Romans Annual Bible Study
The Letter That Changed Christian History

Phoebe trudged up the streets of Rome, looking for the house of Priscilla and Aquila. She was visiting Rome on business, but she also needed to take care of a personal matter. Her friend Paul had asked her to deliver a letter to the church at Rome, and he had given her directions to the house of Christian leaders he knew, Priscilla and Aquila. After picking up the letter from Paul in Corinth, Phoebe had traveled nearly 800 miles on her journey to Rome. Paul wrote the letter from the Greek city of Corinth, and he asked Phoebe, a deacon from nearby Cenchrea, to deliver the letter to Rome. She had provided such substantial financial help to Paul and the young church in Cenchrea that he called her his prostatis, his patron or benefactor. To make sure she was well-received by the Christians in Rome, Paul included this brief introduction of Phoebe to the Romans near the end of his letter:

Phoebe probably knew the letter was important, but neither she nor Paul had any idea just how important it would become. Undoubtedly it had a significant impact the first time it was read by the Christians in Rome. But after Paul’s letters were copied, collected, and distributed by an anonymous admirer, the impact of the letter to the Romans grew exponentially. By the second century, Irenaeus, the great defender of Christian orthodoxy, was quoting frequently from Romans. In the fourth century, Augustine, the influential Roman Catholic theologian, was reading verses from Romans when he converted to faith in Christ. In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther was asked to teach Romans, and his study of these sixteen profound chapters led directly to the Protestant Reformation. In effect, Paul convinced Luther that salvation was based not on works but solely on faith in Jesus Christ. Romans also exerted deep influence on the other great leaders of the Reformation like John Calvin and Philip Melanchthon. Two centuries later, John Wesley was struggling mightily with spiritual depression when he walked to a church at Aldersgate Street in London. There Wesley heard Luther’s summary of Romans read aloud. He felt his heart “strangely warmed,” and he accepted God’s grace through faith in Christ. England would never be the same. Shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century, the young Swiss pastor Karl Barth had adopted an attitude fairly typical of European “liberals” of his day. He admired Jesus but dismissed Paul as outdated and irrelevant to the new day in which he lived. When Barth began studying Romans seriously, he found a thinker who was more than a match for his own brilliant intellect and one who had much to say that was relevant to the times. Barth subsequently wrote a commentary that dropped like “a bomb on the playground of the theologians”1 and forced European biblical scholars to rethink their dismissive attitude toward Paul.

It would have been impossible for Phoebe or even Paul to realize how many continents and centuries would be influenced by this letter. Looking back through history, we can see how many of the greatest Christian leaders were transformed by a study of Romans. But even our vantage point in history does not allow us to see what powerful influences the letter may still exert in the future. Perhaps a young theological giant is reading Romans today, and he or she is being influenced in profound ways by Paul’s arguments. Even lesser lights can profit greatly from Paul’s words. Let’s consider his purpose and method as we begin our study.

The immediate purpose of Romans is relatively easy to establish. Paul, already famous as “the Apostle to the Gentiles,” wrote to the church in the most famous Gentile city of all—Rome. After a fairly standard greeting, he explained to the Christians in Rome that he often intended to visit them but circumstances always prevented him from doing so. He assured his readers that he did want to visit them in the not-too-distant-future (see 1:13). Then, near the end of the letter, Paul elaborated upon his plans. He outlined his itinerary:

We can see that Paul planned to travel east to Jerusalem first and then reverse course and head west to Spain. On the way to Spain, he would stop in Rome to meet the Christians there and seek their help for the Spanish mission. Paul wrote his letter to lay the groundwork for his upcoming visit and to prepare his readers for future requests for help in his church-planting efforts. Clear enough.

That explains the beginning and ending of Romans quite well. But what about the massive theological treatise that begins in 1:16 and continues through 15:21? If Paul simply wanted to send greetings and alert the Roman church that he would like their help in future missions efforts, he didn’t need to compose a magnum opus. Why did he do it? Why did he choose this letter to explain his theology more fully than he did anywhere else? That is a question of the ultimate purpose of Romans, and we will address it only after discussing several other questions basic to understanding the letter.

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