Commentary on Romans 1:1-7

For most of us, writing and receiving letters is a long-forgotten (or never-learned) practice. This is especially true of a longish letter like Paul’s missive to the Romans, with its more than 7,000 words. (Imagine receiving a 20-page email!) 

Accordingly, we might be tempted to move quickly beyond the opening salutation, with its identification of sender and receiver, in our rush to get to the substance of things. With Paul’s letters in general, and this one in particular, this would be a serious mistake. How Paul opens his letters, how he presents himself, and how he depicts his addressees—these typically set the agenda for the letter as a whole and frame how best to read all that follows. This is the time for slow reading.

Paul’s introduction of himself here is extraordinary, especially in comparison with his other letters known to us. He uses three avatars, we might say, then develops the third by a summary of the gospel.

• First, he is a “servant of Christ Jesus”—a reference to himself in biblical terms, for in Israel’s Scriptures, God’s chosen were often identified as servants (or slaves). Paul thereby triggers a household scheme, both identifying himself with God’s household and locating his message in this letter within the category of “household instructions”—that is, he clarifies the life patterns appropriate to those who dwell in God’s household. 
• Second, he is an “apostle,” a divinely authorized messenger, a status he elsewhere ties to his having seen the risen Lord and having carried the gospel to people unaware of God’s good news (1 Corinthians 9:1–2). (Luke recounts the story of Paul’s encounter with the risen Jesus and Paul’s commissioning on the road to Damascus [Acts 9:1–31].) 
• Third, and closely related, Paul has been “set apart for the gospel of God.” This language recalls Isaiah’s references to bringing good news, signifying God’s coming to bring restoration and to rule.

Get you up to a high mountain,
     O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
     O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
     lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
     “Here is your God!” (Isaiah 40:9; see verses 1–11)

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger
     who announces peace,
     who brings good news,
     who announces salvation,
     who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” (Isaiah 52:7)

With this scriptural backdrop, (1) Paul apparently envisions his role in God’s work, through God’s Messiah, to regather and renew Israel—a renewal that encompasses the gathering of the gentiles among God’s people. God comes to set things right. What’s more, in a letter read and heard among Christ-following assemblies in Rome, (2) Paul’s words comprise an implicit challenge to claims made on behalf of, or even by, the Roman emperor concerning Rome’s “good news” of universal rule, peace, and salvation.

Having presented himself in relation to Christ and God’s gospel, Paul moves uncharacteristically to introduce the gospel itself, its substance deeply rooted in God’s promises in Israel’s Scriptures (Romans 1:2–4). On the one hand, then, Paul foregrounds God’s trustworthiness, his fidelity—an important motif within the whole of this letter. On the other hand, the apostle ties his own identity to this good news. It is as if he says, “You cannot understand me apart from my relation to God’s good news, and you cannot understand God’s good news apart from the Scriptures.” Paul’s recitation of the gospel sounds four additional notes.

• First, he is likely borrowing from and adapting a well-formulated and well-known tradition, perhaps already known among the Roman Christ-followers. Paul, we will learn as we continue to read this letter, may be known to several Roman followers of Jesus (see, for example, Romans 16), but he has yet to visit the Roman assemblies. He begins, then, by claiming as one of his credentials his service to a commonly understood gospel. 
• Second, this gospel centers on Jesus’ resurrection, which Paul portrays as God’s vindication of Jesus following his crucifixion on a Roman cross. His execution may have seemed to contradict Jesus’ status as David’s son and God’s Son, the Messiah (see Luke 24:19–21), but his resurrection is God’s indisputable affirmation and public announcement of Jesus’ status and role in God’s work to bring salvation. 
• Third, Paul declares that his call to serve the gospel has this objective: “to bring about the obedience of faith” (1:5; see 16:26). The sense of this phrase may seem obscure. Paul is not referring to two different responses, obedience and faith, but coordinating these two. This is an “obedient faith” or, perhaps better, “faithful obedience” (Common English Bible), or even “committed allegiance.” As such, the expected response is modeled on Jesus’ career, known in Romans for his faithfulness (see, for example, 3:22, 26; 5:19). Allegiance to Jesus Christ is only to be assumed of those who profess him as “Lord” (1:4). 
• Finally, Paul ties his commission as God’s authorized messenger to “all the gentiles” (1:5). Since it is grounded in Israel’s Scriptures, we might expect that the gospel is good news for Jews, but Paul’s articulation of the gospel tradition embraces the gentiles too. Implicitly, Paul has just announced a central concern of this letter: namely, the importance of one people of God, Jew and gentile, united in the one gospel (see 1:16–17).

After what may seem to be a rather involved parenthetical explanation, by which Paul identifies himself in reference to God’s good news, he turns finally to portray his addressees: Romans, God’s beloved, saints (1:7). As Paul is called to be an apostle, so they are called to belong to Jesus, and so to be set apart as holy for service as members of God’s household. And apparently, their number includes a gentile majority (1:5–6). Gentile or Jew, their relationships to God and the world have now been transformed in relation to Jesus, in whom God’s promised good news is actualized.