Romans background:
The book of Romans was written by Apostle Paul between AD 56-60, while he was in Corinth during the third missionary journey. After covering Asia (Modern Turkey) and most of the provinces of Greece, Paul looked forward to reaching out to the Roman church. When Paul wrote the letter to the Roman church, he was away probably in Corinth and waiting for winter to be over. Paul never visited the Roman church and not met most of the church members. But he had a great burden for the house churches in Rome. How many of us can catch up with the zeal of Paul and pray for the salvation of those whom we never met?
It could be a newly formed church since Claudius ordered Jews to leave in AD 49 and he died in AD 54. Hence Jews could have returned to Rome post AD 54. In AD 64, A great fire broke out during Nero’s period and Nero blamed Christians for that fire and crucified and tortured many Christians, which led most of the Christians to flee Rome. The Roman church could have existed between AD 54 and AD 64.
Though the church was established by Jews it had a mix of Jew and non-Jews. Paul mentions the five house churches that met under five different leaders in the last chapter of his letter.
The book of Romans focuses on the following Concepts:
Human Shortcoming: All of us had made mistakes and became sinners. No one could lead His life according to the mark and the high standards Jesus has set. Though we tried hard to be sinless our flesh constantly fights against us and we end up doing what we do not want to do. Humanity became powerless to stand against the power of sin. This hopeless situation pushed all of us to condemnation and judgment.
Made Righteous through Jesus: God sent His only son, Jesus to save us from the condemnation of sin. Jesus came as a man and lived a holy life and took all the condemnation and punishment of humanity on Himself by dying on the cross. Thus God paid a heavy price to save humanity from the danger of sin. Jesus made us righteous by justifying all of us before God. Independent of our color, race, background, race, and language, Jesus died for all our sins.
Justification Through Faith: Because Jesus made us righteous we were justified before God though we have sinned in our life. The justification Jesus offered to us can not be earned but can be received only through God’s grace. In other words, humanity can not do charity and good works to earn the justification God offered through His only son Jesus. None of our good works can pay for the sacrifice God made. We can be Justified only by asking God to forgive us and receive his forgiveness through faith.