Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Gospel That Changes the World (Romans) | John F. Walvoord

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The Gospel That Changes the World (Romans) | John F. Walvoord · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking, where we take a deep dive into
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the ideas and texts that have shaped our faith.
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Our goal here is pretty simple. We want to get into the details,
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trace the arguments and come away with a clearer
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understanding. And today we're kicking off an
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analysis of a document that is, without question one of the
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cornerstones of Christian thought.
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We're talking about the Epistle to the Romans.
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And it's more than just a letter.
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It really is. When you approach Romans, you're
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not just reading correspondence. You're looking at what is
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probably the most systematic, the most logical defense of the
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gospel ever written. It's the blueprint.
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It is. It's the architectural plan for
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how God saves sinners. So to really get a grip on the
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massive theological argument that Paul builds, we have to
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start on the ground floor. We need to establish the
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context, The Who, what, where, when and the immediate why of it
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all. That work is absolutely vital,
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you know, interesting. A lot of scholars, even secular
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ones, will call Romans the premier example of a letter from
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the ancient world, not just in the New Testament, but in all of
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ancient literature. That's a very high bar.
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What puts it in that category above, say, letters from Cicero
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or Seneca? It really comes down to two
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things, the sheer scale of the theme he's tackling and the
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incredible depth of the content. So it's not just another church
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letter. Not at all.
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I mean think about his other letters, Corinthians, Galatians.
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Those were often written to put out fires to correct specific
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problems in a local church. Right, they were reactive.
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They were. But Romans is different.
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It's proactive. It wasn't written as a quick
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fix. It was written as a complete,
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comprehensive declaration of his Gospel from the ground up.
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You can also see how significant it was just by looking at where
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it is in our Bibles. You can.
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It's not the first letter Paul wrote, not by a long shot. 1st
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and 2nd Thessalonians were probably much earlier.
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Yet it's always first in the list of his epistles.
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Always. And that's not an accident.
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That placement tells you how the early church viewed it.
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They saw it as the theological front door to the rest of Paul's
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writings, and maybe to the whole New Testament.
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It defines the terms for everything that follows.
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And we can't forget the address on the envelope, so to speak.
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This was going to Rome. To the capital of the Empire,
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the center of the world at that time.
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A theological statement aimed at that city, Well, it carries a
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certain weight. It's not just a letter to a
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church in some backwater town. It's a statement on the world
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stage. OK, so let's get into the
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logistics, the detective work. Before we can even touch the
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theology, we need to figure out where Paul was when he put all
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this together. I mean, there's no return
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address, no dateline at the top of the letter, so we have to
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look for clues inside the text itself, sort of like it's
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internal metadata and the. Clues are actually very strong.
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We can be pretty confident that Romans was written from the city
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of Corinth. And how do we get there?
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I mean, Paul doesn't say greetings from Corinth anywhere.
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He doesn't, no, But he leaves behind what you might call
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circumstantial evidence. The biggest clue is in the final
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chapter, chapter 16, he commends a woman named Phoebe.
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Phoebe, right? I remember her name.
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And in Romans 16, verse one, he identifies her as a servant or
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perhaps a deaconess of the church in Syncrea.
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Syncrea and that name is like a specific postmark, isn't it?
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It pins him to a very small area on the map.
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It does. Sancrea was the eastern harbor
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of Corinth. It was only a few miles away and
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served as its main port for trade heading east.
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So it's basically a neighborhood of Corinth?
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You can think of it that way. It was part of the Trentian
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metropolitan area. If he's personally commending
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someone from the church there, it's almost certain he's in the
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immediate area. So he knows the church leaders
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there personally. Yes, and there's more.
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In chapter 16 verse 23, Paul mentions he's staying in the
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House of a man named Gaius, who he calls his host, and of the
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whole church. And do we know anything about
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Gaius? We do.
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From First Corinthians we know that Gaius was one of the very
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few people Paul personally baptized in Corinth.
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So you have Paul's host being a Corinthian and his letter
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carrier Phoebe being from Corinth's harbour town.
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It's like triangulating a position.
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All the data points to Corinth. It really does.
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The conclusion is, well, it's pretty hard to argue against.
