Pauline Epistles · New Testament
Romans
c. AD 57
- Section
- Pauline Epistles · New Testament
- Events span
- c. AD 57
- Written
- c. AD 57, from Corinth
- Author
- Paul the Apostle
Romans is Paul's masterwork on the gospel, written to a church he had not yet visited. He lays out humanity's universal guilt, justification by faith apart from works, freedom from sin and death through the Spirit, God's plan for Israel, and the transformed life that flows from grace.
Key themes
- The righteousness of God
- Justification by faith
- Sin and grace
- Life in the Spirit
- God's plan for Israel
The letter's argument
- All people, Jew and Gentile alike, are under sin and without excuse before God
- Justification comes by faith apart from works, just as Abraham was justified
- Through Christ believers have peace with God and are freed from sin's reign
- The struggle with sin, and the freedom and life found in the Spirit
- "Nothing shall separate us from the love of God" in Christ Jesus
- God's sovereign plan for Israel and the grafting in of the Gentiles
- A call to be living sacrifices — transformed, humble, and loving in practice
- Welcoming the weak in faith, with Paul's travel plans and final greetings
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”