Romans 1:17 Commentary and Bible Study

‘For therein [in the gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed.’ Does it mean what seems obvious – that God is holy, the holiness of God is revealed? No, that is not what the phrase means. God is holy and righteous, but that is not particularly revealed in the gospel. The holiness of God is taught throughout the Bible; it has been taught since the beginning of time. But what is particularly revealed in the gospel, in the New Testament (it is also revealed in the Old but particularly emphasised in the New Testament) is the righteousness with which God clothes a sinner so that when God looks upon the person who is converted, who is saved, he is able to deal with him as though he is righteous, because he is clothed in the righteousness of Christ which has been imputed to him. We could express it in this way: ‘In the gospel the righteousness provided by God is revealed.’ I don’t have righteousness of my own. I need a righteousness provided by God and given to me. Perhaps you want to buy a house. You view it, but it's much too expensive. You couldn't afford it; you don’t have a big enough deposit, or sufficient credit worthiness to take out a mortgage. But the owner of the house says, ‘I will provide for you the purchase price. I will give you the money to buy it from me.’ That is the idea here. ‘For [in the gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed.’ God has a righteousness that he will give to me, which will be the currency I need to secure his favour. That is so unexpected, but it is exactly what we need so badly. In Romans 10 Paul writes of the same righteousness: ‘Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. ² For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. ³ For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God’ (Romans 10:1-3). God holds out the righteousness of Christ. Embrace Christ, and make his righteousness your own, he says. If you have it, you will be accepted by God. Your own righteousness, earned under the law, can never qualify you for heaven. Even at its best it has much wrong with it, and it is mixed with much sin. Nothing but a perfect righteousness can make us acceptable to God, and this is the righteousness of Christ who challenged his enemies: ‘Which of you convinceth me of sin?’ (John 8:46). Peter said of him, ‘Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth’ (1 Peter 2:22). He came to die for us to make a personal atonement and to take the punishment on our behalf, the punishment due to us on behalf of our sin, and he came to offer up perfect righteousness.‘Revealed.’ It comes by revelation. How could I be saved? I could never figure this out for myself, the scheme of God, so he reveals it in the gospel. ‘This is how you can be saved. There is a free righteousness, available to you. The righteousness of Christ, credited to you, imputed to you, which will enable you to stand before God, and receive the blessings of heaven.’Then Paul says, ‘from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.’ That phrase ‘from faith to faith’ puzzles some. By faith I come to Christ, by trust. Faith has been described as the hand that receives the gift from God, and says, ‘Oh Lord, forgive my sin. Save me, I trust in Christ. Give me new life. Lord, I come and I take Christ to be my Saviour.’ But it is better to say that faith is not just the hand, but the arms that embrace. Faith embraces the gospel with the whole being. You clutch the rope that's going to pull you up from drowning in the sea. With both arms you take hold of the fireman at the top of the escape ladder, and you get out of the burning building. With both arms you embrace Christ. ‘He died for a sinner like me, and I will trust him with my soul, with my life. And I give myself to him. And I'll depend on him and his power to transform me and change me and be my Lord and my God.’ Salvation comes by faith and it leads you to deeper faith, assurance and certainty. Habakkuk 2.4 is quoted here at the end of verse 17 – ‘The just shall live by faith.’ The just shall obtain life by their act of faith when they embrace Christ, and they will go on exercising faith in a life that is characterised by faith throughout. From start to finish it is by faith, from first to last it is by faith. So Paul begins the teaching which he will amplify and illustrate and repeat as this epistle goes on.