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And knowing the. Location helps lock this into a
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specific moment in Paul's life and ministry.
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This wasn't just some random stop.
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No, it happened at a very distinct point in his career is
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at the very end of his third missionary journey.
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You can see this in the book of Acts.
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In Acts chapter 20, verse 3, Luke tells us that Paul spent
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three months in Greece right before he started his journey
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back to Jerusalem. And that three months stay is
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the window when he wrote Romans. It's the only window that makes
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sense of all the evidence. So if we have the location as
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Corinth and the context as the end of the third missionary
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journey, how do we get to a specific year?
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You often hear it dated very precisely.
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We can get it down to the late winter or early spring of either
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8057 or 58. That's incredibly specific for a
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document this old. How is that calculation made?
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It comes down to understanding his travel plans, which he tells
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us about. He was writing this right before
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leaving Greece to go to Jerusalem.
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And he had a very specific reason for going to Jerusalem at
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that time. He did.
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He was delivering what he calls the love gift.
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This is a large financial collection he had taken up from
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the churches in Macedonia and Akaya, that's northern and
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southern Greece, to help the poor Christians back in
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Jerusalem. An act of unity between the
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Gentile and Jewish churches, the.
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Huge act of unity, but to deliver it, he was working
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against a deadline, a religious deadline.
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OK. After leaving Corinth, his plan
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was to be in Philippi for the Passover and the Feast of
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Unleavened Bread, and his ultimate goal was to get all the
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way to Jerusalem by the day of Pentecost.
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And Pentecost is 50 days after Passover, so he's on a very
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tight schedule. A very tight schedule.
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He's racing the calendar, so you just work backwards.
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If he needs to be in Jerusalem by Pentecost, which is in late
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May or early June, that means he was in Philbi for Passover in
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April. Which means he had to have left
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Corinth just before that. Right.
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So his three month stay in Corinth where he wrote the
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letter must have been in the months right before that spring
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departure. So we're talking January,
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February, March of 8057 or 58. It's like dating an old journal
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entry because it mentions getting ready for a specific
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holiday trip. It just locks it into a season.
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The beautiful piece of historical deduction, really.
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So we've got Paul in Corinth, winter of 57 or 58.
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He's wrapping up his mission there, he's busy with this big
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fundraising project and he has this long term desire to
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eventually visit Rome. But a long term desire doesn't
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make you sit down and write a 16 chapter theological work right
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now. There has to be a trigger.
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What was the immediate occasion that made him write it at that
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exact moment? The trigger was purely a matter
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of logistics, and it comes right back to the person we already
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mentioned, Phoebe. The woman from Sangria.
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The woman from Sangria Paul commends her to the Roman Church
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because she is traveling to Rome.
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So she was his Courier? She was, but it's more specific
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than that. The evidence suggests that Paul
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didn't send her to Rome just to deliver the letter.
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She was already going for her own reasons, probably business
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or family matters. So Paul sees the opportunity.
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He sees the opportunity. Think about it.
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Sending a document this long and this sensitive through the
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public mail system of the day would have been incredibly
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risky. It could get lost, stolen,
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copied. Or just never arrive.
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But here was Fidi, A trusted believer, a leader in her own
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church, who was about to make the journey herself.
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It provided a secure personal channel for delivery.
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It's the difference between dropping a sensitive file in the
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public mail and handing it to a trusted colleague who's flying
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to headquarters tomorrow morning.
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That's a perfect analogy. Her planned trip took Paul's
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general intention to write to the Romans and turned it into an
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urgent, immediate task. He knew he had a small window to
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write this masterpiece and get it into her hands before she
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left. It shows you how, in God's
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Providence, something as ordinary as a business trip can
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become the catalyst for, well, one of the most significant
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documents in human history. And tells you something about
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the urgency Paul felt. He knew the Roman Church needed
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this solid doctrinal teaching, and he couldn't let this perfect
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delivery opportunity slip by. So Phoebe's trip explains the
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timing, the why now. But Paul had bigger, more
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strategic reasons for writing this.
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It wasn't just about getting a letter delivered.
