Does it bother anyone, then, that Paul goes on to the next verse beginning with "for"? Does it disturb anyone that Paul's first sense in which the gospel reveals God's righteousness is explained in verse 18?
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. (Rom 1:18)"Okay, hang on a minute, Paul. You're saying that the righteousness of God is revealed, first, in the wrath of God?" Yes, that's what Paul is saying. In fact, from 1:18 through 3:20 he says that. Paul uses all that space talking about "the gospel" (the good news) in terms of the absolutely worst possible news. "There is none good; no, not one." (Rom 3:12) And "By works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight." (Rom 3:20) All are under sin. No one is even remotely good. There is no hope for us to fix it. There! God's righteousness is revealed! Yeah!
How? Well, in this first section of Romans Paul first reveals God's righteousness by contrasting it with our unrighteousness. "You think you're righteous (Rom 2:1)? You're not. Every one of us is completely unrighteous (Rom 3:10)." God is perfect (Rom 1:19-20) and we are ... not. Absolutely not. The gap between our "righteousness" and His is so big as to be immeasurable and, basically, outside our comprehension. (You know this is true by the way that so many try to rework Romans 3:10-18 so we don't look so bad.)
It doesn't end there (thankfully). Given this vast gap between our "righteousness" (read "none") and His (which, if you recall, is what the gospel reveals), Paul points to that gap and says, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law ..." (Rom 3:21ff) Big. Really big. We are without any righteousness. (Rom 3:10-12) The law won't help us (Rom 3:20). "But." God's righteousness is revealed here in our justification by faith, "through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." (Rom 3:22) The righteousness of God is revealed "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith." (Rom 3:24-25) "It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Rom 3:26)
The good news -- the gospel -- is good news because it reveals God's righteousness. God's righteousness is best revealed first in contrast to our unrighteousness and then in the work that He has done to bridge that gap, to be both just and justifier, to make righteous the unrighteous and to save the unsavable and to apply it to all who believe -- not just Jews -- "For there is no distinction." (Rom 3:22) The good news -- the gospel -- reveals a magnitude of righteousness from God that we couldn't even imagine on our own. That's why Paul was not ashamed of it. Nor should we.
6 comments:
It's almost like saying that we should let our light shine and not cover it up, or something like that.
Something that's interesting here is the perspective on the gospel. We think the gospel is the good news that Christ died for us so we can be saved. Paul suggests the gospel is the good news about God's righteousness. Once again, it appears that it's not about us.
While I agree with your statement, I'd suggest that part of the "we can be saved" aspect of the Gospel, is that Jesus was the righteous lamb sacrificed for the sin of the world. I don't think you can separate Jesus righteousness from our salvation. Of course, from the self centered human viewpoint, I can see focusing on our salvation rather than God's righteousness.
Studying Psalm 23 this morning and I'd never really noticed the line "...for His name's sake.". It's one more example of how He does things for us, that are intended to bring glory to Him.
I do tend toward hyperbole on this point simply because I think we (humans) tend to be so far the other way. We are typically "It's all about me!" and so I try to emphasize the other side. It is certainly to our benefit that the righteousness of God was revealed in His being both just and justifier, and, in fact, that particular aspect of His righteousness could not have been revealed without sinful humans. So while we absolutely do benefit from this gospel, it is still about God and we rejoice in that.
I understand your point, but also don't think that even hyperbole adequately communicates the nature of God.
Absolutely true. The term "holy" as applied to God means, essentially, "other." Since the finite cannot grasp the Infinite, it would stand to reason that we would ultimately fail to fully communicate the nature of God. Given our sin nature, I would expect it to be a constant problem.
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