The book of Romans was written by Apostle Paul to the early Church of Rome, which church had become famous, having a depth of maturity and an abundance of members by the time Paul writes to them (Rm. 1:8; 15:14, 23). Tacitus writes about the persecuted Christians in Rome during the outbreak of a fire in July 64 A.D. as being “vast multitudes” (15:44). It is important to note that it was the Church of Rome, which city held the seat of influence (having the largest population in the world), that received this letter which dealt so closely with the process of becoming a Christian. The letter addresses, in clear and logical sections, the profound doctrines of justification (imputed righteousness), sanctification, Israel and the Church, and Christian practice. Paul lays a unified foundation. not only for the church members, but for all members of society to come to a right knowledge of their personal deficiency in standing before a holy God and their desperate need for God’s provided means of salvation. Paul’s leadership to the church of Rome left a message for all time, addressing the most fundamental human arguments and issues in regards to arriving at a right understanding of the Gospel and salvation. It is at once a rebuke and a high calling of hope. Dr. Jack L. Arnold wrote of the book, “Every major revival in the two thousand years of Christianity has been directly or indirectly tied to the Book of Romans. Chyrsostom had the book read to him twice a week, thinking that Romans was the apex of Christian truth. Luther was converted when he read Romans 1:17, “The just shall live by faith,” and from this came the Protestant Reformation. John Wesley was stirred to action when he heard a group of simple Christians discussing the book of Romans in a prayer meeting at Aldersgate in London. From this came the great Weslyan revivals in England and America. Law schools have been known to require their students to memorize Romans because of its masterful logic. Never has there been a book like Romans — it is profound in doctrine but extremely practical” (Clear Theology).

In the first chapter of Romans, Paul introduces himself as a “bondservant of Jesus Christ” (Rm. 1:1). A bondservant, or slave, around 58 A.D. (when this letter was written), had different connotations than our modern understanding of oppressive slavery. Though Roman slavery upheld higher human dignity than the slavery of modern times, the severity of humility and belonging to a master remains. When Paul addresses himself as a “bondservant of Jesus Christ” it should bear the undertone “bondservant of love”, as his service was one born of a loving obligation to a master who, with his own blood, purchased Paul (and thereby redeemed him). Thus, Paul uses this term “bondservant” of other Christians as well. Later, Paul says, “offer yourselves as slaves of righteousness” (Rm. 6:19). The picture of Paul’s humility in his apostleship is consistent throughout Scripture. Paul referred to himself as a slave or servant in many instances, he spoke of himself as the chief among sinners, boasted in his weaknesses, and had a God given “thorn in the flesh” (some kind of painful bodily issue) to keep him humble (Gal. 1:10; Phil. 1:1; Ti. 1:1; 1 Tim. 1:15; 2 Cor. 12:7-10). The humility Paul uses in his greeting is significant as he approaches a church in which he is unknown, though he had, for years, longed to be with them. From his introduction, is an image of a humble servant, a slave of love, who, with heartfelt longing and prayers, desired to meet with the Church of Rome to extend his impartation, preach the Gospel, and share in their fellowship. It is in this context that the modern believer must receive the absolute truths laid out in the letter from Paul and it is in this context the Apostle wrote to the early church of Rome, and worked notable miracles, signs, and wonders in his day.

After extending his heartfelt greeting, Paul drops two lines that, like a multifaceted jewel, introduce, in an instant, the profound Gospel which he will unlock all the intricacies of in the following chapters. He writes in Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” (NKJV) Paul gives courage and strength to his fellow believers in his exclamation “I am not ashamed of the Gospel.” He writes to Timothy similarly in 2 Timothy 1:8, “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.” Paul boldly and proudly declares the Gospel to an influential church who will undergo great persecutions, despite it’s contradiction to the ways of the world and it’s attraction of persecution and rejection. The Gospel takes no glory in man’s intellect, power, or pride and these are exactly what Paul proves to be excellent at interrogating in this letter. It must follow that this Church followed suit in Paul’s manner of proclamation and defense of the Gospel, as the Church of Rome from antiquity has  been known for it’s bold apologetics in response to enduring persecution.

