The “righteousness of God” refers to His faithfulness to His promises, and this is demonstrated in the salvation He has provided in Jesus.
The
genitive construction of the Greek clause in the opening verses of Romans,
the “righteousness of God,” must be given its full weight.
Like
the “goodness of God” and the “mercy of God,” it refers to something
that belongs to Him, a characteristic that defines who and what God is. And that
“righteousness” is found in and demonstrated by His concrete
acts on behalf of His children.
SIN SEPARATES FROM GOD
The second and third chapters of Romans present the gospel
as the Great Leveler. Both Jews and Gentiles have
fallen short of the requirements of the Law, and therefore, both stand under its
“just sentence.” Consequently, short of divine intervention, Jews and
Gentiles are both destined for “wrath.”
Every man is “without excuse” because all have sinned,
and none is in a proper state to judge others. Regardless of ethnicity, whether
“within the law” or “apart from the law,” all men
and women are doomed to experience His “wrath” unless God provides for
their redemption.
- (Romans 2:5-11) – “After your hardness and impenitent heart treasure up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works: to them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, everlasting life; but to them that are factious and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that works evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; but glory and honor and peace to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek: for there is no respect of persons with God.”
“God will render to each one according to his works.”
Here, Paul emphasizes the future aspect of this “wrath.” It will be unleashed
on “the day when God judges the secrets of men…through Christ Jesus.”
And elsewhere in his letters, Paul links the “day of wrath”
to the moment when Jesus arrives from heaven - the “Day
of the Lord” - (1 Thessalonians 1:10, 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10).
GOD’S PROVISION
Next, using a series of scriptural proof-texts, Paul demonstrates
that “both Jews and Greeks are under sin” - “All
have sinned and lack the glory of God” - therefore, men and women are NOT
set right with God “from the works of the Law.” Instead,
the Law serves to “expose sin” for what it is – the trespass
of God’s righteous requirements - (Romans 3:9-18, 3:23).
But mercifully, the “righteousness of God” is being revealed through the proclamation of the gospel “through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
In him, God declares all
who believe “righteous by His grace, through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus,” and all this is provided apart from the works
required by the Torah - (Romans 3:22-24).
This has been done “with a view to a showing forth of His
righteousness in the present season.” In Paul’s teaching, the stress falls
on the present reality of the “righteousness of God,”
and this is demonstrated in the proclamation of the gospel to all
nations - clear evidence of His faithfulness to redeem men who
respond in faith to the message - (Romans 1:16-18, 3:19-30).
Thus, the faithfulness of God is
unveiled in the present whenever He declares men to be in right standing before
Him through the “faith of Jesus Christ,” and in response to their
faith in the gospel. The provision of salvation in Christ demonstrates
the righteousness of God.
Paul speaks of His “righteousness” from an Old Testament
perspective, “righteousness” as the faithfulness of
God to His promises. In view is not some impersonal force or
abstract moral standard that governs the universe.
By providing the means of escape from “wrath,” God demonstrates
His “righteousness” for all men to see, in the present tense, and in a
most personal way.
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