Purpose of Romans

In the next few weeks I have the tremendous honor of writing a paper on the purpose statement of Romans. The trouble is that there isn't any consensus among scholars as to the purpose of Romans. It has been widely accepted for Centuries that perhaps Paul intended to write a summary of his theology, or a compendium. I even remember my days at Central Bible College where this is exactly what I was taught. More recently scholars have diverted their attention away from a compendium of Paul's theology to other purposes as primary for Romans. Some have asserted that Paul's purpose in writing Romans is found in the upcoming trip to Jerusalem. Perhaps Paul was "practicing" on the Romans what he would say to the church in Jerusalem. Others have stated that Paul was eliciting support from the church at Rome for his Spanish Mission, either through financial support, or fellow missionaries to partner with him, or both. There have also been claims that Paul insisted on providing the church at Rome an Apostolic Foundation, to make it a "true church" since it was likely founded not by any apostle, but by believing Jews who brought the message to Rome. Some say Paul wanted to exert his apostolic muscles and prove to that he truly was the apostle to the gentiles, and unless he addressed, either in person or through letter, the center of the gentile world, he would have difficulty proving his resume to both gentiles, and the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. Most scholars have had a difficult time pinpointing a specific situation that would necessitate a letter from Paul, like is the case with Galatians, Corinthians, etc, leaving them gravitate toward the theological treatise theory. Still, there is another thought that supposed Paul was urging two separate communities of faith, the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers, to stop segregating their worship and meet together. Honestly, this one is close, but there are still issues with this theory. Lastly, there is a major group that outlines the tension between the "strong" and the "weak" over Mosaic customs. Hopefully, you can see how difficult it is to find a specific and unifying theme to the book of Romans. I hope to discover weaknesses in each of the purported purpose statements of Romans, piggybacking off of the hard work of many scholars, and through that effort develop a purpose statement that I can defend. The purpose statement that I will use as a launching point is as follows: To show that "no distinction" exists in the "impartial" judicial administration of God-all believing ones (whether Jew or Gentile) are justified by faith through the Gospel (Romans 1-11). This lack of distinction should provoke in us an acceptance of one another-Jew and Gentile believer-in the church (Romans 12-16), care of Dr. Tomlinson, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary