80 Romans

Now that you've gotten past the adventures of Jesus and his disciples, you're about to embark on a completely new type of biblical writing. Epistles, like Romans, are basically just letters. Way back before Facebook or Twitter (way, way, way, way, way back), there were only a few thousand Christians in the world and they were spread out over the entire Roman Empire. What they wanted more than anything was to talk to each other about their most favorite guy in the world—Jesus. But it would have been silly to strap on a pair of sandals and walk halfway across a continent just to say, "Christ rocks!" That's where an epistle really comes in handy.

This particular letter was written to a group of Christians living in Rome around the mid-1st century. They were pretty lucky because its author is one of the bigwigs of the early church—Paul of Tarsus. Apostle, Martyr, All-around great guy (once you get to know him). See, Paul was planning a trip to Rome, and so he sent this letter ahead of him to let the Roman Christians know he'd be there soon.
But Paul's letter isn't just, "Hey, what's up? " It's actually a theological masterpiece. Paul lays down all kinds of mega-important Christian doctrine—stuff that would influence other Christians big time for millennia to follow. We're talking original sin. Natural law. Justification by faith.

But we have to warn you: it's also a tough read. Going through it is kind of like listening to one side of a stranger's cell phone conversation. Sure, we can hear all of Paul's lovely thoughts, but we have no clue what anyone else in the ancient world is saying. That's where biblical scholarship comes in. It helps us figure out the context. What is going on in Rome? Why is everyone in the church fighting?

Epistle ( which means letter) to the Romans ……..Even though Paul looks down on Christians bragging about their accomplishments, he does say that there are a few instances where it's good to get a little boastful. Basically, Christians can brag about what God has done for them and their hope that one day they'll be hanging with him in Heaven. Note: the word is "hope" not "certainty." They can also brag about their suffering because, hey, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right? Plus, who doesn't want to hear a good I-was-almost-stoned-to-death-for-my-faith story? Oh, and of course, Christians should talk up what God has done for them by sending Jesus. This is a big one. Christians should actually probably be talking about this a lot. Paul certainly does. See, Paul says, back before Jesus, people were terrible and sinful, but God loved us so much that he wanted to help us. Just think, if God loved the whole world back when we were just huge jerks to him, just think how much he loves us now that we're walking the straight and narrow. He definitely loves us now. A lot. Okay, but how can just one person's actions (i.e., Jesus' death) change the whole world? Well, Paul tells us, just look at Adam. See, Adam just couldn't resist taking a little nibble of that fruit (even though that was literally the one thing God asked him not to do). And because Adam couldn't follow a simple direction, he and Eve and everyone else that came after them got served one big eviction notice from Paradise. Oh, and they got to die, too. After that, everyone sinned because of Adam's sin. In fact, sin grew and grew until the situation was about a million times worse than it had ever been. Even having Jewish law around to follow didn't make it any better. But then God sent Jesus into the world. And Jesus gave up his life to wipe away all the sins that came before him. All in a day's work. So one guy brought sin and death into the world. Thousands of years later, another guy brought salvation and eternal life to the world. Got that cause its important..