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Oh, absolutely not. There were several major
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objectives he was trying to accomplish with this letter.
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Let's unpack those. The first one seems to be the
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most practical. He's announcing his travel
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plans. Right.
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This is purpose number one. Yeah.
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He needed to tell the church in Rome that after he dropped off
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the collection in Jerusalem, he was planning to finally visit
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them. And it wasn't just a social
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visit he had in mind. No, Paul always thought.
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But strategically, he didn't see Rome as the final destination.
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He saw it as a launching pad, a base of operations for the next
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phase of his ministry. He wanted to go further West.
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All the way to Spain. He mentions this in chapter 15.
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Spain was for him what he called virgin territory, a place where
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the gospel hadn't been preached by an apostle.
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And to start a mission like that in a new country would be a huge
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undertaking. He would need support.
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He would need a strong, stable, doctrinally sound church to back
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him up with prayers, with financial support, with people.
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He was essentially writing Romans to prepare the church
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there to become his partner in the Spanish mission.
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And that puts the whole letter in a different light.
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He's not just teaching them theology for their own good.
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She is, but he's also laying a doctrinal foundation for a
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mission partnership. It's as if he's saying this is
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the gospel I preach. If you agree with this, if you
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stand on this truth, that I want to ask you to partner with me to
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take it further West. Doctrinal alignment comes before
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mission partnership. Absolutely, which leads right
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into the second big purpose. Which is codifying his gospel
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message, yes. Paul knew he hadn't founded the
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church in Rome. He didn't know them personally,
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so he needed to give them a complete, detailed statement of
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the plan of salvation as he understood and preached it.
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This is his systematic theology in a way.
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It is. It's the most complete
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presentation of the gospel we have from him.
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He starts with the bad news, universal human condemnation,
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and then walks them step by step through God's solution all the
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way to our final glory. He was giving them a theological
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anchor. And he needed to give them that
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anchor because there was a very specific problem brewing in the
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Roman church, which is the third purpose, the tension between
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Jewish and Gentile believers. This was a critical issue.
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You have to remember the history of that church.
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A few years earlier, around 1849, the Emperor Claudius had
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expelled all the Jews from the city of Rome.
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Which would have included Jewish Christians like Priscilla and
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Aquila. Yes.
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So for a period of several years, the church in Rome was
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almost entirely Gentile. It developed the Gentile
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culture, Gentile leadership. But then Claudius died, and
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under Nero the Jews were allowed to return.
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And when those Jewish Christians came back, they were re entering
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a church that had changed. This created all sorts of
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friction over issues like Jewish food laws, observing the
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Sabbath, the role of the Mosaic. Law and Paul had seen this kind
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of conflict tear other churches apart.
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He had He was constantly fighting against the Judaizers
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who wanted to force Gentile Christians to live like Jews.
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He knew he had to get ahead of this problem in Rome, the most
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strategic church in the world. He needed to foster unity there.
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And his solution is just brilliant.
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He doesn't take sides. No, he does something far more
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clever. He starts by affirming the
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Jewish heritage. He says salvation came first for
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the Jew. He lists all their advantages,
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the covenants, the law, the patriarchs.
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He gives them their due. He does, but then he completely
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levels the playing field. He spends the first 3 chapters
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proving that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.
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So no one has a leg to stand on. No one.
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If everyone is equally lost, then everyone must be saved in
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the exact same way. Not by being Jewish, not by
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following the law, but by 1 mechanism and one mechanism
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only, grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
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It completely removes any grounds for ethnic or religious
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arrogance. And this connects to the
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deepest, most philosophical purpose of the letter, which is
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providing A theodicy that's a defense of God's justice.
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It is. You can feel this question
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bubbling under the surface of the whole letter, especially for
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the Jewish believers. The question being, has God
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failed? Has God broken his promises to
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his chosen people, Israel? I mean, if salvation is now
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going out so freely to the Gentiles, and the majority of
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Israel has rejected their own Messiah, does that mean God's
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plan has gone off the rails? It's a huge theological problem.
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It's an existential 1. And so Paul writes Romans in
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part as a kind of legal brief, defending God himself.