Furthermore, Paul lays out that the Gospel is the free offer of salvation from God by his own power, given to everyone who believes. In this way, all methods of man’s power to work to attain salvation are immediately excluded; the only source of salvation is by believing in “the power of God” through Jesus Christ. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:22-24, “For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” The present of Christ is truly the greatest hope and glory of mankind and this letter should come as the greatest relief to man’s troubles, but the Gospel is notably stumbled over by the religious man (who desires to achieve self-righteousness) and by the nations who desires humanistic philosophies. Paul has a hard job set out for him, but he presents his argument clearly and powerfully. He must both call the pagan and the religious man, as well as the moral man to take an honest look at themselves, and to confess the truth of their ignorance, their need, their depravity, their failure, and their inability to achieve holiness outside of God’s divine intervention through one man, Jesus Christ. However, just as 1 Corinthians 1:24 writes, “But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” The Gospel was the plan of God made in his infinite wisdom. For the one who arrives at the right knowledge of their desperate situation and need in light of Gods provision, praises for the gift of Christ are unceasing.

  This “jewel of Romans” ends with the line, “The just shall live by faith,” quoting the Old Testament prophet, Habakkuk. Paul sets forth the mystery, seen even in Ephesians 3:2-3, known as “The Administration of God’s Grace,” which is what the Law and the Prophets pointed to, that God would provide salvation through faith by his own grace, apart from the individual’s fulfillment of the Law (Rm. 3:21, Hab. 2:2-4), which plan fully manifested through God’s redemptive acts in and through Jesus Christ (who through his life and death, fulfilled the Law and satisfied God’s wrath). The idea the Gospel sets forth is that of a class taking their seats and being given tests that are already perfectly completed and graded as one hundred percent correct; all the students are required to do is hand the passed exam in to the professor, and from that place the student is treated like a genius though in reality most ignorant, while being taught and truly made into a genius (Sliker). Through the work of Christ, the believer receives the imputed righteousness of Christ, covered before the eyes of the Father by the blood of Christ, who (with his own blood) purchased the believer, and from that point of justification, the believer is sanctified (purified and conformed) into the likeness of Christ (Eph. 1:14; Rm 4:22-24).

The first chapter of Romans ends with the doctrine of God’s wrath. In verses 18-20, Paul states that through the creation account alone, all men know the following facts: God is, his invisible attributes being evident, and he is eternally powerful. Creation bares the mark of being made, it has a beginning; it carries the fingerprint of God himself. To not have faith in God, that he is, that he is eternally powerful, and the creator of all things, is unrighteousness. Unbelief is holding the truth in unrighteousness, or, in other words, knowing the truth and repressing it in rebellion. The book of Romans goes on to reveal the consequences of unbelief: pride, worship of creation, and finally, a seared conscience which ends in being given over to the fulfillment of one’s lust unto a complete distortion of man’s intended purposes.

The “wrath of God is revealed from heaven,” even to the very conscience of man. “Ungodliness and unrighteousness” may be understood as “unrighteousness of ungodliness” as sin is that which is not like God, whose image man is made in. The conscience of man, itself, testifies against sin, as evident by the existence of shame, hiding, pride, justice systems, and even man’s attempts at religion or morality outside of Christ. Romans definitively declares that the knowledge of God precedes the rejection of the knowledge of God. Throughout the earth and human history, the knowledge of God is a common knowledge that manifests itself not only through creation and man’s conscience, but in the existence of many different religions (Act. 17:22-31). In light of human history, one can conclude unbelief as being a sort of religion in and of itself; a highly spiritual (although it may at times seem to be highly philosophical or intellectual) reaction to the knowledge of God. Unbelief in all of its forms, is a spiritual reaction against knowing God and giving him glory. Again, all systems of unbelief, and even man’s groping at morality and truth, outside of acknowledging with thanksgiving the one true God, are a wrong response to the revelation of the knowledge of God, which came first; they are a fulfillment of Romans chapters 1-2.

In Romans chapter two, Paul lays out that the one who judges the sinner (even the sinner who manifests the most debased mind) is just as guilty and has condemned himself through his act of judging. Whether it be the Gentile by the human conscience or the Jew by the Law, the act of passing judgement exposes the guilt of the one who judges. Their guilt is even more evident by their very ability to pass judgement onto their neighbor because it reveals their awareness of good and evil. Further, the one who judges uses comparison to wrongly justify their own or other’s actions. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:12, “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” To believe one is better than another is to not understand that all are just as depraved, prone to sin, and equally in need of God’s salvation; in essence, such thinking is legalism or self-righteousness. Paul will go on to prove that self-righteousness has no standing before a holy God and that the receipt of God’s imparted righteousness is man’s chief need.

