What Paul's Letter to the Romans Means for You (and Me!) (2024)

• April 15, 2020
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The book of Romans has beendescribed with the most praiseworthy of expressions. John Calvin said that whenanyone understands this epistle, “he has a passage opened to him to theunderstanding of the whole Scripture.”[1]Martin Luther said that this letter “is really the chief part of the NewTestament and the very purest gospel.”[2]Luther’s successor, Philip Melanchthon, referred to Romans as “the compendiumof Christian doctrine.”[3]John Knox suggested that it was “unquestionably the most important letter everwritten.”[4]It’s been called “the cathedral of the Christian faith,”[5]“the most pessimistic page of literature upon which your eyes ever rested” andat the same time “the most optimistic poem to which your ears ever listened.”[6]

These descriptions are supportedby the experiential testimony of many throughout the history of the church allover the globe. The North African rhetorician Augustine was converted byreading Romans 13:13-14 in the year 386. The German monk Martin Luther wasconverted 1200 years later after grasping the significance of Romans 1:17. Twocenturies later, a clergyman by the name of John Wesley recounted what heexperienced on the evening of May 24, 1738 as he heard the preface of Luther’scommentary on Romans being read: “About a quarter before nine, while [thereader] was describing the change wherein God works in the heart through faithin Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ,Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given that he had taken mysins, even mine; and saved me from the law of sin and death.”[7]

Today, Romans is perhaps bestknown for clearly articulating key doctrines like man’s sinfulness,justification by faith, regeneration, union with Christ, adoption, andsanctification. Romans is known for its rich, deep, glorious, and at timesunsettling theological assertions and implications.

What sometimes gets lost inthese descriptions of Paul’s most beloved epistle is that Paul’s heart inwriting Romans (as was the case for every letter he wrote) was primarilypastoral. He was writing to churches made up of real people with real problems,real worries, real struggles, and real questions. He was not interested inwriting a theological treatise abstractly disjointed from the congregation’ssituation. Rather, Romans was intended to be a deeply practical and applicableletter. And yet, it seems like we are less familiar (and dare I say, have neglected!)many of the practical features of this truly wonderful epistle. Thus, my goalhere is to preview the landscape of this practical and pastoral epistle, notjust the wonderful theological clouds we often focus on.

1. Paul’s goal: The Obedience of faith (1:5; 16:26)

2. Consider Yourself Dead… to Sin (6:11)

The first explicit commandment (though by no means Paul’s first “practical takeaway”) comes in Romans 6 after describing the believer’s union with Christ for 10 verses. Interestingly, this first imperative is an injunction pertaining to the Christian’s thinking: “so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Here we see that how a Christian thinks of himself is an important component of the “obedience of faith” that Paul desires for the Church. Christians are not to view themselves as doomed sinners, hopelessly entrapped in sin, but as dead to sin, freed from its power and dominion over their lives because of their union with the risen Christ. It is this fundamentally optimistic understanding of the Christian as a new creation that makes it possible to not let “sin reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions” (6:12).

3. Be Subject to the Governing Authorities (13:1)

This line comes not from the mouth of a dictator but from the pen of the Apostle Paul. In one of the letter’s most underrated and disregarded sections, Paul asserts that “whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment” (13:2). As with the rest of Paul’s exhortations, this command is not given in a theological vacuum. Rather, this is the inevitable result of believing that “there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (13:1b). While we should not take this text as Paul’s comprehensive and absolute theology of governing authorities, neither should we read it to mean the opposite of what it says (i.e. feel free to disrespect the government and cheat on your taxes). We should honor the authority that God, in his sovereignty, has established, for as we do so, we honor Him.

4. Loving Your Mistaken Christian Brother > Winning the Argument (14:1-23)

Near the conclusion of thistheologically rich letter, Paul has a whole chapter dedicated to how theChristian who understands some of the intricacies of the Christian faith shouldconduct himself with a fellow Christian who does not. Paul describes the ideal interactionbetween the “strong brother” (with whom he agrees theologically) and the “weakbrother” (who, is mistaken regarding some practical issue of the faith). Christloves and has saved the strong and the weak in the faith and the “strong”Christian should not have a reflex of despising the “weaker” Christian just asthe “weaker” Christian is not to pass judgment on the “stronger” brother. Inother words, if you are planning on having a young Christian friend over fordinner and later find out that she (incorrectly) thinks that Christians shouldnot be killing God’s creation (animals) to eat them, it is more important thatyou love her by not rolling your eyes at her or pressuring her to do somethingshe thinks is wrong than it is to start a debate and convince her she’s wrong.

The epistle to the Romans isrich with theological insights and doctrinal truths. But let’s remember thatthe purpose of Romans, as with all of the Bible, is not solely to fill ourminds with knowledge, but that the knowledge we obtain might lead us to havelives of increasing Christ-likeness. May we be committed to increasedobedience, to growing in respect for God and the authorities He has placed inour lives, and may our love for others grow deeper as a result of our timespent reading Paul’s letter to the church in Rome.

[1] John Calvin, Commentarieson the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, trans. John Owen, repr.(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005), xxiv.

[2] Martin Luther, Commentaryon Romans, trans. John Theodore Mueller, repr. (Grand Rapids: KregelPublications, 1992), xiii.

[3] Philipp Melanchthon, TheLoci Communes of Philip Melanchthon, trans. Charles Leander Hill (Boston:Meador, 1944), 69.

[4] George A. Buttrick, ed., TheInterpreter’s Bible: Acts, Romans, vol. 9 (Nashville: Abingdon Press,1954), 355.

[5] Frédéric Louis Godet and A.Cusin, Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans., repr. (New York:Funk & Wagnalls, 1883), 1.

[6] G. Campbell Morgan, LivingMessages of the Books of the Bible. (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1912),99.

[7] John Wesley, The Journal ofthe Rev. John Wesley, ed. Nehemiah Curnock and John Telford, vol. I(London: Epworth Press (E.C. Barton), 1938), 475–76.