The Purpose of Romans Part 4

...continued from part 2 and part 3

Hopefully it isn’t impossible to ascertain that the difficulty in developing a

singular unifying theme for the letter to the Romans proves that there 

are at least certain elements of truth to each of the competing theories. 

Paul definitely provides a heavy amount of theology throughout the book; 

no doubt the impending trip to Rome could have been fresh in Paul’s mind; 

certainly Paul would be seeking to at least make the Romans aware of an 

opportunity to help pioneer a work in Spain; perhaps Paul did think

it necessary to provide an apostolic foundation for the church in Rome; 

there was, more than likely, some tension between Gentile and Jewish 

Christians; but, are any of these theories worthy of being called the purpose 

of Romans? It would be too easy to simply combine them all and give the 

“all-purpose” purpose statement and consider the work in Romans complete; 

that is why there are always new theories and advancements in Romans 

as scholars search for consensus.

Attention must now be turned to provide support for the guiding purpose

statement of this paper in two parts: (Part 1) 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). 

(Part 2) This lack of distinction should provoke in us an acceptance of one another, 

Jew and Gentile believers in the church (Romans 12-16). There are notable elements 

missing in the purpose statement that are presupposed (i.e. audience and occasion)15 

in order to focus primarily on proving the overall argument of Romans for 

“no distinction” between, and “unity” of, Jewish and Gentile believers.

In order to provide a defense of the statement (Part 1) that “no distinction” exists

in the “impartial” judicial administration of God (Romans 1-11), attention must be given

to the use of the word “all”16 throughout the book of Romans. The “all” theme is set on

backdrop of the “courtroom” language setting up the “impartial” judicial administration

of God, beginning in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world His invisible

attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood

through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”17 Here, Paul is

establishing the truth that at God’s court the unrighteous will have no defense. Romans

2:6 reveals that the righteous judgment of God will “render to each person according to

his deeds,”18 creating a dichotomy between those who persevere in doing good and those

who do not obey the truth, storing up their own judgments respectively.

In Romans 3:9, Paul shows that every man is held to the same standard, and is

even in the same condition, regardless of whether he is Jew or Gentile, “Both Jews and

Greeks are all under sin.”19 The “no defense” before the judgment bench of God

language continues in Romans 3:19-20, and condemns both Jews and Gentiles alike,

“every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.”20 The

accountability before God’s judgment bench is something that cannot be manufactured

through rhetoric and clever defense and any attempt to be proven innocent through the

devices of man, whether through religion, good deeds, or even ignorance, will be

defeated.

The only defense God will hear is the defense of the believer (Jew or Gentile)

who is justified through Christ, as Paul demonstrates in 3:21-31.21 Just as “all” have

sinned and deserve penalty without distinction, the believer’s defense and subsequent

justification is free from distinction, depending solely on trusting the work of Jesus

Christ.  In Romans 5:12-2122, Paul extends the jurisdiction of the “impartial” judicial

administration of God into the realm of life and death, as it relates to the results of

justification. In these verses, sin is personified as ruling over all, entering through the

disobedience of one man, spreading to all men, and allowing death to enter the world to

join sin as co-ruler. The realm of death is therefore ruled by sin. Through the

righteous act of one, Jesus Christ, the free gift of grace abounds to many. The realm of

life is therefore ruled by grace. By personifying sin/death and grace/life as rulers, the

arguments for “no distinction” in the “impartial” judicial administration of God become

perfectly clear. Paul is able to depict the utter hopelessness of those trapped under the

reign of sin and death while contrasting the incomprehensible worth of justification by

faith in Christ into the reign of grace and life.

The high point of the argument, and even the book of Romans, rests in Romans

11:32, “For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.”23

Leander E. Keck writes concerning this verse, “God’s mercy (like God’s impartial

justice) treats Gentiles and Jews in the same way (all are “imprisoned” in disobedience),

but not at the same time. God’s mercy is treated here not as a timeless attribute or as an

undifferentiated disposition, but rather as a mode of activity that uses specific, historical

forms of human disobedience to achieve God’s goal.”24 Keck provides a table to

clarify:

Past ----------------------------------------Agency----------------------------------------- Now

As with Gentiles

Disobeyed--------------------------------Israel’s disobedience---------------------received mercy

So also with Israel

Disobeyed------------------------------- Gentiles’ (received) mercy -----------------received mercy25

Paul rightly celebrates the display of God’s “impartial” mercy to all who believe

in verses 11:32-36, for it is the depth of the mind of God to know how to save “all”

without distinction that stupefies the mind of man; it is impossible to sway the mind of

God with man’s counsel; man cannot purchase favor through deeds or bribes; and man

ultimately belongs to God.

The demonstration of God’s “impartial” mercy should (part 2) provoke in us an

acceptance of one another, Jew and Gentile believers in the church (Romans 12-16).

The “therefore” in Romans 12:1 is loaded with the power of the incredible “impartial”

mercy that was developed throughout Romans 1-11, and causes the audience to view the

text that follows it in the light of that undeserved and “impartial” mercy. In Romans

12:1 Paul urges the brethren to, “present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice,

acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” The significant and

somewhat misunderstood element of the admonition to “present your bodies a living and

holy sacrifice” is that it has nothing to do with personal sanctification. Paul is not

urging a body of believers into corporate personal piety, where each member individually

is to present his own body as a living and holy sacrifice. Paul spent eleven chapters

developing God’s “impartial” mercy to all (both Jew and Gentile), in order to arrive at the

point in chapter twelve where he can begin stressing the importance for Jew and Gentile

believers accept one other. It is easy to see in the Greek that Paul uses “bodies” in the

plural and “sacrifice” in the singular. The point is that he is urging both Jew and Gentile

believers to come together and offer the most pleasing sacrifice to God: the unified

corporate worship of Jew and Gentile believers.