Indeed, Paul furthermore points out that the Jews with the Law are just as guilty as the Gentiles, even as the Old Testament prophesied over and over, that it was by their hypocrisy that the Gentiles blasphemed God’s name. The fuller idea, however, (besides their inevitable and foreknown hypocrisy) is the complete inability of the Jews to attain righteousness by the Law. James 2:10 states, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all,” and Galatians 3:21-25 asserts, “Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” The purpose of the Law was to teach man of his thorough depravity and inability to attain righteousness before a holy God. The Law, in fact, exposed man’s sin and thereby made sin increase by way of knowledge. The necessity of faith in God’s imputed righteousness apart from the Law had always been testified to by the commanded offerings and sacrifices. In a final statement, Paul reveals that it is not by an outward sign of circumcision, which, like a sacrament or spiritual discipline, is unable to create inward change of itself, but by that “circumcision . . . of the heart, in the Spirit” (Rm. 2:29). These outward signs were always for the purpose of revealing an inward reality, but man proves prone to make the outward signs into the merit of God’s salvation in a culmination of hypocrisy and dead religion, or in a word, legalism. God’s righteous judgement is, without partiality, against the pagan man, the moral man, and the religious man who are outside of faith in God’s finished work through the Messiah.

God’s judgment and wrath are shown as just and his faithfulness stands despite Israel’s fall and unbelief. Psalm 76:10 states, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise You.” Man’s unbelief and unrighteousness, in fact, work to demonstrate the righteousness of God. Though the Jews  (or perhaps the religious man) had the advantage of the ordinances and education in the knowledge of God, God’s promises were always only available to those who lived by faith in God, and the unbeliever cannot annul God’s faithfulness through their unbelief. Can God be guilty of sin when man does not repent?, The answer is no, all men left to their natural abilities have free will to only conclude that the cross is foolishness. If this made God unjust, Paul says, how could one expect God to judge the world? Paul doesn’t apologize as he boldly reveals that it was through Israel’s unbelief and fall (evident by their hypocrisy, dead religion, and ultimately their rejection of the Messiah) that, as a wonder, man’s need for a provided righteousness apart from the Law was proved. God took occasion of Israel’s fall to bring the Gentiles into salvation according to his divine purposes to bring Israel to her fullness which will occur at the end of the world (Rm. 11:11-12). In this way, Paul reveals what he will later develop in Romans 9:6-7, “But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” He reveals that the children of Abraham are the children who had the faith of Abraham.

In this same stream of thought, Paul comes against a licentious heresy that developed from a misinterpretation of the Gospel of grace, through which members were continuing in sin and justifying it. In Romans 3:8 Paul says, “And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.” Paul continues to explain how only through faith can the Law be fulfilled, which is the objective of faith in Christ, and comes against those who were practicing licentiousness, even saying “their condemnation is just.” “Let us do evil that good may come” is an ideology by which people dismiss their accountability before God and man, and is not holding to a true saving knowledge of the justification Christ has paid for. The grace of God, through which the believer obtains forgiveness and justification, operates in both a positive and negative way: grace empowers righteousness and grace empowers death to sin.

Through the plumb line of faith in the most holy Jesus Christ, Paul levels all as guilty before God and in need of salvation by divine intervention. God’s imputed righteousness through faith, that which the Law and the Prophets testified of, has been made manifest in Christ. Through this faith in the only one who was able to fulfill the Law as a man, through the imputed righteousness of Christ, the believer is finally able to establish the Law, through an inward reality of union with God. The Law only provides the knowledge of sin to the Jew, and “good morals” are unable to make a man righteous before a holy God; the inward reality of each and every man from Adam has been depraved and unable to achieve righteousness. Boasting is therefore excluded, as God is revealed as the sole provider and victor of salvation. As Paul writes to the Church after addressing the Jew and Gentile, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rm. 3:10).

Paul proves that salvation through faith alone is throughout the Scriptures and concurrently proves the inadequacy of the Law to provide salvation, using the examples of Abraham and David (two of the greatest Biblical heroes). Abraham is an example of salvation through faith before the Law, and David is an example of salvation through faith after the Law.  Abraham and his wife, being very old, were given an unbelievable promise of a son (life from the dead, as it were). In essence, Abraham, before the Law and before circumcision, was brought to a belief in the resurrection power of God. This is not only revealed by Abraham’s act of faith of believing, but also by the actions he makes on his faith, especially through his willingness to sacrifice Isaac (Gen. 22). Jesus said in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” In the account of Abraham’s confirmation of faith, he says to his son Isaac, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” God did stop Abraham and provided a ram on the very mountain God would later offer his only son, Jesus, to be crucified, Mount Moriah (Gen. 22:2, 14; 2 Chr. 3:1; Mk. 14:53-65). Genesis 15:6 writes of Abraham’s first belief in God, “And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” In this same passage, God makes a covenant with Abraham, while Abraham was asleep, and, of course, the breaker of a covenant would have to die. As Hebrews 6:13 shows, “For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself.” This implies that the believer’s salvation is not by merit but by faith in God’s initiated promises and covenants (and brings great commentary to the crucifixion account). Paul proves to the heart of legalism in the Church, that Abraham was the father of faith, not merely the father of circumcision or physical descendants.

