Romans 1:16-17

Verses 16-17 express the proposition of Romans. This is a brief statement or summary of the entire argument of the book so far as its theology is concerned. In the verses immediately before this, Paul was speaking of his desire to preach the gospel in Rome as he had preached it other places and that leads directly into these verses: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

As stated earlier, the main subject of Romans (like the rest of the New Testament for that matter) is the gospel. The word gospel means good news. There are two things implied in the term good news. First, news--that is a message, a proclamation. When we think of news, we may think of newspapers. You don't send newspapers out with blank pages. You have to have a message. No news is not news at all. And, to be good news, the news has to be--well--good.

One of the keywords of Romans is righteousness and specifically the phrase we find here, The Righteousness of God. This phrase is found 5 times throughout Romans, while the word righteousness is found 30 times.

If you trace the word righteousness back in Greek it comes from a word for right, just like it does in English. The word often has a legal connotation, meaning that which is right or just before the law, that which is fair or equitable in the context of justice. But it can also have a broader meaning and simply mean that which is right or good. Strong defines the word righteous as meaning: “equitable (in character or act); by implication, innocent, holy (absolutely or relatively):--just, meet, right(-eous).” Thayer gives this definition: It is the state of one who is as he ought to be.

Suppose I am accused of robbing a bank. If I were found guilty, that would be a declaration that I am a thief, a robber, a criminal. But if I am found innocent, that would be a statement that I am not a thief, not a criminal. Of course, justice sometimes miscarries and verdicts are sometimes wrong. And of course, I might be innocent of one particularly robbery and yet have committed dozens of others. But still, that statement of acquittal is a statement of righteousness--it saying that I am not guilty of this crime. That is LEGAL righteousness. 

But LEGAL righteousness is based on ACTUAL righteousness. Suppose I were a thief and had made up my mind that I was going to rob a bank--but somebody else robbed it first preventing me from carrying out that scheme. If I were brought unto trial for the robbery, I would be acquitted, because I did not commit the crime--I would have LEGAL righteousness. But we recognize that this would be an ironic situation. That is the way human legal systems have to work, but we recognize that it is unfitting or unbecoming. Why? Because I would possess LEGAL righteousness without having ACTUAL righteousness. I would be declared and really be innocent of a particular act of thievery and yet would still be a thief.

But suppose that a court could actually judge a person's motives, plans, and intentions as well as their actions. Suppose a court could judge a person's character as well as their behavior. And suppose they could judge the entire course of a person's life at once. In that case, if a person were acquitted of thievery that would mean that they actually were not a thief, that they actually were an honest person. That is ACTUAL righteousness.

Or we can look at the same point in a different way. Whether a given person has committed a given robbery is a question of LEGAL righteousness. Whether there is or is not a law against robbery is a legal question. But whether robbery is right or wrong, whether thieves are good or bad--that is a matter of ACTUAL righteousness. A law that condemns robbery is a legally righteous law; it is just. But it is so because it is in agreement with the actual nature of what is right and wrong.

Revelation 15:3 states “just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” The word just there is the word righteous. The idea is that God's ways, God's actions are righteous. Righteousness is an attribute of God. But even that's not the right way to put it. The truth is that ACTUAL righteousness is just another term for the nature of God. Honesty is right because honesty is part of the nature of God. Everything that is good, everything that is right, everything that is pure finds its source and definition in the nature of God. 

And for that reason, God's laws, which are always made in accordance with His own nature, have LEGAL righteousness. They are just because they are based on God's essential goodness. God is good and therefore his laws, which are in accordance with his nature, are just.

That is who God is. That is what God is. The problem, then, is this. God has righteousness. Man does not. As to why man doesn't, Paul will get into that later in the epistle, but for the moment it should be obvious that the human race does not, innately, have this quality of righteousness that God has. 

