Romans On Leadership Struggles And Identity
Paul's letter to the Romans addresses the question of authority and identity with a clarity born from his own dual citizenship and the complex political realities of the first-century church. The apostle himself embodied the tension between Roman civic identity and Christian allegiance—a tension that shaped his teaching on how believers should navigate earthly power structures while maintaining their primary identity in Christ.
The Apostolic Foundation: Authority from Above
Paul establishes his own authority not through political credentials but through divine commission. As Adam Clarke notes, Paul demonstrates "his Divine call to the apostleship, and for what end he was thus called" at the very opening of Romans [5]. This pattern—authority derived from God rather than human institutions—becomes the framework for understanding all subsequent discussions of leadership in the epistle. The apostle's Roman citizenship, which later tradition would complicate in interpretation, served practical purposes in his ministry but never defined his primary identity [4]. His citizenship was a tool, not a foundation.
When Paul addresses political authority in Romans 13, he commands that "every soul...be subject unto the higher powers" because "there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God" [3]. This teaching arrives not as abstract political theory but as practical instruction for a community navigating the complexities of imperial Rome. The directive acknowledges the reality of earthly governance while subordinating it to divine sovereignty. Believers submit to civil authorities not because those authorities possess inherent legitimacy, but because God has ordained the structure of governance itself for the ordering of human society.
Identity Beyond Human Leaders
The struggle over leadership allegiances that plagued the Corinthian church—where factions formed around Paul, Apollos, and Cephas—finds its resolution in the principle Paul articulates throughout his letters. The Corinthians' error lay in "claiming a particular human leader as their own" when, as privileged children of God, they could "lay claim to everything—the world, and life and death, and the present and the future" [2]. This same principle undergirds Romans' teaching on identity: believers belong to Christ, and this belonging relativizes all other claims of allegiance.
The Roman context made this teaching particularly urgent. Augustine observes that ancient Rome had once possessed civic virtues—citizens who served the state rather than private interest—but by the late Republic, "we have luxury and avarice, poverty in the state, opulence among citizens; we laud riches, we follow laziness; there is no difference made between the good and the bad; all the rewards of virtue are got possession of by intrigue" [1]. Into this environment of corrupted leadership and self-serving power, Paul introduces a radically different model: leadership as service under divine authority, identity as membership in a kingdom not of this world.
The Struggle of Transformation
Paul's detailed treatment of his own internal struggle in Romans 7 reveals that leadership and identity questions extend beyond external political arrangements to the transformation of the soul itself. The passage describes "the soul into conformity to the image of Christ" through a process that involves genuine conflict [9]. This personal dimension of the identity question—who am I becoming, not merely which earthly power do I serve—forms the deeper layer of Paul's teaching. The struggle is not primarily between competing human authorities but between the old self and the new creation in Christ.
The apostle's teaching thus operates on multiple registers simultaneously. On one level, he addresses the practical question of how Christians should relate to Roman imperial authority. On another, he confronts the tendency to derive identity from human leaders or earthly citizenship. On the deepest level, he describes the transformation of the self that occurs when one's primary allegiance shifts from any earthly power to Christ.
The Church as Alternative Community
Augustine's later reflection on Rome's decline and the rise of Christian empire reveals how Paul's teaching was understood to create an alternative locus of identity. Augustine speaks of "the obtaining of eternal salvation, and a place in the divine and celestial republic of a people which shall endure for ever—a republic to the citizenship of which faith, hope, and charity admit us" [8]. This celestial republic does not abolish earthly citizenship but reframes it. The Christian remains subject to earthly powers as Paul commands in Romans 13, but this subjection is provisional, instrumental, and always subordinate to the higher citizenship.
The danger Augustine identifies in later centuries—that "Romanists, therefore, practically take away Christ, and give us the Church in his stead"—represents a corruption of Paul's teaching [6]. When the church itself becomes the primary object of allegiance rather than Christ, when ecclesiastical authority claims the prerogatives that belong to God alone, the Pauline framework collapses. Paul's teaching in Romans guards against this by consistently pointing beyond all human institutions, including the church as an earthly organization, to Christ as the sole foundation of Christian identity.
Practical Implications for Contested Authority
The fear Roman authorities experienced "when they heard they were Romans" in Acts 16 illustrates the practical power of citizenship claims in the first-century world [7]. Paul wielded his Roman citizenship strategically, but never as his defining characteristic. This distinction matters for understanding Romans' teaching on leadership struggles: earthly status and authority have their place and function, but they remain penultimate. The Christian's primary identity transcends and relativizes all earthly allegiances without necessarily abolishing them.