Paul urges the believers (Jew and Gentile) in Romans 12:2 to, “not be conformed

to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove

what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” The believers

need a renewing of the mind. They need to have the mind of Christ, specifically

concerning how they view each other, in order to be completely unified as a living

sacrifice to God, not thinking more highly about themselves than they ought. Paul

captures the essence of the purpose statement of Romans in chapter 15:5-7, “Now may

the God who give perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind

with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one

voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept one

another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.”

The purpose statement, “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 believers in the church (Romans 12-16),” is

one that has tremendous implications for the church today. In the midst of the culture of

the church, where church-splits are commonplace, cliques wreak havoc in the life of the

church, and faith has become only a personal, isolated, and individual thing void of true

fellowship within a community of believers, it is obvious that the church desperately

needs to understand the “pulse” of Romans to glorify Christ for His gift of grace to “all”

who believe as a unified body of believers functioning in Biblical community with one

another.

Endnotes:

1 Karl P. Donfried, ed., The Romans Debate (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1977), x. 

(an enlarged and updated version was printed in 1991, with Donfried’s basic theological conclusions 

remaining mostly the same.

2 A. Andrew Das, Solving the Romans Debate (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), 9. (While I think

there has been some good discussion on Romans here, to say that one has solved the debate on Romans is

somewhat difficult to swallow)

3 Das, Solving, 26-52. The material in the section entitled The Occasion and Purpose of Romans provides

the catalyst for the bulk of the overview material provided here.

4 As an undergrad Bible College student, this was exactly the position taught to me. I, in turn, even

taught it as such.

5 Changwon Song, Reading Romans as a Diatribe (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2004), 8. (Song

makes good use of the language in Romans, connecting it to that which reflects the style of the Greek

diatribe, but makes the case that Paul intended to use the whole of Romans in the genre of diatribe, which

goes a step further from Bultmann who asserted that Paul, at least, depended on the diatribe for style. He

lands securely on the side of those scholars who believe that Paul couldn’t have intended to address any

specific, concrete situation. He also believes that the letter to the Romans began as part of Paul’s general

theological teaching, and eventually took the form of a letter sent to the Romans. His hope is that Romans

will in turn become that much more powerful to us because it is has always been meant to be applied

universally.

6 Donfried, Romans Debate, 122. To see how Donfried deals with objections to what he perceived as the

founding principles for beginning a study on Romans, see pages 122-143.

7 Das, Solving, 29.

8 Das, Solving, 29. It would seem to only strengthen the possibility that Paul could have written his letter

to the Romans solely with the trip to Jerusalem to face opposition in mind had a request for prayer for the

gospel to be upheld against opposition in Jerusalem been offered. The fact that such a simple element is

missing might mean that the purpose is something else entirely.

9 Das, Solving, 32.

10 Donfried, Romans Debate, 37. (Gunter Klein’s essay Paul’s Purpose in Writing the Epistle to the

Romans)

11 Das provides a quality critique of this theory in Solving the Romans Debate, pages 34-36.

12 Donfried, Romans Debate, 49.

13 Das, Solving, 49.

14 Das, Solving, 51. Perhaps this provides some context for the tension: “The record of an Edict of

Claudius expelling the Jews from Rome because of a squabble over “Chrestus” has inspired perhaps the

most popular theory for the situation behind Romans. If “Chrestus” refers to Christ, then Christians were

present in Roman synagogues in the late 40’s. After Claudius’s harsh edict of expulsion, usually placed in

the year 49 CE, the Jews and Jewish Christians were forced to leave Rome. The gentiles, who had learned

of Christ from the Jewish communities, had to form their own assemblies. When Nero acceded to the

throne in 54, the expelled Jews and Jewish Christians were able to return to Rome only to find Christianity

thriving in gentile house churches. These gentile converts would not have had the same appreciation for

Judaism as the Christians from the synagogues would have had. The gentile “strong” found themselves in

conflict with the returning Jewish Christian “weak.”

15 The audience should be viewed as mixed, representing Gentile and Jewish Christians respectively, and

Romans should be viewed as dealing with a concrete issue.

16 1:5, 16, 18; 2:1,9,10; 3:4, 9, 12, 19, 20, 22; 4:11,16; 5:12, 18; 8:32; 10:4, 11-13; 11:32; 12:3; 14:10;

15:11, 33; 16:26

17 NASB, Zondervan

18 NASB, Zondervan

19 NASB, Zondervan

20 NASB, Zondervan

21 NASB, Zondervan. “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested,

being witnessed by the Law and even the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus

Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of

God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God

displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His

righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the

demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of

the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of

works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of

the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised by faith is one. Do we

then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”

22 NASB, Zondervan. Romans 5:1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we (let us) have peace

with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

23 NASB, Zondervan. Understanding verses 30-31 provides clarity for verse 32

24 Leander E. Keck, Romans, Abingdon New Testament Commentaries (Nashville: Abingdon Press,

2005), 283.

25 Keck, Romans, 284.

Bibliography

Das, A. Andrew. Solving the Romans Debate. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007.

Donfried, Karl P., ed. The Romans Debate. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing

House, 1977.

Keck, Leander E. Abingdon New Testament Commentaries: Romans. Nashville:

Abingdon Press, 2005.

Song, Changwon. Reading Romans as a Diatribe. New York: Peter Lang

Publishing, Inc., 2004.