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Introduction to the Letter

Paul started churches in Corinth, Thessalonica, and other places, writing them letters afterward about various issues that had arisen since his time with them. By contrast, the church in Rome was started by others and he wrote his letter to the believers there years before he ever arrived there to preach and teach.

Although Paul had not previously visited the church in Rome, he knew a lot of the believers who were there. Like New York, it was a place a lot of people went. That’s why we see him giving a lot of personal greetings to individuals at the end of the letter.

Rome was the New York City of its day, with many people coming and going. The church in Rome consisted of both Jews and Gentiles. Relations between Jews and Gentiles were a constant struggle throughout the New Testament age – not because of enmity between the two, but because of confusion about whether there were differences in what the gospel required of each group. There was a meeting in Jerusalem, described in Acts 15, that sought to resolve this issue. It was decided there that Gentiles did not have to become Jews – that is, did not have to keep the Law of Moses – in order to participate in the gospel. Though the meeting was successful, Jew versus Gentile questions did not all go away. In this letter, Paul spends considerable time trying to explain God’s actions with Jews and Gentiles to show how those actions complement rather than conflict with each other.

The issue of Jewish-Gentile relations can make this letter all the more complicated for us today because current Jewish-Gentile relations have very different points of tension than they did in New Testament times. The Jews no longer have a temple in Jerusalem and they no longer practice animal sacrifice, which were still realities in the apostolic age. Such differences in circumstances prevent us from drawing direct lines from the tensions Paul was trying to resolve to the ones we see today. Therefore, we might feel Paul is spending way too much time on some Jewish-Gentile distinction about which we have no concern. At those points, we just have to remember that the New Testament documents were directed toward believers in that age, and we have to be like detectives, figuring out how they apply to our age.

Now let’s move on to some more mundane aspects of the letter. Although ancient texts had very little, if any, punctuation, translators often render Paul’s writings with some very long sentences. For example, the NASB 1995 renders the first seven verses as a single sentence. The longer any sentence is, no matter who writes it, the harder it will be to understand. I’m not second guessing the translators; I’m just comforting you. For if you sometimes have a hard time understanding Paul, so did the translators. (And so, for that matter, did Peter – 2 Peter 3:15-16.)

The theme of this letter is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And because Paul writes personally, it his gospel. By this, Paul does not mean that he has a different gospel from Peter and the other apostles, because Paul would be the first to say that there is only one gospel. What he does mean is that he is personally responsible for conveying the gospel as he sees it – just as there is a Gospel according to Matthew, a Gospel according to Mark, and so on. Just like each witness in court must give his own personal testimony, so each apostle had to give his own testimony of the Messiah (that is, the Christ). The apostles all testify of the gospel – that is, the good news, the great announcement, the joyful proclamation – of Jesus Christ. Paul begins and ends this letter emphasizing that one and only gospel – because it is what the world needs.

Here’s a logical breakdown of this long letter.

• Chapter 1 – The salutation, including Paul’s introduction of his chosen subject matter
• Chapters 2-11 – A detailed breakdown of how the gospel applies to Jews and to Gentiles
• Chapters 12-15 – Practical instructions for living
• Chapter 16 – The valediction, including personal acknowledgments and a summation of the gospel

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Romans 1

Remembering that Paul had no involvement in the chapter and verse divisions of his letters, we can still logically divide this chapter in half – the first half being more personal between Paul and the Roman believers, and the second half being more general about the state of the whole world and why it needs the gospel.

Rom 1:1-15 – This is Paul’s salutation. It’s personal and it’s long. But it’s not exclusively personal, for he has a lot of important truths mixed in with his greeting to these people.

Rom 1:1 – Paul tells the Roman believers right off the bat that he’s not preaching on his own authority but that Jesus called him and set him apart to preach the gospel.

Rom 1:2 – This gospel comes from the many promises God made in the Old Testament, which was written by prophets like Moses, David, Isaiah, and many others.

Rom 1:3-4 – The promises that culminate in the gospel message center on the Messiah. Notice how Paul emphasizes the Messiah in these two verses:

Rom 1:3 – “His Son” is a messianic title. Although Jesus was God’s Son from a spiritual point of view, to qualify as Messiah He also had to be a son of David from the physical point of view.

Rom 1:4 – Note two messianic titles in this verse: “Son of God” and “Christ.” Notice also that God “spoke” of Jesus’ Sonship through His resurrection from the dead. That is, God spoke in that case by His action – His unprecedented action. Nothing said Jesus was the Son of God as loudly as raising Him from the dead (Ps 2:7). ***** God Speaking by His Actions

Rom 1:5-6 – By the expression “obedience of faith” Paul reminds us that faith is not an option. We are all commanded through the gospel to have faith in Christ. God did not command the human race to have faith in Him before Christ; but with the coming of Christ, given all He went through for us, there is no reason we should withhold our faith from Him any longer! In the creation, we see His power (verse 20 below); but in the gospel of Messiah we see God’s love. In these two verses, Paul makes the gospel of Jesus personal to himself and then to the Roman believers by stressing their common attachment to the Messiah (“the Son of God”).

Rom 1:5 – Because of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Paul is an apostle, and

Rom 1:6 – Because of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, these Romans find themselves in the ranks of the called, and therefore their redemption has begun.

Rom 1:7 – Paul sums up and concludes his greeting.

Rom 1:8-17 – Paul now explains how important these believers in Rome are to him, and how they figure in the way he thinks about all the work he has to do. He makes it obvious how important they are to him (as if the length of the letter isn’t sufficient to make that point for him). The common thread between Paul and the Roman believers is the gospel that saves them and binds them together. 

Rom 1:16 – When Paul uses the term “Greek” in this way, he’s using it as a synonym for “Gentile.” 

Rom 1:18-32 – The first half of this chapter was about the gospel and its personal importance to Paul and to the Roman believers. The second half is more general – it’s about the world and its need for the gospel. The world has a gaping hole in its heart. If we underestimate that problem, we’ll underestimate the importance of Jesus’ gospel. These 15 verses explain what’s wrong with the world (and therefore why it needs a gospel). Paul’s indictment is thorough and persuasive.

Rom 1:18-25– The world’s problem is rooted in its rejection of its Creator. It’s not that the world doesn’t know God; it’s that it doesn’t want to know God. Therefore, the world “suppresses the truth,” “became futile in their expectations,” “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God” for corruptible images, “exchanged the truth of God for a lie,” and “worshiped and served” what wasn’t God. Notice that unbelievers don’t stop worshiping and serving; we are wired to worship and serve. They just worship and serve the wrong things. You can clearly see that in unbelievers to this day. They are just as zealous, and sometimes more so, for their gods as believers are for the one true God. When people turn away from God, God’s reaction is to let them. That’s where the next section takes us.

Rom 1:26-32 – Having turned its back on God, a society plunges itself into sexual degradation and every other kind of evil. In the last 70 years we have seen a progression of such evil against the backdrop of secularism: no-fault divorce, the pill, the sexual revolution, gay “marriage,” transgenderism, and every other aspect of the rapidly metastasizing LGBT+ movement. Suppressing the truth about God is the cause, complete human degradation is the result. No wonder we need the gospel. Without the awareness of God, in whose image we are made, we are left only to see ourselves as the supreme beings. This is moral madness. The gospel is the only antidote strong enough to cure it.

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Romans 2

In this chapter, Paul describes how both Jews and Gentiles fall under the indictment of the world that he declared in the second half of the previous chapter. The Jews may have the Law of Moses and the Gentiles may be free from its requirements, but neither group has any excuse for their sins.

Rom 2:1-8 – Paul wants his readers to admit their complicity in the world’s general rebellion against the Creator. He says if they don’t, they’re just being hypocrites. All men are sinners and there’s nothing to be gained by hiding from that fact (as Adam and Eve tried to hide from it – Gen 3:8-10). Paul will pound away on this point in the next chapter as well.

Rom 2:9-10 – This “tribulation and distress” that Paul mentions is the beginning of “the wrath of God” he mentioned in Rom 1:18. ***** Remember that when you see the word “Greek” used in this way, it is being used as a synonym for “Gentile.”

Rom 2:11 – Paul spends the bulk of this letter defending God against the charge that He is partial to either Jews or Gentiles. That He is accused of being partial to both is in itself an indication that He is partial to neither. However, Paul will have more indications to bring forth than just this.

