The book of Romans is the first of the many epistles, or
letters, contained in the Bible. Paul
wrote this letter to the members of the church in Rome, most probably in the
spring of 57 A.D. while Paul was on his third missionary journey. He may have still been in the city of
Corinth, or he may have just left there on his way to Jerusalem to take offerings
he had received for the poverty-stricken church members there. The recipients of this letter were
predominantly Gentile, but there were also some Jewish members of the Roman
church, just as Paul was a Jewish convert to Christianity. The membership consisted of many people who
were converts from paganism, some free, and some slaves. There were several
churches in Rome, and Paul’s letter was circulated among those many
churches. Most of the churches met in
homes, and some were led by women. This
letter was entrusted to a woman, Pheobe, who carried it to Rome and helped to
circulate it there. (Read the last
chapter, 16, for a list of individuals that Paul and his cleric, Tertius,
greeted and commended personally.)Unlike many of the other churches to whom Paul wrote, the church in Rome seems to have been thriving. Paul had very few issues or controversies that he needed to address, so his letter to the Romans was more a study in doctrine than a letter of reproof or correction. In my study, preparing for this (hopefully) short overview, I found many different themes that stand out in the book of Romans: righteousness from God, justification by faith, the gospel of Christ, daily living, and many others. So in my attempt to keep this short, I will focus on the theme of righteousness, but I will encourage you to study the book in depth, digging deeper, finding for yourself the wealth of riches that God has placed here for our spiritual growth and maturity.
So what is righteousness, and why is it so important? Merriam-Webster.com defines it as follows:
1 : acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin
2 a : morally right or justifiable
God is righteous. He reveals His righteousness in the Gospel. We can receive righteousness by faith.
For in the gospel the righteousness of God
is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is
written: “The righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:17).
When we reject God, when we stubbornly
ignore what He has plainly and clearly made evident to us, we deserve His wrath
and punishment. We have no excuse:
The wrath of God is being revealed from
heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the
truth by their wickedness, since what may be known
about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible
qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse (Romans
1:18-20).
But because of your stubbornness and your
unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of
God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed (Romans 2:5).
Even the “best” of us has sinned. No one is perfectly righteous. We may try hard to always do the right thing,
but none of us has ever been able to live a perfect life, no one except Jesus Christ
has ever escaped the trap of sin:
As it is
written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who
understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they
have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even
one” (Romans 3:10-12)
Therefore
no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law;
rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 3:20)
But God
made a provision for us. Because He
knows that we are unable to be righteous by trying to live a good live, He
provides us righteousness through faith in Jesus!
But now
apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the
Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given
through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference
between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through
the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (Romans 3:21-24).
We
deserve God’s wrath because of our sinfulness, but through faith in Jesus
Christ, we receive His righteousness. The
righteousness that is given to us through faith in Jesus Christ gives us peace
with God – it satisfies His wrath:
Therefore,
since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 5:1).
Since we
have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from
God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s
enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more,
having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:9-10).
For the
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord (Romans 6:23).
Therefore,
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives
life has set you free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2).
Since He
has made us righteous, we can now have fellowship with Him! He wants to have an intimate relationship
with each of us! Through Jesus Christ,
we have become children of God. We can
call to Him, and He will answer. The
word “Abba” is a term of intimate
endearment, something like “Daddy.”
For
those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit
you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather,
the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we
cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we
are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God
and co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:14-17a).
God does
not tell us that life will be rosy when we become His children, when we are
made righteous. We will continue to sin,
but we can rely on His promise that all our sins -- past, present, and future
sins – have been forgiven. He knows we
are weak, and He sends to us His Holy Spirit who prays for us when we don’t
even know what we need or how to pray:
In the
same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to
pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of
God (Romans 8:26-27).
Who will
bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who
then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who
was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us
(Romans 8:33-34).
Once we
have been adopted into God’s family, nothing can ever separate us from Him and
His love:
Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? . . . No, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither
death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. (Romans 8:35a, 37-38).
So, what
about you? Have you been made righteous
by grace through faith in Jesus Christ?
If not, you can be made righteous in the eyes of God right now:
If you
declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is
with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth
that you profess your faith and are saved (Romans 10:9-10).
For,
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).
If you
have called on Him now, for the very first time, I would encourage you to
continue to grow in your knowledge of Him by reading His Word daily, and by
joining a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church, where you can be taught all
that He has for you. Although it is not
necessary for your salvation, I would also encourage you to be obedient by
following Him in believer’s baptism.
Even if you were baptized when you were a baby, He teaches that you
should be obedient to Him in this outward declaration of your acceptance of His
death on your behalf, a picture of your death and burial to a sinful life and
your resurrection to a life obedient to Him.
My
prayer for you and for me this week is from Romans 12:13.
May the God of hope fill (us) with all joy and peace as (we) trust in him, so that (we) may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
All
scripture references are from the New International Version.
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