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He dedicates three whole chapters, 9:10 and 11:00, to
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this problem. He sets out to prove that God is
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both just and the one who justifies.
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He has to show that God is not only faithful to His new
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promises in Christ, but that He is also faithful to all his old
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promises to Israel. He argues that Israel's
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rejection is partial and temporary, and it's actually
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serving God's larger, sovereign purpose of bringing in the
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Gentiles. He vindicates God's wisdom and
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goodness in all of salvation history.
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So if we take all these purposes and try to boil them down to one
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single theme statement for the entire letter, what would it be?
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The theme is the gospel course, but Paul defines that more
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specifically. The theme is the revelation of a
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righteousness from God. That phrase from Chapter 1 is
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the key that unlocks the whole book.
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And this righteousness from God has a couple of different
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dimensions to it. It does.
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It has two main aspects and you have to keep them both in mind
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to follow his argument. The first one is about God
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himself. Right.
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First, it refers to God's own character, His personal
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righteousness, his moral integrity, his justice.
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This is the theodicy part we just talked about.
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Paul is showing that everything God does in salvation is
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perfectly consistent with his own holy nature.
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God plays by his own rules, and His rules are perfect.
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Perfectly just. But then there's the second
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dimension, which is what God does for us.
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This is the gift. This is God's gift to humanity.
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It's the righteousness that God provides to people, a
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righteousness that we don't earn, but that we receive by
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grace through faith. And this gift itself has two
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parts. And this distinction is so
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critical in Reformed thought. There's a legal change and then
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a life change. We have to get this right.
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The first part is what we call imputed righteousness.
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This is justification. And the keyword there is imputed
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meaning credited to our account. It's a legal term.
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Justification is a forensic declaration.
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It happens in the courtroom of God.
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The divine judge declares a guilty Sinner to be righteous in
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his sight. Not because we suddenly become
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good, but because Christ's perfect righteousness is
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credited to us. It's a complete change in our
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legal standing before God. It's instantaneous and
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permanent. We move from condemned to
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justified in a moment by faith alone.
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But then comes the second part of the gift.
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Which is imparted righteousness, or what we call sanctification.
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So imputed is the legal status imparted is the practical
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reality. Yes, sanctification is the
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lifelong process of actually becoming more holy in our daily
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lives. It's the progressively
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transformed lifestyle that is made possible by the Holy Spirit
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living in us. So justification is what God
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does for us, and sanctification is what God does in US.
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That's a great summary. 1 is a one time declaration of our
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status, the other is the ongoing work of changing our character
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to match that new status. We could use an analogy, maybe
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like being granted citizenship. That works really well.
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So the king first decides to grant citizenship.
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That's him acting justly according to his own character.
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Then he issues a legal decree. He declares you a full citizen
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right here, right now. That's justification.
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Your legal passport has been stamped.
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It has, even if you don't know the language of the customs yet.
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Your legal status has changed forever, but then the process
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continues. You start going to classes to
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learn the language, you learn the laws, the culture.
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You slowly become assimilated into the life of the new
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Kingdom. That's sanctification.
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It's the process of learning to live like the citizen you've
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already been declared to be. Paul lays out both of these with
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incredible precision in Romans. OK, so with that theme of God's
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righteousness in mind, let's walk through the structure of
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the book. Paul built this argument like a
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master architect. It's not just a collection of
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ideas, it's a logical progression.
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It really is. We can break it down into seven
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major sections and it flows from one to the next very
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systematically. Let's start at the beginning.
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Part 1. The introduction in Chapter 1.
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Right, Chapter 1, verses one through 17.
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This is like the architect laying out the blueprints on the
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table. He gives his greetings,
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establishes his credentials as an apostle, and then, crucially,
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he states his thesis for the whole book.
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In verses 16 and 17, for I am not ashamed of the gospel.
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For it is the power of God for salvation.
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For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith.
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For Faith, He tells you right up front with the entire book is
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going to be about. OK, then he moves to Part 2,
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condemnation from chapter 1 verse 18 all the way to chapter
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3, verse 20. This section feels like the
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demolition phase before construction can begin.
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That's a perfect way to describe it.
