The Book of Romans: Background of the Epistle

Paul, who calls himself ‘a servant of Christ Jesus,’ is the author of this letter. Paul addresses himself as a servant of the Lord, a slave, bought for a price and set free of sin, by Christ, the risen Lord. He reflects the Jesus’s saying that we are here on earth to serve and not to be served. Mk.10:42-45

He also defends his station with regard to the Gospel, as ‘an apostle,’ which means, ‘someone who is sent,’ very much like an ambassador.

He further introduces himself as someone ‘set apart’ for preaching the Gospel or the Good News of God. In Gal.1:15, he further elaborates it saying, God set him apart from birth and called him by grace, to reveal His Son in him, so that Paul could preach Him among the Gentiles.

Paul, thus establishes his credentials.

We are also called to serve the Lord and have been set apart from birth. The question is, do we follow Christ and Paul in our little services that we do for the Lord, doing these not for self-glory and to satisfy our pride, but serve in humility and love, focusing on the extension of the kingdom of God and not our own name and fame.  

Paul writes this Epistle to the Roman church, situated in Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire, the most important city in the first century AD, in the then world. It was the capital of the Gentile world.

There was a church in Rome, we do not know who established it. Paul does not claim to have established it. It could be one or many of those who witnessed the out-pouring of the Spirit on Pentecostal day at Jerusalem (Acts 2:11) or by those who were scattered when persecution broke out in Jerusalem following the martyrdom of Stephen. Acts 8:1. Nevertheless there was a thriving church at Rome during that time.

Paul who had never visited this church in Rome, expresses his desire to visit them and share his delight in them, because of their faith, which was reported to him and also because he would like to impart some spiritual gifts to them to make them even stronger in their faith.

Having established churches in Eastern Roman Empire, Paul dreams of travelling to the Western side of the Empire, as far as Spain to further God’s kingdom and on the way, he hopes to visit the church in Rome too.

Here again Paul leaves us a valuable lesson. He does not want to take credit for the work someone else had done. In 2 Cor.10:16, he says, “so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in another man’s territory.’ Good to remember so that we do not indulge in stealing the sheep belonging to some other church!   

The Epistle to Romans was written from Corinth during the Third Missionary Journey of Paul, around 56-57 AD. Having lived a converted and active Christian life for the last twenty years, Paul writes here as a mature Christian, laying down the specific doctrinal basis of the Gospel and Christianity, that would echo through the ages.

Some of the great doctrinal subjects Paul deals in Romans are justification by grace through faith, Christ’s finished work on the cross, freedom from the power of sin, freedom from legalism through Law of Moses and the Jews and the Gentiles united in the love for Christ.

Martin Luther of Reformation renown, based his fight of ‘sola scripture, sola faith, sola grace and sola Christ,’ mainly based on Paul’s writings of Galatians and Romans (‘sola’ meaning by it alone).

Having gone through the author, Paul, the audience, Roman church, the date and place, when and from where it was written and the significance of this letter, we will go on to read and meditate about the letter itself, starting from chapter 1 in the next blog.

God bless you and be with you all.