Romans 1:7

“ To all the well-beloved of God who are at Rome, saints by way of call: Grace be given you and peace on the part of God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. ”

The dative: to all those, might be dependent on a verb understood: I write, or I address myself; but it is simpler to connect it with the verb implied in the statement of the prayer which immediately follows: “To you all may there be given. ” The adjective all would be quite superfluous here if Paul had not the intention of widening the circle of persons spoken of in Romans 1:6 as being of the number of the Gentiles. Paul certainly has no doubt that there are also among the Christians of Rome some brethren of Jewish origin, and by his to all he now embraces them in the circle of those to whom he addresses his letter. We need not separate the two datives: to all those who are at Rome and to the well-beloved of God, as if they were two different regimens; the dative: well-beloved of God, is taken substantively: to all the well-beloved of God who are at Rome. The words denote the entire number of Roman believers, Jews and Gentiles. All men are in a sense loved of God (John 3:16); but apart from faith, this love of God can only be that of compassion. It becomes an intimate love, like that of father and child, only through the reconciliation granted to faith. Here is the first bond between the apostle and his readers: the common love of which they are the objects. This bond is strengthened by another: the internal work which has flowed from it, consecration to God, holiness: κλητοῖς ἁγίοις, saints by way of call. We need not translate either: called to be saints, which would imply that holiness is in their case no more as yet than a destination, or called and holy (Ostervald), which would give to the notion of calling too independent a force. Paul means that they are really saints, and that if they possess this title of nobility before God, it is because Christ has honored them with His call, by drawing some from the defilements of paganism, and raising others from the external consecration of God's ancient people to the spiritual consecration of the new. Under the old covenant, consecration to God was hereditary, and attached to the external rite of circumcision. Under the new economy, consecration is that of the will first of all, and so of the entire life. It passes from within outward, and not from without inward; it is real holiness. The words ἐν ῾Ρώμῃ, at Rome, are omitted in the Greek text of the Cod. de Baerner. (G), as well as in the Latin translation accompanying it (g). This might be regarded as an accidental omission, if it were not repeated in Romans 1:15. Rückert and Renan think that it arises from manuscripts intended for other churches, and in which accordingly, the indication of the readers had been left blank. But in this case would it not occur in a larger number of documents? Meyer supposes that some church or other, having the letter copied for its own special use, had intentionally suppressed the words. But it needs to be explained why the same thing did not take place with other Epistles. Perhaps the cause of the omission in this case was the contrast between the general character of the contents of the letter and the local destination indicated in the suppressed words, the second fact appearing contradictory to the first (see Romans 1:15).

Why does the apostle not salute this community of believers, as he does those of Thessalonica, Galatia, and Corinth, with the name of church? The different Christian groups which existed at Rome, and several of which are mentioned in chap. 16, were perhaps not yet connected with one another by a common presbyterial organization.

The end of Romans 1:7 contains the development of the third part of the address, the prayer. For the usual term χαίρειν, joy and prosperity, Paul substitutes the blessings which form the Christian's wealth and happiness. Grace, χάρις, denotes the love of God manifested in the form of pardon toward sinful man; peace, εἰρήνη, the feeling of profound calm or inward quiet which is communicated to the heart by the possession of reconciliation. It may seem that the title: well-beloved of God, given above, included these gifts; but the Christian possesses nothing which does not require to be ever received anew, and daily increased by new acts of faith and prayer. The Apocalypse says that “salvation flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb;” it is from God and from Jesus Christ that Paul likewise derives the two blessings which he wishes for the believers of Rome; from God as Father, and from Jesus Christ as Lord or Head of the church. We need not explain these two regimens as if they meant “ from God through Christ.” The two substantives depend on a common preposition: on the part of. The apostle therefore has in view not a source and a channel, but two sources. The love of God and the love of Christ are two distinct loves; the one is a father's, the other a brother's. Christ loves with his own love, Romans 5:15. Comp. John 5:21 (those whom he will) and 26 (he hath life in himself). Erasmus was unhappy in taking the words: Jesus Christ our Lord, as a second complement to the word Father: “our Father and that of Jesus Christ. ” But in this case the complement Jesus Christ would have required to be placed first, and the notion of God's fatherhood in relation to Christ would be without purpose in the context. The conviction of Christ's divine nature can alone explain this construction, according to which His person and that of the Father are made alike dependent on one and the same proposition.

It is impossible not to admire the prudence and delicacy which St. Paul shows in the discharge of his task toward this church. To justify his procedure, he goes back on his apostleship; to justify his apostleship to them, Gentiles, he goes back to the transformation which the resurrection wrought in Christ's person, when from being Jewish Messiah it made Him Lord in the absolute sense of the word. Like a true pastor, instead of lording it over the conscience of his flock, he seeks to associate it with his own.