May 13, 2026
Discussion Questions:
Before we begin our chapter by chapter study, we would like to become familiar with the book as a whole.
1) The ecclesia: Who founded the Roman ecclesia and what do we know about it? Was it composed of Gentile Christians or Jewish Christians?
2) Timeline: When did Paul write Romans? Can we correlate it to any time in the book of Acts?
3) Theme: Why did Paul write the book of Romans? Was it in relation to a specific issue? What is the overall theme of the book?
Discussion Summary:
We are not told in the scriptures if a particular apostle founded the Roman ecclesia. We are told that Jews from Rome were present at the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:10) and perhaps someone who was there that day brought back the gospel message to the city. Around 49 AD the Roman Emperor expelled all the Jews from the city of Rome. We are told in Acts 18:1 that the Jewish brethren were forced to leave at that time. We can assume that when that ban was lifted 5 years later, many of the Jewish Christians returned to Rome.
From various clues in the letter to the Romans and in Acts we can deduce that Paul wrote this letter while he was in Corinth. According to Acts 20, Paul was in Greece for 3 months (verse 2) before leaving for Jerusalem (verse 16) carrying with him the donation he had collected for the brethren (Romans 15:26-28).
Paul’s purpose in writing this letter was to set forth in an orderly fashion his understanding of a Christians life of faith as shown in Habakkuk 2:4 “The just shall live by faith.” While he was careful not to step out of his God-given jurisdiction as Apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:3), he felt obligated to explain why Christians could not receive justification under the Mosaic Law. He also had had experience in mixed ecclesias and wanted to give practical counsel (Romans 1:11) to the brethren in Rome who were once again going to be a mixed Jewish/Gentile ecclesia.
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