Romans

The Just Shall Live by Faith

Few books have changed history the way Romans has. In AD 386, a restless young teacher named Augustine heard a child’s voice say, “Take up and read,” opened to Romans 13:13–14, and was converted. In the early 1500s, a troubled monk named Martin Luther wrestled with Romans 1:17 until he understood that the righteousness of God is a gift received by faith, and the Reformation followed. In 1738, John Wesley listened to someone reading Luther’s preface to Romans at a meeting on Aldersgate Street and felt his heart “strangely warmed.” Again and again, God has used this letter to wake up His church.

Romans is the fullest explanation of the gospel in the Bible. Paul starts with the bad news, that the whole world stands guilty before God, and then lays out the good news step by step: justification by faith, peace with God, freedom from sin’s power, life in the Spirit, God’s faithfulness to Israel, and what a transformed life looks like. Its theme is in the first chapter: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (1:17).

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Authorship & Setting

Paul names himself as the author in the first line, and no serious voice in the early church ever doubted it. He dictated the letter to a scribe, who added his own greeting near the end: “I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord” (16:22). The letter was carried to Rome by Phoebe, “a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea” (16:1), the port town of Corinth.

Paul wrote from Corinth near the end of his third missionary journey, around AD 57. He was about to carry the offering from the Gentile churches to the poor believers in Jerusalem (15:25–26), and afterward he hoped to visit Rome on his way to Spain (15:24, 28). He had never been to Rome. He did eventually get there, but as a prisoner, as Acts records.

The church in Rome had both Jewish and Gentile believers. Around AD 49, the emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2), and for a few years the church there would have been mostly Gentile. When Jewish believers returned after Claudius died in 54, there were real tensions over the law, food, and holy days. Much of Romans, especially chapters 9–11 and 14–15, speaks right into that situation: one gospel, one body, Jew and Gentile alike.

Key Figures

• Paul — a servant of Jesus Christ, “called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God” (1:1).
• Abraham — the father of all who believe, declared righteous by faith before he was ever circumcised (4:1–25).
• David — who described the blessedness of the man whose sins are forgiven and covered (4:6–8).
• Adam — the one man through whom sin and death entered the world, “the figure of him that was to come” (5:14).
• Israel — Paul’s own people, whom he loved so much he could wish himself accursed for their sake (9:3), and whom God has not cast away (11:1–2).
• Phoebe — a servant of the church at Cenchrea who had helped many, including Paul, and who carried the letter to Rome (16:1–2).
• Priscilla and Aquila — Paul’s coworkers, who “have for my life laid down their own necks” (16:3–4), and who now hosted a church in their home in Rome.

Greek Word Study

δικαιοσύνη · dikaiosynē

“Righteousness,” being right with God. In Romans, it is first God’s own righteousness, His perfect justice. Then it is the right standing God gives to those who believe. The related verb dikaioō, “to justify,” means to declare someone righteous, as a judge would in court. It does not mean God pretends we are good. It means He declares us right with Him because of Christ.

ἱλαστήριον · hilastērion

“Propitiation” (3:25), the sacrifice that satisfies God’s righteous wrath against sin. In the Greek Old Testament this same word is used for the mercy seat, the lid of the ark of the covenant where the high priest sprinkled blood on the Day of Atonement. Hebrews 9:5 uses it that way too. God set Christ forth as the mercy seat.

λογίζομαι · logizomai

“To count,” “to reckon,” “to impute.” It is an accounting word. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (4:3). Paul uses it again and again in chapter 4. Righteousness was credited to Abraham’s account, not earned. Then in 6:11, Paul uses the same word for us: reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. Count on what God has counted true.

κατάκριμα · katakrima

“Condemnation,” the sentence of a judge that follows a guilty verdict. Paul uses it in chapter 5 for what came through Adam (5:16, 18). Then he opens chapter 8 with “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (8:1). The sentence has been cancelled.

Eight-Movement Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

Not Ashamed of the Gospel (1:1–17)

Paul introduces himself and his gospel: it concerns God’s Son, “made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power… by the resurrection from the dead” (1:3–4). He tells the Romans he has long wanted to visit them. Then he states his theme: “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” (1:16). The righteousness of God is revealed in it, from faith to faith, and the just shall live by faith.

MOVEMENT TWO

The Whole World Guilty (1:18–3:20)

Before the good news, Paul makes sure everyone knows they need it. The Gentiles had the witness of creation, yet they “changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (1:25), and God gave them up to their own desires. The moral person who judges others is guilty of the same things (2:1). The Jew had the law but did not keep it. Paul strings together verses from the Psalms and Isaiah: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (3:10). The law speaks so that “every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (3:19). Nobody gets in on their own record.

MOVEMENT THREE

Justified Freely by His Grace (3:21–4:25)

Then comes the turning point: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested”(3:21). “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”(3:23–24). God set Christ forth as a propitiation, “that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (3:26). In chapter 4, Paul proves this is not new. Abraham was declared righteous by faith before he was circumcised, so he is the father of all who believe. He believed God “who quickeneth the dead” (4:17), and so do we. Jesus “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (4:25).

