From Season Five, Episode Two, Of the Blessed Hope Podcast
Why did Paul compose this letter? Romans is Paul’s longest letter and written to a church that neither he nor his coworkers had founded. People often speak of the Book of Romans as though Paul were writing a systematic treatise on the Christian faith. Phillip Melanchthon famously described Romans as a compendium of Christian doctrine refuting Romanism.[1] As Roman Catholic biblical scholar, Joseph Fitzmyer points out, “one can almost write the history of Christian theology by surveying the ways in which Romans has been interpreted.”[2] No doubt true and a very good point worth considering.
Yes, Paul does have a systematic core of doctrinal beliefs expressed at many points throughout Romans, but this epistle is written to the church in Rome likely to introduce himself and explain his future travel plans which included a visit to the city.[3] While Romans does address a particular set of circumstances (focusing upon the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the church, along with the nature of God’s righteousness which revealed in the gospel), the Book of Romans is not a systematic theology of the Christian faith in any modern sense of the term.[4]
Many interpreters of the Book of Romans have attempted to identify a single theme which dominates the letter.[5] Yet Paul says little about why he composed this letter, although in the introduction (verses 1-15) he does speak of his future travel plans. He informs the Roman congregation that he hopes to go to Spain after his trip to Jerusalem is completed, and if he does, he will stop and visit the church in Rome on his way back from Jerusalem, and then go on to Spain.[6] His desire to make this trip is expressed again at the end of the letter in Romans 15:25. When Paul employs Tertius to set his words to parchment, Paul is still in Corinth–things there apparently calmer–getting ready to make his way to Jerusalem to deliver the offering for the poor collected from the Corinthians and the churches of Macedonia as recounted in Acts 20-21.[7] But so far, he tells the Romans, he has been prevented from making his way to Spain because present circumstances require him to take care of other matters before that can happen (cf. Romans 1:13; 15:22).
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