ROMANS: Righteousness from God

We left off by making the observation that our cleansed conscience, our salvation, and our redemption need to come from somewhere other than our ability to hold true to a system of rules. No matter whether that system came from our own sense of morality, our own measure of reality, or the rules of God Himself, we would fall short and have a conscience testifying against us.

But Paul has good news for us and continues to this very point, moving toward the ending of the third chapter with these words:

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.

As we’ve seen before, an understanding of the first-century conversation surrounding justification is essential to Paul’s argument. If we are justified by performing the miqsat ma’asay haTorah, then there is a difference between the justification of the Jew and of the Gentile. However, Paul says we now understand through Christ that there is a “righteousness of God that has been made known” apart from the Law. If this is true, then this justification is available (and has always been) to both Jew and Gentile alike. We all have the same human condition and we all have access to the same “righteousness from God.” And this righteousness doesn’t come from the Law or from our works of obedience; this righteousness comes from believing in the promises of God. It comes from faith.

He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

And God has been doing this in His story in order to demonstrate and put on display what His righteousness looks like. God did it in order to be the one who is pursuing justice and the one who brings justice about; He did it to be the judge who cares about everything being in its proper place and bringing that restoration about by pronouncing exoneration to those who trust in His love.

Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

And in case we fall into the trap of typical Christian reasoning, saying the Law is then done away with and no longer a relevant part of the larger conversation, Paul makes it quite clear, just as he did in Galatians, that the Law is far from nullified or done away with. Instead, the Jews are called to uphold the Law. In fact, they are called to correct false understandings of the Law, since it is the Law itself that will bear testimony to the fact that justification has always come by faith.

And because this is the case, boasting is done away with. Since we all wrestle with the same human condition, since we are all justified by the same faith, since we are all subject to the same God and experience the same love, there is no reason or ability to boast. We are all on a level playing field; we are all children in God’s household. Group one, two, and three are all parts of the same story.

But, just as he did in Galatians, Paul now needs to make his case through the Law itself that this gospel isn’t something new at all — it’s been around since the days of Abraham.