The Book of Romans

The book of Romans stands as one of the greatest letters ever written.  Paul wrote the letter to the churches in Rome in the mid to late 50s to unite Jewish and Gentile believers around the gospel so that they would partner with him in his effort to spread the message of salvation to Spain (15:24).  Mingling themes of righteousness and justification (3:20-8:39), and God’s grand design in redemption of His people (9-11), the letter proclaims the universality of sin (1:18-3:20), and the salvation that comes by trusting alone in Christ’s atoning work (3:20-26; 4:5).  As a result of being credited righteousness (4:1-25), the peace of mind and longing of the heart to follow in righteousness comes by His grace (5-7) since the believer has become dead to sin and alive to God (6:3-11).  He is no longer a slave to sin but is now a slave of righteousness by the Spirit and is free from death that the law brings (7:4-25).  This gives the believer great confidence in the love of God (chapter 8). 

 
The confidence of the believer deepens as he sees the purposes of God in election (9-11).  The mercy of God in redemption for Israel, and the mercy extended to the wild olive shoot in the past, present, and future necessarily produces practical fruti that point to the gospel of Jesus (12-16).  In the sphere of the church (14) and the world (13), the believer lives in light of the love that has been shown to him.  The nearness of the final salvation of Christians (13:8-14), and the unity of Jew and Gentile causes the strong to bear with the weak (15:1-7) and emboldens the mission to proclaim the power of God for salvation: the gospel (1:16-17).