Romans 6:12-23 — Sermon Prep & Expository Preaching Guide

Historical Setting

Romans 6:12–23 sits within a letter Paul composed around 56–58 CE from Corinth, addressed to a mixed community of Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome whom he had never personally visited. Paul's immediate purpose was to secure the Roman church's support for a planned mission to Spain, but the letter functions as his most systematic exposition of the gospel — written to an audience he did not found, which accounts for its sustained, argumentative tone. The believers in Rome were navigating real tensions between Jewish and Gentile identities, between Torah observance and freedom from the law, and between the indicative claims of the gospel and the practical demands of moral existence in an imperial city.

Literary Structure