The Protestant Reformation actually began, not when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses upon the door of the Wittenburg church on 31st of October, 1517, but when Martin Luther rediscovered the meaning of the righteousness of God in Paul's letter to the Romans. [1] This discovery was made at the end of a long and troubled search which began when at the age of 21, on July 17, 1505, Luther applied for admission to the monastery at Erfurt of the Augustinian Friars known as the Black Cloister because of their black habit. They were also known as the Augustinian Hermits. Having recently been made a Master of Arts at the University of Erfurt, Martin had gone home to Mansfeld on a vacation during the month of June, 1505. On July 2, when returning to Erfurt from Mansfeld, at a distance of about five miles from his university, close to the village of Stotternheim, he was overtaken by a thunderstorm. When one of the lightning bolts nearly struck him, he cried out in terror, "Help, St. Anne, and I'll become a monk." Later, in his DeVotis Monasticis ("Concerning Monastic Vows," 1521) Luther explains his state of mind at that time.
"I was called to this vocation by the terrors of heaven,Accordingly, he sold his books, bade farewell to his friends, and entered the monastery.
for neither willingly nor by my own desire did I become a monk;
but, surrounded by the terror and agony of a sudden death,
I vowed a forced and unvoidable vow." [2]
Luther observed the canonical regulations as prescribed in the constitution of the Observatine section of the Augustinian Order of Mendicant Monks. He says:
"I was an earnest monk, lived strictly and chastely,The purpose of it all was justification, being righteous with God.
would not have taken a penny without the knowledge of the prior,
prayed diligently day and night." [3]"I kept vigil night by night, fasted, prayed,
chastised and mortified my body,
was obedient, and lived chastely." [4]
"When I was a monk, I exhausted myself by fasting,But all these observances did not bring peace to his troubled conscience. He says:
watching, praying, and other fatiguing labors.
I seriously believed that I could secure justification through my works..." [5]"It is true that I have been a pious monk,
and followed my rules so strictly that I may say,
if ever a monk could have gained heaven through monkery,
I should certainly have got there.
This all my fellow-monks who have known me will attest." [6]
"I was often frightened by the name of Jesus,Later in 1545 in the famous autobiographical fragment with which he prefaced the Latin edition of his complete works, Luther thus described his feelings:
and when I looked at him hanging on the cross,
I fancied that he seemed to me like lightning.
When I heard his name mentioned,
I would rather have heard the name of the devil,
for I thought that I had to perform good works
until at last through them Jesus would become merciful to me.
In the monastery I did not think about money,
worldly possessions, nor women, but my heart shuddered
when I wondered when God should become merciful to me." [7]
"For however irreproachably I lived as a monk,
I felt myself in the presence of God to be a sinner
with a most unquiet conscience, nor could I believe
that I pleased him with my satisfactions.
I did not love, indeed I hated this just God,
if not with open blasphemy, at least with huge murmurings,
for I was indignant against him, saying,
'as if it were really not enough for God
that miserable sinners should be eternally lost through original sin,
and oppressed with all kind of calamities
through the law of the ten commandments,
but God must add sorrow on sorrow,
and even by the gospel bring his wrath to bear.'
Thus I raged with a fierce and most agitated conscience..." [8]
These inward, spiritual difficulties were intensified by a theological problem. This was the concept of the "righteousness of God" (justitia Dei). His religious background made him intensely aware of the judgment of God, and he learned the Greek concept of justice as found in book 5 of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Thus encouraged by the use of justitia in Gabriel Biel and other nominalists, he thought of God's justice as being primarily the active, punishing severity of God against sinners as he explains in his exposition of Psalm 51:14 in 1532:
"This term 'righteousness' really caused me much trouble.This conception blocked his understanding of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans.
They generally explained that righteousness is the truth
by which God deservedly condemns or judges those who have merited evil.
In opposition to righteousness they set mercy,
by which believers are saved.
This explanation is most dangerous, besides being vain,
because it arouses a secret hate against God and His righteousness.
Who can love Him if He wants to deal with sinners
according to righteousness?" [9]
"All the while I was aglow with the desireBut God used this passage to change his understanding of the righteousness of God and to solve his inward, spiritual difficulties.
to understand Paul in his letter to the Romans.
