"For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, 'The one who is righteous will live by faith.'” — Romans 1:16, 17 NRSV.
Paul goes on to explain this by saying that in the gospel a righteousness of God is revealed — by faith and for faith. He supports this claim by pointing to an ancient prophecy, spoken in the face of looming disaster, which declares that the righteous person will live by faith. In other words, as the gospel is preached, a veil is lifted. Something previously hidden is now made visible: a righteousness that comes from God. This unveiling happens through faith and is meant to lead people into faith. Through it, God’s saving power is released for everyone who believes.
Paul makes essentially the same claim later in Romans 3:21–22. After demonstrating that both Jews and Gentiles stand under the weight of sin — and that the Law was given to render the whole world silent and guilty before God — Paul suddenly breaks out in triumph:
“But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets,”
What Paul means is this: although the Hebrew Scriptures had already pointed forward to this moment, the actual manifestation of this righteousness took place in his own day. And it did so on principles completely different from those of the Law. The Law operated on a simple assumption — that God’s favor depended on obedience to His commands. This new righteousness does not.
The phrases “through faith” and “for all who believe” correspond exactly to “by faith” and “for faith” in Romans 1:17.
What Does “Righteousness of God” Mean?
In some passages — such as Romans 3:5, 25, and 26 — the phrase clearly refers to an attribute of God. There it means God’s own righteousness: His consistency with the moral standard He has established. In Romans 3:5, the phrase is drawn from Psalm 51:4 (“that You may be justified in Your words”) and is contrasted with human unrighteousness. In verses 25–26, Paul explains it further: God shows Himself to be righteous while also justifying the one who has faith.
In these contexts, God’s righteousness differs from human righteousness only in role, not in nature. A human is righteous if their conduct matches the Law. A judge is righteous if they faithfully apply the Law in judgment. And in that sense, Romans 3:5, 25, and 26 clearly speak of God’s own judicial integrity. But this meaning simply does not work in Romans 1:17 or 3:21–22.
Why not?
- First, God’s own righteousness was not newly revealed in the gospel — it had been evident throughout the Old Testament. Passages like Ezekiel 18, Ezra 9, Psalms 7 and 11, and Jeremiah 12 all assume it.
- Second, revealing God’s moral integrity would not, by itself, make the gospel “the power of God for salvation.”
- Third, it would have no real connection to Habakkuk’s statement that “the righteous will live by faith.”
- Fourth, God’s own righteousness was never “apart from law,” nor was it revealed “through faith in Jesus Christ.”
These objections pile up until we are forced to conclude that, despite its use elsewhere, righteousness of God must mean something different in Romans 1 and 3.
A Righteousness God Gives
This clearly cannot mean that Israel was ignorant of God’s fairness as Judge. Nor would that explain their rejection of the gospel. Instead, “righteousness of God” here is set in direct contrast to “their own righteousness” and to “righteousness from law.” It is also explicitly identified as “the righteousness that is by faith.”
The same contrast appears in Philippians 3:9, where Paul speaks of wanting to be found in Christ “not having a righteousness of my own from law, but that which comes through faith in Christ — the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.”
Here everything lines up perfectly. Paul’s “righteousness from God” is the same thing as the “righteousness of God” in Romans. It is righteousness that comes from God, not righteousness that belongs to God as an attribute.
Just as “the peace of God” means peace that God gives, so “the righteousness of God” means righteousness that God grants.
This righteousness is conformity to the standard God requires — but it is also God’s gift. It stands in sharp contrast to Paul’s former “own righteousness,” which he tried to achieve through the Law.
It is revealed in the gospel because, before Christ, righteousness was something people struggled endlessly to achieve but never truly possessed. By announcing salvation for all who believe, God revealed — and granted — a righteousness previously unknown.
Justification: Treated as Righteous
The Greek word translated “justify” does not mean “to make morally righteous.” It means to treat someone as righteous, especially in a legal or judicial sense.
We can see this clearly in Romans 2:13, where Paul says that “the doers of the law will be justified.” They are not made righteous by judgment — they are recognized as righteous.
The same meaning appears in Romans 3:4 (“that You may be justified in Your words”), where God is not made righteous but acknowledged as such.
Throughout Scripture — both in the New Testament and the Greek Old Testament — justify consistently means to pronounce or regard someone as righteous. It is the opposite of condemn, which does not make someone wicked but declares them guilty.
Paul uses the word the same way. When he says God justifies those who believe, he means that God has already issued His verdict in their favor. They do not have to wait for the final judgment to know where they stand.
