Original Meaning

THESE TWO VERSES are transitional. Though not explicitly indicated in the NIV, verse 16 begins with a conjunction “for” (gar), connecting it to verses 13–15. The train of thought is: “I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome because I am not ashamed of the gospel….” From this perspective, then, verses 16–17 belong to the introduction to the letter.

But these verses are also closely related to the body of the letter that follows, as Paul introduces the theme he will develop in the following chapters. For many interpreters, that theme is enunciated in verse 17: “righteousness that is by faith.” However, while this doctrine, as we will show, is critical to Paul’s argument in Romans, it is not the overarching theme. For this theme, we need to look at the word that heads these two verses: gospel. The argument of these verses proceeds in a “stair-step” movement:

I am not ashamed of the gospel,

because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes:

first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness

that is by faith from first to last,

just as it is written, “The righteous will live by faith.”

Picking up the key word “gospel” that has been a basic motif in the introductory verses (see 1:1, 2, 9, 15), Paul now briefly explains why he is so committed to spreading the good news and how that message is able to transform human beings.

The negative formulation of verse 16—“I am not ashamed”—may be no more than a literary device (litotes), functioning in a basic positive sense: “I am very proud of….” Paul may have a reason for this way of putting the matter. As his passing reference to people who slander him in 3:8 suggests, he knows he has come under fire for his advocacy of the law-free gospel for Gentiles. One of the reasons he writes such a long and theological letter to the Roman Christians is to disabuse them of some wrong ideas about his own view of the gospel that they have probably heard. Thus, it makes perfect sense for him to go on the defensive here: I am not ashamed of this gospel I preach.

Why is he not ashamed? Because he knows the gospel he preaches is the divinely appointed means to bring salvation to the world. “Salvation” (soteria; see also 10:1, 10; 11:11; 13:11) and the verb “to save” (sozo; 5:9, 10; 8:24; 9:27; 10:9, 13; 11:14, 26) are important words in Romans. We sometimes use this language to describe conversion only (“When were you saved?”), but Paul more often uses it to refer to final deliverance from sin and evil that will come to the believer at death or the Parousia (see esp. 5:9–10; 13:11).

Announcing what will become a key note in this letter, Paul insists that the salvation available in the gospel is for all who believe (3:22; 4:11, 16; 10:4, 11–13; cf. 11:32; 16:26). In a significant advance on the Old Testament, which focused on Israel, the gospel is universally available. But also typical of Romans is the qualification Paul immediately adds: This gospel of salvation is “first for the Jew.” Some think Paul means by this no more than that the gospel was, historically, first preached to Jews, as the book of Acts makes clear. But the development of this point in Romans reveals that Paul’s point is more theological. In some sense, he will affirm, Jews still have a kind of priority in the plan of salvation. Perhaps the closest we can get to the idea is to say that Jews are the first addressees of the good news of Jesus Christ. That is, God worked through them to prepare the way for the coming of Messiah, and the glad tidings about him naturally have them as the primary focus. The juxtaposition of these two statements—“everyone who believes” and “first for the Jew”—drives the theological dynamic of Romans.

Why does the gospel transmit salvation to those who believe? Paul explains this in verse 17, turning to the language of “righteousness” to make his point. The NIV’s “a righteousness from God” reflects one possible interpretation of a debated phrase. The Greek is simply dikaiosyne theou, literally, “righteousness of God.” Paul uses the phrase only nine times in his letters (see also 3:5, 21, 22, 25, 26; 10:3 [2x]; 2 Cor. 5:21). Since eight of them come in Romans, clearly the phrase is significant for the argument of this letter. Each occurrence must be examined in its own context, but most agree that the references here, in 3:21–22, and in 10:3 have the same meaning and are key to the letter. Three interpretations are popular.

(1) “God’s righteousness”—an attribute of God. “Righteousness” can refer to God’s justice, but as Luther discovered long ago, it is hardly good news to disobedient sinners to learn about God’s justice. Thus it is more likely, if an attribute of God is in view, that the reference is to God’s faithfulness.1

(2) “Righteousness from God”—a status given to people by God. This interpretation was championed by the Reformers and is the traditional view among Protestant theologians.2 When God “justifies” (the Gk. verb is dikaioo, cognate to the word for “righteousness”) the sinner, God gives that person a new legal standing before him—his or her “righteousness.”

(3) “Righteousness done by God”—an action of “putting in the right” being done by God. This view, held by a growing number of scholars, gives a dynamic sense to “righteousness.”3 It is God’s intervention to set right what has gone wrong with his creation.

The context does not point clearly in one direction. The verb “reveal,” which has a dynamic sense (come into being, manifest; see 1:18) favors the third view. But the fact that this righteousness, as Paul goes on to say, is based on faith, favors the second view. Perhaps the most important consideration, however, is the use of the language “righteousness of God” in the Old Testament. Here we find that key prophetic texts use this phrase to denote God’s eschatological saving activity (see Bridging Contexts section). We think, then, that Paul announces the arrival in history of this saving activity of God. But in the context of his larger teaching and qualified as it is here by human faith, this saving activity takes a specific form: the act by which God puts people who believe in right relationship with himself.

