Paul, A Slave to Christ

In Romans, Paul is at his most free in terms of theological expression because he was not responding to some situation in a local church, but was presenting the Gospel in all its richness and beauty. He was writing, seeking support for the mission he wished to engage in to Spain, and instead of the crass exercise of merely asking for money, he presented to the churches in Rome the very word of life he was taking to that place where the Word of God had not yet been. Paul was taking the gospel of salvation, root and branch, even as he believed it would be through the Gospel of Jesus Christ that the nations would be brought in.