But we need to remind ourselves to whom Paul’s great letter was sent. Looming up behind the various discussions of why Romans was written is an issue not usually noticed. Paul was coming to Rome with the gospel message of Jesus the Jewish Messiah, the Lord of the world, claiming that, through this message, God’s justice was unveiled once and for all. Rome prided itself on being, as it were, the capital of justic, the source from which justice would flow throughout the world. The Roman goddess Iustitia was established on January 8, 13 CE, and Iustia was among the virtues celebrated by Augustus’s famous clipeus virtutis (27 BCE). So close is the link between the new imperial regime and the virtue Iustitia that this goddess sometimes acquires the title “Augusta.” So, without losing any of its deep-rooted Jewish meanings of the covenant faithfulness of the creator God, Paul’s declaration that th egospel of King Jesus reveals God’s dikaisoyne must also be read as a deliberate challenge to the imperial pretension. If it is justice you want, he implies, you will find it, but not the euangelion that announces Caesar as Lord, but in the eangelion of Jesus.
–NT Wright, Commentary on the Book of Romans (New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Vol 10; Nashville: Abington Press, 2002), 404-5.
