David Pawson - ROMANS Part 1

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Thoughtful Thoughts 23.1.26 by John Dunning. 

ROMANS PART 1

A). PROLOGUE

By looking at the situation into which Paul wrote the book of Romans, we get the context for this book. Context shows how the spread of the gospel out from Rome becomes an integral part of Christian history. 

So even though the book of Romans was written before Paul had visited Rome, it played a key part in our story, as we shall see that Roman soldiers brought the gospel to England hundreds of years before Augustine was sent to Canterbury.

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In part 1 we will look at the background and context of Romans. That will help the bits of the jigsaw puzzle to fit into place. My gran taught me to always complete the edging first of Jigsaw puzzles, to help the rest fit together. 

Paul did not write letters on his first missionary journey.

On his second missionary journey Paul wrote Galatians and Thessalonians, which we looked at, at the end of 2025.

On Paul’s third missionary journey, he wrote Corinthians, which we also covered toward the end of 2025.

When Paul was staying in Corinth on his third missionary journey, the next letter he wrote was Romans, which we come to now, so we are covering them in order.

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B). INTRODUCTION

When Winston Churchill finished his six volume history of world war two, he titled the sixth volume “From triumph to tragedy”. It was an odd title for a successful ending to the war, but he explained it with the subtitle “How the great democracies triumphed, and so were able to resume the follies which had so nearly cost them their life.” 

That meant that the nation went back to their former sinful lifestyle, once the immediate danger of the Nazis had passed. Peter had a saying for that, taken from the Torah, which was that it was like a dog returning to his own vomit, (2 Peter 2:22, NLT). 

Paul was in Corinth fixing another church problem, but reports from Rome meant he had no choice but to do more trouble shooting by remote control - by letter writing. It was so expensive in those days that only officials could afford to write letters around the empire. 

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C). BACKGROUND & CONTEXT OF THE BOOK OF “ROMANS”.

a). Emperor Claudius had evicted all Jews from Rome, between 41-53 AD, which included Messianic Jews. 

Priscilla and Aquila were Jewish believers in Jesus, and were included in being thrown out of Rome by Claudius, Acts 18:2, meeting up with Paul in Corinth. They reported to Paul on the state of the church in Rome. Later we will be dealing with a split in the fellowship in Rome arising from Messianic Jews being exiled. 

b). Emperor Claudius committed suicide in 53 AD and was replaced by Nero from 54 AD to 68 AD. He allowed Jews to return to Rome but tortured Christians to death.

c). It was during this time that Paul wrote the book of Romans somewhere between 57-62 AD, which was well in the reign of Nero who was killing believers in Jesus. Paul wanted to visit Rome to help the believers who were in serious trouble. Paul was so tied up with his missionary journeys that the only thing he could do at that time was to write a letter. The length of it shows his passion. 

Much later after Paul’s death, in 70AD, the Romans “sacked” Jerusalem and raided the Temple for its gold. That money was used to start the build of the Colosseum in 72AD and finished in 80AD. It came to become the centre for martyrdom of Christians.

Teaching point…

So two separate things happened preventing the Apostles from being in Rome from 41 AD to 68 AD. 

1). From 41 AD to 54 AD Claudius reigned. He expelled all Jews from Rome.

2). From 54 AD to 68 AD Nero reigned. He murdered any followers of Jesus he could find.

It means that it was impossible for Peter to have been in Rome during this period of the early church. Peter was crucified upside down during Nero’s reign, due to being a believer in Jesus, and his helper Mark was found in Ephesus after Peter’s martyrdom.

Yet the Catholic Church tries to justify their idea of Popes by saying that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, and they follow on after him. 

If Peter had been in Rome leading the church, (as the future Roman Catholic Church claimed), Peter would have been caught for being a Messianic Jew and killed far sooner.

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D). CITIZEN PAUL IS TAKEN TO ROME FOR TRIAL BEFORE THE EMPEROR.