But... the one expression in chapter one (v.17)
concerning the 'righteousness of God' blocked the way for me.
For I hated the expression 'righteousness of God'
since I had been instructed by the usage custom of all teachers
to understand it according to scholastic philosophy
as the 'formal or active righteousness'
in which God proves Himself righteous
by punishing sinners and the unjust..." [10]
"Finally, after days and nights of wrestling with the difficulty,
God had mercy on me, and then I was able to note the connection
of the words 'righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel'
and 'just shall live by faith.'
Then I began to understand the 'righteousness of God' is that
through which the righteous lives by the gift (dono) of God,
that is, through faith, and that the meaning is this:
The Gospel reveals the righteousness of God in a passive sense,
that righteousness through which 'the just shall live by faith.'
Then I felt as if I had been completely reborn
and had entered Paradise through widely opened doors.
Instantly all Scripture looked different to me.
I passed through the Holy Scriptures,
so far as I was able to recall them from memory,
and gathered a similar sense from other expressions.
Thus the 'work of God' is that which God works in us;
the 'strength of God' is that through which He makes us strong;
the 'wisdom of God' is that through which He makes us wise;
and the 'power of God,' and 'blessing of God," and 'honor of God,'
are expressions used in the same way.""As intensely as I had formerly hated the expression 'righteousness of God'
I now loved and praised it as the sweetest of concepts;
and so this passage of Paul was actually the portal of Paradise to me." [11]
This discovery not only brought peace to Luther's troubled conscience but it was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Luther's protest against the errors of the Roman church stems from this discovery. But his discovery was lost by those who came after him, the Protestant scholastics. Luther's use of the scholastic distinction of active and passive righteousness tended to obscure the Biblical concept of the righteousness of God. Luther obviously rejected the active sense; but the later Lutheran protestant scholastics interpreted Luther as accepting both senses. Because their explanation of the death of Christ was still grounded in the legalistic concept of justice, that is, that Christ died to pay the penalty for man's sin which the justice of God requires to be paid before God can save man, they had to retain the active sense also. Thus Luther's discovery of the Biblical understanding of the righteousness of God was obscured and eventually lost.
By identifying the righteousness of God with the passive sense, Luther also gave the impression that the righteousness of God is the righteousness from God, that is, the righteousness that man receives from God through faith. But the righteousness from God is not the righteousness of God. These are different though related ideas and must be carefully distinguished. Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians,
"8b For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things,Thus the righteousness from God is the righteousness of faith (Rom. 4:13) which is that right personal relationship to God that results from faith in the true God (Rom. 4:3). Paul writes in his letter to the Romans,
in order that I may gain Christ
9and be found in him,
not having a righteousness of my own, based on law,
but that which is through faith,
the righteousness from [ek] God that depends upon [epi] faith,..."
(Phil. 3:8b-9).
"3 For what does the scripture say?Faith in God is reckoned as righteousness (Rom. 4:5). That is, to trust in God is to be righteous. This is the righteousness of faith (Rom. 4:13) and the righteousness from God (Phil. 3:9). The righteousness of God, on the other hand, is God acting to set man right with God Himself and, as we shall see below, it is synonymous with salvation.
'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.'
4Now to one who works,
his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due.
5And to the one who does not work
but trusts him who justifies the ungodly,
his faith is reckoned as righteousness....
13The promise to Abraham and his descendants,
that they should inherit the world,
did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith."
(Rom. 4:3-5, 13)
The Biblical concept of the righteousness of God is the act or activity of God whereby He puts or sets right that which is wrong. Very often in the Old Testament it is the action of God for the vindication and deliverance of His people; it is the activity in which God saves His people by rescuing them from their oppressors.
"In thee, O Lord, do I seek refuge;Thus the righteousness of God is often a synonym for the salvation or the deliverance of God. In the Old Testament this is clearly shown by the literary device of parallelism which is a characteristic of Hebrew poetry. [12] Parallelism is that Hebrew literary device in which the thought and idea in one clause is repeated and amplified in a second and following clause. This parallelism of Hebrew poetry clearly shows that Hebrew poets and prophets made the righteousness of God synonymous with divine salvation:
let me never be put to shame;
in thy righteousness deliver me!" (Psa. 31:1)"In thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline thy ear to me, and save me!" (Psa. 71:2)"11 For thy name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life!
