Letter to the Romans (Part Eight)

Part Eight of the New Testament Survey Series

Khen Lim




Image source: patheos.com

From the prosperous ancient Greek city of Corinth in the depth of winter around 57AD to 58AD, Paul completed the longest single letter to grace the New Testament, writing it before his trip to Jerusalem to delivery alms meant for the poor there (15:25-27, 30-33).

According to 15:24, Paul had wanted to go to Spain via Rome (15:22-29) but that wasn’t possible because he was arrested in Jerusalem and then incarcerated in Rome. We are then told that a member of a church in Cenchrea near Corinth (16:1) called Phoebe could have picked the letter up (in Corinth) and had it delivered to Rome on his behalf.

Another reason why Corinth is most likely where he wrote the letter is because by that time, he would have been nearing the end of his third – and possibly the final – missionary journey by then (Acts 19:21, 20:16).

Authorship of the letter, it seems, is not in question – 1:1 already reveals Paul as the writer and then 16:22 affirms that it was Tertius who acted as the scribe who faithfully wrote down his words. According to 1:7, he addressed it to “God’s beloved in Rome” meaning Romans but even so, modern scholars tell us that this is debatable probably only because we don’t have any clear idea as to the origins or the structure of the church in Rome at the time of writing.

This of course leaves room for vagaries that modern scholarship could attack. And with this in mind, we are faced with three scenarios:

-         1:5-6 suggests that the readers were the Jewish Christians who converted on the Day of Pentecost (also Acts 2:10) and then it was they who brought the Gospel to Rome

-         1:13 and 11:13 tells us it could be the Gentile Christians who had taken over the church after the Jewish Christians were expelled by Rome

-         1:7 offers the prospect that the readers were a combination of Jewish and Gentile Christians especially if we entertain the possibility that the former could have returned after their brief imprisonment

While the three scenarios are all plausible, the one with the highest likelihood – at least in a technical sense – is the third (1:7) because verses 1:13 and 11:13 already attest to the presence of the Gentiles and furthermore, Paul is recorded to have greeted them in chapter 16. In that chapter, he conceded that they are the ones who are “weak in faith” (14:1-15:13).

Paul’s letter to the Romans is long for good reason – in it, he brought about many significant doctrinal teachings that commonly centre on the theme of Righteousness. In gist, here are what he has to say

1:16-17	One who experiences God’s righteousness by faith
1:18-3:20	One who is in need of righteousness
3:21-8:39	One who is provided with righteousness
9:1-11:36	One who is vindicated in righteousness
12:1-15:13	One who practises righteousness

In his letter, Paul is guided by the Holy Spirit to condemn all men of their sinfulness. He also expresses the desire to reveal the truth of God’s Word to his readers, the Romans. His hope lies in the assurance that they would not stray from the path of righteousness and to remember that by the power of the Holy Spirit, all of them would be saved (5:1-8:39). To that end, he expresses no shame in embracing the Gospel (1:16).

Image source: theinquisitiveloon.com

While Paul’s letter evidently proclaims the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, its very doctrinal nature edifies and encourages those who read it then as it does today. Yet when we look at the letter a little more closely, we actually struggle to find the purpose behind writing it.

What we then need to do is to analyse and determine if we can identify (what this purpose is) and then try to match its contents to any particular occasion. It is also when we do so that we can see the circumstances that revolve around Paul as well as the Christian community in Rome at the time when the letter was written.

These circumstances have very much to do with the places that Paul was concerned about. One of the identifying parts in the letter reveals that Paul had wanted to establish some form of relationship with the Roman Christians in order that he could get them to help fund his trip to Spain (15:24-29).

That might seem odd since he hardly mentioned the Hispanic nation at least until chapter 15 but some claim that Paul might have really wanted to share his experiences in Galatian (or possibly Corinth) in how he dealt with the Judaists in view of the pressure they have been exerting onto the Christian community in terms of the Mosaic Law. If that were true, why would Paul’s letter be so unnecessarily heavily laced in doctrines?

Some also view Paul’s letter as a preamble to his return to Jerusalem. Those who think so would likely believe that he could’ve used the letter as a means to practise what he wished to say upon his arrival in the Holy City (15:30-33). Yet it still doesn’t explain fully Paul’s real intention with this letter that is akin to a theological treatise.

Because of this, some other scholars prefer to look at the Roman Christians as the reason behind his letter and for that, 14:1-15:13 could justify this view since it demonstrates Paul’s concern over them. It is here in fact that the apostle rebukes two groups of Christians – very likely the Gentiles whom he regards as “strong in faith” and then the Jews whom he thinks otherwise (as in “weak in faith”) – for being mutually intolerant of one another.

The reasoning behind the claim is that Paul is focusing on the polarising attitudes caused on one hand by the pious arrogance that the Gentile Christians were exhibiting in contrast to the Jewish Christians who were now a shrunken minority owing to Roman persecution.

Like the others, we also have a problem with this view because if he were so concerned about this, why would he wait until chapter 14 to deal with it theologically? At any rate, it doesn’t appear as if the contents in chapters 1 to 11 are supportive of the verses from 14:1 to 15:13.

Seeing we do have a problem narrowing down to a single intent, perhaps we could view Paul’s letter to have multiple purposes. Maybe this is his way of preparing for his missionary journey; that he wrote it to address several situations that happened to overlap in intent and purpose.

And because of that, he sought to lay out his understanding of the Gospel very carefully especially when it came to doctrinal issues like righteousness, salvation, the power of God, the law (as opposed to the Gospel) and the oft-laboured argument of where the Gentiles stood in light of the Jewish question.

Because Paul’s letter to the Romans certainly sounds like a doctrinal treatise in the way he laid out his message, which leads some of us to believe that he wrote it to a defined audience (1:1-17, 15:14-16:27). Under no uncertain terms, therefore, this is specifically a letter and not anything else.

As a letter, this one can be something in between being a simple informal communique to a highly complex and lengthy essay that was meant for a wider readership. Judging from what we can see, Paul’s letter to the Romans, like the one he wrote to the Ephesians, leans towards the latter nature.

Paul’s letter to the Romans is the last of the seven that modern biblical scholars would credit Paul with. In this letter, Paul demonstrates his extensive train of thought as well as the decisive manner of the words he uses even as he was nearing the end of his life. It was also the one letter in which Paul afforded himself the best opportunity to thematically highlight the Gospel as “the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (1:16-17).

In summation, Paul’s letter highlights the righteousness of God as one that emerges through faith for faith. He, of course, also teaches that salvation is only possible through faith (4:13). And because of the richness and systematic approach of his theology, this letter is just as accessible to all of us today particularly when he also talks about the highly-debated continuity-discontinuity debacle to do with Israel and the Church.

Another highly important feature of the letter is Paul’s justification by faith being the manifestation of God’s grace alone, that is now freely obtainable by sinful humans purely through faith and nothing else.

In the end, we can see this letter as nothing but an indisputable Pauline masterpiece. In that alone, many throughout the world considers this as the greatest theological piece ever written by anyone, let alone Paul. Still we must not overlook that even in its sophistry, this letter remains supremely practical and useful because two-thousand years have not made it any less relevant today than when Christians read it for the first time.

Part Nine (First and Second Letters to the Corinthians) will be available on February 3 2016