Faith Reckoned as Righteousness
This does not mean that Abraham’s faith was a moral achievement. It means that God accepted Abraham’s faith as the condition for entering into covenant with him.
Paul uses Abraham’s experience to show that God’s favor has always been granted on the basis of faith, even before the Law existed. In Paul’s day, God was once again making a covenant — this time through Christ — and receiving into His favor all who believed the gospel.
The phrase “reckoned for righteousness” makes the legal, forensic nature of Paul’s doctrine unmistakable. God graciously counts faith as fulfilling the condition required for His favor.
Pardon, Peace, and Reconciliation
That is why Paul freely moves between the language of justification and forgiveness, both in his letters and in Acts, where his preaching is summarized.
Justification also leads to peace with God. In Romans 5, Paul describes believers as already justified, already reconciled, and therefore confident of future salvation.
Before the gospel, sinners are enemies of God — not because God lacks goodwill, but because justice requires opposition to rebellion. Pardon restores the relationship. The former enemy now stands at peace with the King.
One Doctrine, Five Expressions
We can now see that Paul uses five different expressions to describe one fundamental reality:
- Righteousness through faith
- Justification by faith
- Faith reckoned as righteousness
- Pardon
- Reconciliation and peace with God
All five describe the same truth from different angles: God receives into His favor all who believe the good news announced by Christ.
Paul uses different language depending on context, but the substance never changes.
What This Does — and Does Not — Mean
It might be argued that if righteousness is only something credited to a person — rather than something actually present within them — then it is not just insufficient but effectively meaningless. From that point of view, the phrase “righteousness through faith” would have to include an inner moral transformation, a genuine alignment of the person’s life with the eternal standard of what is right.
But when we look closely at the language Paul actually uses, that conclusion doesn’t hold up. The terms that he treats as equivalent — justified, reckoned as righteousness, pardon — don’t point toward inner moral renewal at all. They describe a change in status, not a change in character. And when Paul is directly addressing justification through faith — most notably in Romans 3:21–5:21 and Galatians 3:1–5:4 — he never suggests that inward righteousness is part of justification itself.
That said, justification is never the whole story in Paul’s teaching. He is clear that it does not stand on its own. To those whom God justifies, He also gives His Holy Spirit — something we will explore in detail later. The Spirit becomes the living, energizing source of an entirely new moral life. In fact, only people who genuinely want this new life are capable of believing the gospel in the first place. And only those who continue to follow the Spirit’s guidance are able to hold on to the righteousness they receive by faith.
For that reason, Paul consistently moves from justification to the life that follows it. After explaining how a person is justified, he immediately safeguards that teaching by explaining the new life brought about by the Holy Spirit. What’s striking, though, is that when he does this, he deliberately shifts his language. He sets aside the five key phrases associated with justification and adopts different terms to describe this moral transformation. This shift is especially noticeable in passages like Romans 8:1–17 and Galatians 5:16–6:10.
The word righteousness does still appear in places such as Romans 6:16–20 and 14:17. But the specific phrases we’ve been examining are carefully reserved for describing the legal — or forensic — change in a person’s standing before God, not the inner renewal of life and conduct.
At the same time, Paul’s unwavering insistence that a restored relationship with God always goes hand in hand with moral transformation likely made it easier for him to use the word righteousness to describe justification. Because justification is normally followed by real inward change, it avoids the awkwardness of speaking about a righteousness that has no connection at all to conformity with God’s eternal moral law.
Still, it’s important that we stick closely to Paul’s own way of speaking. When he wants to describe God welcoming believers into His favor, he calls it “righteousness through faith.” When he wants to talk about the transformed life that flows from that acceptance, he uses different language altogether — speaking instead of the guidance and the fruit of the Spirit.
Paul never confuses the two, and neither should we.
Conclusion
Paul’s first great foundational doctrine is this:
God receives into His favor all who believe the good news announced by Christ.
Everything else flows from that.
This post is based upon Lecture XI from J. A. Beet's book Through Christ to God: A Study in Scientific Theology (1893), re-written with the assistance of Microslop CoPilot. The original text may be found at the Internet Archive here: Through Christ to God.
It is very evident that Professor Beet gave a great deal of time and thought to this issue. But, his opting for a wholly forensic view is a bit disappointing to me, though understandable against the backdrop of his times. A more relational approach would be preferable in my view, but this may not have been an option at the time. Actually, a more relational understanding of δικαιοσύνη and its cognates would greatly improve these lectures on justification. Otherwise: I appreciate how he has kept moral concerns at the forefront right from the start of these lectures.
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