The big risk in reading Paul’s letter to the Romans is not realising its context. This is a letter with a pastoral intent: Paul is trying to help Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus to get along. As Scot McKnight has noted, parts of the letter are really aimed at only one of the two groups and some of the rich theology it contains is easy to misunderstand without understanding the pastoring that Paul is engaged in.

Paul starts the letter by drawing on Jesus’s Jewishness. Christ’s credentials are not just notably Jewish, they’re also in accordance with Old Testament prophesy. Then Paul switches to talking about Gentiles, saying that Jesus has give the Jews responsibility “to call all the Gentiles”.

Some of the Roman Jews might not have liked having all these Gentiles involved in their religion but, in fact, Paul points out that Jesus commanded it!

Paul underscores his opposition to factionalism by indicating that “all in Rome” who are Christians are “loved by God and called to be his holy people”.

Then, in verses 16-17 (NIV), he doubles down on the inclusion of Gentiles in God’s covenant. He says:

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.’

Paul is saying that “everyone” who believes is saved, not just Israel’s elect (who were chosen, in the Old Testament, to be a blessing to the whole world, not to be the exclusive recipients of God’s love).

Paul also emphasises the universal offer of salvation in 1 Timothy 2 (NIV), when he urges Christians to pray “for all people”. He specifically notes his calling by God to draw in Gentiles. He says:

[God] wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.

Returning to Romans 1, from verse 18 Paul emphasises people’s personal responsibility for not following God. People are accountable for their sin because they have “suppressed the truth by their wickedness” despite God making his existence “plain to them”.

In all this talk about sin, he’s setting the readers up for the coming chapters to hear the big story of sin and how God set about saving both Jews and Gentiles from it.