Summary of Study
Paul establishes in Romans 1-8 that salvation is not from possessing the Law and in being circumcised. It is from faith in Christ.
This study traces how Paul establishes the truth that salvation is from faith in Christ.
This study particularly examines Paul’s mention of ‘I’ in Romans 7. The ‘I’ has been taken to refer to a carnal Christian. This study aims to show that the ‘I’ refers to a Jew who has not yet known Christ.
Besides explaining who is the ‘I’ of Romans 7, there is also an attempt to define who are the Gentiles of Romans 2, who perform the requirements of the Law.
Introduction
Romans has been our resource book for understanding the nature of our salvation.
The first eight chapters of Romans give us comprehensive instruction on the salvation God worked out for sinful man.
Paul was writing to the Roman church which was confronting Jewish arguments that righteousness comes from circumcision and the keeping of the Law.
Paul laid down for them the gospel that God has given to both Jews and Gentiles.
He began by identifying the plight of Gentiles. They are under the wrath of God towards their sins. The Gentiles had rejected God as their God. They ended up worshiping images of created things. The consequence was they became depraved sexually and morally. Though they knew that God would judge them for these things, they persisted in their ways.
The Jews who had taken God as their God thought they were righteous because of they are circumcised and have the Law.
Paul showed the falsity of their understanding. He clarified that God’s final judgement shall be based on a person’s deeds.
i. On this standard, those who are circumcised and who have the Law, would be considered transgressors if they fail to
keep the Law.
ii. Conversely, the person, even though uncircumcised and not possessing the Law, who keeps the Law written in his
heart, will be justified.
Paul further refutes the Jewish confidence of their own righteousness. He refers to the testimony of the Law itself. He states that the Law testifies that there is no one righteous. This testimony speaks particularly against the Jews as the ones who are under the Law.
He then presents the righteousness of God which is attributed to a person apart from the Law. It is a righteousness given based on God’s grace, to the one who has faith in Christ. This was made possible by Christ who became a propitiation for man’s sin through the shedding of His blood.
Paul elaborated on this truth.
i. This righteousness is by faith
a. Scriptures testify that Abraham was justified by faith. He was accounted righteous when he believed God’s promise
to him. He was at that time uncircumcised.
b. David speaks of the blessings of the forgiveness of sins. This speaks of God crediting righteousness apart from
works.
ii. The situation of the one in Christ (Sufficiency of the work of Christ)
a. He has peace with God and has access to the grace in which he stands. There is hope of the eternal glory of God. He
is assured by the gift of the Holy Spirit.
b. This reconciliation was accomplished by the substitutionary death of Christ. Having been reconciled, much more the
person will be saved by the life of Christ.
c. This grace shown to him is based entirely on the righteous work of Christ. The grace resolves the problem of
universal death and condemnation brought about by the sin of Adam. Justification and life are made available to all
by the obedience of Christ.
Salvation by faith/grace does not disregard the Law. The one who is justified is enabled to live out the Law. (He is the one who will qualify God’s standard of judgment laid out in Romans 2.)
Paul makes clear that salvation by grace does not imply continuing in sin. Those who have died with Christ have died to sin. They are alive to God. They should not present themselves to sin. They should be instruments of righteousness to God. This would result in their sanctification and obtaining eternal life.
Paul then tells the Jews/proselytes that they had been freed from the covenant of keeping the Law when they came to Christ. Their need to be freed from the covenant does not imply that the Law is sin. It was sin that used the commandment and the Law to bring about death for man.
He then portrays the situation of a Jew, one without Christ, struggling with the keeping of the Law. He sees that the Law is good, but he is not able to keep it.
Paul then puts together how God through Christ has enabled man to live out the Law (requirement of the Law fulfilled). God condemned sin in man in having Christ die for man’s sin. (This sin having been dealt with,) The believer is now no more under the realm of the law of sin and death. He is under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. So, he is to set his mind on the things of the Spirit and live by the leading of the Spirit.
The Spirit speaks to the believers that they are children of God. They will be glorified with God. Even creation will be set free from corruption.
Paul assures the believers of the Spirit’s intercession for them. He also assures them that God works all things for their good. He will complete His purpose and will glorify them.
God has given His Son for us. He will freely give us all things that we may enter eternity with Him. No one can foil His intention.
The believers should then hold fast to the love for Christ and not allow anything to dissuade them from this love.
Paul makes the point that Jews and Gentiles are saved, not by keeping the Law but by faith in Christ. He establishes the truths of his proposition in the first 8 chapters of Romans.
Romans 1 – Paul’s Desire to Minister to the Romans; the Abandonment of the Gentiles by God
Romans 2 – Exposé of a Jewish False Confidence
(At God’s final judgment, a person shall be judged on the basis of ‘a living out of the law’.)
Romans 3:1-20 – Recognition of Jewish Unbelief and Their Transgression of the Law
(The Advantage of the Jews in possessing the Law does not preclude a possibility of their unbelief and their transgression of the Law.)
