Romans overview — how to be right with God

Through Romans, part 1 · Introduction

Romans is the clearest explanation in the Bible of how a sinful person can be made right with a holy God. Before we walk through it verse by verse, it helps to know who wrote it, who it was written to, and what a handful of key words mean. Those four words — righteousness, law, faith, and justification — show up over and over, and once you have them, the letter opens up.

The letter

Paul wrote Romans around AD 57 from Corinth, during the three months mentioned in Acts 20:1–3, near the end of his third missionary journey. A woman named Phoebe carried it to Rome. By this point Paul had already written 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and probably 1 Timothy. Romans is the most complete statement of the gospel he preached.

The book has four movements: God's wrath (1:18–3:20), God's grace (3:21–8:39), God's plan for Jew and Gentile (9–11), and God's will in the life of the believer (12–16). The key chapter is 3. The key verses are 1:16–17.

Saul of Tarsus

Saul was his Hebrew name — most likely after King Saul, since he was also from the tribe of Benjamin. He was born around AD 5 in Tarsus, a city known for learning alongside Athens and Alexandria, in what is now Turkey. He was a Roman citizen. He was a tentmaker by trade, which fits Tarsus, a city known for a felt cloth made from the wool of shaggy black goats.

He was trained in the law under Gamaliel, a member of the Sanhedrin — the supreme court of Israel, seventy men and the high priest, patterned after the seventy elders Moses appointed (Numbers 11:16–17). Saul was a Pharisee, one of the "separated ones," a group that treated the oral tradition as equal to the written Torah and pushed Jewish practice into every corner of daily life. And he became a major persecutor of the church. He was present, if not responsible, for the murder of Stephen, and he traveled to other cities to imprison and even kill Christians.

Paul the Apostle

Paul is his Greek and Latin name, and it means "small" or "humble." He was saved on the road to Damascus and called by Jesus Himself to preach the gospel, specifically to the Gentiles. His education, his background as a Pharisee, his Roman citizenship, and his zeal all contributed to his usefulness as a missionary — once every one of those credentials had been surrendered to the lordship of Christ.

The church at Rome

The church at Rome was probably started by Jews and proselytes who were in Jerusalem at Pentecost — Acts 2:10 mentions "visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts." Other believers may have come from the household of Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian cohort (Acts 10:1), or from people Paul sent, judging by the long list of greetings in chapter 16.

Here's a detail that shapes the whole letter. From AD 49 to 54, the emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. For five years the church there grew as an entirely Gentile congregation. When Claudius died, the Jews came back — and now Paul is writing to a church that has just reabsorbed its Jewish believers. That's why you see him working so hard, all through the book, to unify Jew and Gentile and show the value of both. Rome's road system also meant that news traveled faster than ever before, and the gospel traveled with it.

Rome under Nero

When Paul wrote, Nero had been emperor for about three years. He had married Claudius's daughter Octavia and been adopted into the family, and he took the throne at seventeen after Claudius was assassinated. The cruelty Nero is famous for didn't really show until after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, when he needed a scapegoat and chose the Christians. Both Paul and Peter were most likely martyred under him.

Rome was a polytheistic society. The Latin word religio means "something that binds," and religion bound families together, subjects to their ruler, and men to the gods. Families had household gods; the state had public gods like Jupiter and Mars, with colleges of priests paying tribute on Rome's behalf. Approval from the gods didn't depend on how you lived, only on performing the rituals correctly. Into that world Paul wrote about a God who is righteous and who requires righteousness.

Four words that unlock Romans

Righteousness (39 times)

The Greek word dikaiosune comes from a root meaning "straightness." Righteousness is the opposite of sin, which is missing the mark God set. God is totally righteous because He is totally as He should be. Someone has said righteousness is that which the Father required, the Son became, the Holy Spirit convinces us of, and faith secures.

