What is the book of Romans about?
Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome is the fullest, most orderly statement in the Bible of how a guilty person can be right with God. It raises two large questions: on what ground does God declare sinners righteous, and if He now blesses Jew and Gentile alike, what becomes of His promises to Israel?
A reasoned treatise on the gospel
Romans does not wander. It states a case, proves it, and answers objections one by one.
F. W. GrantRomans has more plainly the regularity of a specific treatise than perhaps any other letter. Everything put forward in it is reasoned out and defended against the objections that could be brought against it; for the more precious and fundamental the truth, the more will the unbelief and pride of men gather all the forces of their intellect to overthrow it. The theme of Romans is pure gospel; to make way for it, the apostle calls creation and law — with man's own conscience also bearing witness — as evidence that both Jew and Gentile are alike under sin and unable to stand in the judgment.
Whose righteousness?
The phrase "the righteousness of God" runs through the letter. Commentators here insist it means God's own consistency in justifying, not a righteousness produced in us or transferred from Christ's law-keeping.
C. StanleyHow commonly this is quoted from passages like Romans 3:21-26 as if it meant the righteousness of Christ. Is this not serious confusion? Is it not as clear as words can express — the righteousness of God in justifying the believer, whether before Christ came or after? ... This great foundation truth, how God is righteous in justifying, is scarcely ever heard, even in evangelical preaching.
Two halves: what we have done, and what we are
Many writers mark a break at Romans 5:11. Before it, the subject is sins; after it, sin — the nature itself.
J. N. DarbyThe former part deals with what we have done, as God's question to Cain; the second with what and where we are, as God's question to Adam, the state of Adam being confirmed and made plain by the judgment pronounced on him. "He drove out the man." Romans 1:19 to 5:11 deals with what we have done, and Christ's propitiation as the remedy, adding His resurrection as the great seal of it. From verse 12 it deals with what we are. He speaks of state, not guilt, though of course guilt is there.
This explains why chapter 7 cries "wretched man" long after chapter 5 has announced peace. The two sections answer different problems, and forgiveness of sins is not the same thing as deliverance from the power of sin.
Chapter 8 from end to end
The doctrinal argument closes in a chapter that is bounded by two negatives.
William KellyWe are in Christ where all condemnation is gone... For we are called, as well as predestined, and being justified, the apostle can say "glorified": so sure is God's purpose. Then comes the final triumph even now: God for us, who against us? ... And as "no condemnation" began the high argument, "no separation" from God's love closes it.
Chapters 9 to 11: God's ways with Israel
These three chapters are widely read as a set-aside section — an appendix or parenthesis — showing that the gospel's "no difference" does not cancel what God promised to Israel.
A. J. PollockChapters 9, 10 and 11 form a great parenthesis in the great gospel letter to the Romans. In it we see the Apostle Paul's heart going out in deep longing for the blessing of his fellow-countrymen. Then, in connection with God's ways with Israel, he asserts the rights of God's sovereignty on the one hand, and the righteousness of His government on the other — sovereignty, that is, the right of God to do what He chooses, depending on what God is; and government, that is God's dealings in relation to man's responsibility, depending on how man answers to his responsibility.
Chapter 12: doctrine turned into devotion
The appeal to present the body as a living sacrifice rests on everything already proved. It is worship, and it is deliberately not ceremony.
The Bible TreasuryThe apostle now comes to the moral consequences of his doctrine. The compassions of God, shown in the acts of His grace toward us and developed in the teaching of this letter, are the motive given to the Christian to urge him to obedience and personal devotedness to God... The compassions of God are contrasted with the law, a living sacrifice with the sacrifices of dead animals, and an intelligent service or worship with a ceremonial service which the hands or the body could carry out.
What Romans is not about
Readers looking here for teaching on the church as Christ's body are looking in the wrong letter.
A. J. PollockRomans is the great foundation letter, and deals with us as individuals in our relation to God. In it we learn to behave ourselves as individuals. If we fail to do that, we shall not be able to behave ourselves in a collective character.
Summary
- Guilt — Romans first proves Jew and Gentile alike under sin, unable to stand in judgment; the search-light comes before the remedy.
- Righteousness — The letter's core is God's righteousness in justifying, so that He is both just and the justifier of the believer.
- Deliverance — The break at 5:11 divides sins (what we have done) from sin (what we are); pardon and deliverance are two distinct gifts.
- Certainty — Chapter 8 runs from "no condemnation" to "no separation," with God's purpose carried through to glory.
- Consequence — Israel's promises stand (chapters 9-11), and the whole argument lands on a body presented as a living sacrifice.