Exposition of Romans 1:16-17

I hope you were all able to read your assignments this week from Romans 1:16-17 and meditate on them. Our assembly challenge in January is to be unashamed of Christ, and there are few better places to start than thinking on the righteousness of God in Christ. So I pray that your assignment this week led to deep communion with the Holy Spirit as you reflected on how Jesus revealed the righteousness of God to the world.

Your assignments for next week:

Assignments: 1:18-32

The Heartbeat of Romans

God’s righteousness is the heartbeat of Romans. Therefore, the primary proposition of Paul’s letter is that God’s righteousness is revealed in the good news of the Messiah to powerfully save the world. This is the reason why Paul is coming to Rome, as a herald of this powerful gospel that is for everyone. He is not ashamed of this gospel because it has the power to make the world right by unveiling God’s righteousness.

Genre

We need to note an important observation upfront about the deliberative nature of this discourse: Paul employs deliberative rhetoric to call his audience to weigh his words and decide the appropriate course of action in response to what he proposes. For this reason, Paul lays the weightiest matter at the forefront of his message and calls on the Christians in Rome to consider what course of action is right and honorable in light of the righteousness of God that has been revealed in Christ.

He tells them that he is not ashamed of the gospel, inferring a critical question: “are you?”

We can understand the kind of argument Paul is making when we consider what the renowned Roman rhetorician, Marcus Fabius Quintilian, taught about deliberative rhetoric: he said that “the appeal to 'honor' is a higher form of deliberative rhetoric than appeals to mere ‘expediency’ or ‘personal benefit’; such oratory should address themes of 'righteousness’, ‘justice’, ‘piety’, ‘equity’, and ‘mercy’.” (Institutio Oratio 3.8.25–29). And this is exactly what we see Paul doing: he begins chapters 1–11 with reasoning how God is impartial, faithful, and just in regard to his promises, and merciful and equitable towards both Jews and Gentiles. God’s righteousness then becomes the grounds on which Paul argues in chapters 12-15 that his audience must likewise be just, merciful, equitable, pious, and righteous. And, by beginning this discourse in verse 16 by saying that he is unashamed of the gospel, he is calling them to consider what is honorable in light of the good news of Jesus Christ. Are they ashamed of what he has done? In other words, the righteousness of God that has been revealed in Christ changes everything for the way that we live when we believe the good news of Christ.

One more critical observation about the genre we are reading is the importance of propositional statements. In fact, it really is hard to overestimate their importance in rhetorical discourses because they set the entire thematic course that will then be advanced by their authors coming series of arguments.

For example, the stress on the gospel being “the power of God for salvation to the Jew first as well as the Gentile” foreshadows the arguments in chapters 9–11. And the reference to “living by faith” in verse 17 is precisely what chapters 12–15 will focus on. Most importantly, the reference to the righteousness of God is crucial to chapters 1–8, where Paul defends God’s righteousness in view of human depravity and his redemptive plan in Christ.

Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary Propositio—1:16–17

But no one should miss that the one word, with its cognates, which gets repeated four times in this propositio is faith/faithfulness/believing. This whole discourse will be an attempt to instruct about the nature of faith and faithfulness.

Considering how many contravening opinions there are about the meaning of “faith” there are circulating the Church today, this makes Romans uniquely important for our time. We need to recover the meaning of “Biblical faith” because it is on the grounds of “faith” that righteousness comes.

God’s Righteousness Revealed

The primary proposition of Paul’s letter to the Romans is that God’s righteousness is revealed in the good news of the Messiah to powerfully save the world. I must drive this point home hard in light of just how unpopular it has become to talk about righteousness today. Paul is saying that the good news of Jesus is that God has saved us in his righteousness. Now what? What is the right and honorable response to this salvation?

So now that we have stated this proposition, let’s deal with the first part of Paul’s statement and then break it down to digest it and make some applications for life today.

Romans 1:16 CSB

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.

Verse 16: “For”

This word is called a “logical conjunction” and is used in Greek to explain the reason for the previous statement. In our case, Paul is explaining his eagerness to preach to the Christians in Rome.

Romans 1:15 CSB

So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

So this is why we took three weeks to deal with the movement of this first discourse and Paul’s extended introduction to the Christians in Rome. Without understanding Paul’s purpose for writing, it is very difficult to understand his primary proposition for the letter because it is the logical extension of his introduction.

Paul wants to preach the gospel to the Christians in Rome because it is the unabashed power of God for their salvation!

Verse 16: “I am not ashamed of the gospel”

Paul explains the reason why he wants to preach the gospel to the Christians in Rome: he isn’t ashamed of the gospel.

