Paul’s letter to the Romans starts in Acts 18. Acts 18:1-2 states, “After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.” We see that at Rome Paul meets Pontus and Priscilla who have been expelled from Rome by the Emperor Claudius. From this we know that the church in Rome consisted of not just gentile Christians, but also Jewish Christians. Paul does state whether or not conflict is going on between the gentile Christians and the Jewish Christians in Rome, but we can speculate that their was some conflict about keeping Jewish laws upon their return from their expulsion. Ultimately Paul’s goal with this is to keep the church unified under Jesus, and inform that he plans on at least passing through while he travels to more western regions, in specific Spain (Rom. 15:22-24).

Throughout the first three chapters of Romans, Paul begins to speak on justification through faith and not the law like he did for the Galatians. In verses 21-26, Paul really emphasizes this point by talking about how none can measure up to the law, neither gentiles nor Jews, and that we find salvation and are justified by faith in Jesus, His sacrifice, and His resurrection instead of the law. He talks about how God’s goal is not for everyone to become Jewish and be justified through the law, but to be a part of a huge multi-ethnic family following Jesus (3:27-30). However, Paul adds a curious tag in verse 31. He says that with this faith we do not overthrow the law, but uphold it. By saying this Paul is not contradicting himself, but rather tying to express that the story of Jesus is what the Torah is all about.

Paul dives into this with the story of Abraham’s covenant with God in Genesis 15:6 and 17:10-11. Genesis 15:6 says, “And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Paul references this verse in Romans 4:3, 9 and says that It was not Abraham’s faith and not works that was reckoned as righteousness an that this was indeed before God’s command of Abraham in Genesis 17:10-11 of circumcision for him and his offspring as a sign of the covenant. God promised Abraham before the Torah was written that he would be a father of many nations and the world would be blessed through his family, not by following the law but through faith like Abraham. Paul then says that the promises that he would inherit would not come from the law but through righteousness through faith by his descendants, and that would be what marked the Abraham’s descendants (4:13). This is what would bless the world, including gentiles, along with the promise of the world savior Jesus the Christ.

Blog post also drawn from video: