Essay #1. The Purpose of the Letter to the Romans

The letter to the Romans was likely written from Corinth (15:25-27), around 57AD/CE. It is perhaps the most weighty and difficult of Paul’s letters, and attempts to address the common interests of both Jewish Christians and the Gentiles, as well as Jewish concerns. At this time, the temple in Jerusalem is still standing and it is normal practice for Gentiles and Jews to worship together in the synagogues of the Diaspora, though there are many descriptions in the New Testament of disputes and divisions within the congregations. Romans is written to address one such situation. Note how Romans is not written to a church - but to God's beloved in Rome (1:7). Paul calls his reminder bold because he is writing to people for whom he was not their apostle. There were perhaps a dozen synagogues in Rome. Throughout the letter, there are echoes of the fundamental faith statement of Deuteronomy 6. "Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one."

The Jewish scholar, Dr. Mark Nanos in The Mystery of Romans (1996) suggests that the congregations of Rome were primarily composed of new gentile believers in Christ (80%), and that they needed to recognize the Jewish roots of their faith and be respectful of the Torah for the sake of the non Christ-believing Jews (14:1). Paul describes these Jews as “weaker”; it is essential to point out that Paul is referring to their faith, and not their behaviour, drawing an analogous contrast to Abraham (4:13-23). Paul writes Romans as a "bold reminder" (15:15) to these gentiles worshipping the God of Israel not to abuse their power but to defer where necessary to their brothers and sisters who acted in faith towards God but did not yet believe in Christ (14:10-13), and to submit to the synagogue authorities with grace (13:1-7). There are many differing views. For example, in Purpose and Cause in Pauline Exegesis (1999), Wendy Dauburne suggests that Paul's purpose was "to help the Romans, especially those with a very conservative understanding of Israel's election, to come to terms with an important outcome of their faith in Christ. God's action in Christ fulfilled the purpose of Israel's election by breaking the bounds of Israel". She explains that the central question in Romans is not “How can we be righteous in God's sight since we are sinners?” But that instead, it is “How can God be righteous in our sight if he justifies believing sinners without reference to the Jew-Gentile distinction?" For both these interpreters, Paul does not play the Jewish and Gentile beliefs against each other, delegitimating the one in order to legitimate the other, but speaks as a Jew within a widened Israel needing to come to terms with God’s actions in the messianic age.

The traditional view, especially since the reformation, has been that Paul is preaching a 'law-free' message. Many even have considered that he no longer was a practising Jew himself. However, the horror of mass-scale Jewish persecution has seen post-WW2 scholarship begin to develop a much greater recognition of the depth of our Jewish heritage. Romans supports a 'law-respectful' interpretation. The words of Jesus in Matthew 7:22 which we read last week: "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but those who do the will of my Father" are reflected in Paul's attitude towards the Law:  "For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous" (2:13; Matthew 7:26-27). But it is not as if we are justified by doing apart from faith - for we are justified "in Christ" by faith (3:20-24). 

Today's lesson applies this to the faith of Abraham. Abraham lived many hundreds of years before the giving of the Law at Sinai, and he believed in God prior to his circumcision, a part of the cultic and purity laws in Israel. In the Genesis reading, Abra(ha)m is called accept the responsibility of entering into an intimate relationship with God that will create and benefit innumerable human communities. In Romans, Paul points out that Abraham's faith is prior to the Law and therefore not dependent on it (4:13). His faith is strong, for not only did he believe in God but also he believed in the power of God to perform what God had promised (in spite of its apparent unlikeliness) - namely that Abraham and Sarah would have the promised child and that in that ‘seed’ all nations would be blessed. Mark Nanos comments: "Paul regarded his [non-Christ-believing] Jewish brothers and sisters as fellow believers in the One God, though, not yet in God's Christ, the promised 'seed'". Paul shows that the strength of our faith parallels Abraham's because of our belief in Christ (4:24). We, like the predominantly gentile congregations in Rome, as we follow Abraham’s example and “grow strong in faith” (4:20), will also receive the promised blessings. 

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