The Occasion, Motive, and Purpose of Writing

When the Apostle Paul was in Corinth, Phoebe, a deaconess of Cenchreae, was preparing to depart for Rome, a person who had rendered considerable service to the cause of faith and the Church. She had business in Rome; and the Apostle Paul, knowing how she herself had been “a helper of many” and also of him (Rom. 16:2), deemed it his duty to commend her to the Christians there and to ask them to assist her in her affairs.—This commendation could have been briefly expressed; but the holy Paul, on this occasion, decided to write an entire Epistle, greater in length and more significant in content than all the other Epistles. What prompted him to do this?

The Spirit of God, tangibly guiding the holy Paul in all things, inspired him to do this.—The pagan peoples—all of them constituted the province entrusted to the holy Paul: he considered himself obliged to proclaim the Gospel of Christ both to Greeks and to barbarians (Rom. 1:14). Hearing that faith had been sown in Rome and a community of believers had been formed, he sincerely rejoiced at this; but at the same time he could not free himself from anxious concern—was everything going there as had been ordained from above for him to conduct it among the nations? From this came the desire—to visit Rome as soon as possible, to assure himself with his own eyes that all was well with them. Of this he writes; how many times, he says, I have purposed to come to you. Why? Not to illuminate them with faith, but to establish them in it; “to be encouraged together”, he says, “by each other’s faith, yours and mine” (Rom. 1:12). In other words, this can be restated thus: to discuss with you point by point your faith and bring it into complete agreement with my faith, or, which is the same, with the norm of faith which was given to me from above by the Lord Himself. As natural as such a desire was, so too was the anxiety in the holy Paul that the time of his visit kept seeming to recede and recede. Finally this time drew near. All that remained for him was to visit Jerusalem, and from there to direct himself to Rome. It seems, why would he even write?!

But this nearness was only what the Apostle supposed; in reality it would be delayed for another two and a half years. The Apostle did not foresee such a delay. But the Spirit of God, who guided the Apostle, foresaw it and inspired him to write the Epistle, so that it would for a time replace his personal visit. This inspiration could be expressed in the Apostle by an irresistible desire to write, so that “I might have some fruit among you as well as among all the other Gentiles” (Rom. 1:13), portraying for them in general outline the way of salvation. And he wrote, fulfilling his desire and satisfying his apostolic duty. Had he not written at this time, how much heavier would have been the bonds that awaited him?! The Lord, who protects and sustains His servants, arranged for him to accomplish in writing for the time being what he intended to do in person.

We are led to think this way by the fact that from the Epistle it does not appear that the writing of it was prompted by anything from the side of the Roman believers. The Epistle has a completely general character and does not dwell on any incidental particulars. It is vain to think that disputes and disagreements among the believing Jews and the believing Gentiles prompted the holy Paul to write a reconciling Epistle, bringing both under one level in the matter of salvation, that is, expounding that neither those nor the others have in themselves the strength for salvation, but that it is given freely by grace in Christ Jesus the Lord. But there is not a single hint that just such disagreements, extending to disputes, actually existed in Rome among the believers. It is written, indeed, about this; but in general terms. Whoever should undertake to reason about the matter of salvation would not say anything other than what the holy Paul wrote then. We are sinful and have no answer before God. Judgement awaits us, and there is no salvation for us. But the merciful God has arranged salvation for us Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. Cleave to Him by faith, and you will be saved. There is no other way to salvation. This is essentially the main content of the Epistle. The difference in the conduct of the Gentiles and the Jews regarding the use of foods, which the Apostle seeks to soften and smooth over in the 14th and the beginning of the 15th chapter, does not touch the foundations of faith.

Thus the motive for writing the Epistle was entirely in the holy Paul himself. If something did contribute from the side of the Romans, it was perhaps only the circumstance that not long before, perhaps only several months before, the believers in Rome from among the Gentiles had again met with the believers from among the Jews who had returned there. That this indeed happened recently can be concluded from the fact that, writing the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the holy Paul greeted the Corinthians from Aquila and Priscilla: this means they were in Ephesus, whereas writing the Epistle to the Romans, he greets Aquila and Priscilla, already located in Rome. The interval of time was about six months or about a year. So Aquila and Priscilla had recently returned to Rome. If all the people to whom the Apostle sends greetings were from among the exiles who had become acquainted with the holy Paul during their exile, it is probable that they all also returned to Rome at about the same time, in this same interval.