In thy righteousness bring me out of trouble!
12 And in thy steadfast love cut off my enemies.
and destroy all my adversaries,
for I am thy servant." (Psa. 143:11-12)
"The Lord hath made known His salvation:From these verses it is clear that righteousness of God is a synonym for the salvation or deliverance of God.
His righteousness hath he openly showed
in the sight of the heathen." (Psa. 98:2 KJV)"I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off,
and my salvation shall not tarry;
and I will place salvation in Zion
for Israel my glory." (Isa. 46:13 KJV)"My righteousness is near,
my salvation is gone forth,
and mine arms shall judge the people;
the isles shall wait upon me,
and on mine arm shall they trust." (Isa. 51:5 KJV)"Thus saith the Lord,
keep ye judgment and do justice [righteousness]:
for my salvation is near to come,
and my righteousness to be revealed." (Isa. 56:1 KJV;
See also Psa. 71:1-2, 15; 119:123; Isa. 45:8; 61:10; 62:1)
The righteous acts of the Lord, or more literally, the righteousnesses of the Lord, referred to in Judges 5:11; I Sam. 12:7-11; Micah 6:3-5; Psa. 103:6-8; Dan. 9:15-16, means the acts of vindication or deliverance which the Lord has done for His people, giving them victory over their enemies. It is in this sense that God is called "a righteous God and a Savior" (Isa. 45:21 RSV, NAS, NIV) and "the Lord our righteousness" (Jer. 23:5-6; 33:15-16).
A judge or ruler is "righteous" in the Hebrew meaning of the word not because he observes and upholds an abstract standard of Justice, but rather because he comes to the assistance of the injured person and vindicates him. For example, in Psalm 82:2-4 (NAS), God says to the rulers:
2How long will you judge unjustly,For the judge to act this way is to show righteousness. (See Psa. 72:1-4.)
And show partiality to the wicked?
3Vindicate the weak and fatherless;
Do justice [judgment] to the afflicted and destitute.
4Rescue the weak and needy;
Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked."
(Psalm 82:2-4 [NAS].
See also Psa. 72:4; 76:9; 103:6; 146:7; Isa. 1:17.)
A judge in the Old Testament is not one whose business it is to interpret the existing law or to give an impartial verdict in accordance with the established law of the land, but rather he is a deliverer and thus a leader and savior as in the book of Judges (Judges 1:16-17; 3:9-10). His duty and delight is to set things right, to right the wrong; his "judgments" are not words but acts, not legal verdicts but the very active use of God's right arm. The two functions of a judge are given in Psalm 75:7 (NAS):
"But God is the judge:Since this is a statement concerning God as a judge, it could be taken as a general definition of a Biblical judge. In Psa. 72:1-4, these two functions of Biblical judge are given to the king of Israel.
he puts down one and exalts another."
(Psalm 75:7 [NAS]).
"1Give the king thy judgments, O God,These same two functions are ascribed to the future ruler of Israel, the Messiah, according to Isaiah 11:3-5 (RSV).
and thy righteousness unto the king's son.
2May he judge thy people with righteousness,
and thy poor with judgment.
3The mountains shall bring peace to the people,
and the little hills, by righteousness.
4He shall judge the poor of the people,
he shall save the children of the needy,
and break in pieces the oppressor." (Psa. 72:1-4 KJV)
"3 And His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.His righteousness is shown in His judging the poor, that is, in the vindication of those who are the victims of evil, the poor and meek of the earth, and in the smiting of the wicked who oppress them.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what His ears hear;
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and He shall smite the earth with a rod of His mouth;
and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the girdle of His waist,
and faithfulness the girdle of His loins."
The righteousness of God is not opposed to the love of God nor does it condition the love of God. On the contrary, it is a part of and the proper expression of God's love. It is the activity of God's love to set right the wrong. In the Old Testament this is shown by the parallelism between love and righteousness.