A central motif in Romans, and in Paul’s gospel in general, is the insistence that one can experience this righteousness of God only through faith. Paul emphasizes this point in two ways. (1) He repeats the word “faith”: (lit.) “from [ek] faith into [eis] faith,” which is probably correctly interpreted in the NIV as an emphatic construction, “faith from first to last.” (2) Paul cites Habakkuk 2:4 for the connection between the righteous person, faith, and life. The precise relationship among these three that Paul intends is debated. Is he emphasizing that righteous people should live by faith (NIV; NASB; KJV)?4 Or is he asserting that it is only the person who is righteous by faith who will attain life (NRSV; TEV; REB)?5 The syntax can go either way, but we think that the argument of the letter, in which Paul again and again asserts that a person is righteous (or justified) only by faith, favors this second reading.

Bridging Contexts

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF God in the Old Testament. As we pointed out in the Bridging Contexts section of 1:8–15, a thorough understanding of the Old Testament is indispensable to understanding Paul’s teaching in Romans. The letter focuses on the question of the way in which the gospel of Christ relates to God’s Word in the Old Testament. Paul assumes his readers are well grounded in the Old Testament and so constantly uses its categories and wording to make his points. Many of us who read Romans today do not share that same intimate acquaintance with the Old Testament; we don’t naturally “hear” the allusions and references the first readers did. Thus, we must have our Old Testament concordances open as we read in order to trace the undercurrents of Paul’s argument.

Nowhere in Romans is this more important than in interpreting Paul’s references to “the righteousness of God.” Righteousness language (the noun dikaiosyne, the adjective dikaios, and the verb dikaioo) was common enough in normal Greek, but its significance for the New Testament is based on the use of these words to translate Hebrew words from the sdq root into the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the LXX). Paul and other New Testament writers grew up hearing and reading this language, and their own use of the terms is decisively colored by this influence. Moreover, Paul implies in Romans that phrases like “the righteousness of God” were familiar to both himself and his readers. It is striking that he does not explain the phrase, but begins by announcing that the “righteousness of God” had been revealed (1:17). He assumes that his readers will know what this “righteousness of God” is—and the Old Testament provides the necessary context.

The phrase dikaiosyne theou (“the righteousness of God”) never occurs in the LXX, while the phrase “the righteousness of the Lord” occurs twice (cf. 1 Sam. 12:7; Mic. 6:5). But the phrase “his righteousness,” where “his” refers to God, is common (forty-eight occurrences). When “righteousness” is used in this way, it has three different meanings.

(1) It can denote God’s justice. Psalm 50 speaks of God’s summoning both his own people and the wicked to appear before him. Israel is rebuked for its trifling with God, while the wicked are condemned. Verse 6 sets the stage for this judging activity: “And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for God himself is judge” (italics added). God is absolutely just and impartial, equitably and fairly determining the rights and wrongs of every person and situation (see also Ps. 7:17; 97:2; Isa. 59:17).

(2) But God does not deal with his people in a vacuum. He himself has established a covenant relationship with them. This relationship is the context in which God deals with Israel. What is “right” for Israel is set forth in her covenant obligations. Similarly, what is “right” for God to do is enunciated in his own commitment to his people. In these contexts, therefore, God’s righteousness often takes on the notion of “faithfulness,” as God reiterates the commitment he has made to his people. The plea of David in Psalm 31:1 is typical: “In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness” (italics added; see also Ex. 15:13; Ps. 71:2; Isa. 38:19; 63:7).

(3) Most important, God’s righteousness can also have a dynamic sense, equivalent to his saving activity. The most important texts are two prophecies from Isaiah:

I am bringing my righteousness near,

it is not far away;

and my salvation will not be delayed.

I will grant salvation to Zion,

my splendor to Israel. (Isa. 46:13, italics added)

My righteousness draws near speedily,

my salvation is on the way,

and my arm will bring justice to the nations.

The islands will look to me

and wait in hope for my arm.

Lift up your eyes to the heavens,

look at the earth beneath;

the heavens will vanish like smoke,

the earth will wear out like a garment

and its inhabitants die like flies.

But my salvation will last forever,

my righteousness will never fail.

Hear me, you who know what is right,

you people who have my law in your hearts:

Do not fear the reproach of men

or be terrified by their insults.

For the moth will eat them up like a garment;

the worm will devour them like wool.

But my righteousness will last forever,

my salvation through all generations. (Isa. 51:5–8, italics added)

As the parallelism in both these texts makes clear, God’s “righteousness” is equivalent to the “salvation” he promises to bring to his people. “Righteousness” here denotes God’s saving activity, in which he upholds what is “right” by vindicating his people and delivering them from their distress. Part of our problem is that we have no verb in English that is cognate to “righteousness,” but the idea would be that God “righteouses” his people.

