Romans chapter 1

by Keith Simons. Free online Bible course and commentary from the Useful Bible Study Centre.

About Paul’s letter to Rome’s Christians

(Romans 1:1-2)

Rome was the greatest city in the world at the time of Paul. Often, we use the word ‘Romans’ to mean its powerful rulers, many of whom opposed the first Christians fiercely. However, Paul wrote the Book of Romans as a letter to the Christians in that city. Probably, most of those Christians were poor people; many of them lived as foreigners there.

Ancient Rome was a very difficult place for Christians to live in. The inhabitants of Rome served many false gods; they even gave honour to Caesar, their emperor (most powerful ruler), as a god. Many of Rome’s inhabitants dealt cruelly towards other people; many of them behaved in a very greedy manner.

Paul very much wanted to help Rome’s Christians. He believed that God had given him a message for them. However, God has not yet permitted him to go to Rome. That was why Paul wrote down this message. Another Christian, who was travelling to Rome, took Paul’s book to the church leaders there.

At the start of the book, Paul introduces himself to Rome’s Christians in a humble manner. He compares himself to a servant or a slave; his master is Jesus Christ. The work that Christ had chosen Paul to do was extremely important. Christ had sent Paul to declare to people God’s message, which is called the gospel.

That message is not a new message, and Paul was not starting a new religion. It is the message that appears through the entire Bible. God had promised to provide a way for people to receive a right relationship with him. As Paul explains in the Book of Romans, God did that by the death of Christ. So, we must turn from our sins (evil deeds) and we must put our trust in Christ.

Christ is God the Son

(Romans 1:3-4)

Christians are people who accept Christ as their Lord.

The word for ‘Lord’ has two meanings. It means a master; in other words, Christians should obey Christ. However, Paul’s word for ‘Lord’ is also the translation of God’s holy name from the Hebrew language. Therefore, Paul taught that Christ is God.

There are different opinions about the meaning of verse 4, and these differences show in some Bible translations. However, in the original language (Greek), verses 3 and 4 seem to discuss the nature of Christ’s body, and of Christ’s spirit. Christ has always been God (John 1:1-4), but he became a man in order to help us to know God (John 1:9-14).

So, Christ was born into the family of King David (Luke 1:27; Luke 2:4). That was Israel’s royal family, although they had lost their power several centuries earlier. However, God’s plan for that family had not ended. So, Isaiah 11:1-5 promises that a truly great king would come from the family of Jesse, David’s father. Micah 5:2 says that this king would be from Bethlehem, David’s town. These passages are about Christ.

In our opinion, verse 4 is about the true nature of Christ’s spirit. The spirit is the reality of who someone is. The reality is that Christ is God the Son. There is one God (Deuteronomy 6:4), who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Many people consider it difficult to believe that Christ is God. However, that fact becomes clear when we realise the greatness of his power. Christ defeats the power of death (1 Corinthians 15:55-57), the devil (Hebrews 2:14) and evil deeds (8:1-4). He causes dead people to live again (8:11). So, God’s people will always live with him (Romans 8:18-21; Revelation 21:1-5). However, even his enemies will have to recognise who Christ really is (Philippians 2:9-11).

How to obey God by faith

(Romans 1:5)

We may ask what it means to obey God by faith. Usually, when we obey someone, we do it by our efforts and by our activities. Christians often refer to those things as our works. However, faith is belief and trust in God. In Romans 4:1-5, Paul will contrast faith and works.

In Romans 3:9-18, Paul explains that the problem of sin (our wrong and evil thoughts, words and deeds) affects all people, everywhere. In all nations, people are not obeying God. When God is our judge, we are all guilty.

You might think that the solution to sin is simply for us to obey God’s law. However, none of us can obey God’s law completely, so we are still guilty in front of God (James 2:10-11). We cannot bring ourselves into a right relationship with God by our own efforts (4:1-8). However, God has provided a way by which people from every nation can receive a right relationship with him (John 14:6).

That is why Jesus came to this world (John 3:16). At his death, he suffered the punishment that we deserve (5:8). God sends his people to declare this message, called the gospel. By means of the gospel, we can receive a right relationship with God. We receive that relationship not by works, but by faith (belief and trust in God) - Romans 1:16-17. By faith, we receive the benefit of Christ’s death for us.

