Romans 16:1-16

Paul greets a number of people, the longest list of greetings, in fact, in all of his letters, who exhibit the characteristics he praised at the end of Rom 15.[1] He does so in order to urge all the Romans to display these characteristics.[2] As Paul has argued throughout Romans, all Christians belong “to the same family, the family redefined in and around the Messiah.”[3] We belong to this family because we are justified by faith, and through the work of the Spirit we bear these characteristics as fruit of the gospel. This is not who we are by nature, but this is the life that God brings to us. So, let’s spend one more Sunday morning considering what a list of names tells us about the gospel.

[1] Porter, Romans, 289.

[2] Thielman, Romans, ZECNT, 706.

[3] Wright, Paul for Everyone, Romans Part Two, 134.