Although Paul has never visited the early Roman church in person, he makes it clear that he is eager to share the gospel, encourage them, and be encouraged by them.

Paul’s primary purpose in writing this epistle is to share the good news about Jesus, which is the culmination of the entire arch of Scripture—ending the exile of God’s people and providing hope for all.

The gospel is the “power of God” working through the Holy Spirit, and it transforms people’s lives, both Jew and Gentile.

This message of inclusion was difficult for many of the Jewish believers to understand, and Paul will address the tension between Jewish and Gentile believers that exists in the church.

Above all, Paul wants his audience to understand that the righteousness of God is revealed through the person and work of Jesus Christ. This good news transforms us through faith, which includes both belief in and submission to King Jesus.

We are not saved by our works, but where there is genuine, saving faith, we see a life that is striving to be in close relationship to Jesus.

In order to give his audience new hope in the gospel, Paul must first deconstruct all their existing hopes. Both the Jews and the Gentiles of the early Roman church have to understand their need for Jesus.

While the gospel offers salvation for all, it also brings judgment for all. We must embrace this tension to have a fully developed view of God’s truth.

The Gentile worldview placed hope in being their “own gods.” However, the elevation of individual freedom can only lead to darkness and confusion.

In contrast to the Gentiles, the Jewish believers were self-righteous and judgmental. Paul reveals that their hope in being “right” is just as empty. Even though they have God’s law, they still fail to uphold it perfectly and are blind to their own sin.

Ultimately, none of us have hope in and of ourselves. Our only hope is in Jesus’ finished work on our behalf, and we must be willing to joyfully submit to his authority in our lives.

The Jews of the early Roman church identify with the law and their special relationship with God—their holy history as God’s people. This false righteousness limits their understanding of the gospel and their ability to relate to other believers.

Similarly, many of us fail to recognize our own downward spiral of brokenness. This lack of self-awareness cuts us off from experiencing the weight and power of what Jesus has done for us.

Those who claim to be Christians but cannot relate to the deep brokenness of other people are both self-deceived and a threat to the unity of the church.

If we count on anything other than the saving grace of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to connect us to God, then we obscure the gospel. Indeed, relying on false righteousness will always result in hypocrisy.

The Jews over-identified with the outward sign of circumcision rather than loyalty to God to make them holy. In the same way, we tend to identify with our Christian families, associations with church, or other outward signs to grant us proximity to God.

It is impossible to lead with vulnerability while clinging to an image. We should be known as people who are honest about our sin and who live in a process of perpetual repentance.

Once again, Paul makes it clear that we are all depraved. This reality is evident in our own lives and in the world around us.

Like the early Roman church, our speech reveals our sinful hearts. How we use our words exposes where we place our hope.

Contrary to what many religious people think, the purpose of the law is not to provide a way to earn salvation. The true purpose of the law is to show us what is already true—that we are inherently sinful, and as a result, we are separated from God.

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus is our atonement—his sacrificial death satisfies God’s wrath towards our sin. Through faith in Christ, we can be made right with God.

Like all believers throughout history, we can only be saved by faith and faith alone. We must be willing to abandon our sense of righteousness and self-sufficiency in order to place our trust in Christ. We cannot simply add faith to our own system of value.

As Paul continues to deconstruct the Jewish believers’ overconfidence in their holy history, he appeals to Abraham. It is clear that Abraham was made righteous before God through faith alone—not because of his circumcision or the law.

In fact, Abraham is considered the father of all believers, both Jew and Gentile, because of his faith in God’s justice and mercy.

Like the Jews, we must be careful not to add anything to our faith. Only faith in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection brings saving grace.

It is vital that our faith be personal and not based on knowledge. Knowledge can give the illusion of control, while personal faith prompts obedience even without full knowledge.

Our faith should also be contrary. Even when the world around us is disruptive and difficult, we can have confidence in God’s ability to bring life out of death.

Although we all have moments of weakness, the trajectory of our faith should be unwavering.

Since the fall, all humanity has been born into a state of being God’s enemy. By his grace, God has engaged us and provided a way to make us right with him through his Son.

Our faith is critical to our salvation. We must move from having confidence in ourselves—our systems, good works, motives, value—to having confidence in God alone as the source of our hope.

Although difficult and disruptive, trials function to force us to rely on God. We cannot navigate them in our own power. Enduring trials builds character and reinforces our hope in God and our eternal future.

Trials also expose where we misplace our hope in earthly things and other people. They reveal the true state of our hearts and where our confidence lies.

Because human love is inherently conditional, it is difficult for us to grasp the unconditional nature of God’s love that prompted him to sacrifice his Son on our behalf. God’s love points to his character, not our value or worth.

As believers, our joy should be rooted in the reality that God has solved our biggest problem and made us right with himself. This truth allows us to worship God through any trial and gives us confidence through difficult times.

When Adam and Eve sinned, it created a new fallen reality that we all inhabit. Although Adam’s role as our representative may be difficult to understand, we all choose to join his sinful state and contribute to the brokenness of the world.