Rom 2:12-16 – When Paul writes about “the Law” in this way, he means “the Law of Moses” – which is found in the first five books of the Bible. Since all the events of Genesis took place before Moses was born, it’s really books 2 through 5 that contain his law (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). Of course, it was really God’s Law…given through Moses. And this is the Law Jesus reinterpreted to govern the kingdom of God – a reinterpretation expounded most thoroughly in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and summed up in the greatest two commandments (Matthew 22:34-40). This reinterpretation and summation apply to both Jews and Gentiles.

Rom 2:17-25 – In this part of the chapter, Paul focuses on the Jew who thinks he holds a superior position over Gentiles because he has the Law of Moses and a Gentile doesn’t. Paul is trying to get such a Jew to admit that he’s not fully keeping this Law he’s so proud of. That is, he’s trying to draw out an admission of hypocrisy from any Jew who looks down on Gentiles just because they don’t have the Law like he does. To buttress his case, Paul quotes from the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel (Is 52:5; Ezek 36:20-23).

Rom 2:26-27 – Paul points out that a Gentile who keeps the spirit of the Law could actually condemn a Jew. Such a thought was unthinkable to Jews of that day because the morals of Gentiles were plainly inferior to the morals of Jews. That is, the Jews had their sins, but they were not known for the debauchery that characterized Gentiles. Such difference is not so apparent today. And it’s also fair to say, in similar fashion, that the morals of Christians today are often seen as not superior to those of non-Christians.

Rom 2:28-29 – In these two verses, Paul is making clear the spiritual dimension of these concepts. Moses and the prophets had spoken of the spiritual dimension of circumcision (Lev 26:41; Jer 9:26), but Jesus camped on this dimension and saw all of life through this lens. For example, at the beginning of His ministry He addressed Nathanael, ““Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” (Jn 1:47), and later said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing…” (Jn 6:63). Jesus’ focus was not to merely clean up behavior, but to clean up the heart…knowing that if the heart were truly clean, behavior would take care of itself. ***** See also Spiritual Israel v Physical Israel.

Every man in every century – whether Jew or Gentile, whether Christian or non-Christian, knows he is a sinner before God. Therefore, we know we need the forgiving and cleansing power that only God can provide. And He only provides it through Jesus Christ.

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Romans 3

Rom 3:1-2 – Having made the point in the previous chapter that Jews had no basis for saying they were more righteous than the Gentiles, Paul now poses the obvious question that will come in response: “Then what’s the point of being a Jew?” Paul’s answer is swift and short: “We’ve got the Bible!” God had given prophets and Scriptures only to the Jews – not any of the Gentile nations. In other words, only Israel of all the nations had the documented word of God.

Rom 3:3-8 – Paul immediately acknowledges the next logical challenge that will arise: “Not all Jews believe the Bible.” Paul had preached the gospel to many of his fellow Jews – some believed and some didn’t. Does this mean God’s going to stop keeping His promises? Paul answers, “No way!” But then, if God is going to keep His promises even if we don’t believe Him, does that mean we can live whatever way we want? Paul answers, “Don’t be ridiculous!” (“May it never be” in the NASB,” = “God forbid” in the King James Version = “No way” and “Don’t be ridiculous” elsewhere.)

Rom 3:9-18 – Paul now reels off a series of quotations from the Old Testament to make the point that God has thoroughly documented the fact that all men are sinners. (It’s a shame that we need someone to tell us this.)

Rom 3:19-20 – Paul says that the Law of Moses did not give Jews a way to justify themselves before God. On the contrary, it demonstrated their sinfulness.

Rom 3:21-26 – The NASB translators are giving us these six verses as one very long sentence from Paul. In this sentence, Paul is saying several things. He’s saying that though the Law of Moses is not able to make someone righteous, the Old Testament of which it is a part does communicate that there is a way to be righteous. That way to be righteous is to have faith in the Messiah that the Old Testament prophesies – especially now that He has come in the person of Jesus and fulfilled those prophecies.

(As to fulfilling the messianic prophecies, remember that though this letter to the Romans would eventually, along with 26 other texts, become what we call the New Testament, all believers in that age had was what we call the Old Testament for their holy Scriptures. Remember also that the Old Testament prophecies of Messiah spoke of both His sufferings and His glories. From Acts to Revelation, the apostles declared that the messianic prophecies of suffering had all been fulfilled, culminating in Jesus’ crucifixion. The prophecies about His glories, however, had only been partially fulfilled – first in His resurrection from the dead, and second in His ascension to the right hand of God in heaven. There were more glories soon to come – specifically, those associated with His Second Coming (aka the coming of the kingdom of God, the day of the Lord, the day of Christ, etc.). Later in this letter, Paul will address how Jesus will fulfill the remaining prophecies of glory before their generation completely passes. For now, however, he just wants to establish that the Law of Moses and the Prophets (that is, the Old Testament) served a greater purpose than documenting Moses’ Law – they, more importantly, documented the free gift of life that was coming through Jesus Messiah.

Rom 3:27-31 – The bottom line is, Paul says, that God isn’t looking for adherence to the Law of Moses; He’s looking for faith in Jesus Christ. This applies to both Jews and Gentiles.

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Romans 4

Paul has been talking about Jews and Gentiles – how they’re in the same boat where God is concerned even though the Jews have the Law of Moses and the Gentiles don’t. The Law of Moses was a source of great national pride among the Jews in that day. They saw Moses’ law as what distinguished Israel from every other nation on earth. What nation had a set of laws legislated by God? Only Israel! As the Law of Moses itself said:

For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him? Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?”

DEUTERONOMY 4:7-8 (italics added)

Even though many Jews had come to believe that Jesus was indeed their long-awaited Messiah, some of them really struggled to let go of the Law the way Moses had taught it and fully embrace the way Jesus taught it. This is the tension we saw prominent in Acts, are seeing in Romans, and will see prominently in Galatians as well.

To help persuade those Jews who felt that Gentile believers in Messiah would never fully be redeemed until their nations adopted the Mosaic Code, Paul now turns to Abraham as an example. Abraham didn’t have Moses’ law and yet he was a able to please God. Although neither Paul nor any of the other biblical writers wrote in chapter and verse, this whole chapter focuses on Abraham.

Rom 4:1-5 – Paul is using Abraham to contrast faith (which is the way of life Paul is proclaiming – specifically, faith in Messiah Jesus) with “works of the Law” which many believing Jews were wanting Gentiles to adopt. (Some people think that Jesus’ brother James is contradicting Paul’s argument in Jas 2:14-26, but that is not the case at all. In that passage, James is, in effect if not by intention, fine-tuning Paul’s argument. Paul is arguing here against “works of the Law” while James is arguing there for “works of faith.” Every argument can’t be argued in every passage; that’s why God gave us a Bible and not just two stone tablets.)

Rom 4:6-8 – Paul quotes Psalm 32:1-2 to demonstrate that the argument he is making is not original with him – that King David had made this point long ago.

Rom 4:9-12 – Paul is making his argument very precise on the point of circumcision. He quotes Gen 15:6 to establish that Abraham was reckoned as righteous because of his faith. God did not bring up the subject of circumcision with Abraham until Gen 17. Therefore, Paul is arguing in effect, “If God did not require Abraham to be circumcised, much less to keep the Law of Moses, before being declared righteous by his faith, why should the Gentiles be required to be circumcised or keep the Law of Moses before being declared righteous by faith?” Paul is showing that the Law of Moses was temporary by its very nature. It was a bridge to get the descendants of Abraham from nationhood to Messiah. Once the bridge was crossed, there would be no going back so a bridge would not be needed anymore. A national code of laws was not needed in the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; nor would it be needed in the eternal age of Messiah. It was only needed to form a nation until it produced its favorite son (“the glory of Your people Israel” – Lk 2:32). Gal 3 is a fuller explanation of this point.

Rom 4:13-15 – Our hopes must be based on the faithfulness of God rather than on the obedience of man. To base hope on the faithfulness of God is to build on rock; to base it on the obedience for man is to build on sand. Who has ever bet on the obedience of man and won? Jesus is the only man to ever pass that test. Therefore, to base your hope on that man’s obedience would make sense. But that’s the way of faith – which is the very way Paul is preaching. Someone might complain, “But, Paul, are you telling us that God doesn’t care about our obedience?” Paul will address that question head on as the letter continues.

