The apostle's claim in ch. i. to address this Church as within the jurisdiction of "the apostle of the Gentiles," his direct appeal to the Gentiles in xi. 13, and the statement of his priestly office exercised over the Gentiles in xv. 16, show that the Church of Rome was Gentile in character. The proper names in the Epistle afford us little indication of the proportion of Jews and Gentiles. The majority of the names are Greek, and four names are Latin; but the Jews of that time, like the {162} Jews of the present day, often passed under Gentile names. We know how the English Jews now disguise Moses as "Moss" Judah as "Leo," and Levi as "Lewis."
The majority of the converts were probably in a humble social position. When St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, there were Christians in the imperial household itself, and it is possible that the Narcissus mentioned in Romans may be the freedman of the Emperor Claudius, put to death in A.D. 54. Ordinary slaves and freedmen seem to have been the principal element among those who were first "called to be saints" at Rome, but before long there were people of good birth and cultured intelligence who turned gladly from the lifeless old Roman religion and the fantastic new-fashioned Eastern cults to this original faith in the incarnate God.
[Sidenote: Where and when written.]
St. Paul wrote this letter towards the end of his stay at Corinth, at the close of A.D. 55 or the beginning of A.D. 56 (see xvi. 1; xv. 23-26, and Acts xix. 21).
[Sidenote: Character and Contents.]
St. Paul writes as the apostle of the Gentiles to the Christians of the greatest of all Gentile cities. He does so with a solemn sense of special responsibility. Profoundly impressed with the grandeur of the Roman name, the position of this promiscuous little body of converts is to him enormously significant. They are the representatives of the faith of Jesus in the capital of the world; they are the first members of a Church to which God seems to give the most magnificent of all opportunities. And the thought is scarcely absent from his mind that this may be the last Epistle he will ever send. He is going to Jerusalem, and has a sad foreboding of what may await him there (xv. 31).
The manner and style which give the Epistle a unique place among the works of St. Paul are caused by these considerations. He wishes to tell the Roman Christians his very best ideas in the very best way: this may be his last chance of doing so. He puts aside, then, all clamour of personal debate, and sets {163} himself to produce an ordered theological treatise. Never elsewhere does the apostle write with so careful method, so powerful concentration, so effective marshalling of arguments, so stirring yet measured eloquence.
The Epistle opens with a brief introduction. Paul, the apostle of Christ, wishes to preach the gospel to those in Rome whom Christ has called. Then he begins at once to describe the set of circumstances which the gospel is intended to meet. The Gentiles have not been true to such knowledge as they had of God, and by an inevitable process they have passed on to unnatural and vicious excess (i. 18-32). And when St. Paul turns to the Jews, he finds they are in no better case. With fuller knowledge they have sinned scarcely less. Strict justice will be meted out by God to all, the Jew coming first and then the Gentile. The Gentile will not escape, for the Gentiles, whom we conceive of as having no law, have a law in that moral sense which makes them instinctively put in practice the precepts of the Law, and their inward thoughts accuse or defend them (ii. 1-16). The Jew may boast of his Law and his knowledge of revelation, but he is no better in practice than a Gentile. And as for his circumcision, it is worthless unless he is also spiritually circumcised in the heart (ii. 17-29).
After a parenthetical discussion of difficulties suggested by a possible Jewish opponent (iii. 1-8), St. Paul shows that the Jews are not in a worse case than the Gentiles. Both are under the dominion of sin, and Scripture says so. The whole system of Law is a failure. Law does nothing but give a clear knowledge of sin (iii. 9-20).
St. Paul then brings forward his great remedy—the answer of God to the need which is represented by universal human sinfulness. Man has failed to correspond to the suggestions of conscience, he has failed to fulfil the requirements of the written Law, but now he may come into a right relation with God by identifying himself with Jesus Christ. He may be justified (i.e. accepted as righteous) by an act of God's grace (i.e. by an {164} undeserved act of God's love) on account of the redemption wrought by Christ, whom God has set forth as a propitiation to show His own righteousness. God could no longer allow man to mistake His patience with our sins for slack indifference. Man must no longer seek to be justified before God on the strength of what he himself has done, but on the strength of his faith in Christ, i.e. his devoted personal adhesion to Christ (iii. 21-26). St. Paul tells the Romans that this justifying faith excludes glorying, can be realized by Gentile as well as Jew; that by it we establish the Law (iii. 27-31), as the Jewish dispensation, rightly understood, testifies to its necessity. In fact, Abraham himself was justified by faith (iv.) Then St. Paul sets forth in glowing and stately words what are the consequences for us which follow from being so justified. We are at peace with God, and share in His love, and this is the secure ground of Christian hope for life and after death (v. 1-11). The effects of Christ's death are computed by an argumentum a fortiori from the results of Adam's fall (v. 12-21).