The holy Paul could not have expected any collision at this meeting. For among the returned believing Jews, persons of influence (a notable person here means one who is known and respected), as it appears, in the Church, there were sincere disciples of the holy Paul, being of one mind with him and of one opinion, having become accustomed to the way of life and conduct, in word and deed, in complete separation from Judaism! See how he calls them? Beloved of me, fellow workers, my fellow prisoners, those who have laboured greatly for the Lord. On such the Apostle could fully rely that they would not only not stir up disagreement and dispute, but, on the contrary, if anything of that sort were to arise, they would be able to pacify all and bring them into accord. If anything was needed on the part of the Apostle in this regard, it was perhaps only to, in any case, give greater force to their word by his Apostolic authority. His disciples would speak in Rome about the matter of salvation, of course, according to that standard which the holy Paul had received from above, as they had learned from him. But their word might lack authority. To give it this authority, he writes the Epistle, delineating in it a general programme of Christian teaching. He writes not to them, but to the entire community of Christians. They, however, are presumed to be the most reliable interpreters of the teaching set forth, if it should seem unclear somewhere, which the greetings to them at the end of the Epistle seemed to authorize them for. And through this, every word of theirs was given weight, obligating to attention and obedience. All this together contributed to binding the entire community in unity of mind—this high good, which the holy Paul valued above all else.

Perhaps the desire to send such an outline of Christian teaching to Rome had occurred to the holy Paul before, more than once; but then he lacked a point of contact with the Romans. He was unknown to them and knew none of them. But now, as soon as a way opened up, he does not hesitate to write. His disciples there had already told him everything about himself and prepared a good reception for his Epistle. The occasion presented itself—the departure of Phoebe—and he writes. He writes about that which his soul was always full of, about salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. One might only ask why a special treatise on the providential significance of the Hebrew people is placed in the Epistle (Rom. 9–11)? Here is why, it seems.

The believers from among the Jews, disciples of the holy Paul, could not fail to come into collision with the unbelieving. What to say in justification of themselves, that they believed, and in refutation of those who did not believe, they knew. With regard to this, the Epistle to the Galatians or the propositions expressed in it, which they had heard from the holy Paul himself, could serve as their guide. But from such explanations confusing doubts could arise: how did this happen? The promises of God to Israel were so decisive, and yet how many unbelieving Jews! The Apostle explains that even in the present state of affairs, the unbelief of the Jews does not invalidate the promises of God, and all the more such thinking is out of place if we apply to this what is to be afterwards, that is, that the blindness of Israel has come in part. They turned aside a little from the right path, to make room for the Gentiles; but when these enter in, those will return also, and salvation will become universal. The latter positions his disciples might not have known: for this is proclaimed by a new special revelation. And yet how much instruction there is in such truths for the Jews! Could they not see from this that, despite their unbelief, they are still in God’s attention? And could the sense of God’s mercy not have softened their hardened hearts? Becoming aware of all that was written, they ought to have seen themselves among two stimuli, equally affecting: there the fear of definite rejection, if they remain in unbelief, and here the readiness to enter again into full mercy of God, if they abandon unbelief. Such a presentation of the matter smoothed the way to the conversion of those Jews who had not yet converted.

Such are the motives for writing the Epistle to the Romans: the aims correspond to them. He wrote so that he might have some fruit among them, clearly setting forth the image of faith by the clear portrayal of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ and thereby bringing all to unity of mind,—to give authority to his notable disciples, persons, as it appears, influential in that community, and to give them guidance for conducting discussions both in the community of believers and, when it happens, among unbelieving Jews. We can add to this a third purpose,—to give the believers a preventative measure in case Judaizing false teachers should penetrate to them. These thrust themselves in everywhere and everywhere, by misguided zeal, disturbed the peace of the believers. What is strange if they reach Rome? But that they were there then does not appear. A brief warning against them the Apostle uttered at the end of the Epistle (Rom. 16:17–20). Let us add also a fourth purpose,—to become acquainted with the believers there before his personal visit to Rome, whom he hoped soon to see face to face. The Epistle contained not only the form of teaching entrusted to Paul from above, but also portrayed the character, spirit, and heart of himself. In the Epistle they could not fail to see him and become acquainted with him from afar, as some of them had become acquainted with him in person. So, in sending the Epistle, he had in view to prepare for himself a reception in Rome and at the same time to make his work there conducive to the benefit of faith. For he did not intend to remain long in Rome, but to pass through there on his way to Spain. So that he would not have to labour much with them there, adjusting their minds to the proper views, he sent this ahead for them, so that, at a personal meeting, he could only rejoice together in their common faith and clarify it, if anything still remained unclear.