Ben Witherington suggests that this is a figure of speech and form of verbal irony, called “litotes”, which uses understatement to emphasize points by stating a negative (often double negatives) to further affirm a positive, noting that : “Paul begins his discussion in verse 16 with the issue of shame. It could be that we have the rhetorical device litotes, saying in a more reserved and negative way what is meant as a positive, namely, ‘I am proud of the gospel’.”

In other words, Paul implies that, for those who believe the gospel is honorable, the right course of action is to preach the good news of Jesus. And even more than this, to disconnect oneself from this work is to admit that one is ashamed of the gospel.

Matthew 5:15 CSB

No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house.

This is a deliberate echo of Jesus words in Mark:

Mark 8:38 CSB

For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

So Paul stands in line with Jesus in saying that the good news of God’s salvation calls his people into active gospel-service.

Verse 16: “Because it is the power of God that brings salvation”

The good news about Jesus is not mere words; it is power. Jesus’ resurrection was not simply “one miracle among others”, it is the very epiphany of God’s redemptive power itself; in other words, it reveals the powerful salvation accomplished for us by God through his Son Jesus Christ. And it calls us into this salvation through faith so that when we believe in the risen-Jesus and follow him, we enter true life through his powerful grace.

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 CSB

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.

Paul does not mean that he didn’t use words to preach the gospel. He is not saying that his gospel consisted only of miracles. Nor does he mean to say that his words were awkward, unskilled, or even unconvincing. I’ve heard some make these mistakes, often to disastrous results. We know this isn’t what Paul meant because he acknowledges in verse 6 that he is speaking words of spiritual wisdom. Instead, Paul is saying that the power of the gospel is not in the brilliance, wisdom, or persuasiveness of its words, but in the mighty resurrection of Christ that reveals our salvation in God’s righteousness.

Similarly, the Greek word for “power” (dynamis) has sometimes elicited the reaction that the gospel is dynamite! This is quite out of place. The emphasis here is not on "blowing false religions out of the way”, “blasting a trail of success”, or anything like this. Paul is clear about what sense the gospel is “power”: the gospel reveals something not to be found anywhere else — a righteousness from God!

For this reason I will say that someone who is disinterested in righteousness - when this word is properly understood - cannot be saved by the gospel because they will trample under their feet the grace of God. And Scripture has much to say about this, though it is not our topic for today.

Therefore, when we preach the gospel we are announcing the righteousness of God that saves people from their sin and delivers them from the powers of darkness. This is the good news of Jesus: God has acted in his righteousness to save us from sin and death.

Now we have encountered for the first time in Romans the term “salvation” (σωτηρίαν - sōtēria), which is the term Paul uses exclusively in reference to our relationship with God. Paul always uses other terms when he is talking about rescue from ordinary temporal dangers.

For Paul, “Salvation” has “past”, “present”, and “future” dimensions.

Paul frequently uses it to speak of deliverance from future judgment:

Romans 5:9 CSB

How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.

Romans 13:11 CSB

Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

1 Corinthians 3:15 CSB

If anyone’s work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved—but only as through fire.

“Salvation” also involves a present experience, the a result of which comes from what God has already done in Christ on the cross, as is often the case for Paul:

Romans 8:24 CSB

Now in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees?

2 Corinthians 6:2 (CSB)

For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!

So, one can say “I have been saved”, “I am being saved”, or “I will be saved,” but not “I am saved,” if by that one means that salvation is already complete.

We see salvation operating at three distinct levels:

Salvation was accomplished by Christ through the cross at his resurrection

Salvation is being accomplished by the Holy Spirit, who renews us day by day

Salvation will come when Christ returns and delivers us from the power of sin and death

We see all three levels of salvation operating simultaneously in us as we trust in the cross of Christ, walk in the Holy Spirit, and fix our hope firmly upon the glory that will be revealed when Christ returns.

About this salvation Paul is also exceedingly clear: our condition as fallen creatures is so severe that salvation is fully beyond the reach of our own power. Left to our own strength, we will surely all come under God’s wrath, which Paul explains in the next movement of his discourse. You and I have rebelled against God and committed various acts of evil, in many cases even justifying our sins to ourselves (thereby “suppressing the truth in our unrighteousness”). How can we save ourselves from the righteous wrath of God? The answer to how God saves both Jews and Gentiles by his righteousness will be one of the major themes of Romans 1:18-11:32, which is indicated by this last verse:

Romans 11:32 CSB

For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may have mercy on all.