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Yeah. Before he can build his case for
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salvation, Paul has to 1st tear down any idea that we can save
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ourselves. He has to establish the
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universal need. And he does this in stages,
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condemning one group after another.
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He does. He starts with the Pagan world,
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the Gentiles. He argues they are without
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excuse because God's existence is obvious from creation.
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But they suppress that truth and turn to idolatry.
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Then he turns his attention to the moralist, the self-righteous
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person. Right in chapter 2, the person
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who looks down on the pagans and judges them, all the while doing
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the same things themselves. Paul says God's judgement is
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impartial. It applies to everyone.
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And finally, he addresses the Jewish people directly.
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He does. He argues that having the law or
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being circumcised means nothing if you don't obey the law from
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the heart. And since no one does,
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possessing the law just makes you more accountable.
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The end result of this whole section is that devastating
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conclusion in Chapter 3. It is, for we have already
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charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.
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The whole world is guilty before God.
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The demolition is complete. So with the ground cleared, he
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moves to Part 3 Justification from chapter 3 verse 21 to the
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end of chapter 5. This is the foundation being
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Cord. Now he pivots from the problem
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to the solution, he says. But now the righteousness of God
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has been manifested apart from the law.
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This is the theological core of the entire letter.
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This is where he explains how God can be just and still
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justify the ungodly. Yes, he talks about redemption,
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about propitiation, that is, Christ's death satisfying God's
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wrath against sin, and that all of this is received by faith.
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And he uses Abraham as his prime example in chapter 4.
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Why Abraham? It's a masterful move.
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Abraham is the father of the Jewish people, but Paul points
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out that Abraham was declared righteous by faith long before
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the law was given to Moses, and even before he was circumcised.
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So salvation by faith isn't some new invention.
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It's always been God's way. It's always been the way he uses
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their own patriarch to prove that faith not works or
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ethnicity is what makes a person right with God.
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This whole section establishes our new secure legal standing
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before God. And with that foundation secure,
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he builds the superstructure in Part 4, Sanctification, which
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covers Chapter 6-7 and eight. Right, The obvious question
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after you hear about justification by grace is, well,
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if I'm forgiving, can I just keep on sinning?
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Shall we sin that grace may abound?
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And Paul's answer is an emphatic by no means.
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This section shifts from what God did for us to what God is
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now doing in us by the Holy Spirit.
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Chapter 6 is about our new identity in Christ.
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Yes, our union with him. We have died to sins rule and we
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are now alive to God. We are called to live out that
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new reality. But then Chapter 7 describes
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this intense internal struggle with sin.
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It feels so raw and personal. It's one of the most
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psychologically astute passages in all of Scripture.
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Paul includes it to show that the Christian life is a battle.
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The law is good. It shows us what sin is, but it
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has no power to help us defeat it.
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It just reveals our own weakness.
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That famous cry, wretched man that I am, sets the stage for
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the solution. It does.
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The despair of Chapter 7 leads directly to the victory of
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chapter 8. Chapter 8 is all about the Holy
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Spirit. The Spirit is the one who gives
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us the power to overcome the flesh.
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There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are
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in Christ Jesus. Exactly.
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Chapter 8 is the grand finale of the personal salvation argument.
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It moves from no condemnation to our adoption as sons all the way
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to our final glorification with the confidence that nothing can
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separate us from God's love. OK, so after that incredible
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high point in chapter 8, Paul seems to pause Part 5.
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Sovereign Choice. Chapters 9 through 11 feels like
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he's addressing a major objection.
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This is the theodicy we talked about.
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You can almost feel him take a deep breath.
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He knows he has to address the elephant in the room.
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What about Israel? If God's plan of salvation is so
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great, why have His own chosen people for the most part
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rejected it? If God's promises to Israel
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failed, how can we trust His promises to us?
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That's the question, and Paul answers it by defending God's
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absolute sovereignty. In Chapter 9, he argues that God
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has always operated by divine election, not by physical
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descent. It has always been about God's
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choice. But then in Chapter 10, he
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balances that by stressing human responsibility.
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He does. He says Israel is responsible
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because they tried to establish their own righteousness through
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the law instead of submitting to God's righteousness by faith.