So, if we trust God, we can receive a right relationship with him (4:22-25). When people invite Christ into their lives by faith, God changes their lives completely (John 3:3-5; 2 Corinthians 5:17). He gives them a genuine desire to obey him (Hebrews 8:10). Then they can live in the way that pleases God; their works will show their faith (James 1:22-27; James 2:14-26). They still do some wrong things; but they confess their sins to God and he forgives them (1 John 1:9). He is making them into the kind of people that he wants them to be (Romans 8:18-19; 1 John 3:2).

A description of Rome’s first Christians

(Romans 1:6)

Paul does not describe Rome’s Christians in the way that other people might describe them.

For example, we could describe them by reference to their jobs or their wealth. Probably, many of them were slaves, and therefore the poorest people. That was so in the churches at Corinth (1 Corinthians 7:21) and Ephesus (Ephesians 6:5), for example. It is also likely that some of Rome’s Christians were traders (James 4:13). It was possible for a trader to make good profits in Rome (see Revelation 18:11-13). It is unlikely, however, that many Christians there were truly rich (compare Paul’s words about Corinth’s Christians in 1 Corinthians 1:26).

Rome’s Christians might choose to describe themselves by the nations to which they belonged. Many of the Christians there were, like Paul and Christ, Jews (that is, they belonged to Israel’s people). However, it is clear from such passages as Romans 11:13 that many of Rome’s Christians belonged to other nations.

We see, however that Paul chooses to describe Rome’s Christians by their relationship to Christ. First, he says that Christ ‘called’ them. In other words, Christ invited them to be God’s people, and they accepted. That is the most wonderful change in any person’s life (2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Peter 2:9-10).

Then, in verse 7, Paul says that God truly loves them. God loved them even when they were his enemies (5:8). However, now that they are his people, he loves them as his own children (8:14-17; 8:37-39).

Finally, Paul adds that they are holy people. Some translations say ‘saints’. All people who have accepted Christ’s invitation are holy people. To be holy means to be separate for God. God’s people are different from other people because they belong to him (6:22).

It is important to bless people

(Romans 1:7)

In each of Paul’s letters, he always blessed the people to whom he was writing. Clearly, he considered that to be important (see Numbers 6:22-27).

This is not just a friendly greeting. Here, Paul blesses Rome’s Christians in the name of God the Father and Jesus Christ. That is, he blesses them on behalf of God and of Christ. Paul knew that he must not use God’s name in vain (Deuteronomy 5:11). ‘In vain’ means without any proper purpose. Therefore, clearly, Paul believed that his words to bless people would achieve their purpose. God really would show this special kindness to those people.

Jesus, too, believed that. That was why he blessed even little children. His disciples (special students) protested against this; but Jesus insisted that it was important. The children might be too young to understand it, but God was doing something wonderful in their lives (Mark 10:13-16).

Probably this should not surprise us. Both Jesus and Paul believed strongly that God answers prayer. When we bless someone, that is a type of prayer. We pray for God to show his goodness to that person. Here, Paul prays that Rome’s Christians will know God’s grace and his peace. Grace means the kindness of God. Peace is the calm and content attitude that is the result of a right relationship with God.

Prayers are powerful (James 5:17-18), but Paul’s words here are more than a prayer. At the same time, he is making a declaration on God’s behalf. He declares that God really will do these things for Rome’s Christians. God will give to them his grace and his peace.

Reports about the faith of Rome’s first Christians

(Romans 1:8)

Paul seems to mean that people in many different countries were talking about Rome’s Christians and their faith (trust in God).

Paul travelled much. He began the year in Ephesus. Then he travelled through the region then called Asia (now part of Western Turkey), and he sailed to Macedonia. He ended that year in Corinth in Greece, where he wrote the Book of Romans (Acts 20:1-3). So, he had visited many churches across three different countries; and everywhere people were speaking about Rome’s Christians.

It probably excited the Christians in those regions to know that some Christians were serving God loyally in Rome. Rome was an extremely powerful capital city, and its armies ruled over many countries. It was also a city where many very wicked things happened. It would encourage Christians everywhere to know that some Christians were managing to trust God in such difficult circumstances.

That is especially so when we read about the early history of Rome’s church. Acts 18:2 records how Claudius, Rome’s ruler, ordered all the Jews (people who belonged to Israel) to leave Rome. That would have included most or all of the leaders of Rome’s Christian church. (All the first Christians were Jews). At that time, those Christians who were not Jews would have nobody to teach them about Jesus or about the Bible. It would be hard for them still to trust God. However, they did continue to trust God, and they served God well.

