by Mark Mayberry
The phrase, “the righteousness of God,” occurs seven times in the NASB (Rom. 1:16-17; 3:5-6; 21-25a, esp. vv. 21-22; 10:1-3, esp. v. 3; 2 Cor. 5:17-21, esp. v. 21; Jas. 1:19-20).
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH” (Rom. 1:16-17).
But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? (Rom. 3:5-6).
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith (Rom. 3:21-25a).
Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:1-3).
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:17-21).
This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God (Jas. 1:19-20).
How should this concept be understood? What does it say about God? What does it demand of us?
The Greek word dikaiosunē, derived from dikaios (correct, righteous, by implication, innocent), refers to “righteousness” or “justice” (Thomas, 1343). In the NASB, it is translated “right” (1x) and “righteousness” (90x).
Arndt defines it as “(1) the quality, state, or practice of judicial responsibility with focus on fairness, justice, equitableness, fairness; (a) of human beings; (b) of transcendent figures. . . (2) quality or state of juridical correctness with focus on redemptive action, righteousness.”
In Pauline thought the intimate association of God’s interest in retaining a reputation for justice that rewards goodness and requites evil, while at the same time working out a plan of salvation for all humanity, complicates classification of his use of dikaiosunē. On the one hand, God’s dikaiosunē is pardoning action, and on the other a way of sharing God’s character with believers, who then exhibit righteousness in the moral sense (BDAG, 247–249).
Louw and Nida say it means “to cause someone to be in a proper or right relation with someone else” and should be rendered “to put right with,” or “to cause to be in a right relationship with” (34.46).
The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel (Rom. 1:16-17).
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH” (Rom. 1:16-17).
The righteousness of God is reflected in divine judgment (Rom. 3:5-6).
But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? (Rom. 3:5-6).
The righteousness of God is remarkable in scope (Rom. 3:21-25a).
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith (Rom. 3:21-25a).
The righteousness of God is rejected by those who are self-righteously unsubmissive (Rom. 10:1-3).
Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:1-3).
The righteousness of God results in reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:17-21).
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:17-21).
The righteousness of God requires transformation (Jas. 1:19-20).
This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God (Jas. 1:19-20).
Instead of identifying the inherent qualities of God that are supernaturally imputed to believers, the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. As we seek to be conformed to the image of Christ as revealed in Sacred Scripture, “the faith” (i.e., God’s objective standard), becomes “our faith,” (i.e., our subjective standard) for living.
by Mark Mayberry
Tonight, we’re going to deal with a familiar phrase that’s found repeatedly in the New Testament and mostly in the book of Romans, and that is the righteousness of God. And we do so to try to present an important biblical concept, but also to let the Bible explain what the Word means. Because so often in the world, we start drinking from denominational fountains. If the books that we read are denominational authors or Calvinistic thinkers as is the case with some - even some preachers - that kind of misconception begins to creep into our mindset. And so, we begin to look at familiar phrases that understood in a biblical context are clear and they become easily reinterpreted to fit a foreign concept that’s superimposed on the Scriptures.
And so the term “the righteousness of God” what is that talking about? Well, it’s a phrase that actually occurs seven times in the New American Standard. And it begins Romans 1:16-17. It’s the first of the examples. And we’ll go through each of these in succession as we study through our lesson. Several references in Romans occur as well as in 2 Corinthians and in James. Our question is how should we understand this concept? How should we comprehend it? What does it say about God? What does it mean when the Bible speaks of the righteousness of God? And does that place a demand upon us? Those are the questions.
And the reason we do this is because sometimes people read a very familiar phrase that strictly taken from a biblical context and understood without outside influences, it’s quite clear and self-defining, which is what I believe we’ll see as we study this lesson. And because they’re drinking from broken cisterns, or because they are using denominational sources for their thought process, and in particular Calvinism, the book of Romans becomes a playground for Calvinistic thinking in which the concept of grace is exalted and the concept of obedience is diminished and the notion of how we stand righteous before God is presented in a confused in a distinct fashion.