"But the steadfast love of the Lord isGod expresses His love as righteousness in the activity by which He saves His people from their sins. In His wrath, God opposes the sin that would destroy man whom He loves. In His grace, He removes the sin. The grace of God is the love of God in action to bring salvation.
from everlasting to everlasting
upon those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children's children."
(Psa. 103:17 RSV; see also Psa. 33:5; 36:5-6; 40:10; 89:14.)
"4 But God, who is rich in mercy,Thus the righteousness of God may be considered as the proper expression of the grace of God. For in His righteousness God acts to deliver His people from their sins, setting them right with Himself.
out of the great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ
(by grace you have been saved)."
(Eph. 2:4-5)"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men."
(Titus 2:11 NIV).
There is a difference between the righteousness of God in the Old Testament and that in the New Testament. In the Old Testament the righteousness of God is the vindication of the righteous who are suffering wrong (Ex. 23:7). God vindicates the righteous who are wrongfully oppressed. In the Old Testament the righteousness of God requires a real righteousness of the people on whose part it is done. In Isa. 51:7 the promise of deliverance is addressed to those "who know righteousness, the people in whose hearts is my law." Similarly, in order to share in the promised vindication, the wicked must forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord (Isa. 55:7). In the New Testament, the righteousness of God is not only a vindication of a righteous people who are being wrongfully oppressed (this view is in Jesus' teaching in Matt. 5:6; 6:33; Luke 18:7), but is also a deliverance of the people from their own sins; it is also the salvation of the ungodly who are delivered from their ungodliness (trust in a false god) and unrighteousness. The righteousness of God saves the unrighteous by setting them right with God Himself through faith (Rom. 1:17a).
This Biblical concept of the righteousness of God must be carefully distinguished from the Greek-Roman concept of justice. The righteousness of God in the Scriptures is not an attribute of God whereby He must render to each what he has merited nor a quantity of merit which God gives, but God acting to set right man with God Himself. Luther's apparent identification of the righteousness of God with the righteousness from God lead eventually to the equating of the righteousness from God with Christ's righteousness, that is, the merits of Christ, which Christ earned by His active obedience before He died on the cross and is imputed to the believer's account. Righteousness is misunderstood as merits and the righteousness of God as the justice of God. The idea that the righteousness of God is the justice of God, that is, that attribute of God which requires that God punish all sin and reward all meritorious works, is a legalistic misunderstanding of the Biblical concept of the righteousness of God. This legalistic misunderstanding reduces and equates the righteousness of God to justice, that is, the giving to each that which is his due to them with a strict and impartial regard to merit (as in Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics). It is this concept of righteousness that gave Luther so much trouble.
The righteousness of God is God acting in love for the salvation or deliverance of man. This righteousness of God has been manifested, that is, publicly displayed, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
"21 But now apart from the LawThe righteousness of God, as we have just seen, is God acting in love to set man right with God Himself and is synonymous with salvation (Ps. 98:2; 71:1-2, 15; 119:123; Isa. 45:8; 46:13; 51:5; 56:1; 61:10; 62:1). Now this righteousness of God has been manifested (phaneroo), that is, publicly displayed, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God was active in the death and resurrection of Christ for man's salvation. And because He is this act of God for man's salvation, Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God (I Cor. 1:30). And since the gospel or good news is about Jesus Christ, who He is and what He did (Rom. 1:3-4; I Cor. 15:3-4), it is about this manifestation of the righteousness of God. The gospel tells us about God's act of salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ; the gospel is the gospel of our salvation (Eph. 1:13).
the righteousness of God has been manifested,
being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets;
22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ
for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;"
(Rom. 3:21-22 NAS).
But the gospel is not only about the righteousness of God manifested in the past on our behalf, but in the preaching of the gospel the righteousness of God is being continually revealed (apokalupto) in the present.
"For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of GodThe revelation that is spoken of in this verse is not just a disclosure of truth to be understood by the mind, but it is a working that makes effective and actual that which is revealed. Hence, the revelation of the righteousness of God is that working of God that makes effective and actual that which is revealed, that is, the righteousness of God. [13] In other words, the revelation of the righteousness of God is the actualization of God's salvation. And the righteousness of God is revealed when the salvation of God is made actual and real, that is, when salvation or deliverance takes place. Thus in the preaching of the gospel there is taking place continually an actualization of the righteousness of God. In other words, salvation or deliverance is taking place as the gospel is preached. This is the reason that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16. Compare Rom. 1:16-17 with Isa. 56:1 which is, no doubt, the source of Paul's concepts and words in these verses.)
is being revealed from faith unto faith" (Rom. 1:17a ERS).
