Romans Survey

By Edwin Walhout

A simplified pastoral commentary on this sometimes-confusing letter. This is a good place to begin if you want to master this classic piece of literature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Edwin Walhout
• Release date: Jan 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458050953

Edwin Walhout

I am a retired minister of the Christian Reformed Church, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Being retired from professional life, I am now free to explore theology without the constraints of ecclesiastical loyalties. You will be challenged by the ebooks I am supplying on Smashwords.

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ROMANS SURVEY

A Pastoral Analysis

by Edwin Walhout

Published by Edwin Walhout

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 Edwin Walhout

Cover design by Amy Cole ([e-mail])

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All Biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Romans 1

Romans 2

Romans 3

Romans 4

Romans 5

Romans 6

Romans 7

Romans 8

Romans 9

Romans 10

Romans 11

Romans 12

Romans 13

Romans 14

Romans 15

Romans 16

Conclusion

Introduction

Why did Paul write this letter? What was his purpose in doing so? Though Paul apparently knew several of the Christians in Rome, he had never himself been in Rome prior to writing this letter, even though it was his ambition to make a visit there eventually. He was now in Corinth, as close to Rome as he had ever been. What occasioned his letter?

Though we cannot know for sure, it seems likely that he was impelled to write simply because he was not able at the time to make the personal visit he so much wanted to make. Perhaps there were persons then in Corinth who would soon be traveling to Rome, persons who could deliver this letter for him. The letter then would be something of a substitute for a personal visit, and a promise that he would come when circumstances permitted. He would be writing the things that he otherwise might be telling them in person.

Furthermore, he may well have heard from travelers who had been in Rome about the circumstances of the church there, and he would then address from a distance what he had been told by others. Very likely this would include the major problem he encountered everywhere he went: how Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles should get along in one church. He would be addressing both groups directly at certain points and on recognized issues.

Romans 1

Paul’s Signature

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, ²which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, ³the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh ⁴and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, ⁵through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, ⁶including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, ⁷To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

In ancient times when most writing was on papyrus scrolls, it was customary for a letter writer to identify himself at the very beginning. Contrast our present practice of adding our signature at the very end of a letter. Likewise it was customary to identify the recipient also in the opening words. Hence we see Paul identifying himself and his recipients here in the opening sentence, Paul … to all God’s beloved in Rome. We will bypass the question of whether God loved all the other people in Rome as well as the Christians. We will have to content ourselves with recognizing that Paul means all those who have become followers of the Way by believing in Jesus and living in the Spirit of God.

What appears to be a bit unusual are the qualifying descriptions that Paul adds when he identifies himself. There are three such qualifiers: He is …

Servant of Jesus Christ

Called to be an apostle

Set apart for the gospel

What is also unusual is the description of the gospel that Paul includes after he mentions that he has been set apart for the gospel. In his mind perhaps he was thinking, Yes, this is what I have been sent to do, this is what I am proclaiming everywhere I go, this is the gospel for which God as ordained me. There are two such descriptive qualifiers here also: the gospel is …

Promised beforehand

Concerning the Son of God

Next there is an expansion also of the term Son of God; two items: the Son of God is …

Descended from David

Declared to be the Son of God by resurrection

And then Paul comes back to his own identification. He has received the grace of God through this gospel for the purpose of bringing Gentiles into the obedience of faith. So he not only identifies himself by name but he adds a great deal about himself; what his calling in life is from God himself.

Already here in the opening paragraph we can see one of the customary quirks in the mind and manner of the apostle Paul, due no doubt to the fact that he is dictating his letter, not inscribing it with his own hand. His mind goes faster than his secretary’s quill. He says the things he is thinking faster than he would himself have been able to write them himself if he had constantly to dip his pen in the inkwell. Faster perhaps than his assistant also. So we see him elaborating on thoughts that are basic but moving a bit beyond the actual requirements of the sentence itself. Paul did not need to provide all those explanatory and explicatory additions to the basics. But he did, and Tertius dutifully transcribed them. But we will see from time to time that Paul’s active mind tends to outstrip his dictation, so that he keeps saying things that explicate a given statement, sometimes in ways that appear to tangential, mental wanderings from the main argument, from which he later then has to come back.

We may perceive that there are innuendoes here in this opening paragraph reminiscent of the kinds of criticisms he has heard for years, namely that his apostleship was suspect. The criticism came from the Judaizers, men who insisted that Gentiles must convert not only to Jesus but also to the Torah as practiced by Jews. Paul knew in his own life experience that rigorous obedience to Torah did not draw people closer to God and to his Son Jesus; on the contrary it hardened them against the Christ. So Paul insisted everywhere he went that Gentile believers are not required to observe the Torah regulations. For this he was widely criticized and here already in the opening words of his letter he is defending himself against such accusations. Twice in this opening salutation he insists that he is indeed a genuine apostle. He will be examining related questions at length later in this letter.