Romans 3:21 – 4:25
a. Romans 3:21-31 – The Righteousness from God through Faith in Christ for Both Jews and Gentiles
b. Romans 4:1-25 – An Exposition Showing that Righteousness is from Faith
Romans 5:1-21 – Reconciliation with God and the Abundance of Grace from the Obedience of Christ
(The grace arising from the obedience of Christ is sufficient to meet the consequences of Adam’s sin.)
Romans 6:1-23 – An Imperative to be Instruments of Righteousness to God
(The provision of righteousness by faith, apart from the Law, does not nullify the Law but establishes it.)
Romans 7:1-25 – The Need to be Released from the Law
(Those under the Law need to be released from the Law so that they may be joined to Christ. The typical experience of the one under the Law is helplessness in fulfilling it.)
Chapter 8:1-39 – Life in the Spirit and the Keeping of God for Those He Redeemed
a. Chapter 8:1-27 – Life in the Spirit
(A characteristic of the person redeemed by faith in Christ is living by the Spirit)
b. Chapter 8:28-39 – The Keeping of God for Those He Redeemed
Background to Romans
Paul was writing to the Roman church, which at that time, was comprised largely of Gentile believers.1
There were however Jewish believers in the church, as well. He addressed them as those who know the Law.2 There were those who were Jews whom he greeted in Romans 16.3
The first believers in Rome were probably Jewish.
There were Jews from Rome in Jerusalem during Pentecost. Luke, the writer of Acts, mentioned Rome as one of the places the crowd came from. They heard Peter preached and there were a great number of converts. These might have included those from Rome.
Paul greeted Andronicus and Junia, his kinsmen, in Romans 16:7. He said they had come to Christ before him. It is possible they may have come to Christ during Pentecost.
The dispersion of Christians, due to persecution in Judea, may have brought some of them to Rome.
The converts during Pentecost or other Jews, who came to Christ subsequently, would have shared the message with their fellow Jews and proselytes in Rome.
These early Jewish believers would have continued their worship at the synagogues.
In the book of Acts, we see that the unbelieving Jews rejected the believers in the cities Paul went.
This might reflect what happened in Rome against the Jews and proselytes who came to Christ. Disturbances were recorded by writers as occurring amongst the Jews. In AD 49, Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. Suetonius (c. AD 69- c. AD 122), a historian wrote:
Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he [the Emperor Claudius] expelled them
from Rome.
There are varying views of historians to this quote. However, it is possible for us to understand that there was Jewish agitation against those Jews who came to Christ. We see such agitations in other cities where Paul preached.
Luke mentions this expulsion order in Acts 18:2:
And he found a Jew name Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because
Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.
Priscilla and Aquila had to leave Rome under the expulsion order. Paul met them in Corinth. They might have acquainted Paul with the church in Rome.
Paul could have also become acquainted with the other leaders of the church in Rome at this time. These might have journeyed from Rome. Priscilla and Aquila might have brought them to Paul.
Having been rejected from the synagogue(s), the believers in Rome might have started assembling in homes. Paul’s greetings in Romans 16, attest to the existence of house churches.
Due to the expulsion order, Jewish leaders of the church in Rome became absent for a time. Certain Gentile believers probably had to step up to take care of the flock. Besides this they might have to host church meetings. Some of those whom Paul greeted in Romans 16 were not Jewish.
Priscilla and Aquila did return to Rome. This was probably after Claudius died in A.D. 54. Other Jewish Christians may have done the same.
Most scholars suggest AD 56 and AD 57 as the date of writing of Romans.
Paul was answering Judaistic assertions that the Jews were God’s people and had the truth. He refuted their claim that they were righteous because of circumcision and the possession of the Law.
Paul addressed his letter to the believers in Rome. These would have included both Jewish as well as Gentile believers. The Gentile believers might have initially been proselytes of Judaism or were acquainted with Judaism.
Paul presented his points as if speaking directly to groups whose situation or views he sought to address.
We see that he began with addressing the situation of the Gentiles who were cut off from God.
He then showed why the Jewish confidence in their own righteousness was fallacious.
Then he presented God’s righteousness that comes by faith in Christ.
Subsequently he had to show that righteousness that comes by faith in Christ does not abrogate the Law.
In Chapter 7, he mentioned those who know the Law. This would refer to the Jews but could also include proselytes of Judaism.
Paul did not found the church in Rome. However, at this time he might have assumed an apostolic relationship with the church. Paul introduced himself to the Roman Christians in Romans 1:5 as having received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles. He said the Roman Christians were included amongst them.
1.
Romans 1:5a-6 – … to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles … among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;
Romans 1:13 – … that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.
2.
Romans 7:1 – Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the Law)
Romans 7:4 – Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in regard to the Law through the body of Christ,
3.
Romans 16:3 – Greet Prisca and Aquila,
Romans 16:6 – Greet Mary
Romans 16:7 – Greet Andronicus and Junia
Romans 16:11 – Greet Herodion