BaptistWay: The gospel is powerful

• The BaptistWay lesson for Sept. 6 focuses on Romans 1:1-17.

The letter to the Romans is a significant piece of Christian Scripture. Written in the 50s A.D. by the Apostle Paul while he was in the Greek city of Corinth, the letter (or epistle) serves as a lengthy encouragement to the Christians in the capital city of the Roman Empire.

The longest of Paul’s canonical letters, Romans has found a special place within the history of the church. In the late fourth century A.D., Augustine’s conversion to Christianity was punctuated by hearing a child’s voice implore him to “Take and read.” When he turned to do so, he picked up his copy of the letter to the Romans and read, “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh” (Romans 13:13-14).

The ‘gate of heaven’

Protestant reformer Martin Luther saw the letter to the Romans as the most important document in the New Testament, even calling it “the gate of heaven.” John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had his famous “heart-warming” experience at Aldersgate Street when a commentary on Romans was read at a Moravian meeting.

Even in the 20th century, Swiss theologian Karl Barth dramatically shifted the winds of Christian thought through the publication of his 1919 commentary on the Roman epistle. Such historical moments highlight how profoundly influential this letter has been throughout the centuries.

Often seen as a theological treatise focusing on sin, the salvific work of Jesus, faith and sanctification, among other topics, readers would do well to remember Romans initially was written as a letter from one person—Paul—to a congregation, or gathering of congregations—the Roman Christians. Thus, it represents one part of a two-sided conversation.

Paul, ever the pastoral theologian, often responds to pressing local issues and crises in his letters, whether those issues are mentioned explicitly in the letter or not. Consequently, we are reading over the shoulders of the Roman recipients when we encounter this text, and we should be mindful of the complexity of their situation—and ours—as we receive light from the word.

A servant of Christ Jesus

Paul begins the letter by noting his vocation as well as the vocation of the letter’s recipients. Paul, “a servant of Christ Jesus,” is an apostle, literally one who is sent (1:1). Yet this title is not Paul’s alone. Jesus himself gifted to Paul and the church the “apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake” (v. 5).

This has resulted in the invitation of non-Jewish people into the family of God, including many in Rome (v. 6). This textual clue may indicate the Roman church, those “who are loved by God and called to be his holy people,” is made up largely of Gentiles (v. 7). This is a plausible assumption, corroborated by extrabiblical sources stating the Roman emperor Claudius expelled many Jews in Rome in 49 A.D. because of a dispute over someone named “Chrestus.”

At that time, many early Christians were converts from Judaism who understood Jesus to be the fulfillment of their native religion. Thus, to expel Jews would also banish Jewish Christians, leaving the Roman church to consist mostly of Gentiles until Jewish Christians returned about five years later.

The next section of the letter details Paul’s desire and previous attempts to visit Rome (vv. 11-13). As a Roman citizen himself, Paul might have sensed the importance of this signal imperial city. One can feel the affection the apostle has for these Christians. Even though it is likely they never have met, he has heard reports of their faith (v. 8).

This longing for a more personal interaction will return later in the letter. Paul moves on to state his calling is to “both Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish” (v. 14). In other words, no one is left out of his gospel work. There are no insiders and outsiders; in Christ, everyone can be an insider.

According to scholars, Romans 1:16-17 serves as the thesis of the entire epistle, giving a window into its main thrust and focus. There, Paul declares he is not ashamed of the gospel and that in it “the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last” (v. 17). Once again, both Jew and Gentile are included in the gospel’s scope. The ordering given (“first … then”) should be taken to indicate the unfolding of historical events rather than a prioritizing of Jews over Gentiles, though more will be said about this dynamic later. 

Righteousness

Paul’s use of the term “righteousness” (dikaiosynē) should draw to mind right covenantal relations and especially the Old Testament covenants with Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob and the children of Israel. Here, God builds relationship with God’s people, a theme Paul embraces throughout this letter. Like these covenants, the link with faith reminds us faith for Paul is less a moment of assent or agreement and more a trajectory that extends from God’s faithfulness in Jesus Christ to our faithfulness in discipleship.

The Greek text literally states “from faith to faith.” God’s righteousness, then, is not a legal declaration or merely the path to “getting saved.” Instead, it is both God’s character and God’s activity, and it offers a genuine opening to life itself and justice through the one who was “appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead” (v. 4). Truly then, as Paul’s quotation of the prophet Habakkuk states, “The righteous will live by faith” (v. 17).