David also found salvation through faith apart from the Law in that he found such extravagant grace and forgiveness apart from his keeping of the Law. Despite his continual failure to keep the Law, even in heinous ways, David was called by God, “a man after my own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14). In the Psalms, David writes of the revelation of God’s imputed righteousness and thorough forgiveness apart from works. In the example Paul uses of Psalm 32, forgiveness (or, not imputing sin) is made equal to justification (or, the imputation of righteousness). If Abraham was given the title “Father of Faith” then David may certainly be given the title “Father of Unmerited Grace”. Finally, Romans chapter four concludes that just like Abraham and David (whose examples are intentionally provided for the Old Testament believer), it is by the believer’s faith in the resurrection of Jesus, who died for the offenses of the world, that the imputation of God’s righteousness is freely received.

Paul brings forward that through faith in Jesus, not only is righteousness imputed through forgiveness (whereby man can be justified before God), but also, access is opened up to the believer to all of the hope that is in the promises of God to Israel. So pervading is this salvation through faith in Jesus that even tribulations work out for the believer towards the hope in the promises of God. Paul will later write in the eighth chapter or Romans, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Hope usually is uncomfortable or painful because it must stand in the midst of unachieved promises or realities; however, the Christian hope does not disappoint because of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which reveals the love of God to the believer and testifies of God’s heart and promises. This would prove necessary for the Church of Rome, who would soon face heavy persecution under Nero in 64 A.D. until the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D. Here, Paul ties in the mystery of the indwelling Spirit, or, as Paul writes in Colossians 1:2, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The hope the believer has is not self-willed, but, like God’s righteousness, God’s hope is imparted, even through the very filling of the believer’s soul with the Holy Spirit, who testifies of Christ and the hope of glory (that is, the hope of the resurrection and the fulfillment of God’s promises). Paul writes of the indwelling Spirit being “the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession” in Ephesians 1:14. That is to say, the believer’s hope of things to come, the promise of their present and future salvation, resurrection, and all of the ensuing promises of God, was promised to the believer by the giving of the indwelling Spirit.

Not only this, but, salvation through Christ is so sure a hope, by reason of God’s fantastic demonstration. The Father’s sending of his only son to die so gruesome a death for sinners, while they were still in their sin and unable to offer anything back, shows the sincere and exceeding love of God toward the world and his deep desire for man to come to salvation. So it follows, if the believer is reconciled by the death of Christ, not only will he be saved from wrath, but through the life of Christ the believer will be saved unto the resurrection of the dead. Furthermore, the believer is reconciled, with confidence and joy, to the Father who is the initiator of the plan (Rm. 5:11). In Ephesians chapter one, this plan of salvation that the Father initiated is described amongst the following phrases: “the. . . Father . . . who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing . . .”, “He [The Father] chose us in Him [Christ]”, “that we should . . . be before Him [the Father] in love”, “He [The Father] chose us . . . to adoption as sons”, “according to the good pleasure of His [Father] will”, “praise the glory of His [Father] grace”, “He [Father] made us accepted in the Beloved”. The fifth chapter of Romans indeed points the believer to the love of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is no dichotomy between the sacrificial work of Jesus, the sacrificial work of the Father, and the sacrificial work of the Spirit (displayed in the epic phrases “in our hearts” and “given to us”).

The fifth chapter of Romans brings a final demonstration of the vast salvation found in Christ. Namely, just as sin and judgement came onto all of humanity through Adam’s sin, in the same way, God has provided the free gift of righteousness and salvation to all who believe in the work of Jesus Christ. Verse 15 uses the phrase “much more” in contrasting the free gift of righteousness in Christ against the reign of death through Adam. Where sin and death perpetually reigned in the darkness of the curse and man’s miserable fallen condition, so does the grace of God superabound through Christ, and grace upon grace, even a wellspring of revival, is opened up in Christ, raising up “many sons to glory” (Heb. 2:10). Through Jesus Christ there is a reversal of the sinful nature, not unto man’s original innocence, but, even greater, unto God’s righteousness, glory, and eternal life with full union with the Godhead. As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, “She [the Witch] would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards.” Yes, the grace of God, in the victory of Christ, superabounds towards man, elevating and glorifying him in and through Christ far above even his original state of innocence before the Fall. Instead of man being clothed with the righteousness and glory of a creature (not to mention a fallen creature diminished to share in the flagrant debasement and hostility of Satan, below an animal), now, in Christ, is clothed with the righteousness and glory of God, even seated with Christ in heavenly places, and bound for total union with the Godhead. Such is the blessedness found in the justification through Christ.

