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You may be comforted to know that you are reading this article along with thousands of other Tabletalk subscribers who are venturing through the book of Romans. You may not. You may be encouraged to know that millions of Christians before you have plumbed its depths and mined the riches nestled in its chapters. Or, you may not be encouraged. You may be perfectly content reading your Bible by yourself with no regard for anyone else. But I doubt that. You realize that you belong to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, and without her, your faith probably would buckle under the weight of worldly pressures. Or, you might not realize that.
Transport yourself back to A.D. 57, the time of the writing of Romans. It was written to believers who lived in a particular place, time, and socio-cultural context. The church found itself living in the wake of Emperor Claudius’ edict of A.D. 49, which called for the expulsion of Christians and Jews from the city.
Imagine joining this new religious movement that worships a Jewish peasant who claimed to be the Son of God and was crucified by the federal government. Explain to your local authorities that, because of your new religious convictions, you no longer profess “Kurios Kaisar” (“Caesar is Lord”) but “Kurios Iēsous” (“Jesus is Lord”). Such a confession guarantees persecution, yet the Roman church’s faith is “spoken of throughout the whole world” (Rom. 1:8).
The book of Romans, as a whole, is not a theological treatise per se from Tertius Publishers. It is an epistle, i.e., letter. Personal greetings and benedictions came hand in hand with the great doctrines of the faith. Paul’s letters were saturated with love, affection, and encouragement. Certainly deliverance from the power of sin, death, and the Devil bring great encouragement to the believer. Who can deny the power of Romans 8? But much of the strength of Romans 8 and other great passages comes from the fact that they were written and validated by a man who had persevered in so much personal suffering (Rom. 8:18).
What a joy it must have been to receive this letter from the apostle Paul. To know that he thanked God for you and prayed for you (Rom. 1:9), that he longed to see you, to strengthen you, and to receive mutual encouragement from you (Rom. 1:12), must have been priceless. How crucial was it to the early church to know that they had fellow Christians who were persevering along with them?
Many of us will never feel this dimension of Romans. Many will. There are many churches undergoing persecution that are in need of doctrinal instruction and personal encouragement. You may have been encouraged to do something about it. Or, you may not have.