Introduction to St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans

Date, Author, Purpose

Written by Paul to the church in Rome about winter of late 57-58 AD. Probably toward the end of Paul's third missionary journey (Acts 18:23-21:16) from Corinth.
Intended as an introductory letter to Paul's teaching in anticipation of visiting Rome as a stop off to spreading the gospel further west into Spain.
It is uncertain exactly how the church at Rome was first established but there was a strong Jewish community with perhaps a dozen synogogues already established when Christianity did arrive. It has been speculated that Jewish pilgrims returning from Jerusalem may have returned with the gospel.
Who is Paul? The book of Acts provides most of what we know about Paul and indeed that book seems to be entirely devoted to Paul's story from chapter 9 on. But here are a few of the things we can learn about Paul from the bible: Acts 7:58-8:3; Acts 9:1-8; Acts 13:1-3; 2 Cor 10:10; 1 Cor 15:3-10; 2 Peter 3:14.
Paul's surviving epistles account for 14 of the 27 books of the New Testament.
Paul will not visit Rome until 2 years later, as a prisoner in chains.

Faith. Paul uses the word faith more often in Romans than in any of his other epistles. It is important to try and determine how he defines that word. The key is in the phrase that is found in the beginning and near the end of the epistle: "the obedience of faith" (1:5 and 16:26). It may also be translated as "the obedience that is faith." Pauls associates obedience and faith so closely that they are practically synonymous in his epistle.
Martin Luther launched the reformation/rebellion when he asserted that Romans taught the concept of "salvation by faith alone." Perhaps, using Paul's understanding of faith, we could agree!