Romans chapter six develops this reversal even further, as the idea follows that the believer is destined to having the likeness of Jesus’ resurrection. He points the believer to the hope and height of their calling in Christ, showing the unity between the justification of the believer to the holiness of their calling. Baptism and the practicalities surrounding sanctification are laid forth as the means by which the believer joins in Jesus’ death, life, and resurrection. Baptism into the death of Christ in order to be raised in his resurrection life refers to more than a water baptism; it is a spiritual reality that, when the believer is joined to Christ, he becomes one spirit with the Lord and shares directly in his death, life, and resurrection. The apostle exhorts the believers to continue in this hope of unity with the person of Christ, unto being raised “in the likeness of His resurrection” (Rm. 6:5). The grace by which the believer has been saved through faith in Christ is the same grace by which the believer is empowered to live in holiness and die to the sins of the flesh, especially while taking in a full view of the resurrected Lord as the captain of their faith. It follows that because Jesus died for the sins of the world, so too must the believer die to the sin which Christ came to free the world from. Paul clearly opposes any doctrine of licentiousness that seeks to use the grace of God to justify continuing in sin. The imagery used, of death, is perfect because of the permanency that is implied; upon receiving Christ, sin loses all the dominion over the believer that it previously had. Paul uses the terms “old creature” and “new creature” to differentiate between the two lives; the one that died and the one that came alive, respectively, in Christ. So drastic is this contrast in lives that the believer must not limit the power of God’s grace and justification to merely speak of the ending of sin; it is the beginning of a new life with God with it’s own promises, calling, and reality.

Paul reminds the believer, both new and old in Christ, to look to Christ and the hope of God’s calling, and to challenge sin (and therefore the demonic) in their lives. More than a practical way of prayer or warfare, Paul exudes an attitude of obstinate refusal to partner with sin, with a conviction that is strong enough to convert even the slightest lean towards licentiousness. The response of one hundred fold obedience to Christ (unto victory over sin and death) is a decision and an attitude that works in cooperation with the grace of God through walking in the Spirit and in the Word to bring the believer to full maturity. In verse 15 he challenges licentiousness head on, saying, “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!” He unfolds the real consequences man has in his choices whether to continue in sin or righteousness. The righteousness that manifests in the life of the believer is from the inside out; it is an inward reality that even causes the remembrance of past sin and it’s utter fruitlessness (even destruction) to be shameful to the memory, in contrast to the fruitfulness of righteousness. Upon justification, the believer is to wage war against the enemy, against sin, to walk in the Spirit, to hear the voices of affliction, sin, and death no more, and to continue as “slaves of righteousness”. Through the Gospel of grace Paul made clear the path to a saving knowledge of Jesus for all mankind and was able to bring deliverance both to the legalistic and the licentious man.

It should come as no surprise that Romans has been the inspiration behind the world’s greatest revivals. The letter has remained a timeless message to the church worldwide as a lens through which one may rightly find faith and hope in God’s finished work and final relief from man’s inability and failure. Even the snares of self-righteousness and licentiousness are ruled out by the free gift of God’s righteousness as the work of Jesus Christ is dropped like a plumb line against the depravity of man, uniting all, even Jew and Gentile, the pagan man, the moral man, and the religious man, to one form of salvation and righteousness provided by God.

Works Cited

New King James Version. Bible Gateway, http://www.biblegateway.com. Accessed 20 Sept. 2018.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius. “The Annals of Tactus”. penelope.uchicago.edu, Vol. V of the Loeb

Classical Library edition of Tacitus, 1937. 2 Apr. 2016. penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Tacitus/Annals/15B*.html#44.

Arnold, Jack L. “Introduction to Romans”. Clear Theology, www.cleartheology.com. Vol. 1, No. 1 of the IIIM Magazine Online, 1 to 7 Mar. 1999. http://www.cleartheology.com/expo/45Romans/NT.Arnold.Rom.01.html

Sliker, David. “The Book of Romans.” Forerunner School of Ministry, Fall 2018, International House of Prayer University, Grandview, MO. 12905 S U.S. 71 Hwy, Grandview, MO