Rom 4:16-25 – In this part of the chapter, Paul lays out Abraham’s example of faith and there is an excellent pattern here for us to follow. We have been given more to believe than Abraham was given. That is, Abraham was promised descendants and related benefits – most of all, a Messiah. But we have inherited all the promises of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (2 Cor 1:19-20; Heb 8:6; 2 Pet 1:4). Therefore, we have much more to gain than Abraham did. It’s not that God doesn’t care about our obedience to Him; on the contrary, He cares very much about it. He’s just trying to show us that we can’t build our faith on our obedience; rather, we have to build our obedience on our faith. Faith is the foundation of human relationship with God.

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Romans 5

Rom 5:1 – Using Abraham as the prime example, Paul spent the entirety of Rom 4 explaining the importance of faith in the plan of God and how this importance was clearly established in the Scriptures well before the Law of Moses came along. Now Paul connects faith with the peace that comes through Jesus Christ. That is, the reason the human soul is filled with peace when the truth claims of Jesus Christ are accepted is that God is showing His approval of that human decision.

Rom 5:2 – Paul goes on to suggest that this peace from God is but the first installment of many forms of grace in store for the believer in Jesus Christ.

Rom 5:3-5 – Because of this abundant grace that Jesus Christ bestows, Paul goes on to say, even tribulations become occasions for rejoicing because in a life lived for Christ they initiate a sequence that leads to fulfillment, as opposed to the disappointment tribulation would otherwise bring. That sequence proceeds step by step from tribulation ultimately to hope. Paul also makes mention of the love of God coming to our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

Rom 5:6-8 – Paul makes the point that Messiah died not for good people but for bad ones. (For compared to Him, we’re all bad.) This is the kind of love which was poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit – not the ability to love good people, but the ability to love bad ones…like ourselves.

Rom 5:9 – If we’ve been made just by His blood, we shall surely be saved from His wrath. Recall all that Paul has written so far in this letter about God’s wrath, for this is the wrath from which the grace of Jesus Christ is saving us:

Rom 1:18 – …the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…

Rom 2:5 – …because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath…

Rom 2:8 – to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation…

Rom 3:5 – …The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He?…

Rom 4:15 – for the Law brings about wrath…

Rom 5:10 – The “blood” of Jesus in verse 9 represents the “death” of Jesus in this verse. By His death, we were reconciled to God. But that was just the beginning, because by His “life” we are also saved. Again, His death gives us reconciliation with God and His life (that is, His resurrection from the dead) gives us salvation from evil. In other words, Jesus takes us from being enemies of God to being His friends. If someone springs you from jail, that’s great; but if he then invites you to live in his home with him, that’s something even more wonderful!

Rom 5:11 – No wonder we “exult” in God through Jesus Christ!

Rom 5:12-21 – Throughout the remaining 10 verses of this chapter, Paul uses Adam as a reference point to explain the importance of Jesus.

Rom 5:12 – Adam is the man through whom sin and death entered the world. We are given an account of this in the first three chapters of Genesis and we see the effects of it daily in our own lives and in the lives of those around us.

Rom 5:13 – Paul is making the point that sin was in the world from the time of Adam through the time of Moses even though there wasn’t a Law of Moses to fully identify  what those sins were.

Rom 5:14 – Everyone from Adam until Moses died because that was the outworking of the law of sin and death that Adam had triggered. Again, the absence of a Law, like the commandment God gave Adam or the large set of them God gave Moses, made no difference because right is right and wrong is wrong even if we don’t have someone telling us what they are. After all, human beings come equipped with a conscience. Paul also points out that Adam was a type, meaning that he serves as a pattern to help understand Christ (Types of Christ). And this is the way Paul is going to use references to Adam in the rest of this chapter. 

Rom 5:15 – In using Adam as a type of Christ, Paul begins by stating that Christ brought a blessing to all men in the same way that Adam brought a curse (sin and death) to all men – but that the blessing Christ brought was all out of proportion to the curse Adam brought!

Rom 5:16 – Paul mentions another beneficial point of differentiation between Adam and Christ: that the curse came from just one transgression, but that Christ’s one sacrifice resolved many transgressions and brought many blessings. 

Rom 5:17 – Death may have reigned through Adam, but man will reign through Christ.

Rom 5:18 – I don’t know how to say it any plainer than Paul did. I can only paraphrase what is the key component to what he said: Everyone is going to heaven.

Rom 5:19 – Anyone thinking that everyone going to heaven means no repentance is way off base. Knowing that we’re going to heaven when we die doesn’t give us less reason to turn from our sins – it gives us more reason to do so! Do we not want to show our gratitude toward God? Do we not want to secure a better place in heaven?

Rom 5:20-21 – Now, back to “the Law.” Because it introduced more requirements than human conscience, it led to more sins. However, this wasn’t a problem because God provides more than enough grace through Jesus Christ to deal with it. Paul will continue to explain the role of the Law as the letter continues. 

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Romans 6

Rom 6:1 – Paul has made this point before (Rom 3:8), and he will make it again (Rom 6:15). He has to keep making it because people find it so tempting to abuse God’s grace and turn it into a license to sin (Jude 1:4; Heb 10:28-29). As this chapter proceeds, Paul maintains that it is law that leads to sin – not grace.

Rom 6:2-3 – We resist that temptation first of all by recognizing that truly embracing Christ is dying to sin because we are accepting His death as our own. Paul stated this most personally and profoundly in Galatians. Let us impress his words deeply in our minds, for they will help guide us through this comparison of law versus grace.

I have been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me;
and the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

galatians 2:20

Paul is so identifying with Christ that he views Christ’s death as his own – and then therefore Christ’s resurrected life becomes his, too. This is what Jesus (Jn 3:3, 7) and Peter called being “born again” (1 Pet 1:3, 23).

Rom 6:4 – If we accept Christ’s death as our own, then we can accept His resurrection as our own, too. Let me personalize it as Paul did, so as to help you personalize it: If I accept Christ’s death as my own, then I can accept His resurrection as my own. But that means the life I’m now living is His and not my own. This is crucial to understand. This is what brings the “newness.” If we try to live the new life for ourselves, then we’re just continuing in the same ol’ same ol’. To live for self or Christ – that is the question!

Rom 6:5-7 – Slavery to self is slavery to sin. That’s what “the old self” was all about – “self.” The new self is about Christ. I am no longer the head of myself – He is. That’s what it means to say that He is king. We have dethroned ourselves and installed Him on the throne of our minds…and therefore our lives.

Rom 6:8-9 – Without Christ, we are subject to the fear of death (Heb 2:14-15). With Christ, however, death has been accomplished and all that awaits us on earth is a transition to heaven when we finish life on this earth. In other words, we begin living the resurrected life now and do not wait until we go to heaven to begin living it.

Rom 6:10-11 – As Jesus rose to God, so we rise to Jesus. Jesus is thus God insofar as we are concerned.

Rom 6:12-13 – We’re like musicians in an orchestra. Before Christ, we’re just playing our own tune and the result was cacophony. However, when we turn our attention to Christ and see Him conducting, then we can become a symphony with those who are following His lead.

Rom 6:14 – “…for you are not under law but under grace.” The apostles Paul and John make the same distinction between law and grace. Moses, because he was a man, could bring us law; but Jesus, because He is the Son of God, can bring us grace.

For the Law was given through Moses;
grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

john 1:17

Rom 6:15 – This is the point Paul keeps having to emphasize (as he last did in the first verse of this chapter). It’s the nature of grace to invite this criticism from people unschooled in grace. By contrast, the more time you spend living by grace, the easier it is to see that such a life cannot possibly lead to more sin. The reason for any sin we commit after accepting Christ is that we have abandoned the life He has given us and gone back to living the old life which is centered on self.

Rom 6:16-18 – The opposite of righteousness is sin.

Rom 6:19-22 – Notice the words in this chapter that Paul associates with the law, and compare them to the words he associates with the grace.

The Law of Moses	The grace of Christ
sin, death, earn, wages, lawlessness, impurity	grace, gift, free, life, purity, sanctification

Rom 6:23 – By our sin, we earn death. But grace is a gift from God and therefore not something we can earn. With the law, we try to work our way to God, but grace is something that comes from God to us like manna comes down from heaven.

In this chapter, Paul has shown that being under the law of Moses produces very different effects than being under the grace of Jesus Christ. He has not yet explained why the law produces such negative outcomes in us. He will do that in the next chapter.

