a needed message to a messy church
All comprehensive studies of Romans should include a discussion of Christ’s saving grace offering lasting healing and reconciliation. As with all his letters, Paul, the extremely passionate, ardently studious, and deeply convicted apostle, addresses specific concerns within a growing church. It should be noted that the apostle does not carelessly waste words in his correspondence; for an example, read Paul’s letter to Philemon in which, in a single page letter, he craftily dismantles the practice of slavery by requiring the slave owner to treat the slave as though he was Paul’s own beloved child in addition to imploring him to consider themselves as beloved brothers. Like in his letter to Philemon, with just a few words, Paul often caused cultural hurricanes ushering in the Kingdom of God, and Romans is no exception. However, because verses from this letter are so often quoted, there is a temptation to not read passages in context, to skim through important sections only to focus on common memory verses, and to miss the dynamic and powerful message Paul intended.
One thing that makes Romans different from Paul’s other letters is the deeply personal nature of his message. While Paul typically writes to good friends at churches from which he is well acquainted, in his letter to the Romans, Paul is writing to a church he did not establish and has never visited. Despite the relational distance, his heart was clearly yearning to connect with this gathering of believers, and he clearly had a very personal desire to minister to them. This dynamic impacted the manner in which Paul made his case to the church; this included taking the time to provide detailed (and arguably socratically presented) theological arguments to provide validity to his message.
The primary concern of the book of Romans, was first and foremost, as with all of Paul’s writings, the gospel of Christ. He continued his ardent protection of the gospel of grace through Christ alone by speaking theologically of sin and the salvific work of the cross. However, Paul also addressed concerns arising in the first century church concerning the fellowship of both Jewish and Gentile believers. The church was dramatically expanding and cultures were clashing; Paul, then, helped believers separate cultural practices from religious truth. Similar concerns arose in the U.S. during the Jesus Revolution in which traditional, well-dressed Christians found that revival welcomed in go-with-the-flow hippies. The church needed, just as the Roman believers needed, to adjust so that all can be welcomed into the body of Christ. At the time of Paul’s writings, tensions were high, conflict was problematic, and the believers were even potentially influenced by a false teacher present in Rome (or rather someone attempting to establish himself as a Jewish messianic figure) who may have gone by the name Chrestus.
To address the concerns in Rome, Paul poured out his heart and wrote very personally revealing content; he wrote extensively about grace, sin, law, judgment, and freedom in Christ. As with all Scripture, Paul’s letter to the Romans still speaks boldly to the global Church today, and we should take the time to read it carefully and prayerfully.