The gospel not only tells us about this manifestation of the righteousness of God, but also in the gospel the righteousness of God is being continually revealed or made effective and actual (Rom. 1:17a). When the gospel is preached, God is acting to set man right with Himself. The result of God's activity of righteousness is the righteousness of faith, the righteousness from God, since it has been received from God by faith. God in His righteousness sets man right with Himself and through faith man is set right with God; faith rightly relates man to God. The righteousness of God is what God does and the righteousness of faith is what man does in response to God's activity. The righteousness of faith is the righteousness from God because faith, which is man's response to the word of God, comes from God (Rom. 10:6-8, 17); that is, in a sense, faith is "caused" by the word of God, even though it is man who does the believing and trusting.
Faith is the actualization of the righteousness of God or the salvation of God. This is expressed by Paul in Romans 1:17a in a twofold way: "from faith unto faith". These prepositional phrases modify the verb "being revealed", not the words "the righteousness of God." The revelation is "from faith unto faith."
Faith is not the means nor the condition of salvation but is the actualization of salvation. Salvation is not a thing which is received by faith but is God's activity of deliverance which produces faith and is accomplished in that faith. In salvation, God does not give us something but gives us Himself, and faith is not receiving of something but is the receiving of Him. In salvation God does not just reveal something about Himself but reveals Himself. Apart from this personal revelation, faith is impossible, but when this revelation take place, faith is possible. Since "faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom. 10:17), faith is the product of God's activity of the revelation of Himself. This revelation takes place in the preaching of the gospel. For the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). The gospel is not only about salvation (Eph. 1:13), but it is the power of God unto salvation. When the gospel is preached, God exerts His power and men are saved. This act of God's power through the preaching of the gospel takes the form of the personal revelation of God Himself and His love. For He is love (I John 4:8, 16). Those who believe in response to this revelation are through this decision of faith realizing the power of God unto salvation, and in this decision of faith they are saved. To believe is to be saved, and to be saved is to believe.
In this decision of faith they are saved from death to life. To have faith in God is to believe in Jesus Christ, His Son (John 14:1; 6:29; 8:42; 5:38). And to believe in Jesus Christ is to receive spiritual life. For Jesus is the life (John 5:26; 6:33-35, 38-40, 57-58). For to believe in Jesus is to receive Him and to have received Jesus is to have the Son of God and to have the Son is to have life.
"11 And this is the testimony,To have life is to have passed from death to life.
that God gave us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son.
12 He who has the Son has life;
he who has not the Son of God has not life." (I John 5:11-12)
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my wordThe one who believes has passed from death to life because he has in the decision of faith also identified himself with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ identified Himself with us in death; He entered into our spiritual death on the cross and died physically for us. His death was our death. In faith we accept His death as our death. In faith we identify ourselves with Him in His death. But since God has raised Jesus from the dead, so also are we made alive with Christ. His resurrection was our resurrection. In faith, we identify ourselves with Him and His resurrection. To receive life in Christ is to be raised from the dead with Him. To pass from death to life is to have died and been raised with Jesus from the dead. We are now spiritually alive in Him. We have entered into fellowship with God and are now reconciled to God. As the gospel is preached, God exerts His power and men are made alive, raised from the dead. Jesus said,
and believes Him who sent me has eternal life;
he does not come into judgment,
but has passed from death to life." (John 5:24)
"Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is,When the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus for us is proclaimed, God speaks to men, revealing Himself in Jesus Christ. Those who hear and believe in Jesus are made alive in Him, being raised from the dead. They are reconciled to God (II Cor. 5:20). They are saved from death to life.