After identifying himself and his recipients, Paul adds a benediction from a) God our Father, and b) the Lord Jesus Christ. Where is the Holy Spirit? The doctrine of trinity apparently has not become front central in Paul’s thinking.

Paul’s Intention

⁸First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. ⁹For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, ¹⁰asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. ¹¹For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— ¹²or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. ¹³I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as I have among the rest of the Gentiles. ¹⁴I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish ¹⁵—hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

Never having been in Rome, Paul finds it necessary at the outset to establish a point of contact with these Christian people in Rome. He says their faith is proclaimed throughout the world. Travelers have reported to Paul what they have seen in Rome, and Paul senses the Spirit’s nudging to make a visit there at some time in the future. In the meantime, he assures them, he is constantly remembering them in his prayers. But prayer is not enough for Paul; he wants very much to make a personal visit.

Why a personal visit? So that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. But no sooner does Paul dictate this to his amanuensis (Tertius, cf 16:22), than he realizes it may sound rather patronizing on his part, so he modifies his statement, or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. He wants to visit them so that there will be mutual encouragement, but Paul does think that he has some things to say that will strengthen them. Judging by what he goes on to write in this lengthy letter, he surely does! He will be writing the very things he would otherwise say to them on a personal visit.

So Paul does believe he has some things, some important items, to share with them by way of letter. He senses from the reports he has heard that there is a problem in the Roman church that he can help solve. He explains that he has wanted to come for a visit but has been hindered for one reason or another, but that his intention is fully to come some day in order that I may reap some harvest among you. Here the focus is not so much on their benefit but on Paul’s own success, his own harvest. Is Paul a bit selfish in this phraseology? Perhaps a bit, but his entire focus in life and ministry is not on his own promotion but on the success of the gospel of the Lord Jesus. That is what he really wants. He knows that the harvest is the Lord’s and he wants to be instrumental in gathering it in.

What does Paul mean by saying, I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians? Greeks and barbarians? Who are the barbarians? Non-Greeks? These people in the church at Rome? Paul has, on his three missionary journeys, been working mainly within the Greek world as opposed to the Roman or Egyptian or Persian world. Is that what he has in mind, that now if he gets involved in the Roman church he will be working with barbarians?

Understand that often people will distinguish their own group from everyone else. It was customary for Greek-speaking people to do that: we Greeks and everybody else, for whom they utilized the term barbarians. Jewish people did the same, dividing between themselves, Jews, and everyone else, Gentiles. In my own background, the Dutch immigrants to the United States divided between themselves, Dutch, and everyone else, Americans. So I would not attach too much importance to this division of peoples. Paul merely wishes to acknowledge that he is a debtor to all.

But why a debtor? The Greek word is opheiletes. [NOTE: this ebook is unable to reproduce the Greek alphabet, so we are using transliterations instead.] It means a person who is bound or under obligation to perform some duty. Paul senses his duty to bring the gospel to both Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. In our idiom, he is indebted to Christ to do this duty for all peoples.

The Heart Of The Gospel

¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, The one who is righteous will live by faith. ¹⁸

Here Paul reverts to a different dualism: Jews and everybody else, namely Greeks. Very likely we should understand the term Greek to mean much the same as Gentile, namely anyone who was not a Jew.

He has just suggested that he is a debtor to both Greek and barbarian, a debtor in the sense of having a duty to bring the gospel to them. Now he goes on to provide the basic overall reason why he feels this duty, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith. For countless generations the Jewish people had posited a profound difference between themselves as God’s chosen people and everyone else, Gentiles. But Paul knows that this distinction is no longer valid. God’s people are no longer chosen on the basis of race or nationality, they are chosen on the basis of faith. Paul knows this because he has learned it the hard way in his own life’s experience.

Paul knows this because he was once, prior to his conversion at Damascus, under the former illusion. He was a Jew. Jews were God’s chosen people. God had given his Torah to the Jews and to no one else. Keep the Torah and you per se obey God. You live by Torah and you are a child of God. But Paul had discovered that that simply did not work. Paul learned to see himself, when under the Law, as diametrically opposed to God rather than aligned with him. He had opposed the man God sent as his messiah for the salvation of his people. Now Paul had learned that the way into the kingdom of God, the way to be a child of God, was