Universal Need of Salvation and Universal Salvation by Faith in the Letter to the Romans

Abstract

Paul asserts the universal need of the entire human race for the saving work of Jesus Christ as a counter to the universal ravages of sin upon the entire race, summed up in the figure of Adam. For Paul, human salvation is to take place in the wider context of a renewed and transformed world. In Romans, Paul claims the wide-ranging, boundary-breaking scope of the grace of God that comes in Christ. What God has done has - contrary to all expectation - broken the bounds of the community defined by the law of Moses. The “Gentile” stance of receptivity has become the norm - even if the original “insiders”, Israel, are still, as such, held within the plan of God. A special discussion of Rom 11:26, the salvation of “All Israel”, is included.