St. Mary's Church Elizabeth, IL

8/16

Paul Grapples with Faith and Sin (3)

Why did Paul write to the Romans?

Paul's letter to the Romans, the longest of the thirteen letters either written by Paul or attributed to him, is widely viewed as his masterpiece.  Nowhere else is Paul's theology regarding the relationship between faith, sin, and baptism into the risen Christ so eloquently and completely enunciated.  Chronically, Paul's letter to the Romans came at the culmination of a carrier that began with the apostle's conversion (see Acts, chapter 9) and ended some thirty-odd years later during the persecution of Emperor Nero in Rome.  It was written in the Greek seaport of Corinth between 56 and 58 AD.

     What also makes the letter to the Romans unique is that it is written to a community that Paul has founded.  No one knows when the church in Rome was founded, but we do know that the Roman Emperor Claudius ordered the expulsion of Jews from Rome because of the controversy among them concerning, in the words fo the historian Suetonious, "a certain 'Chrestus.'"  It is likely that the dispute that caught the attention of the Emperor was rooted in a disagreement between the followers of Jesus and their Jewish brothers and sisters over Messianic beliefs.  This means that a Christian church must have already existed in Rome before 49 A.D.-long before either Peter or Paul had arrived on the scene.

     Paul's letter to the community serves two purposes.  It is an introduction to Paul's thoughts and teachings in preparation for a future visist (Romans 15:23).  Of more immediate concern, Paul needs all the prayers he can get as he prepares to embark on what he kew could be a dangerous journey to Jerusalem to deliver donations collected from the churches in Asia Minor and in Greece.  Paul probably hoped that some influential members of the Roman church could put a good word for him in Jerusalem (Romans 15:25-27).

    Based on the account recorded in the Acts of the Apostles 9 chapters 21-28), Paul accomplished neither objective.  Shortly after Paul arrived in Jerusalem a mob attched him and he was taken into custody by the Roman authorities under suspicion that he had caused the riot.  Paul remained in prison for two years.  Finally, he exercised his right as a Roman citizen (Paul's father had purchased Roman citizenship) to have his case heard before the Emperor.  He arrives in Rome not as an itinerate missionary but as a prisoner.

     Despite his apparent failures, however, Paul scucceeded in ways he never could imagined.  For almost 2,000 years and counting, his letter to the Romans remains the most cogent proclamation of the transformative power of the risen Christ in the life of the believer and in the life of the Christian community.

Fr. Joachim