Paul's framework thus provides neither a blueprint for theocracy nor a mandate for passive submission to tyranny. Instead, it establishes a hierarchy of allegiances in which earthly authorities receive their due—respect, obedience in matters not contrary to divine law, recognition of their God-ordained function—while the believer's ultimate loyalty remains fixed on Christ. Leadership struggles within the church or conflicts with civil authority must be adjudicated according to this hierarchy, not by elevating any human leader or earthly institution to absolute status.
Sources
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 12.--BY WHAT VIRTUES THE ANCIENT ROMANS MERITED THAT THE TRUE GOD, ALTHOUGH THEY DID NOT WORSHIP HIM, SHOULD ENLARGE THEIR EMPIRE. (part 5): to lust. Instead of these, we have luxury and avarice, poverty in the state, opulence among citizens; we laud riches, we follow laziness; there is no difference made between the good and the bad; all the rewards of virtue are got possession of by intrigue. And no wonder, when every individual consults only for his own good, when ye are the slaves of pleasure at home, and, in public affairs, ”
- 1 Corinthians (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on 1 Corinthians 3:21: 3:21-23 As the privileged children of God, they may now lay claim to everything—the world, and life and death, and the present and the future (see Rom 8:38-39). So there is no point in claiming a particular human leader as their own.”
- Romans (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Romans 13 (introduction): SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED--POLITICAL AND SOCIAL RELATIONS--MOTIVES. (Rom 13:1-14) Let every soul--every man of you be subject unto the higher powers--or, "submit himself to the authorities that are above him." For there is no power--"no authority" but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God--"have been ordained of God."”
- CCEL/NPNF (Eastern Orthodox) “John Chrysostom, Homilies on Acts & Romans: Roman because a citizen of Tarsus. This however is not the point of St. Chrysostom’s remark. In the Catena and Œcumen. it will be seen, that in later times the extended use of the name “Roman” as applied to all subjects of the Roman Empire made a difficulty in the understanding of this passage. Thus Ammonius takes it that St. Paul was a “Roman,” because a native of Tarsus which was subject to the Romans (so Œc.): and that the Jews themselves for the like reason were Romans; but these scorned the appellation as a badge of servitude; Paul on the contra”
- Romans (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Romans 1 (introduction): St. Paul shows the Romans his Divine call to the apostleship, and for what end he was thus called, Rom 1:1-6. His salutation to the Church at Rome, and his commendation of their faith, Rom 1:7, Rom 1:8. His earnest desire to see them, that he might impart to them some spiritual gifts, Rom 1:9-15. His description of the Gospel of Christ, Rom 1:16, Rom 1:17. The crimes and profligacy of the Gentile world, which called aloud for the judgments of God, Rom 1:18-32. Preliminary Observations Different interpreters have divided this epistle into certain parts or”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 72: the departed; on the contrary He is ever living in the Church.” 736 736 Symbolik, von Dr. J. A. Moehler, 6th edit. Mainz, 1843, p. 300. Romanists, therefore, practically take away Christ, and give us the Church in his stead. It is to be remembered that by the Church they do not mean the body consisting of true believers, but the external, organized body of which the pope is the head. It is this body represented in history by the Hildebrands, the Borgias, and the Leos, which Romanism puts in the place of Christ, clothing it with his prerog”
- Acts (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Acts 16:38: they feared when they heard they were Romans--their authority being thus imperilled; for they were liable to an action for what they had done.”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 1: Augustine — Confessions, Letters — CHAP. III -- 16. But what am I to answer to the assertion made that many calamities have befallen the Roman Empire through some Christian emperors? This sweeping accusation is a calumny. For if they w (part 2): to secure the most t perfect bond of concord m the earthly common wealth, but also in order to the obtaining of eternal salvation, and a place in the divine and! celestial republic of a people which shall endure for ever--a republic to the citizenship of which faith, hope, and charity admit us; so that, while absent from it on our pilgrima”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 31: the soul into conformity to the image of Christ. Paul details his own Experience in Romans vii. 7-25. The classical passages of the New Testament on the nature of this work are the following, — Romans vii. 7-25 . This is not the place to enter upon the discussion whether the Apostle in this passage is detailing his own experience or not. This is the interpretation given to it by Augustinians in all ages. It is enough to say here that the “ onus probandi ” rests on those who take the opposite view of the passage. It must require very stron”