Romans #0. - Foreward

Foreward to Romans

Romans is one of my favorite books of the Bible. This book is the book that, upon my first reading back in 2020, showed me the extent of God’s Grace and Love. I’m not sure I myself can fully comprehend the extent of God’s Grace and Love, but I can say with absolute certainty that Romans sure told me about it! It’s a wonderful look into the technicalities of salvation, and introduced me to the notion that the Bible was more than a Christian’s guidebook to being good or something. This was a real letter written by a human being to other people seeking understanding of the world, the same way we hunt for meaning today.

First and foremost, this is a letter to the Roman people, particularly the Roman church. Many people drift past this fact in favor of fire and brimstone preaching, so I’ll say it now: Paul is writing with the spirit of Christ. Having read many of his epistles, I am not convinced that Paul (through Tertius) was a practiced writer. I’ve never looked into this, but you will be able to see, very quickly, in his rough style, that the Holy Spirit ties these writings together and gives them structure.

Despite being first on this list of letters, this is actually one of the latest letters written by Paul his third missionary journey. The date that this letter was written is not super important – otherwise, Paul would have given the date. Everyone is so worried about when, that they miss the what. Many scholars conclude that Romans was written somewhere between 56-58 A.D., by Paul in Corinth, during his third missionary journey.

When studying any piece of writing in Scripture, we would do wise to keep the structure of the letter itself in mind, so that we do not get lost. In the case of Romans, this is especially critical, so that we do not take anything out of context. As you begin to take a look at the chart to the left (created by A.E. Knoch,) I’m going to provide for you the general subject matter: God anointed Paul as the first member of the Body, and He chose someone once so full of vile hatred and murderous intent to teach “the evangel of God” – concerning His righteousness. He commissioned a murderous, self-righteous individual to write and teach Christ’s accomplishment in His death, His entombment, and His resurrection.

The purpose of this is to show us that there is not one thing that could truly separate one from the love of God. Irrespective of action, God loves all. This does not, of course, mean He delights in horrific acts (you can love your son, but be distraught at poor decision-making, without it being hypocritical. The same is true of God.)

God spends the beginning of the letter (Rom. 1:1-17) setting the stage. He explains what the letter is, and what its purpose truly contains. This section is broken down into five different headings. I will lump each heading together into Part I in my study, but we will be keeping this format in mind for later.

The next portion of the letter will show us the conduct of mankind (Rom. 1:18-3:20.) In order to grasp righteousness (that is, perfectly right action 100% of the time,) we must first grasp its opposite – unrighteousness. This is where we come in. Paul will spend the first doctrinal portion of the letter obliterating man’s sense of pride in itself. If you have already reached this breaking point with yourself, good! That’s the point of this letter. Inevitably, all will learn this, but we are graced to reach the same conclusion as Paul (for, whether you ‘believe in God’ or not, you can still consider Paul a brilliant man. His masterful breakdown of man’s nature is mesmerizing.)

Once we learn of man’s complete fault, we will consider the “evangel of God” itself, being “justification through Christ’s faith,” broken down in Romans 3:21-4:25. I’m not going to go into too much detail on this just yet, but rest assured that this section will change your life in its implication.

Once we learn of “justification through Christ’s faith,” we naturally ask, ‘What do we do, exactly, with this new knowledge?’ This is where the next portion comes in! The doctrine of “Conciliation” will be covered from Rom. 5:1-8:30, and will cover everything, from details concerning the salvation of all mankind (5:18-19,) to our life in Christ (6:3-11,) to our exemption from any Old Testament law (7:1-6,) and our new walk in Christ (8:1-11.)

Throughout all of this, it will become readily apparent to us that God is much bigger than our brains could have ever anticipated. This is where Paul breaks down God’s sovereignty, from Romans 8:30-39. He has an absolute authority over all, and the argument that builds to this wonderful climax, as you will see, holds no error.

This takes us to the midway point of Romans. If you observe the above chart, you will find that Romans, at the beginning of chapter 9, flips the script, and begins the same format, but in reverse! Each point is covered again, but from a completely different perspective. God’s authority is covered again, from 9:1-29, but instead of focusing on you, as an individual, He focused on a national scope, explaining to you why He cares about Israel so much. This will run parallel to His first exhortation on His sovereignty.

God then covers Israel’s “justification through faith” in Rom. 9:30-10:21, and Israel’s “conciliation” in Rom. 11:1-36. These parallel your justification and conciliation, from 3:1-8:30.

Once He finishes this, we find ourselves face to face with our conduct, from Rom. 12:1-15:7, which itself contrasts the rest of mankind’s conduct, from 1:18-3:20. After this, we have an extended wrap-up session which parallels Paul’s introduction in Rom. 1:1-17. Thus we have a full, rounded letter that will present a perfect argument for some of the most pressing questions in the entire universe: who is God? What does He want? Why are we here?

These questions will be given blatant answers. They are so blatant, in fact, that it surprises me that so many miss these answers, in favor of their own biases. When we detach from ourselves, and delight in the common Greek grammar, we will find ourselves face to face with one of the most personal, intimate letters ever written. This is the book of the Bible that will teach us about God – this is not ‘proof of His existence,’ but an exhortation on what is proof of His existence – being Christ. You and me are major players, as we’ll come to study in the text, but we are not the main focus. We are only considered ‘major players’ by our connection to Christ. Holding this perspective throughout this book, as well as the following books, will help us gain a far better understanding of what Paul is saying. We will learn who Christ is, and what this truly says about God, apart from man’s reasonings and tired claims about eternal torment and other lies forced upon us about God by organized religion’s false faith (2 Cor. 11:13-15, 2 Tim. 3:1-5.)

One more thing: Remember, per my ‘overview,’ that, while Jesus’ words are perfect, He had only arrived for the sheep of Israel to herald the arrival of their promised kingdom (Matt. 15:24,) not tell you or me how to handle our morning routine. This is the first book of the Bible where an in-depth picture of God’s Grace and Love are on complete display for all of humanity to see. All we have to do is read it!

- GerudoKing