And one of the terms that plays into that is the term “imputation.” I want you to turn back before we get into this and notice the famous occurrence of David’s sin in Psalms 32. David talks about how blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. But notice what the context is speaking of: David committed a horrific crime. He murdered a man to cover up his own infidelity, to cover up his own adulterous affair with Bathsheba. And so Uriah was killed and a victim of David’s attempt at basic cover-up.
And then things knock along until the prophet Nathan comes and confronts David for his sin and tells him a story that tugs on David’s heartstrings. And David gives himself away by pronouncing condemnation upon the offender in the story about the man and the eulam, and you remember that part of it. David was outraged at the offense that Nathan the prophet communicated. He said the man deserves to die, and the prophet says, “I’m talking about you, David. You’re the man.” That brought David to a point of repentance.
He had been in a state of denial for a long time, and so, Psalm 32, “How blessed is the man, How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all the day long. Day and night, your hand was heavy upon me and my vitality was drained away as with the fevered heat of summer.””
But the thing changed - verse 5 - when David says, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and my iniquity I did not hide. I said I will confess my transgression, and you forgave the guilt of my sin. So David found forgiveness when he repented. David found forgiveness when he confessed and asked God’s pardon.
And so the statement, “How blessed is the man” (verse 2) of whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, that concept of imputation is what we’re really thinking about when we discuss this subject of the righteousness of God.
Is the righteousness of God some sort of nebulous characteristic of God that is imputed? Sort of supernaturally, it’s bestowed upon us, and so when God looks at us, He sees a reflection of Himself instead of our shortcomings and failure. Is that the basis on which salvation and forgiveness and a relationship with God is sustained? Some are saying that. And some say the righteousness of God describes that concept of imputation. Some in our own fellowship are saying that. And I want us to think this evening about that concept and see if we can come to a better understanding or a biblical understanding.
The Greek word here, the righteousness of God, is dikaiosune. That’s the Greek word translated “righteousness. It comes from a root that means that which is correct or right, or by implication, innocent, and so it’s referring to that which is righteous or just, or it’s referring to justice.
Certainly God is one who is characterized by justice, and so also should be his people.
In the New American Standard, almost every occurrence of the 91 occurrences, it’s rendered righteousness. One time, it’s translated simply “right. So we’re dealing with the idea of being right. And again, that implies a standard. It implies a measure or a rule, and one who gives it, one who has the authority of setting the parameters of right and wrong, one who has revealed those parameters and our willingness to submit to all of that.
As we think about Behr’s definition in a little bit more detail, it refers to the quality or the state or the practice of acting responsibly in a judicial sense. God judges us and we will stand before God in judgment and will He pronounce us as innocent or will He pronounce us as guilty? It’s used of human beings and also of divine beings, of God. It’s the quality or state of being correct. So how can we be right with God? That’s what righteousness is all about.
In Paul’s writings - here’s a little bit further discussion from Bauer - the intimate association of God’s interest in retaining a reputation for justice that rewards goodness and requites evil is clearly on display. God is both righteous - He’s holy, but He’s also compassionate. He punishes evildoers. He rewards those that do good. And yet, in all of this, dealing with sinful humanity, He’s working out a plan of saving man. So, the concept of righteousness involves all of those mixed together.
On the one hand, God’s righteousness involves pardon, forgiveness. And really, that’s what David says when we read in Psalms 32, “How blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity.” Well, how did David find a restored state of right standing? It was because God forgave him. And so, as we share in God’s character, as we exhibit righteousness in the moral sense, then we are at peace with God.
Louw and Nida, one final definition, say that this word simply means to cause someone to be in a right relationship with someone else. And so, with God, what makes it possible for us to be in a right relationship with God? That’s the question - the righteousness of God.
So, looking at each of these passages in the time that we have, first of all, Romans 1:16-17 tells us that the righteousness of God - His character, His expectations of us, His demands, His standards are revealed in the Gospel.
“I’m not ashamed of the Gospel,” Paul says, “for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.”
I would underline that statement: “Is revealed.” That’s the key thought here in this verse. How can we come to know God’s standard? It’s given by inspiration. It’s given by revelation. It’s revealed from faith to faith. It’s revealed as an objective standard, as the faith that is in the Gospel which we must internalize and make our own. And thus, the righteous man shall live by his faith.