Man does not have LEGAL Righteousness. We have broken God's laws. That does not mean that every person has committed every sin that they could possibly have committed. That doesn't mean people haven't often done truly good and noble things. A lesson in history or an experience of the world clearly shows otherwise. At only one point of time throughout all the ages was it true that every imagination of man was only evil continually. What it DOES mean is that man has broken God's law. When we say that a man is a criminal we do not mean that he has committed every single crime there is or that he has never done anything good. It simply means that he has broken some law and is, therefore, on the outside of the law. That is the lack of LEGAL Righteousness.

But not only does man lack LEGAL righteousness but ACTUAL righteousness. Human nature does not, in itself, possess the quality of absolute goodness which God possesses. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The Roman philosopher Seneca, who wrote at the same time as Paul, said the men were conscious of “their weakness and their inefficiency in necessary things.” He said that people love their own vices and yet hate them at the same time. That is the human condition. Man does not have and cannot (by his own effort) achieve actual righteousness. Man is not good.

And that is the problem. God possesses righteousness. God is good. Man does not and is not. The question is this: how can man achieve the righteousness of God? How can man receive what God has? How can this gulf between man and God be bridged? How can the righteousness of God become the righteousness of man? That is the problem of salvation.

And while there is a little bit more to it than this, as we will see as we go on, the short answer, in a single word is faith. Paul says that the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. There is debate about exactly what that phrase means, but the basic idea is that God's righteousness is revealed through faith, but not just revealed but imparted. Because at the end of the verse Paul quotes the prophet Habakkuk who said that the just shall live by faith. And that word just means the righteous. He doesn't say merely that we see God's righteousness by faith, though that would also be true. He says that the righteous live by faith, they find life or salvation through faith and therefore their righteousness comes by faith. Faith bridges this gap.

Faith is the bridge between earth and heaven. God, in His faithfulness, gives us His word and we, in faith, receive it=. And as we go on, we will see more specifically what this faith is.

But look at verse 17. Where is the righteousness of God revealed? “Therein” And what does that mean? You'll find it verse 16—it is the gospel. That is how this all ties back to the opening of Romans. Paul was under an obligation to preach the gospel and the gospel was a message of salvation and salvation is the means by which the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

We've talked about these two words righteousness and God. Now we have to talk about the word of. The last book of the Bible is the book of Revelation. And sometimes we call it The Revelation of John and sometimes we call it The Revelation of Jesus Christ. And obviously, both titles are correct. It is John's revelation because he was the one who received it; he was the one who possessed it; he was the one who was given it. But it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ because Jesus is who it is about, who it reveals, and, even beyond that, it was Jesus WHO revealed it to John. That is the ambiguous nature of the word of. 

The Righteousness of God is the righteousness, the goodness, the moral and ethical purity which God POSSESSES, just as John possessed his Revelation. But there is also a Righteousness of God which God GIVES as Jesus gave his Revelation to John. That is the gospel message. It is not just that God has righteousness; the Gospel does show that and we see God's righteousness in his working with man and His plan of salvation. But more than that, God imparts righteousness to man so that man can POSSES the Righteousness of God. But that is only possible through faith.

The gospel reveals God's righteousness manifested and expressed and imparted through faith, and that is what we call salvation. And that is why Paul was not ashamed of the gospel. Because he knew that it had the power of salvation for everyone that had faith. God's plan would always work. It had come first to the Jews, for the disciples and the people of Jerusalem, and they had found salvation through it. Later, the gospel was preached to Gentiles and they had found salvation through it. Paul had preached it in many places and people found salvation through it. Paul had never preached it in Rome, but he had every confidence that it would work there too. He had no reason to be ashamed of it because it had power, the power to accomplish what it promised.

In short, this is the picture of Romans, a picture of the gospel which is the message of salvation. Man lacks righteousness, both legal righteousness and actual righteousness. God possesses both--and God's righteousness is expressed, revealed, and imparted by faith so that those who have faith may be just and may live.