It was not just Christians who were talking about these things. Three years after Paul wrote his book, he himself entered Rome. There, some leaders who were not Christians spoke to him. They told him that people everywhere were speaking against the Christians (Acts 28:22). Clearly Rome’s Christians had been talking about their beliefs. They wanted everyone, everywhere, to have faith (trust) in Christ.

Paul’s private prayers

(Romans 1:9)

Paul did not only serve God with his strength, in his public work. It was even more important for Paul to serve God with his spirit, in his private prayers.

Jesus encouraged people to pray in private, when only God would see them (Matthew 6:6). We are sure that Paul often prayed with other Christians. However, it is clear that he also prayed much in private. When he prayed for the church at Rome, nobody else was with him. So, he tells Rome’s Christians that God was the witness of those prayers.

Paul’s prayers in private were not just occasional short prayers. Paul had responsibility for many churches, and he cared about all the Christians at those churches (2 Corinthians 11:28-29). We can be sure that he was praying much for them.

However, Paul still managed to find the time to pray for the church at Rome. In fact, God knew that he was praying constantly for it.

It surprises us to know that Paul was praying so much for that particular church. Paul had never even visited Rome; he had no responsibility for its church. So, we believe that God gave Paul a special task to support that church by his prayers. Perhaps during prayer, Paul had felt a deep desire to pray for Rome’s Christians. Paul recognised that the Holy Spirit was guiding him in that way; so, of course, he obeyed. The Holy Spirit, who guided Paul to pray, could also show Paul what to pray for. Or, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul could pray in words and languages that even Paul himself could not understand (1 Corinthians 14:14-18). However, God understood those prayers, and he would answer them.

Paul’s prayer that he could go to Rome

(Romans 1:10)

Paul was praying much for the church at Rome, although he had never visited it. God had given him a special desire to help that church. However, for a long time it seemed that Paul could only help Rome’s Christians by his prayers.

Sometimes even Christians think that prayer is a poor way to help someone. Certainly, we should not only pray when God has given us the power to do something else (compare James 2:14-17). However, God acts powerfully when his people pray (James 5:16). He does not need us to be present with the people for whom we pray (Matthew 8:5-13).

Paul’s eager desire was to visit the church at Rome, and to declare God’s message, the gospel, there. He was praying for the opportunity to do that. Of course, Paul could have simply sailed on the next available boat to Rome. However, Paul was very careful only to do what God wanted him to do. He believed that God wanted to guide not just his (Paul’s) own life, but the life of every Christian (Galatians 5:18).

At the present time, Paul believed God was sending him, not west to Rome, but east to Jerusalem (15:25). We do not know how God showed that to him. In the past, God had frequently guided Paul in a very clear manner (Acts 16:6-10). On the present occasion, God had guided Paul so clearly that he went to Jerusalem against his friends’ advice (Acts 21:1-14).

Paul knew that he would suffer at Jerusalem. However, that was the means by which God actually sent Paul to Rome. Paul went there as a prisoner, as Acts chapters 21 to 28 explain. So in the end, God did answer Paul’s prayer, and Paul was able to declare God’s message, the gospel, in Rome.

Why Paul wanted to be with the Christians

(Romans 1:11-12)

I am a Bible teacher. I teach mostly by these articles on the Internet, and you can learn much from them.

However, if I ever visited your church to teach, your experience would be very different. I would be able to teach in a completely different manner; and you would be able to learn so much more.

Something similar happened in Paul’s life, and he was very aware of it. Although he had never been to the church at Rome, he could still do many things to help it. He was praying constantly for the Christians there (verses 9-10). He was able to teach them by his letter. He could even bless them (verse 7).

However there were some things that Paul had to be present in order to do. He needed to be there in order to declare God’s message to the inhabitants of Rome (verse 15). He, and Rome’s Christians, could only encourage each other when they were together (verse 12). Also, Paul desired to share with Rome’s Christians a gift from the Holy Spirit. Probably, Paul means one of the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:8-11.

The same thing happened to Paul at Ephesus (Acts 19:1-7). Paul placed his hands on the Christians there as he prayed for them. Then the Holy Spirit came upon them. They spoke in languages that they had not learned. They also prophesied (in other words, they spoke words in their own language which the Holy Spirit gave to them, perhaps to praise God).

Of course, God could have given such a gift to the Christians when Paul was absent. However, then Paul would not have been able to share that gift with them. So, God chose to do it in this way; he wanted Paul to be there. The purpose of these gifts was to make the Christians stronger in their relationship with God.

