What is the context?
Paul has just said he is eager to preach in Rome. He now explains why he is unashamed: the gospel is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes. His confidence rests in God’s saving work, rather than the prestige of the messenger or the city receiving him.
The invitation reaches the Jew first and also the Greek. The order preserves the connection with God’s promises to Israel while making clear that the saving message reaches beyond Israel. Verse 17 continues the thought by connecting God’s righteousness and faith. Read the full movement in Romans 1:16–17.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Christians commonly understand this verse as confidence in God’s saving power through the gospel, offered to people across the distinction between Jew and Gentile. The statement identifies believers as those who receive salvation; it does not say that hearing the message automatically saves every hearer.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
The same movement appears in Acts 13:46–48, where Paul and Barnabas speak first to Jewish hearers and then turn to Gentiles, citing God’s purpose of salvation reaching the ends of the earth. Romans presents the gospel’s wide invitation as part of God’s purpose, rather than a message restricted to one ancestry.
What is our position?
The Gospel According to Jesus uses Romans 1:16 to explain that the gospel announces Jesus’ death for sins and His resurrection, through which God brings salvation to those who believe. Our position is that this salvation is God’s gift through faith in Christ, rather than something earned by religious effort or moral improvement.