I'm currently taking a class called God's World Mission, and something that my professor said really stuck out to me about the book of Romans and God's purpose. I thought I would share it here, hopefully serving as an encouragement about what God has done and is continuing to do all over the world.
"God has His great plan to redeem all peoples, and He has gathered us up into His plan. That is God's world mission. In Romans, Paul does not simply write a detailed theological treatise. He wants to get those Jews and Gentiles to be able to live together within the church there. He says God has called them from among the nations. Those who thought that because they were Jews they had a market on knowing who God was, He is the God of Jews and Gentiles alike. It is not just the ones who have been given the Law; it is the ones who do the Law who are saved. But no one obeys the Law perfectly. It is by faith alone that Jew and Gentile alike are saved. Paul says this very explicitly in Romans 3. God is the God of all peoples, and there is only one God. Therefore all are saved by faith alone.
Paul talks about all sorts of people in Romans. We have been justified, both Jew and Gentile alike. This was a remarkable, revolutionary statement that the Judaizers hated. We are justified and saved together by faith alone. All of creation longs to see this full redemption of the people of God, Paul says in Romans 8. Historically this is what we have seen happen with the children of Israel, but God has not left the others alone. I am an example of someone who has come into the faith. Those of you who are Gentiles have been grafted in, and together we are the Israel of God. That is the way Israel is saved, as it says in Romans 9-11. How we live together is from Romans 12 on. When you get to Romans 15, Paul talks about how God has been at work in this way as we see and the prophet Isaiah foretold.
One voice, Jew and Gentile together, can worship God. To me that is what the book of Romans is all about. Justification by faith highlights the fact that all of us together receive the good news of Jesus Christ. There is no advantage that anyone has ethnically, and there is no disadvantage either. It is all by faith alone. It seems to be very clear in Romans, Ephesians, and throughout the Scriptures that God's world mission burst forth."
-Nelson Jennings