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Romans 7

Rom 7:1-3 – In the previous chapter, Paul was discussing the inadequacies of the Law of Moses when compared to the grace of Christ. He now brings up another limitation of the Law – its expiration at our death. That is, the law only had jurisdiction over people who are living. To illustrate, Paul uses the example of a widow to show how the death of the husband eliminates him from consideration and allows the wife to remarry without being accused of breaking the law.

Rom 7:4-6 – Having established that death ends the Law’s jurisdiction over a person, and having previously established that we should accept Christ’s death as our own (Rom 6:1-7, including related BSN notes above), Paul now builds on the point to show that we are released from the Law so that we can be bound to Christ.

Rom 7:4 – The expression “joined to” is biblical language for the marital union: “What therefore God has joined together…” Therefore, Paul is talking about marriage, which is a covenant. To “bear fruit” is also biblical language associated with marriage: “Be fruitful and multiply.” The fruit that our union with Christ bears is yet more disciples for Him. Thus you do not merely bring human beings into the world, you bring disciples into His kingdom.

Rom 7:5 – As an analogy, Paul points out that prior to Christ we were bringing “sons of disobedience” (to use a term Paul used elsewhere – Eph 2:2; 5:6; Col 3:6) into the world instead of disciples of Jesus into His kingdom. The old way is what he’s calling “bearing fruit for death” in this verse.

Rom 7:6 – Paul equates our release from the law through our death with Christ as ushering in a “newness of the Spirit,” which he called “newness of life” in the previous chapter (Rom 6:4). Paul also associating this newness with a new way of interpreting the Old Testament, contrasted with the old way of interpreting it, which was according to the “oldness of the letter,” which can also be referred to as “oldness of the flesh.” The point here is that through Christ, the Old Testament is interpreted in a new way. Moses interpreted it literally; Christ interprets it spiritually. For Christ, circumcision is “of the heart” (Rom 2:28-29), being a Jew is “of the heart” (Rom 2:28-29), passover is “Christ” (1 Cor 5:7), unleavened bread is “sincerity and truth” (1 Cor 5:8), incense is “prayer” (Rev 5:8), leaven is “hypocrisy” (Lk 12:1) or “malice and wickedness” (1 Cor 5:8), oxen are “preachers” (1 Cor 9:9; 1 Tim 5:18), the sabbath is eternity (Mt 12:8), and on and on. This is why you should get a firm grasp on the New Testament before you try to understand the Old Testament. For the New Testament tells us how Jesus interpreted the Old Testament, which is the way we want to interpret the Old Testament.  

Rom 7:7-12 – Paul has been contrasting Moses’ Law with Christ’s grace for a chapter and half now, repeatedly stressing the superiority of Christ’s grace. Therefore, he takes a break in this section to say that the superiority of grace does not mean that the Law is bad. On the contrary, Paul says, the Law is good – it’s just that the Law arouses the evil that’s present in us. The Law itself, however, is holy, righteous, and good.

Rom 7:13-25 – For the remainder of the chapter, Paul describes the warfare brought about by the Law. On the one side of the battle is the Law – that is, the Law of Moses…or you could say, for example, the Ten Commandments, since they are at the heart of the Law of Moses. On the other side of the battle is the self – the self before Christ, what Paul called “the old self” in the previous chapter. (He also uses this term in Eph 4:22 and Col 3:9.) The old self reads a commandment and wants to keep it…but so often can’t…or won’t. What God-fearing person cannot relate to Paul’s lament in verse 19?

For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.

Romans 7:19

Thus the war Paul is describing is the war of good and evil – God’s commandment (law) being the good and the old self being the evil. This is usually what people mean when they talk about “original sin.” We are born narcissistic. I don’t know how infants would have behaved if Adam and Eve had not sinned, but it’s clear that since Adam and Eve did sin, every single one of us comes into the world as a full-blown narcissist. We have to be trained out of it, and that training takes about two decades. And even then, at the end of all that parental training and preparation, we’re at best spiritually retarded – stunted in our growth. And we’re better at hiding our selfishness than at being free from it. We need a Savior to get us out of this dilemma – someone who can break the cycle of good intentions that get thwarted, promises to God that go unkept. That Savior is Jesus Christ and in the next chapter, Paul will extol just how wonderfully that grace breaks the hold of sin upon us. – and in a way that commandments never could.

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Romans 8

Although we’re only halfway through the letter, this chapter provides a climax to all that Paul has written so far. In the next chapter, he’ll take a turn in direction, but as you’re reading this chapter, look for Paul to bring together the various strands of thought he’s been exploring and reach a grand conclusion.

Rom 8:1 – For several chapters Paul has been explaining the limitations of the Law of Moses. In this chapter, he explains why the grace of Jesus Christ has no such limitations and is fully capable of healing the human race from its addiction to sin…which opens up all sorts of possibilities. That grace includes a fresh start on a new life, free from the condemnation that came with the old.

Rom 8:2 – The grace of Jesus Christ is not devoid of law; otherwise, grace would be lawlessness, and grace most assuredly is not (Mt 7:23; Heb 1:9; Jude 1:4). The new law is “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” which is the law of love (Rom 13:10; Gal 6:2). But we must remember that this is not merely the replacement of one law with another. Instead, the new law comes as a component of grace – that grace including full forgiveness and satisfaction of sin which the Law of Moses could never give. Moses’ law required animal sacrifice, but the grace of Jesus Christ comes at the price of His own personal blood – the value of which no quantity of animal blood could ever approach. Grace is a cornucopia of benefits from God, a law of love being among the most important. This law not only comes in the context of grace, it is built on the foundation of the unchanging Jesus Christ (Heb 13:8), who had not been revealed when Moses received and passed on his law.

Rom 8:3-4 – The grace of Christ allows us – and calls us – to walk in the spirit instead of the flesh. “Walking in the flesh” means living according to what we can physically see in life. “Walking in the spirit,” by contrast, means opening the eyes of our heart to the spiritual dimension where Christ – the One who loved us enough to die for us – dwells. It’s being conscious all the time of that fact that we are being monitored, as if by a highly-sophisticated video camera – being viewed by Someone who has seen us at our worst and loved us anyway. Moses had nothing like that to offer.

Rom 8:5 – Elsewhere, Paul put it this way: “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7).

Rom 8:6-8 – A “mind set on the flesh” is the kind of mind Paul was describing in the letter’s earlier chapters of this letter. It’s the kind of mind that even the Law of Moses – good as it was – couldn’t fully empower to live a righteous life. Human mentality had been set on the flesh ever since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. They hadn’t been properly prepared for the knowledge of good and evil, and this is why God warned them not to eat from that tree (Gen 2:17). We know good and evil – which is to say we have consciences. However, conscience is an insufficient guide to navigate good and evil because it is subject to corruption and manipulation – by others and by ourselves. To go along with conscience, we need a consciousness…a consciousness of our Creator’s love for us through Jesus Christ. Only then can our consciences be properly calibrated to reality. Consciousness of Christ is the standard to which we calibrate conscience. We can see evidence of God the Creator through the physical creation (Rom 1:18-20), but we can only see evidence of His forgiveness and unfathomable love through Christ. That means we need to look to the unseen dimension of life which is where He dwells, and we can only do that through the word of God. That word of God comes to us prophetically through the prophets (the Old Testament) and comes to us factually through the apostles (the New Testament). Thus the Bible removes the scales from our eyes by showing us Christ; it allows us to see the character of God, and specifically how He deals with good and evil. Believing (that is, having faith in) the Bible’s message of Christ is what safely opens the spiritual (that is, unseen) dimension of the universe to us.

Rom 8:9-17 – As Paul will write later in this letter, “the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (italics added) – Rom 14:17. Notice the various synonymous terms in this passage:

• the Spirit of God (v. 9)
• the Spirit of Christ (v. 9) *** Re: “the Spirit of Christ” see #TGTC.
• the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead (v. 11)
• His Spirit (v. 11)
• the Spirit (v. 16)

The Old Testament prophets prophesied of both the suffering and glory of Messiah. As we are heirs to His suffering, so also we are heirs to His glory. That is, we share in all that is Christ’s.

