EN
The essential Christological and soteriological message of the Letterof St. Paul to the Romans precedes with the reflection on the biblical ideaof the retributive justice of God. He does not do it to humiliate Jews andGentiles because of the sin in which they lapsed, or to make them aware oftheir equally hopeless situation before God, or even to force them to humiliatethemselves in grief and repentance before God the Judge. He wants toexplain to the addressees of the letter why God intended to justify them alltogether in the same way, without taking into account the primacy of theprivilege of the Jews, nor the permanent godlessness of the Gentiles. Bothwere simply sinners, which caused them to find themselves in the samesituation with respect to the righteousness of God’s judgment and punishment.Therefore, all without exception, as sinners both Jewish and pagan,will attain justification in the same way, namely by faith in Jesus Christ.