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Salvation is available to everyone who calls on the name
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of the Lord. And then Chapter 11 gives the
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final piece of the puzzle looking to the future.
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Yes. He explains that Israel's
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hardening is only partial and temporary.
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It's a strategic move in God's plan to allow the full number of
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the Gentiles to come into the Kingdom.
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He hasn't rejected his people forever.
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He promises a future restoration.
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The whole section defends the integrity of God's character and
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plan. With that major theological
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problem solved, he can finally move to the practical
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application in Part 6, Transformed Living from Chapter
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12 to Chapter 15. Right after 11 chapters of deep
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doctrine, he starts chapter 12 with Therefore, based on all
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these mercies of God, here's how you should now live.
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Doctrine always leads to duty. Always, and he applies this
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transformed righteousness to every area of life.
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First, life inside the church, using your spiritual gifts,
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loving one another. Second life in society
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submitting to the governing authorities.
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And third, he comes full circle and directly addresses the Jew
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Gentile tension with his instructions about the weak and
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the strong. He does.
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This is the practical payoff for the church in Rome.
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He talks about those with a weak conscience, likely Jewish
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Christians still concerned about food laws and holy days, and
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those who are strong in their freedom in Christ, likely the
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Gentiles. And his instruction isn't for
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one side to win the argument. No, it's for both sides to
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welcome and love each other and not to judge or look down on one
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another over these nonessential issues.
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The goal is unity and building each other up in love, which is
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the very problem he was trying to solve.
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And that brings us to the final section, Part 7, the conclusion
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from the end of Chapter 15 through Chapter 16.
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This is where all the personal details.
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Are you can call this the dedication plaque on the
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finished building. He talks about his own travel
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plans again, going to Jerusalem, then Rome, then Spain, and then
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you get this long, long list of personal greetings.
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He names or refers to 28 different people.
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This isn't just filler content. Not at all.
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It's more proof that Paul is the author.
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This is his social network. He knows people who have moved
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from places like Corinth and Ephesus to Rome, people like
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Priscilla and Aquila. Who we know were tent makers who
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had been in Corinth with Paul and were then expelled from Rome
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and had now returned. The timeline fits perfectly.
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It fits perfectly, and what's not in the list is just as
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telling as what is. You're talking about the absence
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of a greeting to Peter. Yes, if Peter had been the
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founder or the ruling Bishop of the Church in Rome at that time,
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as later tradition would claim, it would be an incredible insult
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for Paul not to greet him first and foremost.
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Especially since he's writing this massive letter laying out
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his own theology and his plans to use Rome as his new mission
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base. The silence is deafening.
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It's very strong evidence that whatever Peters later connection
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to Rome was, he wasn't there leading the church when Paul
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wrote this letter. So when we step back and look at
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the whole picture, the historical setting, the
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logistical reason for writing this incredible 7 part
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structure, it really is a it. Is it's not just a letter.
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It's a comprehensive, logical, fully orbed presentation of the
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gospel. It covers everything from our
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condemnation in sin to our justification by faith, our
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sanctification by the Spirit, and our final glorification in
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eternity. It's the framework for
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everything. So to recap for everyone
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listening, we've established the context.
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The letter to the Romans was written from Corinth around AD
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57 or 58. It was prompted by Phoebe's trip
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to Rome, and it was built around the grand theme of the
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righteousness of God, both his own perfect character and the
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gift of righteousness He gives to us.
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And its structure is designed to prove humanity's universal need,
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explain God's gracious provision in Christ, detail the practical
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outworking of that salvation in our lives, and defend God's own
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justice throughout history. It's an incredible piece of
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work. Paul used it to solve conflicts
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and lay a doctrinal runaway for his future mission to Spain.
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He certainly did. So here's a final thought for
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you to take away and consider. Paul gave the Roman church this
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16 chapter, incredibly detailed, systematic defense of the gospel
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before he ever asked them for their partnership and support in
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his mission. What does that order theology
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first, mission partnership second.
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Tell us about how we should think about ministry today.
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Did Paul believe that the most vital resource for spreading the
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gospel wasn't just money or people, but a deep, robust and
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shared understanding of the truth itself?