The late Bishop John Robinson made a perceptive comment concerning commentaries on biblical books. I have vowed he wrote, never to write a biblical commentary. For in a commentary you have anything to say or not. By that criterion this book is not a commentary. I do intend to work through the text of Romans, omitting only some material in the final chapters. But I shall certainly not have something to say on everything and will pass over many details which a commentator could not afford to ignore. What is offered here might best be described as a close reading of the text from a particular point of view.