By God’s grace, we have another representative in Jesus. While Adam’s sin brought death and destruction, Jesus’ willing and sacrificial death brings hope, right standing with God, and eternal life to all who believe.

Although we have hope and freedom in Jesus, we live in “the already but not yet.” We can be discouraged because we still sin, but we can also begin to experience freedom from sin and death through God’s grace.

One sign that we don’t believe in the power of God’s grace is living in shame. When we refuse to release our shame, we essentially adopt the role of judge and deem our sin too weighty for God to forgive.

Others of us fall into the trap of self-sufficiency and don’t see our need for God’s grace. We also adopt the role of judge—believing that our performance outweighs our sin.

In reality, we are all helpless in Adam. Only through God’s gracious gift of his Son can our status of death be reversed so that we may live in freedom, hope, and eternal right standing with God.

As believers, we’ve died to sin and are coming alive to a new world in Christ. Like Jesus, we have been raised to life after death, and we have a completely new orientation.

However, even though sin has no power over us, we still sin. While this creates tension, we can rest in the truth that Jesus' death on the cross empowers a journey of life change.

Considering ourselves dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus is a process. We have to engage this idea in our hearts and take action to work it out in our lives.

Many believers are frustrated with their sinful desires. However, we must constantly choose to worship God over ourselves and give ourselves intentionally to righteous living.

None of us can have personal sovereignty over our lives. We will either be enslaved to sin and free from God or enslaved to righteous living and free from sin.

If we give our hearts, minds, and actions over to righteous living, those choices will in turn shape our souls to become holy.

Because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, those who trust in Christ experience an inner change that gives them new abilities—power to produce the fruit of obedience.

In our natural, broken state, the law cannot save us—it can only arouse our evil desires. The law serves to show us our powerlessness before sin and point us toward grace.

While the “old way” of the law was characterized by rules, the “new way” is characterized by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit—his presence and power.

Paul describes life under the law without Christ as a “wretched” existence of bondage to sin.

Thankfully, through Christ’s sacrificial death and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be free from such bondage. Because of the new life and power we have in Christ, we are free to claim victory over sin and serve God with our lives.

Although believers live in the reality of God’s judgment of their sin, they are also in Christ, and therefore, free from God’s condemnation. And even though we still struggle with sin, we are no longer enslaved to its power.

Those who are dominated by fleshly desires lack spiritual power. These desires are often manifested through a sense of personal sovereignty and entitlement to live life on our own terms.

The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit gives us both guidance in life and the power to live free from sin.

The present decay in and around us should drive us towards the Holy Spirit. A close relationship with the Spirit is vital in the life of a believer—we cannot expect to live independently throughout life and then suddenly trust God in the moment of death.

All believers face an ongoing struggle with sin. Over time, God works on our souls to change our identity and worldview as we grow to be more like Christ.

There are also critical moments when we must make a decision to turn from sin, even when it feels like death. In embracing our death because of sin, we find life in Christ and power to do what is necessary for repentance

While our earthly suffering is great, God’s glory is far greater. As heirs of this glory, we can live our lives with a sure and steady hope that gives us the endurance to persevere through trials.

Whatever our current experience, earthly joys or suffering, it is only a season not an eternal reality.

Many fight hopelessness with misdirected hope in things of this world instead of the confident hope of the cross, which is the defining hope of the Christian life.

The Holy Spirit does not condemn us but strengthens us in the midst of our weakness, specifically by interceding for us when our prayers fall short.

Paul compares yearning for God’s glory to the pains of childbirth—temporary pain for an incomparably joyous outcome.

We often interpret Romans 8:28 as God orchestrating the events in our lives in our favor. But the good Paul refers to is that which will ultimately bring God glory as he conforms us to his image and may not actually be attained in this life. Instead, the comfort of this passage is the promise nothing will touch our lives that is not under God’s control.

Because we have been chosen by God before time, we can have full assurance in his plan to glorify us. We don’t have to wonder if we are good enough.

God is for us, and he delights in us. Nothing can change that. We know this is true because he suffered real loss in sacrificing his Son for us.

God’s idea of good and what feels good to us are often very different things. Like a child who trusts their parent’s better judgment, we ought to trust that our Father knows what’s best for us.

Because God pronounces us righteous, no one can condemn us, and neither are we free to condemn ourselves.

God’s love is more powerful than anything in the realm of creation. Nothing he created could be more powerful than he is, and there is nothing in the universe that threatens his care and love for those who belong to him

In Christ, our story ends in victory, no matter what trials or hardships this life holds.

We will never understand the complexities of God. It is not up to us to understand him; it’s up to us to trust him.

God is purposeful with his choices and is not obligated to give us an explanation. Like a parent with a child, we must come under his good purposes because he knows what is best for us.

God created the world lovely, and we spoiled it. He is not obligated to us yet freely shows us mercy.

A God small enough for us to understand is neither powerful enough to save us nor sovereign and able to work all things for our good.

Our appropriate response to a sovereign God beyond our understanding is gratefulness and delight.