Rom 8:18-25 – Paul is talking about the rebirth of creation that would come with the Second Coming of Christ (the coming of the kingdom of God, the day of the Lord, the day of Christ, etc.). This occurred before Jesus’ and the apostles’ generation completely passed away, bringing in the new creation depicted in the prophets and in the book of Revelation. With the knowledge of Christ and with His Holy Spirit in us, we are now prepared to live in a world of good and evil.

Rom 8:26-27 – We have the Holy Spirit to help us with our weaknesses. If Paul and the apostles had weaknesses, how much more do we!

Rom 8:28 – In a world of good and evil, God uses evil as well as good to achieve His good purposes – just as we saw Him use the rejection, denunciation, and crucifixion of Jesus as well as the support He received to achieve the redemption of creation. God is not thwarted by evil. He uses stumbling blocks put in front of Him as stepping stones.

Rom 8:29-30 – Just as the destiny of an acorn is to be an oak tree, so the destiny of sinners is to become children of God. The word “predestine” is a distraction for some people and they end up embracing a form of fatalism that thinks God designed some of us to succeed and others of us to fail – that is, some to go to heaven and others to be discarded. As Paul would say, may it never be. There is no partiality with God, as Paul also said (Rom 2:11). The theological doctrine of “Predestination” is demonic, even though some otherwise good people hold to it. God is constitutionally incapable of creating a man for the purpose of damning him. We have a destiny and it is good…because God is good. Jesus reveals that goodness because He reveals God (Jn 1:18).

Rom 8:31-35 – Paul brings the first half of his letter to a climax with a pounding series of rhetorical questions:

Rom 8:31 – If God is for us, then how would it be possible for anyone who is against us to succeed?

Rom 8:32 – Learning that by giving us His Son, God was giving us Himself – that is, His new life as God – this rhetorical question is becomes even more instructive and persuasive.

Rom 8:33 – God is our defense attorney as well as our judge.

Rom 8:34 – If God is our defense attorney, Jesus files an amicus curiae brief on our behalf.

Rom 8:35 – Obviously, none of these things can separate us from the love of Christ. ***** Re: “the love of Christ” see #TGTC.

Rom 8:36-37 – If we’re going to heaven when we die – and we are – then we’ve won! If nothing down here can stop us from getting up there, what problem down here can be so bad? Time down here is finite; time up there is not. Do the math…and rejoice!

Rom 8:38-39 – With a sentence like this, you wonder what else Paul has in him left to say to the believers in Rome – but he’s only halfway through with the letter! Fortunately for emotion’s sake, Paul does downshift for the next chapter. Therefore, you needn’t fear that he’s going to continue making his argument. On his main point, he has rested his case. Everything from here on out deals with the implications of this conclusion.

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Romans 9

Paul shifts gears for the next three chapters. In them, he explains how God’s plan to save the world through the grace of Christ – the grace Paul has been explaining and extolling for the first eight chapters of this letter – works with respect to the nation of Israel as distinguished from the rest of the nations. This explanation is necessary, of course, because God had worked through Abraham and his descendants for over two thousand years and now, through Messiah, was working through “all the nations” (Mt 28:18-20). Such a transition deserves an explanation.

Rom 9:1-5 – Paul begins his explanation by acknowledging the obvious – that even though Jesus was a Jew and even though almost all of His earliest followers were Jews, His following was becoming increasingly Gentile in composition ever since Acts 10 when Peter became the first apostle to preach the gospel to Gentiles. Of course, Jewish government officials had been against Jesus from the start, and opposition to Him at that level never let up. They remained opposed to Jesus up until the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD forced them to flee, and they have continued that opposition through official Jewry in whatever form it has taken over the last two thousand years. Of course, there have been all through this time what are called “messianic Jews” – both individuals (such as Benjamin Disraeli and Andrew Klavan) and groups (such as “Jews for Jesus” and “One for Israel”) – who embrace their Jewish heritage as well as their faith in Christ. That said, organized Judaism and organized Christianity by and large became mutually exclusive by the end of the 1st century – that is, by the end of the apostolic age – and have remained so ever since. Paul sees these lines as already drawn and now being set in stone, but the coming of the kingdom is still in the future as Paul writes this letter in the late 50’s AD. Therefore, he’s trying to answer questions that Jewish and Gentile believers had at that time about how things were going to work out. He starts, as I said above, by acknowledge that official Israel, of which he was previously apart, has declared Jesus and anyone who follows Him to be a heretic. Nevertheless, Paul’s love for them remains strong.

Rom 9:6-7 – Paul begins his explanation of God’s transition from a Jewish focus to an international focus by declaring that from the beginning God had operated outside the confines of fleshly descent from Abraham. This is because, while both Ishmael and Isaac were physically descended from Abraham, it was only through Isaac that Abraham’s descendants would be named. Paul quotes Gen 21:12 to prove his point.

Rom 9:8-9 – Further to his point, Paul explains that the reason this distinction between Isaac and Ishmael was made was because of a prior promise from God. Paul quotes Gen 18:10, which obviously came before Gen 21:12, to make this finer point.

(As I say many times throughout the Bible Study Notes, the chapter and verse divisions in the Bible came long after the last death of the last biblical author – and that we should view these markings like the latitude and longitude lines on a globe. I mention it now, however, to show how far short our biblical literacy falls in comparison to what it was among believers in the apostolic age. Paul is writing this letter to both Gentile and Jewish believers in Christ and quotes these two verses expecting the recipients to recognize that the second quote came before the first one without benefit of chapter numbers to indicate the relative chronology. And this is generally the way it is with every quote of the Old Testament in the New – that the writer expected his audience to recognize a quote without chapter and verse numbers or even authorial attribution, and even without special punctuation (like the small all caps used in the NASB) since ancient writings employed very little punctuation, usually writing in block letter with no spaces between them (Ancient Writings). Let us tip our hats to the familiarity these ancient believers had with the Scriptures, and let us strive, if we can, to attain to their level of biblical literacy.)

Rom 9:10-13 – In addition to the example of Isaac, Paul also uses the example of Isaac’s sons, Esau and Jacob, to strengthen his claim that God has operated, at least on occasion, outside the Jew-according-to-the-flesh box from the very beginning. This time Paul quotes from Gen 25:23 and then from Mal 1:2 (Malachi was the last of the Old Testament prophets to write), showing that from one end of the Old Testament to the other it was obvious evidence that God never restricted His saving activities to someone’s purity of bloodline to Abraham. Therefore, we should not be surprised that He is embracing Gentiles as well as Jews through the Messiah.

Rom 9:14-18 – Paul now uses the counterexamples of Moses and Pharaoh (Exodus 33:19; 9:16; see also accompanying BSN note on Ex 9:16) to show that God uses both the righteous and unrighteous to achieve His purposes – one by compassion (Moses) and the other by hardening (Pharaoh). You can see that the words God spoke to Pharaoh in Ex 9:16, quoted in Rom 9:17, could just as easily have been spoken to Moses and, for that matter, to Jesus Himself. The point is that God can use good or evil people to achieve His good purposes. It is, of course, much better for us if He uses us when we are good, but we need to know that we are not going to thwart Him if we are evil. He just finds a way to use our evil to bring about the good that He wants to see – just as He did with Pharaoh. Both Pharaoh and Moses were raised up to make God’s name famous. As for why this should not lead anyone to fatalism, see the BSN notes on Ex 7:3.)

Rom 9:19-22 – Anticipating that someone will complain that God’s sovereignty excuses our disobedience, Paul pushes back by saying that we have no right to make such a complaint – especially since we are all beneficiaries of God’s ways.

Rom 9:23-26 – Paul quotes from the prophet Hosea (Hos 2:23; 1:10) to show that the mercy being shown the Gentiles was prophesied long about by Jewish prophecy.

Rom 9:27-29 – Paul now quotes a collection of Old Testament prophetic verses to show that the fraction (“remnant”) of Jews that were believing in Messiah were, like the Gentiles mentioned above, being shown mercy by God…just as promised.

Rom 9:30-33 – Here, Paul explains why they currently have this mixture of Gentiles and Jews being saved. It is all according to prophecy per Paul. (By the way, if Apollos was “mighty in the Scriptures” per Acts 18:24, what in the world was Paul?!) The Gentiles who are being saved are being saved because they believe; and the Jews who are being saved are being saved because…they believe. Thus the common denominator is faith. Paul quotes Isaiah 28:16 to confirm the point. The Jews who are not being saved are the ones who are “stumbling” over and being “offended” by the One in whom they are supposed to be believing.

