The New Testament · The Letters of St. Paul · Book 52 of 73
Prophecy in Romans
Romans is Paul's long look at the whole plan of God, from Adam to the end. It opens with a Gospel “promised previously through his prophets” and closes with the serpent crushed. In between, creation groans in labor and Israel's story is not over.
In progress: 7 passages so far
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The book at a glance
Paul wrote to the Christians of Rome, a church he had not yet visited, probably from Corinth in the late 50s. It is the longest of his letters and the most carefully argued: all have sinned (chapters 1–3), all are justified by faith in Christ (3–5), the baptized live a new life in the Spirit (6–8), God remains faithful to Israel (9–11), and the Church lives that faith in love (12–16).
Romans is not a book of visions. It looks forward in Paul's own way: through promises he shows kept in Christ, through a great type, Adam as the figure of the one to come, and through a few clear words about what is still ahead: the freeing of creation, the salvation of “all Israel,” and the day that is “at hand.” Each card below names which.
Key to the labels
How a passage stands
Fulfilled Accomplished in history, above all in Christ.
Unfolding Being worked out now in the life of the Church.
Future Clearly still to come at Christ's return.
Mystery Its meaning or moment is not yet settled.
What kind of passage it is
Prophecy God's word through a prophet, or Christ, about what will come.
Promise A pledge God makes, kept over generations.
Type A person or event that foreshadows Christ or the Church.
Image A picture Scripture returns to and completes at the end.
Apocalypse A vision unveiling history from heaven's side, in symbols.
More on the labels
| Passage | Subject | Standing |
|---|
| 1:1–4 | The Gospel promised through the prophets | Fulfilled |
| 5:12–19 | Adam, the type of the one to come | Fulfilled |
| 8:18–25 | Creation groaning in labor | Future |
| 8:28–30 | Conformed to the image of his Son | Unfolding |
| 9–11; 11:25–27 | The mystery of Israel: “all Israel will be saved” | Future Mystery |
| 13:11–12 | The night is advanced | Unfolding |
| 16:20 | Satan crushed under your feet | Unfolding Future |
The passages
“…the gospel of God, which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh…”
- Reading
- Paul's first sentence is a key to the whole Bible. The Gospel is not a new idea; it is a promise kept. The Son of David foretold by the prophets (2 Samuel 7:12–16; Isaiah 11:1) is “established as Son of God in power” through his resurrection (1:4).
- See also
- Matthew makes the same claim in story form, opening with “the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). See Prophecy in Matthew.
Adam, “who is the type of the one who was to come.”
- Reading
- Paul sets two men side by side. Through the first, sin and death entered the world; through the second, grace overflows “for the many” (5:15). “For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners,” so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous (5:19). The Church teaches original sin and the New Adam from this passage (CCC 402, 411).
- Note
- Adam is a type by contrast: Christ undoes what Adam did. The Christian tradition reads Genesis 3:15 in the same light, as an announcement of the New Adam and, with many Fathers, of Mary as the new Eve (CCC 410–411). See Prophecy in Genesis.
- See also
- 1 Corinthians 15:21–22, 45.
“For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God…”
- Reading
- Paul widens hope beyond the soul. Creation itself will “be set free from slavery to corruption” (8:21); meanwhile “all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now” (8:22), and so do we, awaiting the redemption of our bodies. The Catechism reads these verses of the “common destiny” of the world and man, and of the new heavens and new earth (CCC 1046).
- Why future
- The labor has begun, and the Spirit is already given as “firstfruits” (8:23), but the birth is still to come. Revelation shows its end: “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).
- For now
- “For in hope we were saved” (8:24). The sufferings of the present, Paul says, are “as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us” (8:18).
“And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.”
- Reading
- God works “all things” for good for those who love him, and his purpose is that they be “conformed to the image of his Son” (8:29). The Catechism opens its teaching on Christian holiness with these verses (CCC 2012). Paul writes “glorified” in the past tense, as if already done: so certain is the promise.
- Why unfolding
- The calling and justifying happen now, in every generation of the Church. The glory is pledged, but its fullness is still ahead (8:18).
“…a hardening has come upon Israel in part, until the full number of the Gentiles comes in, and thus all Israel will be saved…”
- Reading
- Chapters 9–11 are Paul's anguish and hope for his own people. He begins with grief (9:1–5), insists that “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew” (11:2), and ends with a “mystery”: Israel's partial hardening lasts until the Gentiles come in, and then “all Israel will be saved,” for “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (11:29). He asks, “what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (11:15).
- Church teaching
- The Catechism links this passage to Christ's return: his coming is suspended until his recognition by “all Israel,” and the “full inclusion” of the Jews will follow “the full number of the Gentiles” (CCC 674, citing 11:12, 15, 25). The Church honors the Jewish people as “the first to hear the Word of God” (CCC 839, citing 9:4–5 and 11:29), and the Second Vatican Council, quoting 11:28–29, teaches that God holds them most dear (Nostra Aetate 4).
- Why two labels
- That “all Israel will be saved” is taught as still to come. How and when it happens is not settled. Interpreters also differ on whom “all Israel” means: most read it as the Jewish people as a whole, while others, including some Fathers, read it as the whole people of God, Jew and Gentile together. Paul himself ends in wonder: “How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!” (11:33). This page sets no timetable for it.
“For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand.”
- Reading
- Paul calls the Church to wake up, throw off the works of darkness and “put on the armor of light.” Since the Ascension the world has entered “the last hour” (CCC 670): Christ's coming is near at every moment, though no one knows when (CCC 673).
- Why unfolding
- Every generation of Christians lives in this “advanced” night. The verse is not a countdown but a call to live now as people of the day.
“…then the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet.”
- Reading
- In his closing greetings Paul echoes the first promise in the Bible, the offspring of the woman who strikes the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15; the NABRE gives it as a cross-reference here). The striking is done by God, but it happens “under your feet”: the Church shares in Christ's victory.
- Why two labels
- The serpent is already defeated at the Cross, and his defeat goes on in the life of the Church (Luke 10:19). The final crushing is still ahead, when the devil is thrown into the pool of fire (Revelation 20:10).
- See also
- Prophecy in Genesis; Revelation 12.
Still to come on this pageFurther passages to add: the righteous one who lives by faith (1:17, from
Habakkuk 2:4), the day of wrath and judgment “through Christ Jesus” (2:5–16), Abraham the father of many nations (4:16–18), the remnant and the branches grafted onto the olive tree (11:1–24), the root of Jesse and the hope of the Gentiles (15:8–12), and the mystery kept secret for long ages and now made known through the prophetic writings (16:25–26).
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