Rome—churches that he did not found but did desire to visit—by introducing himself and the gospel. And if Paul felt a summary of the gospel to be a suitable opening sally in seeking to win a hearing with the Romans, we already have good reason to suspect that this digest of the gospel would have been agreeable to the various Roman house churches.5 Notice also that Paul does not say that this gospel is “my gospel,” even though he is occasionally capable of that expression (Rom. 2:16; 16:25; 2 Tim.