"“Reading Romans: The Righteousness of Faith”"

How do you keep the faith when the pressure and temptation is to bow down to Caesars that proclaimed themselves as gods?

[1] Painting in the Grotto of St. Paul, Ephesus, late 5th century

Romans 4:13-25

June 21, 2026

Dr. Todd R. Wright

Paul could not be everywhere (though a map of his journeys makes it look like he tried).

Since he could not be everywhere, he wrote letters, lots of letters!

He wrote to churches across Asia minor, many that he had founded. Sometimes he sounded like a proud parent or a mentor; sometimes like a concerned partner or even a gossip.

His letters were full of teaching and theology; but also mini sermons and pleas for support; attempts to diffuse conflicts as well as rebukes; boasts and confessions of weakness and regret.

Still, his letter to the Romans is acknowledged as his masterpiece, so we are going to spend six weeks reading Romans and getting a sense of what Paul wrote to them.

But make no mistake – it is not just content that should draw our interest. In his letter to believers in Rome, Paul is writing to people who are practicing their faith in the belly of the beast!

How did they do that?

How do you make a home for yourself in the beating heart of an Empire that brutalizes everyone it conquers?

How do you keep the faith when the pressure and temptation is to bow down to Caesars that proclaimed themselves as gods?

How do you forge a community in place of such differing statuses, ethnicities, and languages?

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First, let me tell you a little about Rome when Paul wrote to believers there in 57 AD:

Scholars paint a picture of a bustling, cosmopolitan metropolis of nearly one million people, serving as the undisputed center of the Roman Empire. Under the 19-year-old Emperor Nero, the city was defined by “extreme wealth, heavy reliance on subsidized grain, and a diverse yet highly stratified society.”[2]

Architecturally, the city was “a blend of grand marble temples in the Roman Forum and cramped, towering tenement housing in fire-prone districts like Trastevere, making it one of the most densely populated cities on earth at the time.” And under Nero it was getting bigger – a massive building boom included the construction of the large wooden amphitheater in the Campus Martius, where gladiators would fight for the entertainment of the crowds.

Demographically, if you walked the streets you might catch a glimpse of the powerful elites or a senator, but you’d be surrounded by working class plebians, freedmen (former slaves who now worked as merchants, artisans, and bureaucrats), as well as slaves who performed domestic labor, construction work, and highly skilled trades. And these people would have included Italians, Greeks, Gauls, Spaniards, North Africans, and a notable Jewish diaspora, making it a cosmopolitan hub of different languages and cultures.

Speaking of the diaspora, scholars say,

“Christianity was brought to Rome early by Jewish converts, likely those who visited Jerusalem during Pentecost. In 49 AD, the Emperor Claudius expelled Jews from Rome due to ongoing riots. By 57 AD, following Claudius' death, the Jewish population — along with Jewish and Gentile Christians — was trickling back, which created tension regarding church leadership and integration.”

It is that tension that Paul addresses in today’s text.

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Since we are largely a homogeneous congregation, it may be hard for us to understand, or even imagine, the tension inherent in the early church in Rome.

Greg MaGee traces the origins: There were at least five synagogues in Rome in the early first century, many in the poorer districts of the city. “Ordinary Jews affiliated themselves with Judaism as a whole rather than their particular synagogue. Thus, the Jews viewed themselves as a unified group despite the apparent lack of a controlling body of spiritual leaders in the city.”[3]

MaGee continues, “Once Jewish Christians reached Rome, they would have had relatively unhindered ministry access in the synagogues, since no Jewish controlling authority could step in to quickly and definitively oppose the propagation of the message ...”

So imagine believers from Jerusalem showing up in Rome: They had followed Jesus and were convinced he was the Messiah. They had wondrous tales of his mighty deeds, his teachings grounded in the Law and Prophets, and his resurrection appearances. They felt welcome in the synagogues and shared what they had witnessed. As in Jerusalem, it provoked interest and stirred controversy. Those of like mind, Jew and Gentile, went on to worship in house churches.

But then Claudius expelled the Jews. Suddenly there was a vacuum and Gentile Christians settled in. They set traditions, picked menus, and established ministries.

Experts say that “When Jews were allowed to return around 54 AD, the returning Jewish Christians found a house-church structure that had become predominantly Gentile.”

For three years the two groups grumbled along together.

It is into that uneasy mix that Paul writes.

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It was a challenge to write in a way that appealed to both parts of the Roman faith community, but Paul was up to the task.

Those who traced their faith back to Abraham would have been primed to hear Paul’s reference to the patriarch. They would have nodded enthusiastically as the apostle celebrated Abraham’s faith. They would have smiled at the reference to he and Sarah being promised a child in their old age – they knew it was a miracle!

But those with Gentile roots would have picked up on Paul’s focus on the faith of Abraham. They were not blood descendants, but they had faith too! And, perhaps because they had not been raised on the story of Isaac’s miraculous birth, they were able to hear Paul’s line about a God who “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” as referring just as much to raising Jesus from the grave as giving a son to a geriatric couple “as good as dead”.

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With one well-chosen story, Paul had found a way to speak to both parts of a divided community and bridge the gap.

He reminded them both that Abraham was a hero of the faith because he believed God could do what seemed impossible; believed it, even when there was no proof; believed when the proof was slow in coming.  

Abraham was not perfect – any more than they were, as they had each delighted in telling the other. But that allowed Paul to assert that even Abraham’s ability to have faith was a gift of God’s grace, a gift they too had received!

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So how do you make a home for yourself in the heart of a brutal Empire?

You place your faith in a Savior who endured a Roman crucifixion, who God raised from the dead!

How do you keep faith in God when Caesar demands your loyalty?

You trust the One who called Abraham and created a people, as many as the stars, from nothing!

How do you forge a community amidst tensions that threaten to tear it apart?

You remind everyone that Jesus died for them; every one of them!

So the most true thing about them is not their many differences;

it is that they are sisters and brothers in the family of God, one people.

Romans is valuable because faith is never easy, not then, not now. But it is life-giving! Amen

[1] Painting in the Grotto of St. Paul, Ephesus, late 5th century

[2] Here and following from AI overviews generated by asking about Rome in 57 AD

[3] Here and following from https://bible.org/article/origins-church-rome#P83_23523