Verse 16: “to everyone who believes”

Paul now explains that the gospel brings salvation to those who “believe”.

Two observations are vital:

First, the link in this sentence is clear in Greek:

“παντὶ τῷ πιστεύοντι”

“Everyone” and “believes” are in the same form, demonstrating that Paul is arguing that salvation belongs to those who believe. Perhaps this is why so many people dislike Paul so much, because he was exceedingly clear that salvation requires faith. This excludes the idea of universalism, wherein Jesus saves the world irrespective of their response to him. And it excludes the idea that salvation is something we accomplish for ourselves.

Second, the gospel is efficacious for those who believe. So often we mistakenly think the gospel is for unbelievers and theology is for believers. Not so. The efficacious power of the gospel to bring salvation belongs to those who believe (present, active tense).

This observation is vitally important to Paul’s message because it explains one of the key features of the gospel’s power, namely, the power to bring faith:

Romans 10:11–13 CSB

For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Romans 10:17 CSB

So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

The key power of the gospel is its power to effect faith in those who hear. Much could be said about this, and indeed has been said, but what must be understood is that the power to believe does not itself rest in human hands, otherwise the weakness of our sinful nature would still overcome. No! The faith comes through the power of God’s righteousness that operates through the gospel. I believe the gospel, not because my mind was so intellectually pure or sophisticated; nor because I was so noble in my regard for the truth; no, I believe because the power of the gospel illumined my inner person with Christ.

Verse 16: “first to the Jew, then to the Gentile”

This advances the major theme of Romans that explains how God is unifying humanity through Christ. God’s will for humanity is not for us to be divided against one another the way that we are now. When we read God’s origin story of humanity, we discover that these divisions are the result of sin.

Paul has developed this theme progressively:

Romans 1:5 CSB

Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles,

Romans 1:14 CSB

I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish.

Now he makes it know that both Jews and Gentiles are united together as one by their common faith in Christ. In other words, the moment someone believes the good news about Christ, everything changes. Their identity. Their purpose. Even who they consider to be their enemies and who they consider to be their family. In one moment the gospel changes a person’s whole life.

Now let’s move on and break down the second half of Paul’s primary propositional statement.

Romans 1:17 CSB

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

Verse 17: “For”

In the same way that verse 16 logically explains Paul’s statement in verse 15, so verse 17 explains verse 16.

How is the gospel powerful to save those who believe?

Verse 17: “In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed”

Here is perhaps the most explosive truth of the gospel, that God has revealed his righteousness to sinful rebels. God’s righteousness is simultaneously the source of human hope and fear, for we are truly sinful beings — who are often so sinful that we even justify ourselves and so suppress the truth in unrighteousness — and yet, our hope is that God will demonstrate his love with mercy towards us in perfect righteousness.

We now encounter for the first time in Romans the concept of “righteousness”, which conveys the sense of making things “right”. But here we encounter one of our first hurdles to understanding what Paul means. The Greek word for “justice” and "justify" shares the same root as the Greek words for "right", “righteous", and "righteousness". And the same is true of the Greek words for “faith” and “believe” or “belief”. There really isn’t an easy way of expressing these ideas in English. For this reason, part of the art of reading Romans is learning to hold the ideas of “justice” and “righteousness”, or “faith” and “belief” together in your mind when you see one of the words in these word-groups.

Having this in mind will help us understand why Paul develops this discourse the way that he does. If God made the world and still rules it, why do bad things happen? Is God going to do anything about it? The Biblical answer is a resounding “yes”, and not only that, but we should understand that the good news of Jesus gives God’s answer to human rebellion!

However, although God will do what is required to make things right, he doesn’t do what we might expect. To make things right he first calls out a single family and enters into a loving, binding agreement with them called “a covenant”. God’s promises called the people of Abraham to become the bearers of his plan to rescue the whole world from evil, corruption, and death. And the good news of Jesus reveals that God intends to keep his promises by bringing his restorative justice to the whole world through Jesus. This faithfulness to make things right according to his promises is, ultimately, what the righteousness of God means.

So when the gospel of Jesus is announced, Paul tells us that through it we can see how God’s “justice”, his “covenant faithfulness to make things right”, is at last unveiled. This is how God will make everything right. And this is how God will make everything right with you as well.

We now encounter here for the first time the concept of “revealing”. God’s righteousness is “revealed”. There is an important parallel between verse 17 and verse 18; on the one hand God’s righteousness is revealed through the gospel, while on the other hand God’s wrath is revealed from heaven, that is to say, from his throne on high. So we are meant to understand that “righteousness” comes in the fullest extent of that word to those who believe God, while “wrath” comes in the fullest extent of that word to those who rebel against him.

