nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love" (5:6). "And as many as shall walk by this rule,
peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God" (6:16).
Central Idea: Evangelical freedom.
Key-Words: For freedom Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again
in the yoke of bondage (5:1). A man is not justified by works of the law, but only through faith in
Jesus Christ (2:16). I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live but Christ liveth
in me (2:20). Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (3:13).
Ye were called for freedom, only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through
love be servants one to another (5:13). Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh
(5:16).§ 92. The Epistle to the Romans.
On the church in Rome, see § 36 (pp. 360 sqq.); on the theology of the Ep. to the Rom., § 71 (pp.
525 sqq.).
A few weeks before his fifth and last journey to Jerusalem, Paul sent, as a forerunner of his
intended personal visit, a letter to the Christians in the capital of the world, which was intended by
Providence to become the Jerusalem of Christendom. Foreseeing its future importance, the apostle
chose for his theme: The gospel the power of God unto salvation to every believer, the Jew first,
and also the Gentile (Rom. 1:16, 17). Writing to the philosophical Greeks, he contrasts the wisdom
of God with the wisdom of man. To the world-ruling Romans he represents Christianity as the
power of God which by spiritual weapons will conquer even conquering Rome. Such a bold idea
must have struck a Roman statesman as the wild dream of a visionary or madman, but it was fulfilled
in the ultimate conversion of the empire after three centuries of persecution, and is still in the process
of ever-growing fulfilment.
In the exposition of his theme the apostle shows: (1) that all men are in need of salvation,
being under the power of sin and exposed to the judgment of the righteous God, the Gentiles not
only (1:18–32), but also the Jews, who are still more guilty, having sinned against the written law
and extraordinary privileges (2:1–3:20); (2) that salvation is accomplished by Jesus Christ, his
atoning death and triumphant resurrection, freely offered to all on the sole condition of faith, and
applied in the successive acts of justification, sanctification, and glorification (3:21–8:17); (3) that
salvation was offered first to the Jews, and, being rejected by them in unbelief, passed on to the
Gentiles, but will return again to the Jews after the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in (Rom.
9–11); (4) that we should show our gratitude for so great a salvation by surrendering ourselves to
the service of God, which is true freedom (Rom. 12–16).
The salutations in Rom. 16, the remarkable variations of the manuscripts in 15:33; 16:20,
24, 27, and the omission of the words "in Rome," 1:7, 15, in Codex G, are best explained by the
conjecture that copies of the letter were also sent to Ephesus (where Aquila and Priscilla were at
that time, 1 Cor. 16:19, and again, some years afterwards, 2 Tim. 4:19), and perhaps to other
churches with appropriate conclusions, all of which are preserved in the present form.^1141(^1141) On the textual variations, see Westcott and Hort, Appendix, pp. 110-114. Reuss, Ewald, Farrar suppose that Rom. 16 (or
16:3-20) was addressed to Ephesus. Renan conjectures that an editor has combined four copies of the same encyclical letter of
A.D. 1-100.