The duty to declare God’s message

(Romans 1:13-15)

Perhaps Rome’s Christians had urged Paul to go there, and this was Paul’s reply. Paul believed that God wanted him to work in Rome. However, God had not sent him there yet.

Paul could see that his work there would not merely be to speak at meetings of the Christians. Rather, his most important task would be to declare the gospel (God’s message about Christ) to people who were not yet Christians. God wanted to change their lives in the most wonderful manner. Paul compared that to the joy of a farmer as he collects fruit during the harvest.

However, Paul did not declare God’s message merely because he wanted to see the wonderful results of it. Since God had first sent Paul to declare it, Paul had felt a sense of duty. People who do not have a right relationship with God need to hear his message to them. In Ezekiel 3:16-21, God told Ezekiel that he had a duty to declare the messages that God gave him. The people might choose to accept or to refuse the messages; but Ezekiel as God’s servant must still declare them.

The Greeks are the people from Greece, a nation with an important history, culture and language. A ‘Barbarian’ was their word for someone who did not speak their language. In Paul’s opinion, it did not matter which nation people belonged to. It did not matter whether Paul was speaking to an intelligent person or not. It did not matter what other people thought about that person. If God had sent Paul to that person, then Paul must declare God’s message to that person (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). Clearly, therefore, that person is important to God.

God saves everyone who truly trusts Christ

(Romans 1:16)

The gospel is God’s message about Christ and his death. That message may seem foolish to many people, but by it, God saves (rescues) his people (1 Corinthians 1:18). He rescues them from sin (evil deeds), from the devil and from death. Because of Christ’s death on the cross, people who were formerly God’s enemies can receive a right relationship with God (5:6-10).

The gospel is a message for people from every nation (15:8-12) Paul mentions two nations to show this fact. He contrasts the Jews (people who belong to Israel) with the Greeks (people who belong to Greece). God has separated the Jews to belong especially to him as his holy nation. On the other hand, the Greeks did not know the real God. They served many false gods; and they loved those things that people in this world consider great. However, God’s message about Christ is for both Jews, and Greeks, and everyone else. God will save everyone who has faith.

To have faith means the same as to believe. However, Paul is not saying that people need to convince themselves about certain ideas. Faith means active belief and trust in God. Paul is saying that, for God to save a person, that person must put their trust in Christ. People need to realise that they cannot earn a right relationship with God by their own efforts (4:1-8). In fact, it is their own wrong deeds that have separated them from God (3:9-20). However, Christ died to suffer the punishment that they deserve (5:8). Nobody can save themselves, therefore, people must trust Christ to save them.

God’s people must live by faith

(Romans 1:17)

This verse repeats some words from Habakkuk 2:4. Those words were important to the first Christians; they also appear in Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38.

There are different opinions about what the Book of Habakkuk means by those words. However, what the first Christians meant by them is very clear.

The first Christians saw, firstly, that only a person with a right relationship with God could please him.

They read the descriptions of such a person in the Bible, for example in Psalm 1 and Psalm 15. It was their eager desire at all times to please God (2 Corinthians 5:9).

They also saw that it is impossible to achieve such a relationship by human effort. Nobody lives in a truly perfect manner (3:10). The result of our wrong deeds is death, not life (6:23). However, Jesus came to give to people life that never ends (John 3:16).

Therefore, we must come to God by means of trust in Christ, in other words, faith. The first Christians recognised that their relationship with God, from beginning to end, depended entirely on faith in Christ.

In Galatians 3:1-5, Paul warned the Christians in Galatia that they had accepted a false idea. They began their Christian lives when they trusted God in faith. However, now they were trying to please God by their own efforts. Instead, they should be trusting God to direct their lives by his Holy Spirit. In other words, they should live by faith (by trust in God).

That was how God’s people had lived in the past (Hebrews 11:13). In fact, it is the only right way for God’s people to live at any time. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

We have no excuse when we do not obey God

(Romans 1:18-21)

Paul begins here to explain the gospel, God’s message to the world, which we often call ‘the good news’. However, Paul begins in such a strong manner that our first reaction may be shock.

So Paul begins his explanation, not with God’s love, but with the anger of God. Certainly, Paul will write much about the love of God as he continues his explanation. However, first he urges us to recognise the real state of this world. The people in our world oppose God, and we are all guilty. God is the good, perfect and holy judge of all people. He has every right to be angry when people refuse to obey him.