You can immediately see how God’s righteousness being “revealed” is most significant: the idea isn’t that the gospel simply produces a cognitive revealing of knowledge about God’s righteousness, as if the gospel is just mere words, but that the gospel actually brings into existence the righteousness of God and sets the world right according to his faithful promises. This is what the gospel does.

Verse 17: “a righteousness that is by faith”

The gospel does this through faith. Paul emphasizes this point by repetition: the power of the gospel is for everyone who believes because it reveals God’s righteousness by faith! In other words, to benefit from the unveiling of God’s covenant justice, it is necessary that we also have faith. God has been faithful to his purposes and promises, and to benefit from this, we must exercise the trust towards him with the kind of obedience that comes from faith, as Paul spoke of in verse 5.

This automatically excludes modern conceptions of easy-believism. You can see the irony in what so many have done with faith today. Paul is calling on his audience to deliberate about what the appropriate course of action is in light of how God has made the world right in Christ, and yet, so many today conclude that a confession of mere words is what Paul had in mind. In other words, they conclude that the right response to the good news of Jesus is to say “yeah, I’ll take that” and then move on with their lives completely unchanged. Their condemnation is just.

One of the features of deliberative rhetoric is that anyone who weighs the argument and proposes dishonorable solutions is immediately disqualified. To weigh these words and conclude that the appropriate response to such a mighty deliverance is merely to make a meaningless profession is to judge oneself unworthy of weighing the gospel. Therefore, we must be very careful how we weigh these words. Does your manner of life agree with your conclusion about these words?

Verse 17: “from first to last”

We encounter one of the most difficult clauses to translate in Paul’s letter. You can see how the phrase itself is simply “from faith to faith”. The problem is that this phrase is meaningless. And the evidence of this problem is seen in the innumerable nonsensical interpretations of this passage that arise from this translation.

I believe the CSB’s translation is the best: “God’s righteousness comes by faith from first to last”. God’s righteousness originates from his faithfulness and is realized by our faith. And although this interpretation does exist among the various interpretations of the rendering “from faith to faith”, I appreciate how the CSB makes this most clear.

Verse 17: “just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith’.”

The understanding that God’s righteousness originates from his faithfulness and is realized by our faith is seen in the writings of the prophet Habakkuk (2:4). Remember that Israel faced the coming of a great catastrophe and had to learn to hold on and trust God, to have faith in his faithfulness.

Paul calls Habakkuk’s prophecy to mind to now urge his readers to hold firm to God and trust his faithfulness because God has shown himself faithful to his covenant purposes and promises in Jesus the Messiah, and those who believe the good news about Jesus will find that this faithfulness reaches out and embraces them with an unshakable salvation.

I hope that when we put the passage together in this way, we see how it stands before us as proposing the most important truths of the Christian gospel!

Conclusions

Therefore, the primary proposition of Paul’s letter is that God’s righteousness is revealed in the good news of the Messiah to powerfully save the world. This is the reason why Paul is coming to Rome, as a herald of this powerful gospel that is for everyone. He is not ashamed of this gospel because it has the power to make the world right by unveiling God’s righteousness.

Paul’s boldness calls on us to deliberate within ourselves whether or not we are ashamed of what God has done in Christ. In today’s Western world, people are often ashamed of the Christian gospel. It is so often mocked, sneered at and dismissed by our media, and accused in our culture as being radical, dangerous, and harmful. Many Christians have responded to this by keep their faith behind closed doors. And that is, of course, just what the triumphalist secular world around us wants.

We can learn much from Paul. In his day the world was dominated by a culture that was focused solely on one city and one man. Caesar not only ruled the world from Rome, but also claimed to be her savior. This is perhaps not too dissimilar to our world today that looks to the enlightenment of science to save her from her problems. Yet God’s gospel stands against these claims and says that Jesus is the Lord of the world and our salvation comes from his faithfulness to those who trust in him. So what are we to do? Should we practice our faith in private so that we don’t offend anyone? Certainly not!

Paul appears to have in mind the mandate of the psalmist:

Psalm 119:46 CSB

I will speak of your decrees before kings and not be ashamed.

That was what he intended to do because Paul believed that “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Philippians 2:10), and that included Caesar (or whoever claims to rule unchallenged from on high).

So now I ask you to deliberate about the proper course of action in light of what God has done. What are we to do?

Let this be the meditation of your heart as we now join together to lift one voice in worship of our King, Jesus Christ.

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