MOVEMENT FOUR

Peace with God and the Two Adams (5:1–21)

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:1). Even tribulation becomes useful, producing patience, experience, and hope that does not make ashamed, because God’s love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Ghost. And this is how we know that love: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (5:8). Then Paul steps back to see the whole human story in two men. Through Adam’s disobedience, sin and death came to all. Through Christ’s obedience, grace and righteousness come to many. “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (5:20).

MOVEMENT FIVE

Dead to Sin, Alive to God (6:1–7:25)

“Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid” (6:1–2). Grace does not make sin safe. In baptism we were buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6:11). Sin pays wages, but God gives a gift: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”(6:23). In chapter 7, Paul describes the struggle of a man who loves God’s law but finds another law at work in him: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (7:19). He cries, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”and answers his own question: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (7:24–25).

MOVEMENT SIX

No Condemnation (8:1–39)

Romans 8 begins with no condemnation and ends with no separation. The Spirit of life in Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death. We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but “the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (8:15). The whole creation groans, waiting for the day of redemption, and we groan with it, but the Spirit helps our weakness and intercedes for us. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (8:28). “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (8:31). “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (8:37). Neither death nor life, angels nor principalities, nor anything else in all creation, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

MOVEMENT SEVEN

What About Israel? (9:1–11:36)

If the gospel is for everyone who believes, what has happened to God’s promises to Israel? Paul writes with great sorrow. God’s word has not failed. His promises have always run through His sovereign choice, not mere physical descent: Isaac, not Ishmael; Jacob, not Esau. Israel stumbled because it sought righteousness by works instead of faith. And the way of faith is open to all: “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (10:9). “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (10:17). But God has not cast away His people. There is a remnant chosen by grace. Gentile believers are wild branches grafted into the olive tree, and must not boast. “And so all Israel shall be saved” (11:26), because “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (11:29). Believers understand that verse differently, but every reading agrees that God keeps His word. Paul ends in worship: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (11:33).

MOVEMENT EIGHT

A Living Sacrifice (12:1–16:27)

Eleven chapters of doctrine turn into five chapters of life: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (12:1–2). Paul describes the church as one body with many gifts, and love without hypocrisy: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (12:21). He addresses the governing authorities, and the debt of love: “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another”(13:8). He tells believers who disagree over food and holy days to stop judging each other: “Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God” (15:7). He closes by greeting more than two dozen people by name, many of them women who labored in the gospel, and with a promise: “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly”(16:20).

Christ Typology

Adam, the Figure of Him to Come. Paul calls Adam “the figure of him that was to come”(5:14). The Greek word for “figure” is typos, the word our English “type” comes from. This is the Bible itself doing typology. Adam was the head of the old humanity, and his one act of disobedience brought condemnation to all who are in him. Christ is the head of the new humanity, and His one act of obedience brings life and righteousness to all who are in Him. Everyone belongs to one man or the other.

The Mercy Seat. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest went behind the veil and sprinkled blood on the mercy seat, the golden lid of the ark, covering the broken law inside. Paul says God set forth Christ “to be a propitiation through faith in his blood” (3:25), using the same Greek word the Old Testament used for the mercy seat. Christ is the place where God’s justice and mercy meet, and it is His blood that covers our sin.

Abraham and the God Who Raises the Dead. Abraham believed God’s promise of a son when his own body was “now dead” and Sarah’s womb was dead (4:19). He believed in the God “who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (4:17). Paul says this was written for us too, because we believe in the same God, “him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (4:24). The child of promise born from a dead womb pointed to the Son of promise raised from a sealed tomb.

The Stumbling Stone. Paul joins two of Isaiah’s prophecies: “Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed” (9:33). The same stone that saves those who trust it trips up those who try to build their own way. Christ is either your foundation or the thing you keep tripping over.

The Deliverer out of Sion. Paul quotes Isaiah 59: “There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (11:26). The God who promised a Redeemer to Israel has sent Him, and He will finish what He started, for Jew and Gentile alike.

Personal Application

Do not be ashamed of the gospel. Paul was headed to the capital of the most powerful empire on earth, a city full of philosophers, politicians, and pagan temples, and his message was a crucified Jew from Galilee. He wasn’t embarrassed. The gospel is not one opinion among many. It is the power of God for salvation.

Live in the “no condemnation.” Many believers know Romans 8:1 by heart and still live under a cloud of guilt for sins God has already forgiven. Conviction from the Spirit is specific and points you to Christ. Condemnation is vague and points you to yourself. If you are in Christ Jesus, the verdict is in, and it will not be overturned.

Trust Romans 8:28 the way Paul meant it. It does not say all things are good. It says God works all things together for good to those who love Him. The next verse tells us what that good is: to be conformed to the image of His Son. He wastes nothing, not even the hard things, in making you more like Jesus.

Offer yourself as a living sacrifice. Old Testament sacrifices were killed and burned. God asks for something harder: a sacrifice that stays on the altar while it is still alive and able to climb off. It starts in the mind. Renew your mind in the word of God, and your life will follow.

Receive one another. The Roman believers disagreed about meat and holy days, and both sides were tempted to look down on the other. Paul did not tell them those questions were meaningless. He told them to stop judging another man’s servant, because each of us will give account to God. Where Scripture is clear, stand firm. Where faithful believers differ, receive one another as Christ received you.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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