We can know truly without knowing wholly. In the tension between God’s sovereignty and our responsibility, God doesn’t invite us to understand.

Believing that keeping the law would earn right standing before God, the Jews refused to trust Jesus. For Jews and Gentiles alike, faith in Jesus is the only way to be saved.

Sincerity does not make something true. Our zeal and desires must be consistent with God’s Word.

Being religious is not the same as being righteous.

In the Old Testament, God works through the nation of Israel to bring people to himself. Today he works through a new nation, the Church. Jews should be awakened and stirred to repentance by seeing God work through the multicultural, multinational miracle that is the Church.

Our speech reveals what is in our hearts. A defining characteristic of people in God’s Kingdom is that we will have something to say about the good news of Jesus.

God demonstrates his trustworthiness by keeping his promise to Israel through preserving a remnant of believing Jews.

God has also opened up salvation to the Gentiles, which should stimulate jealousy in the Jews and move them to repentance. This has been part of his salvation plan from the beginning.

God is both severe and kind. In his kindness he has granted salvation to the Gentiles. But if we fail to trust, he will not spare us, just like the Jews who did not believe.

Even though the Jews have rejected him, God is, and has always been, working to bring his people to himself. He is carrying out his eternal plan, faithful to accomplish his promises. The majesty and mystery of this plan is far beyond our understanding, leading us to joy and wonder.

In the midst of our panic and lack of understanding, God has not withheld himself. Through Jesus, he offers himself completely. All we can do is humbly believe.

When we truly understand the weight of God’s mercy, we should feel an obligation to serve him.

We are either copying the customs of the world or letting God transform us by changing the way we think.

Unique gifts are given by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of unity and building the body of Christ and are tempered by the needs of the body.

We are called not only to use our gifts, but to use them well and to serve gladly. This requires action, intentionality, and humility to best use our gifts in a way that honors God.

If we don’t feel a genuine deficit in the way we sacrifice our lives, we will always feel insecure in whether God is real, powerful, and if he truly loves us.

A life of holy sacrifice is a life lived in love unfeigned, or without hypocrisy. Our relevance and credibility in the world is tethered to whether we actively love others this way.

Real love begins with a hatred of what can destroy the beloved.

Instead of repaying evil for evil or trying to justify our rightness, we should make room for God, and trust him to bring real and perfect justice.

Trusting God sets us free to simply do good, allowing us to play an active part in conquering evil in this world.

God has ordained authority whether or not it is acknowledged. We are to honor and submit to the leadership of those whom God has placed in authority unless they are requiring us to sin.

Be careful to be discipled by Scripture and not the culture. Our culture has nothing for our souls.

The outworking of loving others is not just to refrain from doing wrong to them but to actively do good to them.

We are surrounded by darkness but must live in obedience and not participate in the darkness. Because we belong to the day, we are to avoid the darkness of wild parties, drunkenness, sexual immorality, quarreling, and jealousy.

Time is precious. Jesus could return at any time. We must be ready for his return and live in anticipation of it.

Unity in Christ is more important than individual rightness, because what unites us, honoring God, is far greater.

As believers, we are united by core doctrines, but outside of these, we can have different opinions as long as we don’t make them essential.

There will be a day when we stand before an impartial God. His judgment should motivate us to stop judging others. We don’t have to defend ourselves because God has the final say.

Strong convictions in nonessential issues can be mistaken for spiritual maturity.

If we are strong in our freedom in Christ, we must live in a way that doesn’t cause others to stumble. If our actions are causing spiritual harm to another, we must modify our expression of freedom by the demands of love.

Our church leadership is tasked with helping us think through nonessential issues. As they guide us, we should develop a posture of patience and humility and be distinct from the culture by not insisting on our rights.

As Paul reflects on his mission and thinks towards the future, he encourages the believers at Rome to ground their hearts with the gospel and commit themselves to growing in holiness.

While Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles causes controversy, he knows God is working through him to spread the gospel. God uses people to change lives.

The Gentile believers demonstrate the authenticity of their faith by giving financially to the believers in Jerusalem. How we spend our money is a sure indicator of what we value and believe.

Generosity is integral in the life of a believer. We give because it is an act of worship, it is an opportunity for investment and reward, and it unites believers.

God promises to give his children peace through Jesus Christ. When we give in to worry and anxiety, we are not believing that God is trustworthy.

God has put within all of us a desire to fight for justice. It is easy for us to channel that passion towards lesser things; however, our fighting energy belongs to God’s mission and God’s people

The people Paul names in this chapter are engaged with God’s mission—their lives represent a legacy of faithfulness. Phoebe uses her position of leadership to be a resource to others. Priscilla and Aquila risk their lives for Paul and for the gospel. Rufus’ mother invests spiritually in the next generation of believers.

Scripture is clear how we need to be serving others. Instead, we often let church consumerism, busyness, fear, vanity, and many other factors hold us back from giving our lives to God.

We know that God is already victorious over Satan through the power of the gospel. What he has done for us should radically change how we view and give ourselves for others.