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live." (John 5:25)
But in the decision of faith men are not only saved from death to life but also from sin to righteousness. To have faith in God is to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. In general, faith is not just belief that certain statements are true but is the commitment of oneself and allegiance to something or someone as one's own personal ultimate criterion of all decisions, intellectual and moral. Saving faith in Jesus Christ is the commitment of oneself to Jesus Christ as one's own personal ultimate criterion ("My Lord and my God," John 20:28). The living person, the resurrected Jesus Christ, not just what He taught, becomes in the decision of faith our ultimate criterion. This decision of faith is a turning from false gods (idols) to the living and true God (I Thess. 1:10). Faith in the true God is righteousness.
"Abraham believed God, andTo believe God is to be righteous.
it [his faith] was reckoned to him as righteousness." (Rom. 4:3)
"But to the one who does not work,To acknowledge Jesus as Lord is to believe God that He raised Him from the dead.
but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly,
his faith is reckoned as righteousness." (Rom. 4:5)
(See also Rom. 4:22-24).
"9 That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord,To believe God that He raised from the dead Jesus, who in faith we confess as Lord, is to be righteous. Thus, this decision of faith is salvation from sin to righteousness.
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved;
10 For with the heart man believes unto righteousness,
and with the mouth he confesses unto salvation."
(Rom. 10:9-10; ERS).
But in this decision of faith, men are not only saved from death to life and from sin to righteousness but also from wrath to peace. Since the wrath of God - God's "no" or opposition to sin - is caused by sin (trust in a false god) (Rom.1:18), the removal of this sin brings with it also the removal of the wrath of God - no sin, no wrath. Now faith in Christ is also faith in the death of Christ for us; his death is our death. Since Christ's death was the means that God has provided for turning away His wrath, His death is a propitiation for our sins; faith in Christ's death turns away God's wrath.
"24 Being set right freely by his graceFaith in Christ's death (His blood) turns away God's wrath, since God has appointed his sacrificial death as the means to turn away His wrath. The result is peace with God; God is no longer opposed to man's sin, since the sin has been removed by Christ's death and resurrection. By faith in His death and resurrection we are set right with God.
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 whom God set forth as a propitiation
through faith in his blood....
(Rom. 3:24-25; ERS).
"Being therefore set right by faith,Thus, this decision of faith is also salvation from wrath to peace with God.
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
(Rom. 5:1 ERS)"Much more then, being set right by his blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through him."
(Rom. 5:9 ERS)
God has acted in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation
of man from death, sin and wrath. Since wrath is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18)
and sin by death (Rom. 5:12d ERS), salvation is basically from death to life
and then from sin to righteousness and then from wrath to peace with God.
Reconciliation is salvation from death to life;
Redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness; and
Propitiation is salvation from wrath to peace with God.
These Three Aspects of Salvation are accomplished through the
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Propitiation is the sacrifical aspect of His work,
redemption is the liberation aspect of His work, and
reconciliation is the representative aspect of His work of
salvation.
This threefold act of God for the salvation of man is the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God (salvation) has been manifested (publicily displayed) in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-26). The gospel tells us about this act of God, about this manifestation of the righteousness of God. And in the preaching of the gospel the righteousness of God is being continually revealed or actualized (Rom. 1:17). That is, God is exerting His power for the salvation of man in the preaching of the gospel (Rom. 1:16); in this activity man is being delivered from something bad, from wrath, sin and death, to something good, to peace, righteousness and life.
The revelation of the righteousness of God (Rom. 1:17) is also called justification (Rom. 3:24). As we have seen the righteousness of God is the act or activity of God whereby God sets man right with God Himself. Hence, the revelation of the righteousness of God is this act of setting right, and this act of setting right is called justification. Justification is not just a pronouncement about something but is an act that brings about something; it is not just a declaration that a man is righteous before God but is a setting of a man right with God: a bringing him into a right personal relationship with God. Justification is then essentially salvation: to justify is to save (Isa. 45:25; 53:11; see Rom. 6:7 where dikaioo is translated "freed" in RSV). This close relationship between these two concepts is more obvious in the Greek because the words translated "justification" and "righteousness" have the same roots, not two different roots as do the two English words. See my Word Study on "righteousness".
