First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

In the early days of Beatlemania, The Beatles received many hundreds of thousands of fan letters. There were periods when the band's record label received tens of thousands of fan letters every single day for months at a time. With all of those messages, only a few lucky fans ever heard back. Today, celebrities receive even more messages via social media with digital notes that may say something like this: "You don't know me... but I know you... I've heard of you, I've watched you, I've read all your work, or listened to all your songs. I've followed you on social media, and you've influenced and impacted my life in a major way." The sender may never know what happened to that message or if it was ever received and read, but they hold onto a small hope it was.

Paul had never been to Rome, and he had not personally established any Christian church there. This makes the Book of Romans different because most of Paul’s letters were to churches he founded and had personal connections to. It seems the Roman church, which was really a collection of many small Christian communities, began somewhat spontaneously as Christians migrated to the greatest city of the Empire at some point after Pentecost and settled there. Acts 2:10 describes how there were people from Rome among the Jews present at the Day of Pentecost, so when those new converts returned home, they would have been the seed of a Christian community in Rome. Beyond that, the origins of the church in Rome are somewhat obscure, but Christians continually traveled to Rome from all parts of the Empire as part of the vast trading network, so it shouldn’t surprise us that some type of growing church community would eventually form. Most people who read Paul's letter only had a connection to Paul because of their knowledge of his reputation and the words written in this letter. By this time, Paul had also heard of the Roman Church, and he wished desperately to visit them. How incredible is it that a church community was thriving and growing so much that someone thousands of miles away received news and was so encouraged by it that he was prompted to write them a letter that would be treasured for thousands of years? Paul knew others had gone ahead of him to visit and encourage; he mentions some of them by name in Romans 16. Even if Paul only knew some Roman Christians by acquaintance, he knew two things about them and every true Christian: He knew they were beloved of God and that they were saints and brothers in the sense of being part of the wider Christian community. Paul saw the church as one church, not a collection of separate, unconnected churches. Paul was writing to encourage them, yet he knew that if the opportunity arose (and it would a few years later), Paul would come to Rome and be encouraged by them. At the time, he did not know that the circumstances of his coming to Rome would be his arrest and appeal to Caesar, leading to his journey to Rome by ship and his placement under house arrest while waiting to appear before Nero. Paul thanks God for all of them, for all the Christians in Rome (people he has never met), because their faith is being reported all over the world. Because of its location, the church in Rome had a special visibility and opportunity to glorify Jesus throughout the Empire. Paul reminds them that what they are doing is going far beyond where you think it stops. Your deeds are influencing people far beyond those you know. There is a ripple effect coming out of the church in Rome; your stories, your example, and your influence are making a difference within the whole of the Empire. This encouragement would be treasured and needed because the Christian church in Rome would be especially targeted for persecution in the coming years. The Christians of Rome were reputed to be ‘enemies of the human race’ and credited with such vices as incest and cannibalism. In large numbers, then, they became the victims of rising imperial malevolence, and it was this persecution of Christians under Nero that would later form the setting for Paul’s martyrdom.

Paul recognized he owed Rome something of a debt. The Roman Empire brought world peace and order; they brought a common culture and an excellent transportation system to the world. Paul used all these to spread the Gospel so that he could best repay this debt by giving Rome the good news of Jesus Christ. This reveals Paul’s heart. In a sophisticated city like Rome, some might be embarrassed by a gospel centered on a crucified Jewish Savior and embraced by the lowest classes of people, but Paul is not ashamed. He knows that the gospel of Jesus Christ has inherent power. We do not give it power. We only stop hindering the power of the gospel when we present it effectively. The city of Rome thought it knew all about power and boasted of this the most. Greece might have its philosophy, but Rome had its power. But despite all their power, the Romans, like all men, were powerless to make themselves righteous before God. The ancient philosopher Seneca called Rome “a cesspool of iniquity," and the ancient writer Juvenal called it a “filthy sewer into which the dregs of the empire flood.” In the Roman world of Paul’s day, men looked for salvation in many ways from the pit they knew they were sinking into. Philosophers knew and admitted that man was sick and needed help. Epictetus called his lecture room “the hospital for the sick soul.” Epicurus called his teaching “the medicine of salvation.” Seneca said that because men were so conscious of “their weakness and their inefficiency in necessary things," all men were looking “towards salvation.” Epictetus said that men were looking for peace “not of Caesar’s proclamation, but of God’s." To sum it up, these men knew something deep inside was very wrong, but to this point, all their solutions were self-focused counterfeits that could do nothing. That is, until the Gospel found its way to them.