And so the first thing to note is that we’re not left in darkness as to what God’s standards are and what His expectations are. The righteousness of God, His moral character, His demand for purity, His holiness, that attitude toward right and wrong is revealed in the Gospel. So it’s a matter of opening God’s Word to find out what God would have us do.
In chapter 3 and verses 5 and 6, we see that the righteousness of God is also reflected in judgment. God’s judgments that have occurred down through the ages, from the garden all the way to the end of time, when the final judgment will take place, are based upon His righteous character and His revealed truth. And so, the righteousness of God is seen in His judgments.
Paul asks a rhetorical question here. He says if our unrighteousness - if our evil deeds demonstrate the righteousness of God, the implication is when He punishes us, He shows Himself to be holy, what shall we say? That God who inflicts wrath, He’s not unrighteous, is He? Is God wrong in punishing sin because that reveals sin for the horror that it is? No.
“I’m speaking in human terms.” Paul answers his question by saying, “May it never be. God forbid. Otherwise, how will God judge the world?”
And so God does judge, and His judgments are a reflection of His standards. And so His standard of what is right is the basis of accepting the offering of Abel and rejecting the offering of Cain. Of condemning Naadab and Abihu for having violated the directives on how they offered up incense in worship to God in the holy place.
And so the same thing for us. If we stand condemned, it will be because we violated God’s will which has been revealed, which has been made known. “The words that I speak, the same shall judge you in the last day.” And so, if we are lost, it’s either because we ignored it and didn’t pay attention to it, or else we knew it and didn’t obey it. But that’s not God’s problem, that’s ours. And so it’s reflected in God’s judgment. He judges based on His concept of right.
Romans 3 and verse 21 tells us The righteousness of God is remarkable in its scope that it extends to Jew and Gentile alike. That’s the thought in these several verses. Now apart from the law, Paul says, the righteousness of God has been manifested. For the Jews, that was a rather remarkable thought. Because all of their past was wrapped up in the law of Moses and their commitment to that code. And now the gospel has superseded that and it includes far more people than the law ever was intended to govern. And so apart from the law of Moses, the righteousness of God is now manifested. Now, it was witnessed, anticipated by the law and the prophets. The law anticipated the coming of Christ. The old covenant anticipated the coming of a new covenant that is now made possible through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe without distinction.
And so he goes on and points out that forgiveness is made available to all. All need forgiveness - male and female and Jew and Gentile. But all can receive it if they will take the steps necessary to take advantage of the sin offering that Jesus supplies. So the righteousness of God - His willingness not only to be right, but to show mercy to bring us into a relationship with Him is remarkable in that it encompasses potentially everyone who is willing to believe.
As we see chapter 10, we have another statement that again is sometimes misunderstood, but this really is explaining the conflict that Jesus had with the Pharisees and the religious leaders back in Mark 7 and Matthew 15. It explains Paul’s concept with the Judaizers. The righteousness of God is often rejected by those who think they either know it better or can substitute their way for God’s. So when we add to or subtract from or change the will of God and think that we have the liberty to do that, we in fact are substituting our will for His and we are rejecting God’s standard because the standard’s revealed in His Word. Paul says, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them for the Jewish nation is their salvation. I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Not knowing about God’s righteousness, but seeking to establish their own righteousness. They have not subjected themselves to the righteousness of God.”
So, remember Jesus and His conflict with the Pharisees and the religious leaders in Matthew 15. They criticized Him for not keeping the tradition of the elders. And He turned around and accused them of binding their traditions. They were the ones guilty of setting aside the law of God by adding to and subtracting from and changing God’s Word as they saw fit. And He pronounced their worship vain because they weren’t following God’s will. Now granted, at that point in time, it involved the law of Moses, that was still in force. But the same principle applied in the Gospel era when Paul dealt with the Judaizers who were not satisfied with the fact that Gentiles could be saved just as Jews, and so they made their own requirement that male Gentile converts had to submit to the law of Moses and in particular circumcision. And so they were adding to the Word of God, they were adding to the Gospel of Christ.