There is a difference between justification in the Old Testament and that in the New Testament. In the Old Testament justification is the vindication of the righteous who are suffering wrong (Ex. 23:7). God justifies, that is, vindicates the righteous who are wrongfully oppressed. Justification requires a real righteousness of the people on whose part it is done. In Isa. 51:7 the promise of deliverance is addressed to those "who know righteousness, the people in whose hearts is my law." Similarly, in order to share in the promised vindication, the wicked must forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord (Isa. 55:7). However, in the New Testament justification is not only a vindication of a righteous people who are being wrongfully oppressed but also a deliverance of the people from their own sins. Thus, Paul says that God is He "that justifies the ungodly" (Rom. 4:5). In the New Testament justification is not just a vindication of the righteous who has been wronged (this view is in Jesus' teaching in Matt. 5:6; 6:33; Luke 18:7), but it is also the salvation of the ungodly who are delivered from their ungodliness and unrighteousness. But justification not only saves the ungodly from their sins, it also brings them into the righteousness of faith. To be set right with God is to have faith in God. "Abraham believed God, and it [his faith] was reckoned unto him for righteousness" (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3,9; cf. Rom. 10:9; Phil. 3:9). Justification as God's act of setting man right with Himself brings man into faith, which is to be set right with God. Thus justification is through faith (dia pisteos, Rom. 3:30; Gal. 2:16) and out of or from faith (ek pisteos, Rom. 3:26,30; Gal. 2:16; 3:8, 24).
But justification as salvation is not only the deliverance from sin to righteousness but also the deliverance from wrath to peace and from death to life. Justification as deliverance from wrath to peace is set forth by the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:24-25:
"24 Being justified by His grace as a gift,Paul here connects justification with redemption, which is the liberation aspect of salvation, and with propitiation, which is the sacrifical aspect of salvation. Redemption is the deliverance from sin by the payment of a price called a ransom which is the death of Jesus Christ. And propitiation is the deliverance from the wrath by the sacrifical death of Jesus ("His blood") which turns away or averts the wrath of God through faith in that sacrifice ("through faith in His blood"). Christ's death as a propitiation turns away God's wrath from the one who has faith in that sacrifice. The wrath is turned away because the sin has been taken away ("forgiveness") by the death of Christ as a ransom, by which a man is redeemed or set free, delivered from the slavery of sin. When sin has been removed there is no cause for God's wrath. No sin, no wrath. Man is saved from wrath because he is saved from sin.
through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God set forth to be a propitiation,
through faith in His blood."
(Rom. 3:24-25 ERS; see also Isa. 32:17)
"Being justified freely by faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5:1)"Much more then, being justified by His blood,
we shall be saved through Him from the wrath of God." (Rom. 5:9)
Justification is also deliverance from death to life. Man is delivered from sin to the righteousness of faith because he is delivered from death to life. As sinners we were enemies of God, but through the death of God's Son we have been reconciled to God and are now no longer enemies. To be reconciled to God means we have passed from death to life and we are saved in His resurrected life ("having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Rom. 5:10; see also II Cor. 5:17-21). We are delivered from death by being "made alive together with Him" in His resurrection (Eph. 2:5). He was "raised for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). Thus justification is "justification of life" (Rom. 5:18). To be set right with God is to enter into fellowship with God. And this right relationship to God is life. Justification puts us into right relationship to God and hence is a justification of life. Fellowship with God is established when God reveals Himself to man and man responds to that revelation in faith. Life is a personal relationship between God and man that results from this revelation and the faith-response to it. Apart from this revelation the response of faith is not possible, and this revelation is the offer of life and the possibility of faith. But life is not actual unless man responds in faith to the revelation of God Himself. Life is received in the act of faith. Since God's act of revelation is first, and man's response in faith is second and depends upon God's revelation, life results in the righteousness of faith and man becomes righteous because of life. Justification as the revelation of the righteousness of God brings about life and the righteousness of faith.
