Douglas Moo in his commentary on Romans states that:
We moderns must beware the tendency to overhistoricize: to focus so much on specific local and personal situations that we miss the larger theological and philosophical concerns of the biblical authors. That Paul was dealing in Romans with immediate concerns in the early church we do not doubt. But, especially in Romans, these issues are ultimately those of the church - and the world - of all ages: the continuity of God's plan of salvation, the sin and need of human beings, God's provision for our sin problem in Christ, the means to a life of holiness, and security in the face of suffering and death. Augustine, Luther, Calvin and Wesley, whatever their failings as exegetes, saw this; and perhaps they understood more clearly than many of their latter-day critics.
(p.22, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996)
This ties in (unintentionally) with the comments in my previous post.
