Rome’s common grace

The Jewish Rabbis in the second century after the birth of Christ liked to imagine Rome standing before the judgment seat of God in the last days.

When the Lord God asks them to account for their rapacious wars and conquests, the Romans reply: ‘Lord of the world, we have established many markets, we have built many baths, we have increased much silver and gold, and we have done all this simply that the Israelites might study the Torah without distraction’. The plea is of course brushed aside. The Lord who searches the hearts knows the real reason: hedonistic self-enjoyment and lust for power were the real reasons. Jewish hatred for Roman rule is well known. But this story is grudging admission of the achievements of the Pax Romana that was at its height in the second century AD.

Roman technology in the ancient world was second to none. But there is a real sense, though, in which Roman technology was for the sake of the gospel, for these technological achievements aided in the spread of the Christian faith. Think, for example, of the Roman roads. They were built for the express purpose of enabling Roman legions to traverse the Empire fairly quickly. But ordinary Roman citizens – and Christian missionaries – also used them for their own purposes. And these ordinary Roman travellers and Christian missionaries went faster, on the whole, than the characters in a Jane Austen novel of the 18th century.