Justification is the free act of God's grace (Rom. 3:24; Titus 3:7). The source of justification is the love of God. And the love of God in action to bring man salvation is the grace of God ( Titus 2:11). Hence justification is the true expression of the grace of God and the act of the love of God. Because justification is a gift (Rom. 3:24; 5:15-17), justification is free and is not something that can be earned (Rom. 4:4; 11:6). Being a free act of God's grace, justification has nothing to do with the works of the law (Rom. 3:20, 28; 4:6; Gal. 2:16; 3:11; see also Eph. 2:2-9; Phil. 3:9; II Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5). The whole legalistic theology is a misunderstanding of the righteousness of God and justification by faith, and is therefore unbiblical and false. The Scripture nowhere speaks of the righteousness or merits of Christ and of justification as an imputation of the merits of Christ to our account. The introduction of such a legalistic righteousness, even if it means the merits of Christ, into the discussion of the righteousness of God and of justification by faith obscures the grace of God and misunderstands the law as well as the gospel of the grace of God. In principle, the grace of God has nothing to do with legal righteousness and merits.
"But if it is by grace, it is no more on basis of works;God does not give man His grace so that he can earn merits by works to gain eternal life nor to show that he is legally righteous before God. Eternal life is the gift of His grace and it is received by faith. Neither was eternal life earned by the active obedience of Jesus Christ nor did Jesus Christ satisfy the demands of the law, either in precept or penalty, in our place. Christ fulfilled the law (Matt. 5:17), but not for us. Nowhere in the Scripture does it say that Christ fulfilled the law for us. Neither did he fulfill it legalistically. Not because Christ was not able to do it but because God does not in His love and grace operate on the basis of law or legal righteousness. Christ fulfilled it by love, for "love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. 13:8, 10).
otherwise grace would no longer be grace." (Rom. 11:6)
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[1] All quotations from the Scripture are taken from the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Holy Bible (NT-1946, OT-1952) unless otherwise noted. The following symbols will be used to designate other translations.
KJV King James Version, 1611 RV English Revised Version, 1881-1885 ARV American Revised Version, 1901 GNB Good News Bible, 1976 NAS New American Standard, 1971 NEB New English Bible, 1961-1970 NIV New International Version, 1978 ERS My own translation from the Greek or Hebrew
[2] Quoted in Albert Hyma, New Light on Martin Luther
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1958), p. 16.
[3] Luther, Commentary on the Gospel of John
Weimer ed., XXXIII, 561. Dated 21, 1531, quoted in Hyma, p. 28.
[4] Luther, op. cit., dated October 28, 1531, p. 574,
quoted in Hyma, p. 28.
[5] Luther, Exposition on Psa. XLV, p. 29.
[6] Luther, Answer to Duke George's Latest Book
quoted in Hyma, pp. 28-29.
[7] Luther, Sermon on Matthew XVIII-XXIV, pp. 29-30.
[8] Library of Christian Classics, Vol. XV,
Luther: Lectures on Romans
(Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1961), pp. xxxvi-xxxvii.
[9] What Luther Says, Vol. III,
Complied by Ewald M. Plass
(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), p. 1225.
[10] What Luther Says, Vol. III, p. 1225-1225.
[12] Edward J. Young, An Introduction to the Old Testament
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1950), pp. 281-282.
See also
Gleason L. Archer, Jr., A Survey of Old Testament Introduction,
(Chicago: Moody Press, 1964), pp. 418-420.
[13] Burton on Galations in the ICC in contrasting phaneroo
and apokalupto points out that
"for some reason apokalupto has evidently come to be used especially
of a subjective revelation, which either takes place wholly within the mind
of the individual receiving it,
or is subjective in the sense that it is accompanied by actual perception
and results in knowledge on his part:
Rom. 8:18; I Cor. 2:10; 14:30; Eph. 3:5."
Ernest deWitt Burton,
A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on
the Epistle to the Galations, in
The International Critical Commentary
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896), p. 433.
He goes on to say that
"phaneroo throws emphasis on the fact that that
which is manifested is objectively clear, open to perception.
It is thus suitably used of an open and public announcement,
disclosure or exhibition:
I Cor. 4:5; II Cor. 2:14; 4:10-11; Eph. 5:13." Ibid.
The use of the word apokalupto by Paul in Rom. 1:17
thus seems to place an emphasis on something happening to the individual
receiving the revelation. The word "subjective" is probably not the right
word to use to describe this event because it suggests that
the source of revelation is from within the individual, the
subject. Clearly the revelation that Paul is speaking of is
from without the individual, and from God. But it does make a
difference, a change; a response does take place in the
person receiving the revelation. It does bring about that
which is revealed, salvation.