Two considerations lead me to conclude that it is this last meaning of “righteousness” that Paul has in mind in 1:17. (1) As we have seen, he expects his readers to recognize what he means when he announces the arrival of God’s righteousness. These prophetic texts just cited predict precisely such an arrival. (2) The prophecy of Isaiah, particularly chapters 40–66, exerted an enormous influence on Paul and the New Testament. Thus, Paul’s readers would naturally have “heard” in Paul’s announcement in 1:17 the claim that the eschatological intervention of God to save his people has occurred.

But they also would have “heard” two somewhat unexpected notes in Paul’s announcement. (1) This vindication of God’s people is not just for Israel, as the Old Testament suggests and virtually all Jews assumed; rather, it is for “[all] who believe” (1:16). As we noted in the Original Meaning section, this extension of God’s saving activity to Gentiles is a characteristic emphasis in Romans.

(2) The righteous activity of God is “based on” human faith. How can this be? How can God’s action be constrained by human response? Here Paul introduces a key modification of the Old Testament idea of God’s righteousness. God’s righteousness is the “righteousness of faith.” The upshot is that “righteousness of God” in Paul is personal and relational. It speaks not just about God’s work in Christ on the cross, but more directly of his work in individual human lives, as he puts those who respond to the gospel in faith in right relationship to himself.6

Contemporary Significance

SINCE 1:16–17 ANNOUNCE the theme of the letter, they touch on many of the themes that Paul will develop in this letter: how one is justified by faith in Christ (1:18–4:25), how being justified leads to final salvation (chs. 5–8), and how the gospel is both for everyone and for the “Jew first” (chs. 9–11). This section on Contemporary Significance could therefore be long indeed! But other texts will provide a better basis for exploring the significance of some of these topics; here we will confine ourselves to a few words on justification by faith.

Justification by faith. Verse 17 does not refer, in so many words, to “justification by faith,” but the idea is clearly expressed: God’s righteousness is “by faith from first to last”; it is the one who is “righteous by faith” who will gain spiritual life. This doctrine of justification by faith has had a checkered history. Virtually ignored until the Reformation, it was elevated to the head of all doctrines by Luther. Lutheran theologians have generally followed their founder’s lead, proclaiming in the oft-quoted phrase that justification by faith is the doctrine “on which the church stands or falls.”

While important for the other Reformers, justification by faith did not have quite the same importance as it did for Luther. But the Protestant tradition generally has put great emphasis on the doctrine. Essential to the Protestant interpretation has been the judicial, or forensic, understanding of justification and righteousness language generally. To be “justified” does not mean, Protestant theologians insist, to be “made” righteous, but to be “declared” righteous. What God does for us in justification is similar to what the judge does in a law court: He does not change the defendant by turning him or her into a new kind of person; rather, he declares the defendant innocent of the charges brought against him or her. This forensic understanding of justification was often denied by Roman Catholic interpreters, who insisted that righteousness must always include inner transformation. This difference set the battle lines for Protestant-Roman Catholic debate for centuries.

But we live in a new world. Most contemporary Roman Catholic scholars now agree that the Protestant theologians are right to insist that “justification” language in Paul is forensic. At the same time, many Protestant interpreters now want to minimize the significance of the doctrine of justification by faith. New debates have sprung up over the key issue of the basis of God’s verdict of justification. Just how can God declare the sinner “innocent” when he or she is really not? We will return to some of these issues later on. But for now, we want briefly to highlight two points: the importance of justification and its essential meaning.

Under the tyranny of being “relevant” many preachers in our day avoid doctrine like the plague. It smells of old books and dusty theologians debating incomprehensible issues. But doctrine is, of course, simply the truth that God has revealed to us in his Word. And if the Christian life is anything, it must be rooted firmly in the truth about God and the world. God makes clear to us that the fundamental human problem is not horizontal (estrangement in human relationships) but vertical (estrangement from the only true God). Justification is God’s response to that problem. Through the gospel God unleashes a power to change people, and at the crucial point: in their relationship to him. When people respond in faith to the message of the good news, God “justifies” them; that is, he declares them innocent before him, removing the barrier that exists between all human beings in their natural state and God. Everything else in the Christian life flows from this marvelous experience.

Yet many people do not hear this good news, and many Christians do not understand what has happened to them. Why? Because too many preachers don’t think a topic like justification by faith is “relevant.” A fresh commitment on the part of all preachers to set before their people what God, in his Word, has deemed relevant will go a long way toward bringing the church to a deeper consciousness of the most important truth in the world: that the God of this universe is willing to accept us as his own simply through our faith.

As we recommit to bringing the truth of justification before our people, we need to be sure to present it accurately. It is vitally important that we emphasize that justification is a forensic action. As we explained above, in justification God does not change us but accepts us as we are. To be sure, he insists on changing us once we have been accepted, but the acceptance always comes first.

Christians who struggle to think of themselves as “worthy” to be in relationship with God need especially to understand this truth. We, in ourselves, are never worthy, not the best one of us. The gospel is precisely “good news” (the lit. meaning of the Gk. word euangelion) because it announces that God accepts us anyway; all that we have to do is receive his offer in faith—to be sure, a faith that must, by its very nature, always be accompanied by obedience (cf. 1:5). Justification reminds us that our standing with God is by grace and that thankfulness should be the hallmark in all our dealings with him.