Paul’s line of argumentation continues through the chapter break into what we call “Romans 10.”

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Romans 10

Romans 9-11 is a three-chapter digression from the main point of Romans 1-8. The digression is about how God is going to fully transition from working with one nation (Israel) to working with all nations. This chapter, therefore, takes us through the midpoint of the digression.

Rom 10:1-4– Paul is here lamenting the position of the nation of Israel, just as he was doing at the beginning and ending of the previous chapter. Israel has not only crucified its Messiah; it has doggedly persecuted all of it citizens who followed Messiah. More specifically, in these first four verses, Paul is reinforcing the point of the last four verses of the previous chapter – that the nation of Israel is missing God because it is not pursuing Him by faith. We should keep in mind, though, that Paul is speaking of the nation, not of its individual citizens. Many Jews were believing in Jesus, but the nation as a whole – that is, as an organized entity – was rejecting Him in favor of their prior traditions. This distinction between the nation of Israel and its citizens (that is, individual Jews) is easily lost. For this reason, many people just assume, even to this day, that being a Jew is mutually exclusive with believing in Jesus. Generally speaking, when Paul speaks of “Israel,” he’s speaking of the nation; and when he speaks of a “Jew,” he’s speaking of the individual. Therefore, we can say that Israel rejected its Messiah, even though it was Jews who first accepted Him and spread their faith to the Gentiles. To this day, individual Jews can believe in Jesus, but they are generally ostracized – to varying degrees – by their fellow Jews. We can easily recognize this phenomenon because, given the cancel culture we live in, we can see that it’s common for groups maintain group cohesion by shunning any member who diverges from group orthodoxy.

Rom 10:5-11 – Paul now repeats a theme from Rom 1-8, which is that the way of Moses’ Law and the way of faith are incompatible. The righteousness that comes from adherence to Moses’ Law is one thing, and the righteousness that results from faith in Christ is quite another. To prove his point, Paul quotes first from Deuteronomy 30:12-14 and then from Isaiah 28:16. (Recall that Moses himself had spoken of faith in Messiah in Deut 18:15.) We could even say, because the Law of Moses prophesies Christ, that the Law of Moses prophesied its own ultimate inadequacy.

(We have to remember that while many of the the provisions in Moses’ Law are foreign to us, they were not so foreign in the apostolic age. Animal sacrifice, for example, is repugnant to most of us and so the thought of having to give it up costs us nothing. Yet in an ancient world where animal sacrifice was commonplace, and had been so for centuries, it would not have been so easy to walk away from it.)

Rom 10:12-13 – Paul here quotes the prophet Joel (Joel 2:32). This is one of the verses Peter had quoted at the first sermon on Christ delivered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus had been resurrected from the dead (Acts 2). Paul is using the word “Greek” as a synonym for “Gentile” in this sentence. His point is, as we have been saying, that when it comes to the individual Jew, things are just as they are for the individual Gentile. It’s only at the level of nation – official Jewry – that there is a permanent and pervasive rejection of Messiah.

Rom 10:14-15 – Paul here lays out in reverse order the sequence of events that has led to faith. It began with God sending someone to preach; it ends with someone believing what has been preached. (Paul is quoting Isaiah 52:7 and/or Nahum 1:15).

Rom 10:16 – Paul states the obvious: that when the message is preached, not all believe it. To prove his point, Paul quotes Isaiah, who laments that he doesn’t even know if anyone has believed him (Is 53:1).

Rom 10:17 – Christ is the message. ***** Re: “the word of Christ” see #TGTC.

Rom 10:18 – Paul quotes Psalm 19:4 which foretold that the message would reach a worldwide audience.

Rom 10:19-21 – Quoting Moses, and then twice quoting Isaiah, Paul makes clear that the Law and the Prophets had foretold Israel’s rejection of God – specifically, the rejection of His Messiah. This is a critical point because Paul wants to stress that he and the other apostles are not abandoning the Scriptures in order to follow Jesus, even though Israel’s authorities were accusing them of such. On the contrary, the apostles were following Scripture to follow Jesus, and it was actually Israel’s authorities who were unwittingly being the “disobedient and obstinate” people of whom Scripture had prophesied.

Paul’s line of argumentation continues through the chapter break into the next chapter.

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Romans 11

Romans 9-11 is a three-chapter digression from the main point of Romans 1-8. The digression is about how God is going to fully transition from working with one nation (Israel) to working with all nations. This chapter concludes the digression.

Rom 11:1 – To demonstrate that God has not rejected all of Israel (that is, all the Jews), Paul offers himself as Exhibit A.

Rom 11:2-4 – As Exhibit B, Paul quotes the exchange between God and Elijah in the Old Testament (1 King 19:9-18) in which Elijah thinks he’s the only Israelite left who has not forsaken the covenant. God then informs him that there are 7,000 of his fellow Israelites who have kept the faith just as he has.

Rom 11:5 – Paul sums up his point that a subset of Israel is being saved even though the nation as a whole is not.

Rom 11:6 – Paul makes sure that no one thinks he is saying anyone is being saved by any means other than grace through faith, a note he’s been sounding periodically since the beginning of his letter.

Rom 11: 7-10 – Paul quotes the Old Testament to demonstrate that what is happening now has been prophesied from the beginning – that a subset of Israel are being saved while the rest fall away because of their unbelief.

Rom 11:11-16 – Paul’s pointing out that even though the failure of some Jews to believe has opened the door for Gentiles to believe, then the Gentile belief might prod those unbelieving Jews to change their minds. In other words, Paul is saying that unbelief is not a permanent condition. If anyone ought to know that, he should! He’s saying that if a Jew who has denied Christ subsequently comes to faith, it is like life from the dead. And who can deny that given that Paul’s life proves it so dramtically.

Rom 11:17-24 – Paul is telling the Gentiles not to get a big head just because they believed when some Jews didn’t. Yes, he says, Gentiles have been grafted into the tree of Israel – the tree from which some natural branches had fallen. But if the Gentiles lapse back into unbelief, they, too, will be removed. Therefore, let everyone take heed: like a truly good parent, God has a soft side (kindness) and a firm side (severity). Which side the child is seeing at any given time turns on how the obedient the child is being at that time. Soft love or tough love, the choice is ours.

Rom 11:25-27 – The New Testament time period – which is, roughly speaking, the 1st century AD – is like the time a cocoon. A caterpillar (Israel) enters the cocoon, and a butterfly (the kingdom of God) comes out. The cocoon is the church – the New Testament church, which is the only true church. The time period – more strictly speaking than above – is from the resurrection of Messiah from the dead (and His ascension into heaven) on the one end to the Second Coming of Messiah (the coming of the kingdom of God, etc.) on the other. Thus Paul is saying that fullness of the tree (the NT church) would consist of Jews and Gentiles when it fully blossoms into the kingdom of God – that moment when Jesus moved from the right hand of the throne of God to the center of the throne itself (Rev 7:16-17; Is 9:6). This is why you see throughout the New Testament the apostles constantly calling attention to the imminent coming of the Lord – imminent meaning before that generation passed away (just as Jesus promised in Mt 24:34). It is this culmination of the ages – this climax to God’s messianic plan of redemption – to which Paul is alluding in this passage.

Rom 11:28-31 – Paul is in effect reminding the Gentiles that “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Mt 5:7). That is, since the Gentiles have been shown mercy to be allowed join the people, they should look for that same mercy to be shown to unbelieving Jews who come back into the fold. Paul may have been designated an “apostle to the Gentiles” as he says in verse 13 above, but he never gave up trying to reach out to and for his fellow Jews along the way. This urge of his is seen over and over in the book of Acts and it can be seen right here in this letter where he is primarily speaking to the Gentiles in Rome but making reference to his fellow Jews in their midst at every turn.

Rom 11:32 – Indeed! Everyone Is Going to Heaven.

Rom 11:33-36 – Paul ends this three-chapter digression the way he ended the first eight chapters of the letter, waxing eloquent about the glories of the God who creates us and redeems us. (cf. Rom 8:31-39).

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Romans 12

If there is a logical divide between Rom 1-8 and Rom 9-11, there is an even bigger logical divide between Rom 1-11 and Rom 12-16. In fact, this is the biggest single logical divide in the letter.

