Romans

Author, Recipients, and Date

The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome. He probably did this while he was in Corinth on his third missionary journey, in A.D. 57 (Acts 20:2–3).

Theme

In the cross of Christ, God judges sin and at the same time shows his saving mercy.

The Global Message of Romans

The global message of Romans is that all people everywhere have free access to the riches of God’s grace in Christ as they respond in faith to the gospel. In his own Son, God has made a way for lost people to be restored to him—lost people whether they are Greeks or barbarians, wise or foolish (Rom. 1:14).

Romans and Redemptive History

The letter to the Romans itself recounts much of global redemptive history. Paul moves from the problem of sin (Romans 1–3) to the solution provided in Christ (chs. 3–8) to how that solution applies in a practical way among God’s people (chs. 9–16).

The second half of Romans 1 tells us of God’s righteous wrath upon unbelieving Gentiles (Rom. 1:18–32). In chapter 2 Paul says, however, that not only immoral people but also moral people are under God’s judgment (2:1–16). And then he presses in even deeper, saying that even religious people are ripe for judgment (2:17–29). The conclusion is that “all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin” (3:9).

All this is a result of the fall of mankind, which we read about in Genesis 3. The sin that has flooded throughout the world is rooted in the rebellion of one man and one woman who represented all of humanity, with the man as the head (see Rom. 5:12–19). Yet at the climax of human history, at just the right time (5:6), God sent his Son to die in the place of his people and thus to begin to undo the effects of the fall (3:21–26; 5:6–21).

This great salvation is the fulfillment of promises made to ethnic Israel (Rom. 9:6). Yet the gospel has burst through all ethnic boundaries, spilling out to Jew and Gentile throughout the world until the time when Christ will come a second time and restore not only God’s children but, with them, the entire cosmos (8:19–22).

Summary sourced from the ESV® Study Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright ©2008 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”