The gospel of Jesus Christ did not come out of the blue as God’s plan B or C. The gospel was not a mere human invention. The gospel was not Paul’s idea, or the apostles’ for that matter.

According to this passage, the gospel was God’s idea and God’s doing. This gospel is not just found in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament as well. The gospel was, in Paul’s words, “promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures” (v. 2).

The truth is the gospel of Jesus Christ has a context; it has a “before” and an “after.” In other words, the gospel has a story. This is what Paul is communicating here in this greeting to the church at Rome.

It is essential for one to put the gospel of Jesus Christ in its proper place—as the climax of the redemptive story of…