Everything in the letter up until now has been about spiritual reality – God’s plan to save the world from sin and set it on an entirely new course through Christ. Paul has gone into great detail about how that plan applies to both Israel and the rest of the nations – including how it applies to individual Jews and individual Gentiles. In describing this plan, Paul has shown how it has been unfolding for millennia, has blossomed with the advent of Christ, and would soon be consummated in the second advent of Christ (that is, the coming of the kingdom of God.)

The rest of the letter from this point is about our reaction to this plan – in other words, how we should live in the light of this plan and its near complete fulfillment. There’s an old saying: “Know what the therefore is there for.” The therefore at the beginning of Rom 12 is there for Rom 8-11.

Rom 12:1 – The sacrifices of the Law of Moses were mainly animals. The sacrifice for the sins of the world was the body of Jesus Christ. The sacrifices after that are human lives dedicated to Jesus Christ in gratitude for His sacrifice. In other words, we live no longer for ourselves but for X. ***** This exhortation is the only reasonable response to the news that everyone is going to heaven; anything less would be ungrateful, disrespectful, and despicable. Notice also that this response to God’s grace requires 24/7 worship – not head-nodding once a week for an hour or two.

Rom 12:2 – By living our lives for X, we become countercultural forces. The Greek word which is translated to “transformed” in this verse (and in 2 Cor 3:18) was used in Matthew and Mark to state that Jesus was “transfigured” on the mountain (Mt 17:2; Mk 9:2). It is also the same Greek word from which we get the English word “metamorphosis.” All of these uses suggest major, not minor, change to the way we had previously lived. Thus to say that we are to live “countercultural” lives is not an overstatement. ***** The rest of the verse implies that the will of God is not primarily a question of whether I should become a brain surgeon or a street car conductor, but rather whether I will be a godly man, regardless of whether I am employed as a brain surgeon or a street car conductor. In other words, the “transformation” Jesus wishes to perform in us is metamorphosis of the heart. And, if it succeeds, the flesh will take care of itself.

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Romans 13

Paul continues doing what he began in Rom 12, which is to give practical instructions about how to live the Christian life.

Rom 13:1-7 – In this paragraph, Paul writes about how to deal with the government. It is always wise to interpret a text in line with its context. Failure to do so can lead to big misunderstanding – and that is certainly the case with this passage. Paul is writing to believers in Rome. The Roman government at this time was indeed serving its proper role of being a minister of God, even if unintentionally. As Paul suggests in the passage, the purpose of government is to praise those who do good and punish those who do evil. Paul wrote this letter in the late 50’s, and he would arrive in Rome about three years later – under the protection of the Roman Empire. Recall from all Paul’s experiences in the book of Acts that the Roman Empire, mainly through Paul’s citizenship as a Roman, protected his life against bloodthirsty Pharisaical types like he himself used to be. Even when the Romans crucified Jesus, it was because the Sanhedrin pushed them to do it. The Roman Empire only began persecuting Christians under the Emperor Nero in the mid 60’s. Thus the government to which Paul was referring in this letter was, generally speaking, benign. There is no account in the book of Acts of the Romans taking any negative action against the followers of Jesus; on the contrary, it was Romans over and over who were protecting believers from persecution. If Romans 13 is not understood in this context, it can be misused to suggest that believers should follow the dictates of atheistic and totalitarian governments. That’s like taking the biblical instruction for a wife to submit to her husband or for children to submit to their parents and apply them equally to wives with abusive husbands and children with abusive parents. It not that bad authorities can be completely disregarded; rather, it’s that wisdom needs to be employed to decide how far to go when a government or a husband or a parent exceed their authority. This is an increasing problem in a lawless age such as the one in which we are currently living.

Rom 13:8-10 – This is such a concise and beautiful summation of the Ten Commandments. I break this down commandment by commandment in the book The Ten Commandments According to Jesus.

Rom 13:11-14 – In this passage, Paul alludes to the coming kingdom of God, which they rightly expected to come in the 1st century. (See the short essay Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again or the book The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact.)

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Romans 14

Having given practical instructions for living under the authority of Christ in Rom 12 and 13, Paul now gives some principles for interactions between believers when they don’t see faith issues in the same way. These principles were necessary for Paul to state because of the mixed nature of the congregation: that is, Jewish and Gentile. Jews were going through a transition process from the Law of Moses to the law of Christ; Gentiles had no such transition because they were never under the Law of Moses, but there were still some related issues (such as pagan animal sacrifice and alcohol) that affected them.

The Law of Moses had provisions for what foods could be eaten, and thus some foods were considered clean while others were unclean. It also had provisions for days that should be regarded as holy – most notably the sabbath, once per week. With regard to foods, there was also the issue of meat that may have been contaminated by sacrifice to idols, portions of which could be sold in the markets of the city. This created complications for both Jewish and Gentile believers because neither group wanted to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Questions about these issues are the context for what Paul writes in Rom 14.

For our 21st-century purposes, we can substitute other subjects on which any two men of good conscience might disagree. That’s how we find ways to apply the principles found in chapters like this.

Rom 14:1-4 – Paul begins by declaring there are going to legitimate differences of opinions among believers on subjects related to the practice of the faith. He starts off using as an example the distinction between clean and unclean food that Moses taught.

Rom 14:1 – Where there’s little faith, there’s a lot of opinions…and vice versa. The more I grow in faith the less opinionated I become. Opinions are formed out of what I think; faith is formed out of what God thinks.

Rom 14:2-3 – The Jewish believers were weaning themselves from the dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Law because they were learning that Jesus had “declared all foods clean” (Mk 7:19). Weaning, by nature, is not intended to be an instantaneous process.

Rom 14:4 – This is a key principle that is applied in the discussion that follows.

Rom 14:5-9 – As a second example, Paul now talks about days – which ones are holy and which are not.

Rom 14:5-6 – In Chariots of Fire (1981) believer Eric Liddell regarded Sunday as holy and distinct from the other days of the week. In Rome at this time, some Jews were still regarding Saturday as the day of the week to be treated that way – that is, Moses taught that Saturday was the sabbath, so they were sticking to that. Other Jewish believers were coming to realize that when Jesus said, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath” He was saying that the “one-day-a-week” sabbath idea was just a foreshadowing of an eternal sabbath that would come with the kingdom of God – that every day would be holy because every day would be lived for Christ and no day would any longer be lived for self. As long as such differences (these three views of sabbath I’ve laid out) are sincerely-held views, God could smile on all three. The goal should be for everyone to get to the third view because that is what Jesus taught, but we can be patient with others until they see for themselves and their own consciences bear witness to them. I am always edified when I watch Chariots of Fire, but it doesn’t shake my faith that we live in an eternal sabbath of service to the Lord. ***** “Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind” – this is the essence of faith (cf. verses 22:-23 at the end of this chapter).

Rom 14:7-8 – cf. 2 Cor 5:14-15 and accompanying BSN note, in which Paul states the same principle in slightly different words. This is a principle of supreme value. Among other things, it explains why following Christ won’t work as a part-time occupation.

Rom 14:9 – God descended to earth to save those on earth; at death, He descended further – to Sheol (Hades) – to save those below the earth. He led the dead to heaven, and we go there to join them when we die (Eph 4:8-10; Ps 68:18; Mic 2:13).

Rom 14:10-12 – I’m not looking down my nose at Eric Liddell of Chariots of Fire; rather, I’m looking up at a man better than me. He did more with the limited revelation he had than I’ve done with the greater revelation I’ve had.

Rom 14:13-23 – Living out and balancing the principles Paul lays out in this chapter is not easy. Issues can get very complicated at times…but we can’t let these difficulties get in the way of building faith. (“When we’re up to our necks in alligators, it’s critical to remember to stick to our original purpose – which was the drain the swamp.”) The original purpose – as laid out so thoroughly by Paul in Rom 1-8 – is to build faith in Christ.

Rom 14:13 – Rather than putting “obstacles” and “stumbling stones” in front of a brother, let us seek to put stepping stones in front of him – that will lead him to a better place.

Rom 14:14 – Paul’s faith was strong. He wasn’t afraid to eat anything. That was extremely strong faith for a Jew to have in Jesus in that day. It doesn’t take us great faith to eat anything today. There are other challenges to our faith that we must overcome.

Rom 14:15 – Love. With Jesus, it always comes back to that.

Rom 14:16-17 – Another great clarifying principle.

Rom 14:18 – I don’t think Paul means “approved by all men.” Rather, I think he means “ought to be approved by all men.”

