Romans 1

Paul's opening sentence extends through verse 7 and greatly expands the conventional sender-recipient greeting. He identifies himself as a "slave of Christ Jesus," a called apostle, and one "set apart" for God's gospel. The gospel is immediately located within Israel's scriptural story: it was promised beforehand through God's prophets in the holy Scriptures and concerns God's Son, descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead.

The syntax of verses 3-4 has generated substantial debate. Some scholars detect a pre-Pauline christological formula that Paul has incorporated; others regard the language as fully integrated Pauline composition. The verb horisthentos can mean "appointed," "designated," or "declared," and interpreters differ over whether resurrection marks the beginning of Jesus' sonship, his installation into a new powerful mode of sonship, or the public vindication of an already existing identity.

Paul says that through Christ he received "grace and apostleship" for the "obedience of faith" among all nations. The phrase hypakoē pisteōs may mean obedience consisting in faith, obedience produced by faith, or faithful obedience more broadly. The Roman believers are included among those called by Jesus Christ and are addressed as "called saints," language that locates this predominantly Gentile audience within the scriptural categories of God's holy people.

Romans 1 opens Paul's most sustained theological letter with an unusually expanded epistolary greeting, followed by thanksgiving, travel plans, and a concise statement of the letter's central theme. Paul identifies the gospel as God's promised saving message concerning his Son, declares his obligation to Greeks and non-Greeks alike, and summarizes the gospel as God's power for salvation in which God's righteousness is revealed through faith.

Verse 18 then begins the first major argumentative section, extending into Romans 3. Paul describes humanity's suppression of available knowledge of God, the exchange of the Creator's glory for created things, and God's judicial handing over of people to disordered desires and conduct. The repetition of "God gave them over" structures the paragraph and links idolatry with moral disorder. The chapter thus moves from gospel and righteousness to wrath and human culpability, establishing the problem to which Paul's later exposition of justification responds.