Romans, Epistle to the

The Epistle to the Romans is Paul's longest and most systematically theological letter, addressed to the church in Rome, which Paul had not yet visited when he wrote it (c. 57 A.D.) from Corinth. It is the opening epistle of the Pauline corpus in the New Testament canon. Romans is widely regarded as the fullest exposition of Paul's gospel and of Christian theology in the New Testament: it develops the doctrines of sin (chapters 1–3), justification by faith (chapters 3–5), sanctification and the Spirit (chapters 6–8), God's faithfulness in the election of Israel (chapters 9–11), and the ethical imperatives of the renewed life (chapters 12–15).

Romans 3:21–26 contains one of the most concentrated statements of atonement theology in the Bible: God set forth Christ as a propitiation to demonstrate his righteousness and to justify those who have faith in Jesus. Chapters 9–11 address the mystery of Israel's partial hardening and the hope of their future restoration. The letter has exercised enormous influence on Christian theology: its rediscovery by Augustine shaped Western theology; Luther's recognition that the righteousness of Romans 1:17 is the righteousness God gives rather than demands ignited the Reformation; and Karl Barth's commentary on Romans reshaped twentieth-century Protestant theology.