Pauline Epistles · New Testament
Romans
c. AD 57
- Section
- Pauline Epistles · New Testament
- Events span
- c. AD 57
- Written
- c. AD 57, from Corinth (in modern-day Greece)
- 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.
Historical setting: Written to the church in the imperial capital, Rome; the Second Temple still standing, with the fate of Israel central to Paul's argument.
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
Key lessons
- Every person, moral or immoral, Jew or Gentile, stands guilty before God; no one is counted righteous by their own record. Rom 3:23
- Justification is God’s free gift, received by faith in Christ apart from works, so salvation rests on grace and leaves no room for boasting. Rom 3:28
- Grace does not license sin but breaks its power: united to Christ and indwelt by the Spirit, believers are freed to walk in new life. Rom 6:1–4
- Nothing in all creation can separate believers from the love of God in Christ; their security rests in him, not in themselves. Rom 8:38–39
- The fitting response to such mercy is to offer your whole life to God as a living sacrifice, transformed rather than conformed to the world. Rom 12:1–2
“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.”