Rom 14:19-20 – Another helpful principle.

Rom 14:21 – Paul now adds “drinking wine” as a third example (after clean/unclean foods and holy/regular days) of issues on which there can be disagreement among believers. Disputes about the first two examples are not common in our day, but the issue of alcohol remains as prevalent as ever. I have learned the hard way that the only thing that works for me is total abstinence. I don’t say that drinking in moderation is a sin, but I do say that I’ve seen very few men who drink in moderation the way I can picture Jesus and His apostles drinking wine in moderation. And, by contrast, I’ve seen innumerable lives destroyed by alcohol. But let each man make his own decision in the sight of his Master.

Rom 14:22-23 – I love this couplet; it is so instructive! Most importantly, 1) faith is conviction, and that without doubt, and 2) it is conviction before God, not man. That’s what we’re trying to build in ourselves and in each other. Never lose sight of the truths in these two verses. When trying to practice the principles of this chapter gets complicated and difficult, keep coming back to these truths. They represent the foundation: faith in Christ.

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Romans 15

Rom 15:1 – Paul’s notions of “strength” and “weakness” were established in the previous chapter. In short, he’s speaking of strong and weak faith. Faith is what he began calling for in the opening verses of this long letter, and it’s the subject to which he keeps returning over and over.

Rom 15:2 – Note that this calls for us to give people what they need – not necessarily what they want. People – especially people these days – want all sorts of things that are not for “their good” or “their edification.” Narcissism abounds. Giving narcissists what they want is bad for them…and for the giver.

Rom 15:3 – Paul is quoting Ps 69:9.

Rom 15:4 – The Bible is a hope-dispensing machine that never breaks down.

Rom 15:5-6 – Jesus is the only way to connect to God. Paul is, in effect, affirming what Jesus famously said in Jn 14:6 – “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Rom 15:7 – Since Jesus accepts me, I know that He’ll accept anyone!

Rom 15:8-12 – Paul returns to one of the letter’s central sub-themes: the correlation of Jews and Gentiles. For Jews, the gospel is a matter of God’s faithfulness, for He is keeping the promises that Jews had believed for centuries; for Gentiles, the gospel is a matter of God’s mercy, for they didn’t know or care that they had an inheritance coming but are just thrilled to be fellow partakers of it.

Rom 15:13 – This fits well with something Paul wrote in the previous chapter: which was “…the kingdom of God is…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” – Rom 14:17.

Rom 15:14-21 – Paul begins here summing up the message and purpose of his letter.

Rom 15:19 Re: “the gospel of Christ” see #TGTC.

Rom 15:22-29 – Paul explains to the Romans why there’s some uncertainty about when he’ll get to Rome. There would be even more uncertainty because he did not know at this point that he’d be arrested in Jerusalem and later given safe passage to Rome courtesy of the Roman government. (We seldom know how God is going to keep His promises – we just know that He is.) ***** Re: “the blessing of Christ” see #TGTC.

Rom 15:25-31 – Concerning this “contribution,” see “Paul’s Collection” at Paul for more information.

Rom 15:30-33 – Apparently, the requested prayers were prayed, because we can certainly see how they were answered in Acts 20 through Acts 28.

Rom 15:33 – The “Amen” implies an end to Paul’s letter, but there’s actually more to be read because, for one thing, he wants to include personal greetings to the many friends he has there – friends he made throughout his experiences we see chronicled in the book of Acts.

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Romans 16

This chapter is like a “P.S.” to Paul’s letter, a “Gomer says hey!” add-on. Even though Paul, when he wrote this letter, had never visited the church in Rome, he knew many of the people there. He had met them in his travels during the time that the Roman Emperor Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome. Examples of this are Priscilla (Prisca) and Aquila, whom Paul met in Corinth (Act 18:1-3). However, by the time Paul wrote this letter, Nero had replaced Claudius as emperor and Jews were once again allowed in Rome, so many returned. That’s how Paul could know so many people in a church he had never visited.

Rom 16:1-2 – Cenchrea was Mediterranean port city right down the road from Corinth, where Paul probably was when he wrote this letter to Rome. Given the way this is written, it’s likely that Phoebe was the carrier of, or one of those carrying, this letter to the Romans. This is the normal method by which a NT letter (epistle) would get from writer to recipient – that is, personal delivery by a trusted co-worker. The person delivering the letter would be able to answer questions about the writer or his writing that the writer did not address in the letter.

Rom 16:3-15 – Paul identifies more than two dozen (!) people by name to whom he wants to show personal regard. This is evidence of Paul’s wide travels and intense interest in people. It also adds further authenticity to the letter. For when individuals are named in this way, it would thoroughly discredit the letter if any of them ended up saying, “I don’t know anyone named Paul!” Why would anyone want to preserve such a letter?

Rom 16:3-5 – “Prisca” and “Priscilla” are related names in the same way that “Bob” and “Bobby” are related names. Aquila is her husband. In addition to Luke mentioning this couple in Acts (Act 18:2, 18, 26) and Paul mentioning them in this letter, Paul also mentions them in 1 Corinthians (1 Cor 16:19)and 2 Timothy (2 Tim 4:19). Sometimes the wife’s name comes first, other times the husband’s – just as we would speak of a couple. ***** The fact that they had a church in their house indicated that there were probably too many believers in Rome at this time for them all to meet in one place. ***** Further to the point I made on verses 3-15 above, this is another sign of authenticity. For if someone else besides Epaenetus was known as the first convert in Asia, who would pay attention to Paul’s letter? There are innumerable such signs – large and small – of authenticity in the New Testament writings.

Rom 16:7 – There were more apostles than the twelve and Paul. Barnabas is another example (Act 14:14). That said, apostles were a one-generation phenomenon. Don’t believe anyone who claims to be one now. This is the kingdom of God! (The Kingdom of God Is Here and Now)

Rom 16:13 – This could be the same “Rufus” mentioned in Mark 15:21 (see also the BSN note on it, and the one on Mt 27:32). To state the obvious, Paul’s reference to Rufus’ mother as “mine” seems an expression of appreciation for the kind of help we see him mentioning elsewhere in this chapter (e.g. Rom 16:1-2) rather than indication that she’s the woman who brought him into the world. This would further explain Mark’s reference to the sons of Simon of Cyrene as being publicly known.

Rom 16:16 – The apostles taught believers to have a special affection for one another. Jesus said they’re “the salt of the earth” and every additional grain helps!

Rom 16:17-19 – Having just exhorted to everyone to be close, Paul quickly adds that everyone should not trust everyone. There are good reasons to distinguish between genuine believers and insincere ones, between true teachers and false ones. Paul is here echoing Jesus who said we must “be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves” – Mt 10:16. The little boy who cried wolf got two shots to tell the truth; that was more than enough. We should turn away from people who don’t tell the truth. This doesn’t necessarily mean shunning them, but it does mean to stop trusting untrustworthy sources. Let truth reign. And teach your children likewise.

Rom 16:20 – This is a quick reference to the then imminent coming of the kingdom of God (as was Rom 13:11-14).

Rom 16:21 – Yes, this is the Timothy to whom 1 and 2 Timothy are written.

Rom 16:22 – Tertius is telling us that he was the scribe for this letter of Paul’s. That is, Paul was dictating to Tertius, as to a secretary. 1 Corinthians was also penned by a scribe, though his name is not given; that there was a scribe is implied by Paul when he himself writes 1 Cor 16:21. This was one of the ways letters were commonly written in ancient times. Consider also that the prophet Jeremiah similarly used a scribe named Baruch (Jer 36:17-19 and elsewhere). We cannot know from reading a text whether or not a scribe was involved; if we’re not told, then we just don’t know. What we do know is that the name in the title of a Bible book is usually the person responsible for the content, for that is the basis on which the ancients decided which texts to venerate as the word of God. A man who left writings was either deemed to have been sent by God and his writings were included in the Scriptures, or he was deemed not sent from God and his writings were for this reason excluded. There is no such thing as a man having only some of his writings approved to be included in the Bible.

Rom 16:23-24 – These are officials of Corinth, which lend support to the idea that this letter to Rome was written from Corinth.

Rom 16:25-27 – I won’t attempt to unpack this sentence for you because it might mean more to you if you give the Holy Spirit opportunity to do so. There are so many important truths relayed in it. I love this long sentence more than I can say. It always rewards my attention…no matter how many times I re-read it.

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