FOUNDER OF THE CHURCH AT ROME:

Paul had not visited Rome when he wrote this epistle. In this respect it is different from all others, with the possible exception of the Epistle to the Colossians. No apostle had preceded Paul to Rome; obviously, Simon Peter had not. The Roman church was largely a gentile church, and Peter was not the apostle to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:7). Paul’s method was not to follow another apostle, and it is not likely he would have gone to Rome had another apostle preceded him.

Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation. (Romans 15:20)

In a very definite sense, Paul was the founder of the church at Rome. This great metropolis drew men to its streets and marketplaces from all over the empire as if it were a magnet. Many whom Paul had led to Christ in other places made their way to Rome and witnessed there. The church in Rome was the assembly of these folk. This is not mere speculation, as Priscilla and Aquila are examples.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus. (Romans 16:3) Paul had first met them in Corinth and led them to Christ (Acts 18:1-3). Later they returned to Rome.

Paul mentions 35 individuals by name in chapter 16. Of these, 27 were living in Rome at this time. These he must have met elsewhere in the Roman Empire. Paul established the church in Rome by “long distance” and used the “remote control” of an apostle to write and guide its course.

As Christians congregated in this great metropolis, a visible church came into existence. Probably no man established a church in Rome. Converts of Paul and the other apostles from the fringe of the empire went to Rome, and a local church was organized by them.

Certainly, Peter did not establish the church or have anything to do with it, as his sermon on Pentecost and following sermons were directed to Israelites only. Not until the conversion of Cornelius was Peter convinced that Gentiles were included in the body of believers.

Paul knew Rome although he had not been inside her city limits at the time of the writing of Romans. Rome was like a great ship passing in the night, casting up waves that broke on distant shores; her influence was like a radio broadcast, penetrating every corner and crevice of the empire. Paul had visited Roman colonies such as Philippi and Thessalonica and had seen in those places Roman customs, laws, language, styles, and culture on exhibit. He had walked on Roman roads, had met Roman soldiers on the highways and in the marketplaces, and had slept in Roman jails. Paul had gone before Roman magistrates and had enjoyed the benefits of Roman citizenship. You see, Paul knew all about Rome although he was yet to visit there. From the vantage point of the world’s capital he was to preach the global gospel to a lost world — that God loved so much that He gave His son to die, that whosoever believed on Him might not perish, but have eternal life (see John 3:16).