Page 10 - Romans Student Textbook.doc

What does the author want the recipients to know and do?

There are 93 commands given to the people in the churches of Rome in this letter. All of them are in the
last 5 chapters of the book. In the first eleven chapters there is not one word about what Paul wants the
Romans to do. His focus in the first eleven chapters is on building a theological foundation upon which all
the commands rest. Because he is working on clarifying their understandings, Paul uses a lot of rhetorical
questions (72 of them) in the first part of the letter. When he begins to give commands, he almost
completely ceases to ask questions. He has an agenda. He wants them to live out what they know. He
wants them to know and show the wonder of their salvation in the way that they treat one another.

The letter builds to a crescendo that comes to a climax in Romans 14:1-15:13. After building a solid
theological foundation on the wonder of their commonly held confession of the nature of the salvation
that Christ has provided for them,19 Paul laid out the foundational instruction for living out that truth,20
and then gave specific instructions directed at all believers as to how to live out that foundational
command in the various situations in life that were common to them all.21 All of that writing and teaching
set the context for giving the believers in the Roman churches the apostolic answer to the problem that
was hindering their effectiveness in proclaiming the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ with power and
integrity in Rome. Those instructions centered on how they were to conduct themselves in their
relationships within the local churches as brothers and sisters in Christ who were struggling with dragging
their pre-salvation beliefs about how to live properly before God into their present situation. They needed
to learn to focus on the essential message of the gospel and give freedom to one another to live out that
message as servants of Christ according to the dictates of their consciences in areas that were not
essential to salvation.

An Overview of the Book of Romans in 7 Minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpECSOV3YNI

19 Romans 1-11
20 Romans 12:1-2.
21 Romans 12:3-13:14.

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