Introducing Romans
In January 2025 at the 10am Service we will starting a new series in the book of Romans. We’ve put together a short video to give you a helpful summary of where it fits in the Bible story, and what the key themes to look out for are... You’ll find a transcript and glossary below too
-
Welcome to the book of Romans, a New Testament letter all about how God brings people into right relationship with him through faith in Jesus Christ and about what “the obedience that comes from faith” looks like.
The apostle Paul wrote this letter to a church in Rome, where there seemed to be some tension between Jewish and Gentile believers. In his letter Paul answers some key questions:
• Who are God’s people, and how do they show it?
• Has the way that people become and remain part of God’s people changed, from Old Testament to New Testament?
• If Israel are God’s people and Jesus is Israel’s long-awaited King, why have so manyJews not put their faith in Jesus?
Paul’s answers are rooted in and rest on Old Testament ideas. So let’s trace some of them out…
In the beginning, God created a perfect humanity to live in his perfect world in perfect relationship with and obedience to him—what we could call a state of righteousness or moral perfection, always doing what’s right. But Adam failed to trust God’s word, and therefore disobeyed him—he sinned. He therefore became unrighteous—out of right relationship with God. The world came under God’s judgment, and people born into that world are, as sinful Adam’s descendants, all sinful.
But in his mercy, God made a series of promises to a man named Abraham and his future family, who would be God’s people. Abraham put his faith in God’s word and, Genesis says,“God credited it to him as righteousness”. Abraham’s faith resulted in right relationship with God; and Abraham’s faith also caused him to obey God. One of the promises God made to Abraham was that one day the “blessing” of right relationship with God would be brought to all peoples—not only to his family, who later became known as Jews, but also to non-Jews, known as Gentiles.
God gave his people four things that Paul will pick up on in Romans. First, circumcision, as an outward sign of being part of God’s people. Second, God’s law, setting out God’s standards for living his way in his world. Third, the sacrificial system, as a way for sinful people to have relationship with God. Fourth, kings, known as “christs”, to rule them. The greatest of these kings was David, and God promised him that one day the Christ, who would obey perfectly and rule perfectly, would be born into his family.
But none of this solved the ongoing problem once and for all: born as Adam’s descendants, people remained sinful. They needed not just to hear the law but to have their hearts changed. And so God’s messengers, or prophets, such as Jeremiah and Ezekiel, promised that when the Christ arrived, God would give his people his Spirit, who would change their hearts.
In Romans Paul declares the good news—the gospel—that Jesus is that Christ. He is the perfect obedient human, living as Adam should have done. He is the final atoning sacrifice, making right relationship with God possible for anyone who trusts in him, Jew or Gentile. He is the sender of the Spirit who comes to dwell in and change people’s hearts. He is where all of the Old Testament points and he is the one Romans is all about.
Romans is the longest New Testament letter. Paul starts and ends in chapters 1 and 16 talking about the gospel which calls all people to the obedience that comes from faith. Here’s one way of thinking about the letter’s main sections in between:
Chapters 1-4 are about righteousness: why we’re not right with God, how Jesus makes being right with God possible, and why it is faith alone that brings righteousness.
Then chapters 5-8 are about why people who are righteous by faith obey, and how the Spirit enables us to obey.
Chapters 9-11 deal with how to understand God’s plans when most of Israel, his ancient people, have rejected Jesus the Christ.
And then chapters 12-15 are about how to live by faith, as God’s righteous people.
So as you read Romans, here are some tips for getting to grips with it:
Firstly, it’s logical. Paul is outlining big ideas and building up arguments; and it can get quite complicated. But each idea and often each verse follows on logically from the previous one. So one helpful thing to do is to read a paragraph or a section and then try to write down its big idea. Then look out for the word that links it logically to the next section—it might be a word that tells you that Paul is about to state the consequence of what he’s just said, like “therefore” or “so”, or it could be a word that indicates that he’s about to explain or prove what he just said, like “for”, or Paul might use “but” to show he’s about to draw a key contrast with what he just said. Linking words will help you to follow the flow of Paul’s argument.
Secondly, Paul uses a question-and-answer approach. He’ll often imagine that someone’s asking him a question that might arise from what he’s just been saying—and then answer it. And as you spot those questions or imagined objections, it’s helpful to think, “Why does that question arise from what he’s just said?” and then as you read on, “How is Paul answering that question?”
Thirdly, there are quite a lot of “technical” words in Romans, and knowing their definitions is super-helpful. So here are a few:
1. Righteousness means having a perfect moral record; the status of right relationship with God. And the word justified means the same thing—in the original Greek that Paul wrote in, they’re the same word.
2. Works of the law means doing the things that God commands.
3. Atonement is the process of bringing two people back into good relationship with each other.
4. Propitiation, also translated as sacrifice of atonement, is a sacrifice that bears the force of God’s anger and judgment.
The book of Romans will show us how God has brought his people into right relationship with him by faith in Jesus, and what difference that makes to our day-to-day lives as we live by faith in Jesus. It’s a wonderful letter! We hope that as you read these words in the coming weeks, you’ll experience the hope and joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ and enjoy God’s goodness in the book of Romans.
-
arise
start happening or start to exist
atoning sacrifice
a sacrifice that bears the force of God's anger and judgment
credited something to someone
counted something as being someone's
descendants
people related to someone who live after that person
draw a contrast
show differences between something and something else
dwell
live
enables
makes something possible
indicates
shows or draws attention to
rooted in
based on or caused by
sacrificial system
different sacrifices and offerings that were part of how God lived among his people and they had relationship with him
tension
here it refers to a difficulty or disagreement in a relationship
to state something
to write or say something in a clear way
trace out
show the development of something