If we knew nothing about God and his greatness then perhaps we could give a reason for our wrong acts. However, Paul insists that we do know something about him (see Psalm 19:1-6). We know about the power of the sun; the God who made it must be very great. We have seen great beauty in the world; only the most wonderful God would create such a world. We have eaten and our food has satisfied us; the God who provides for us each day is kind. We know that we all must die; therefore, we must prepare to meet God, our judge (Psalm 104:22-30).

We all know these things, so we should respect God. We should give him honour and we should be grateful to him. However, so often, we have not done that. Instead, we often desire power, or greatness, or happiness for ourselves. Like the first people, we choose to follow our own desires, so we refuse to obey God’s plans for us (Genesis 3:1-12).

The gospel is the message that we must turn back to God. God, in his great love, has provided a way for us to return to him. That way is the death of Christ.

The respect that the true God deserves

(Romans 1:22-23)

In many religions, people make images which they then pray to as their gods. That was usual in most of the religions that existed at the time of Paul.

Paul is not saying that those religions are worse than other religions. In fact, the people in those religions are often sincere people who live moral lives. However, Paul shows that we can identify an important lesson about human behaviour from those religions.

People across the world, whether they have a religion or not, are behaving in an extraordinary manner. Of course everyone should respect God greatly, because he made them. However, few people truly give God the honour that he deserves. Many things seem more important to them than God does. However, even when people are not living in a very evil manner, they rarely choose to obey God. Therefore, the true God does not receive the most important place in their lives, as he deserves (Mark 12:28-31). Instead, people usually give him the least important place, if they let him have any place whatever in their lives (John 1:11).

Of course an image that people made created nobody. Of course such an image is unable to save (rescue) the person who prays to it (Isaiah 44:9-20). However, the people who belong to such religions usually remain loyal to those false gods (Jeremiah 2:11).

So, we should all learn to be loyal to the true God. We should turn from our evil deeds to invite him into our lives (John 1:12-13). We should give him the place that he deserves in our lives.

God’s attitude when people follow their own desires

(Romans 1:24-27)

Paul’s next subject is people who carry out certain sex acts. These acts are against God’s law (Leviticus chapter 18). However, Paul does not say that these people are worse than other people. In fact, many of them are sincere, honest people. Paul mentions them because everybody can learn an important lesson from their lives.

It should be clear to everyone that God made people to be male or female (Genesis 1:27; Mark 10:6). Therefore, God has a plan for how he wants men and women to behave. So, people should have tried to learn what God wants them to do. However, in this and many other matters, that is not what people usually do. Instead, people usually do whatever pleases them. They do not even think about how God wants them to live.

God is good and perfect (James 1:17). Therefore he cannot approve of any wrong behaviour. However, God does not often stop people when they want to do wrong things. Instead, as Paul says, God gives them up to the desires of their own hearts (1:24). In other words, he allows people to do even the wrong things that his judgement is against.

God may allow people to do such things but, of course, these things are still wrong. So, people must not imagine that they will not suffer because of their wrong acts. The natural result of our wrong and evil acts is that, one day, we all shall die (6:23). God wants to forgive us and to save (rescue) us; and that is possible because of Christ’s death. If we invite Christ into our lives, God can change us completely (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is interesting that many of Corinth’s Christians were formerly carrying out wrong sex acts (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). God’s message of good news, called the gospel, is for all people.

The most wicked behaviour

(Romans 1:28-32)

The cruel and evil behaviour of people in this world is the result of the evil thoughts that fill their minds (Mark 7:20-23). Some people become so evil that they no longer consider their own acts to be wrong. However, there is an attitude that is even worse than that.

Some people know how God wants people to live. They know that God’s law is right and good. They realise that God’s judgement is against people who do evil things. However, they choose on purpose to do what is wicked. They even use their power over other people to encourage those people to behave in the same manner. That is very wicked.

Few people are so wicked as that, but everybody does wrong and evil things (3:23). Most people, even if they do not know God’s law, would consider much of the behaviour in verses 29 to 31 to be evil. Those verses describe behaviour that is nasty, cruel, ungrateful and unkind.

We know that God’s judgement is perfect. He is right to declare his judgement against all evil acts. We too can recognise that the results of evil behaviour in this world are truly terrible. However, if we are truly against all these evil things then we must examine our own thoughts, words and actions. There, we will find that we too are guilty. Like everyone else, we too have offended against God’s law (1 John 1:8)

Therefore, we all need God to save (rescue) us from our evil deeds. That is possible only because of what Jesus did for us (6:23).

Links: Romans verse-by-verse index - Homepage - Buy our books