Scripture uses the word two ways. Sometimes it means living a holy life — conformity to God's will shown in conduct. That's how Matthew always uses it: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matthew 5:6) is about personal holiness, not salvation. Other times it means having a right standing before God. Romans is mostly about the second — Jesus fulfilled the law, and His fulfillment is placed on us.

Law (78 times)

The Greek nomos means anything established — a custom, a rule, a command. It comes from a word meaning "to parcel out," like drawing a line in the sand. We use it the same way: the laws of physics, Newton's law. In Romans it can mean the law of Moses, the law written on the heart, or simply a principle ("the law of faith," 3:27). Whatever law you're under — Moses, conscience, even nature — it shows you the same thing: you miss the mark of God's righteousness. "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10).

Faith (34 times)

Pistis is conviction of the truth of something, and in the New Testament it always carries the idea of trust. Toward God, it's the conviction that He exists and is the Creator and Ruler of all things and the Giver of eternal salvation through Christ. Toward Christ, it's a strong and welcome conviction that Jesus is the Messiah through whom we are saved. It can also mean faithfulness — the character of someone who can be relied on.

Justification

Justification is God's declaration of your righteousness. It's a legal term: a judge declares an accused person "not guilty" and from then on "right" before the law. The charges are dropped. You are acquitted. Just as if you'd never sinned. The word gets used other ways in Scripture — vindicated (Matthew 11:19), shown to be righteous (James 2:21), set free (Romans 6:7), acknowledging God is right (Luke 7:29), or a man declaring himself right (Luke 10:29) — but in Romans 3:24 it means God's verdict over a sinner who believes.

Paul builds his teaching on salvation around three pictures. Justification is from the courtroom and solves our guilt before a righteous Judge. Redemption is from the slave market and solves our slavery to sin, the world, and the devil. Propitiation is from the world of religion — a sacrifice that satisfies — and solves our offense against our Creator.

The courtroom

Put the four words together and here's the argument of the book. The purpose of the law — both the Torah and the conscience — is to show you that you have sinned and cannot by any means attain righteousness. So you must put your faith in Jesus' righteousness, and in turn God justifies you and declares that you now have the righteousness of Jesus.

Picture a courtroom. God is the Judge. The law is the prosecutor. You are the defendant. If you are saved, Jesus Christ is your defense. God judges you by the law and you are guilty of breaking it. Jesus steps forward as your propitiation, and God's holiness is satisfied. Because the penalty has been paid, you cannot be held guilty. God acquits you. You are justified and declared righteous because the curse of the law no longer rests on you — Jesus paid it on your behalf.

One more thing, because it matters. Being declared righteous doesn't automatically make your actions righteous. A defendant found not guilty isn't guaranteed to do good the rest of his life; it just means he doesn't have to pay for the bad. But God doesn't leave it there. He gives us the Holy Spirit to show us how to live righteously and to lead us into a life that lines up with His holiness. Standing first, then walking. That's Romans.

Someone put it this way: "The harlot, the liar, the murderer are short of it; but so are you. Perhaps they stand at the bottom of a mine, and you on the crest of an Alp; but you are as little able to touch the stars as they." Everyone falls short. And everyone can be justified freely by His grace.

Still standing in the courtroom

If you've never been justified, you're still at that table with no defense. That's not me being dramatic, it's the picture Paul drew. The law has the case and it's airtight. But the Judge's own Son stepped in front of it, took the penalty in your place, and came out of the grave alive. The moment you put your faith and trust in Him and Him alone, the verdict comes down not guilty, and it never gets reopened. You can settle that today, right where you're sitting.

For the believer, the line to carry into this week is standing first, then walking. You already have the verdict, so quit trying to earn what's been handed to you. Pick one place where you've been performing for God instead of walking with Him, and this week do that same thing in the Spirit's strength instead. Same task. Different power source.

And if you catch yourself up on the crest of the Alp looking down the mine at somebody else, climb down. You can't touch the stars either. Same cross, same grace, same free justification.

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Through Romans: Part 1 · Part 2 →