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TOM · The Owner's Manual · New Testament

Romans 1

Before you read Romans: who, when, why

BOOK 45 OF 66 · NEW TESTAMENT · LETTER

The Gospel, Explained

AUTHOR
Paul, once a Pharisee who hunted Christians, now an apostle. He spoke the letter out loud, and a helper named Tertius wrote it down, 16:22.
WRITTEN FROM
Corinth, Greece, near the end of Paul's third missionary trip, right before he took an offering for the poor to Jerusalem, 15:25 to 26.
DATE WRITTEN
About AD 56 to 57.
WRITTEN TO
The church in Rome, Jews and Gentiles together. Paul had never been there. Emperor Claudius had thrown the Jews out of Rome about AD 49, and by now they were back.
CARRIED BY
Most likely Phoebe, a deacon from Cenchrea, the harbor town next to Corinth, 16:1 to 2.
KEY VERSE
Romans 1:16 to 17. I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. The righteous will live by faith.
THE OLDEST COPY OF ROMANS

The Oldest Copy of Romans

This is a page of Papyrus 46, a book of Paul's letters copied in Egypt about AD 200. Part of it is in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland, and part is at the University of Michigan. This page holds Romans 11:24 to 33. The first words, against nature, are from the olive tree picture in 11:24, and lower down you can read the Deliverer will come from Zion, 11:26. Papyrus 46 puts the closing praise of 16:25 to 27 at the end of chapter 15.

The Setting

Rome is the capital of the world, a city of about a million people. The church there was not started by Paul, and no one knows for sure who started it. Visitors from Rome were in Jerusalem at Pentecost, Acts 2:10, and may have carried the news home. Jewish and Gentile believers were now trying to be one church, and they did not always agree. Paul wanted to visit on his way to Spain, so he sent ahead the clearest explanation of the gospel he ever wrote.

What Was Going Wrong

  • Everybody Sinned. Gentiles traded God for idols, 1:23. Jews had the law but did not keep it, 2:23. All have sinned, 3:23.
  • Judging Each Other. Believers looked down on each other over food and holy days, 14:3 to 4, 14:10.
  • Bragging. Some Gentile believers acted superior to the Jews. Paul says do not boast over the branches, 11:18.
  • Fake Teachers. Some people caused divisions to serve their own appetites, 16:17 to 18.

Where to Find Jesus

  • Romans 1:3 to 4. Descended from David according to the flesh, declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection. Fulfills 2 Samuel 7:12 to 16.
  • Romans 5:8. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Points back to Isaiah 53:5 to 6.
  • Romans 10:9. Jesus is Lord, and God raised Him from the dead. The heart of the whole letter in one sentence.
  • Romans 15:12. The Root of Jesse will appear, one who will rise to rule over the Gentiles. Fulfills Isaiah 11:10.

Cool Stuff Most People Miss

  • Luther'S Breakthrough. Martin Luther, a monk who was terrified of God, studied Romans 1:17 and finally saw it: the righteous live by faith, not by being good enough. He said he felt born again and that the gates of paradise opened. His 1522 German New Testament put the word alone into 3:28, justified by faith alone, and his preface called Romans the purest gospel.
  • Augustine'S Garden. In a garden in Milan in AD 386, Augustine heard a child singing, Take up and read. He opened Paul's letters to 13:13 to 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and gave his life to God.
  • Wesley'S Warm Heart. On May 24, 1738, on Aldersgate Street in London, John Wesley heard someone reading Luther's preface to Romans and felt his heart strangely warmed. The Methodist movement grew from that night.
  • The Romans Road. Five verses that explain the gospel: 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 10:9 to 10 and 10:13. Look for the yellow notes that lead from one stop to the next.

Did Anybody Listen?

Paul did reach Rome, but in chains, Acts 28. Tradition says he was killed there under Nero. His letter outlived the empire. Romans changed Augustine, Luther and Wesley, and through them the whole church. The Reformation, almost every Protestant church, and millions of people who walked the Romans Road can trace their faith back to this one letter.

Chapter 1 in 30 seconds

Paul introduces himself to a church he has never met and says he is not ashamed of the gospel. Then he explains how people went wrong. They could see God in creation, but they traded Him for idols, and everything slid downhill from there. The list of sins at the end is long enough that nobody gets to feel left out.

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Paul Greets the Saints in Rome

1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, and set apart for the gospel of God— 2the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, 3regarding His Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

  • ROM 1:3[ALLUDES TO]Refers to ← 2SA 7:12
  • ROM 1:4[FULFILLS]Declared to be the Beloved Son of God ← PS 2:7

5Through Him and on behalf of His name, we received grace and apostleship to call all those among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. 6And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

7To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Unashamed of the Gospel

8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being proclaimed all over the world. 9God, whom I serve with my spirit in preaching the gospel of His Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10in my prayers at all times, asking that now at last by God’s will I may succeed in coming to you. 11For I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, 12that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.

13I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, how often I planned to come to you (but have been prevented from visiting until now), in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. 14I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. 15That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek. 17For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

God’s Wrath against Sin

18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.

  • ROM 1:18[NOTE]Romans 1:18 to 32 follows the same steps as Wisdom of Solomon 13 to 14, written before Jesus: people could know God from creation, turned to idols instead, and fell into every kind of sin. Paul seems to have known that book. Knowing a book is not the same as calling it Scripture.

21For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

  • ROM 1:21[HEART]They knew God but did not honor Him, so their foolish hearts were darkened.
  • ROM 1:22[DEMONIC]People trade God's glory for images of men and animals

24Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen.

26For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

  • ROM 1:26[NOTE]Paul is describing same sex acts here, and the church has always read it that way. But keep reading. The list goes on in 1:29 to 31: greed, envy, gossip, slander, boasting and disobeying parents. Then 2:1 turns it around: you who judge do the same things. Many churches treat one sin on this list as the one that sends you to hell and shrug at the rest. That is a double standard. Paul's point comes in 3:23: all have sinned.
  • ROM 1:27[TEXT]The word homosexual is not in the Greek. It was coined in German in 1868 and first showed up in an English Bible in 1946, in 1 Corinthians 6:9, where the Greek words are rare and debated. Romans 1 uses plain words, men with other men. The debate here is over against nature in 1:26. Most read it as against God's design. Some say it means against custom, since Paul uses the same words for God grafting in the Gentiles in 11:24.

28Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents. 31They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.

32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.

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