1). The 1st time…

Paul was on trial when appealed to Caesar, which he was able to do because he was a citizen of Rome. When we read in Acts 25:11 that Paul appealed to be tried by Caesar, using his right as a Roman citizen it did two things… It removed him from the Jewish leaders' fake news and brought about his visit to Rome at the taxpayers expense - where he wanted to serve the church in their hour of need.

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-Paul was taken under guard to Rome in 61 AD until 63 AD, and was found not guilty at his first trial, and released after being under house arrest for about two years. Paul then went on to complete another mission. The Book of Acts ends with Paul being taken to Rome. Dr Luke suddenly stops writing Paul’s story at chapter 28 because Paul’s lawyer won the case and no longer needed a further record of Paul and his work.

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On Paul’s first visit to Rome, Nero had been on the throne for roughly 3 years. Paul was under house arrest for about two years between AD 61-63. As he was under house arrest, he was relatively comfortable, compared to his other arrests. 

That helps us date the book of Acts being written at that time, thanks to Acts 28 telling us that they had just arrived in Rome, which was in 61 AD. Paul’s house arrest meant he had the freedom to build up the church in Rome whilst being protected by the Roman legal system, so he was out of reach of Jewish leaders trying to get rid of Paul.

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It is thanks to Dr Luke’s brief for Paul’s barrister, Theophilus, that Paul was released in AD 63 after two years of home detention (2 Tim.4:16-17). 

Luke had provided a legal “brief”, telling the story to Theophilushis, who was Paul’s defence attorney preparing for the trial. (The title “Most Excellent” was the formal way of addressing Barristers.) And so we have the book of Luke and Acts! 

Paul’s trip to Rome under guard, is often called Paul’s fourth missionary journey as he chose to go there by “appealing to Caesar,” so that he would be taken to Rome. 

Paul had already achieved more in his first three mission trips than most people achieve in several lifetimes, and yet after his release, he went on yet another mission trip, which is believed to have been to Spain, as Romans 15:22-29 tells us it was in Paul's heart to do. 

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D). AGAIN CITIZEN PAUL IS TAKEN TO ROME FOR TRIAL BEFORE THE EMPEROR.

2). The 2nd time…

The second time Paul was imprisoned in Rome was between AD 66-67. How did that happen? 

Well, under Nero, it became a capital offence to refuse to say “Caesar is Lord”.

Believers in Jesus were only prepared to say “Jesus is Lord”. Do you remember the injunction that it was only by the Holy Spirit that disciples could say “Jesus is Lord”? 

Why was that? 

Because it was a death sentence for disciples who refused to say Caesar is Lord. 

Nero caught up with Paul in his big round-up of Christians, after he was betrayed. 

Nero had been executing believers as fast as he could get his hands on them, but as  Paul was a Roman citizen, he had the right to a trial before Caesar’s court. As the Roman Empire controlled such a huge swathe of land mass, there was no escape for anyone being hunted, and once on Rome's "Most Wanted" list. Paul was caught in the net of that big round-up. He was arrested so suddenly that he couldn’t grab his cloak and parchments before being taken back to Rome the second time, (2 Timothy 4). 

As a result of being unable to grab his coat and parchments, he wrote to Timothy asking him to bring them to him. So the next question is:- Where was Timothy when Paul asked him to bring his overcoat and parchments? The answer is, Timothy was in Ephesus, so that was where Paul must have been taken so suddenly that he couldn’t go and get his cloak and parchments.

Paul also asked Timothy to bring Mark. That meant that Mark’s master, Peter, had already been martyred. As Mark was in Ephesus, it is logical to say that Peter must have been there too as that was where Mark was found.

Eventually, Paul was beheaded sometime between AD 67-68. The delay between arrest and execution would have been because as a citizen, Paul had a legal right to a trial before the Emperor. a second time.

After Paul's execution, Nero committed suicide in June AD 68. However, that didn't stop the persecution, as Diocletian had a reputation for cruelty too… 

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EPILOGUE

Pray for those on the suffering church on the prayer list in our devotional prayer time, at this link… https://blog.inspirationalmedia.org.nz/

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This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

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