That is, how to be made right with God.
The phrase righteousness from God captures the central theme of Paul's teachings and his concern for all humanity. Simply put, the phrase means that we are made right with God by or through faith.
In Rom 4:11 he defines it as the faith of our father Abraham. And in Gal 2.16 Paul adds we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.
(NOTE this doesn't mean Christians are lawless! But I'll come back to that later.)
So now, your next question should be, what is the faith that justifies, i.e., makes you right with God?
Rom 10:17 NET
Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ.
The NET Bible best captures Paul's summary statement here which literally means faith comes from active hearing. And since the Greek word rhema oftentimes “focuses on the spoken word" Paul is saying something like: "faith comes through the message that Christ himself has brought."
This takes us back to something Paul had previously said in Rom 10:8 about the message preached by Christ:
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart —that is, the word of faith which we are preaching."
NOTE: in your mouth, in your heart refers to the NC law in the spirit (from Jeremiah 31-33) and not the Law in the letter carved on stone tablets, as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 3.
Hence, the faith of Jesus or the faith in Jesus presupposes an understanding and belief of the message Christ brought, which Paul calls the word, or the word of faith we now preach. The word of Christ then is not just the message about Christ (his death and resurrection) but more specificially the message that Christ preached. So it makes sense for Paul in Rom 10 to cite from Isa 52. That’s the story of a watchman who sees a herald from afar bringing that same gospel-message, aka "the good news of God's salvation" to Jerusalem. And the prophecy ends with the exaltation of the suffering servant of Yahweh.
Here are some of the steps we need to take in faith to obtain that righteousness from God:
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges comment about v 21 (1 Cor 9:21) sums it up well:
"A kind of apology is here made for the use of the term [sometimes translated as] lawless.
It was only intended in the sense just explained.
Even a Gentile was under some kind of law (Romans 2:14-15), and no Christian could rightly be called lawless, for he was subject to that inward law written in the heart, of which Jeremiah had prophesied (Jeremiah 31:33), even the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2), which, though it had set him free from a slavish bondage to ordinances (Colossians 2:20), had not set him free from the obligation to holiness, justice, and truth which is involved in the very idea of faith in Jesus Christ.”
The phrase righteousness from God captures the central theme of Paul's teachings and his concern for all humanity. Simply put, the phrase means that we are made right with God by or through faith.
In Rom 4:11 he defines it as the faith of our father Abraham. And in Gal 2.16 Paul adds we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.
(NOTE this doesn't mean Christians are lawless! But I'll come back to that later.)
So now, your next question should be, what is the faith that justifies, i.e., makes you right with God?
Rom 10:17 NET
Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ.
The NET Bible best captures Paul's summary statement here which literally means faith comes from active hearing. And since the Greek word rhema oftentimes “focuses on the spoken word" Paul is saying something like: "faith comes through the message that Christ himself has brought."
This takes us back to something Paul had previously said in Rom 10:8 about the message preached by Christ:
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart —that is, the word of faith which we are preaching."
NOTE: in your mouth, in your heart refers to the NC law in the spirit (from Jeremiah 31-33) and not the Law in the letter carved on stone tablets, as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 3.
Hence, the faith of Jesus or the faith in Jesus presupposes an understanding and belief of the message Christ brought, which Paul calls the word, or the word of faith we now preach. The word of Christ then is not just the message about Christ (his death and resurrection) but more specificially the message that Christ preached. So it makes sense for Paul in Rom 10 to cite from Isa 52. That’s the story of a watchman who sees a herald from afar bringing that same gospel-message, aka "the good news of God's salvation" to Jerusalem. And the prophecy ends with the exaltation of the suffering servant of Yahweh.
Here are some of the steps we need to take in faith to obtain that righteousness from God:
- First, repent and believe in the kingdom gospel: Mar 1:14-15; That is why I was sent/commissioned, Luke 4:43;
- Second, understand the New Covenant law that begins with the sermon on the mount, Matthew 5!
- Third, activate your faith! Which means belief/faith in that same Kingdom gospel promise by teaching/preaching the NC law, aka the law of God, 1Cor 9:21; aka the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus, Rev 12:17.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges comment about v 21 (1 Cor 9:21) sums it up well:
"A kind of apology is here made for the use of the term [sometimes translated as] lawless.
It was only intended in the sense just explained.
Even a Gentile was under some kind of law (Romans 2:14-15), and no Christian could rightly be called lawless, for he was subject to that inward law written in the heart, of which Jeremiah had prophesied (Jeremiah 31:33), even the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2), which, though it had set him free from a slavish bondage to ordinances (Colossians 2:20), had not set him free from the obligation to holiness, justice, and truth which is involved in the very idea of faith in Jesus Christ.”
