Milan, Augustine heard a child chanting ‘take up and read’, opened Paul's letters at 13:13-14, and turned to the Lord Confessions 8.12.29. Martin Luther recalled in 1545 how he had hated the words ‘the righteousness of God’, hearing in them the justice that punishes sinners, until, pondering 1:17 day and night, he saw the righteousness God gives, by which the righteous live by faith, and felt born again Luther, Preface to the Latin Writings. In 1738, at a meeting in London's Aldersgate Street, John Wesley, whose movement became the Methodist churches, heard Luther's preface to Romans read; his heart, he wrote, was strangely warmed, and he trusted in Christ alone for salvation Wesley, Journal.

Reading it

A chapter a day takes sixteen days; begin with Romans 1. Paul argues by question and answer ("What then shall we say?", Romans 6:1): follow the questions and you will not lose the thread. Read chapters 1–8 straight through once or twice, and 9–11 as one. Do not skip the greetings of chapter 16: in Phoebe, Prisca and Aquila and the church in their house (Romans 16:5) the church in Rome has a face. Then go on to 1 Corinthians.

Practice

Practice 1 of 6
How are Paul's letters ordered in the New Testament?
Practice 2 of 6
Where and when has the church held that Romans was written?
Practice 3 of 6
In Romans 1:16, what does Paul call the gospel?
Practice 4 of 6
Whom does Paul call "a pattern of the One to come" in Romans 5:14?
Practice 5 of 6
Who wrote that his heart was strangely warmed in 1738, as Luther's preface to Romans was read at a meeting?
Practice 6 of 6
What do chapters 12–16 of Romans chiefly speak of?

Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.

Source

Augustine, Confessions Read
Martin Luther, Preface to the Latin Writings 1545 — Looks back on his discovery that 'the righteousness of God' in Romans 1:17 is the righteousness given through faith.
John Wesley, Journal 1738 — His entry for 24 May 1738 at Aldersgate Street: as Luther's preface to Romans was read, he felt his heart strangely warmed.

Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds and classic commentary. Each book's author and date are given as the church has received them, and scholars who see them otherwise are presented fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.