And so, the problem the Jewish nation had was one of a lack of knowledge. Now they were zealous, but zealous in a misdirected and sometimes self-directed manner. They weren’t willing to submit to God’s righteousness, to the revelation of God’s will, of His definition of what is right and wrong. Rather, they sought to establish their own by adding to and subtracting from and changing the Word of God.
That’s the simple meaning of this text.
Some are coming along today saying the righteousness of God that we speak of in this verse is something that God miraculously bestows upon sinful man so that when He looks down upon sinful man, He sees a reflection of Himself and not the reality of the sin that’s there. That is not what Paul is saying.
Paul is saying the Jews, having rejected the Mosaic Code and substituting their own traditions, invalidated their worship, and the Judaizers in the Christian era, having accepted the gospel but thinking it wasn’t sufficient, feeling like they had to add to it their own requirements for Gentiles, were doing exactly the same thing, not knowing about God’s righteousness, not respecting the fact that we can know God’s standard by reading “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing the word of Christ,” not knowing of God’s righteousness, but seeking to establish their own, they didn’t submit to the righteousness of God.
The revelation of God was what they were rejecting - the Judaizers, and prior to that, the Jews that followed the traditions of men. As we turn to 2 Corinthians, we see that the righteousness of God is something that results in a changed relationship. It results in reconciliation. So, Paul is saying, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. New things have come. Now, all these things are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
So Paul is saying, “I am preaching” - Paul speaking - “I am preaching a Gospel that brings men back in fellowship with God.” And the way he does that, namely, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. How is it that God doesn’t count our trespasses against us? It’s through the process of forgiveness made possible through His Son.
And so we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. We can do that as we meet Christ, His offer of pardon, by complying with His terms of pardon. He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf. Jesus bore the penalty. He paid the price. He met the demands of justice so that we might become the righteousness of God. So that we might be counted righteous of his sight, but you notice what’s implied here, what’s required and suggested in all of this is that we have to be brought back to God on God’s terms, on the terms of pardon He set forth in His word.
And then the last point we make is in James 1 and verses 19 and 20, is that the concept of God’s righteousness really requires a transformation. This passage is dealing with impulsiveness and the speech that sometimes flows from being swift to speak and swift to anger. But James says, “This you know, my beloved brethren, that everyone needs to be careful to be fast in the things that need to be done hastily and to be slow in the things that require patience. Everyone needs to be quick to hear slow to speak, and slow to anger. A lot of times, if you look at yourself and I look at me, when I get those reversed, that’s where trouble comes. That’s where sin occurs.
When we are slow to hear and quick to anger, and when we are quick to speak instead of getting all the facts or allowing patience to reign, that’s when we allow sin into our lives. So, we need to be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, and then notice, the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Man’s anger is often to excess. Man’s anger is often unregulated. Man’s anger is often a springboard for sin. It’s just we get so worked up that we go too far and we say too much.
God is one who practices the emotion of anger perfectly. We don’t want to push God to the point of divine anger, but He certainly feels that emotion and acts on that emotion when it is appropriate. We sometimes, though, have a hard time working out the balance between patience and anger, or patience and provocation. But the wrath of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
We need to be willing to develop those qualities of patience and long-suffering and work on that quick temper and that quick tongue. So, transformation - it requires a change on our part. It’s not saying we can just continue to be impatient and we can continue to be impulsive and we can continue to fly off the handle and God looks at us and all He sees is a reflection of Himself. That’s Calvinistic imputation.
God wants to see in us a reflection of Himself as He sees those qualities born out in our lives; as He sees us assimilate those principles of truth. So, instead of identifying the inherent qualities of God that are, according to Calvinistic thought, supernaturally imputed to believers - it’s just God zaps you with a ray gun of His righteousness, and when He sees you, all He sees is the glowing of the ray guns’ effects. That’s not what imputation is about.
The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel. It’s revealed in such a way as when we see it, we can take advantage of it. It’s available to us. The scope extends to folks like Paul and folks like us. As flawed as we are, we can still take advantage of God’s righteousness and we can be reconciled to God based on His righteousness and we can be transformed based on His righteousness.
And so, when you think about that phrase we started with - from faith to faith - as we seek to be conformed to the image of Christ that’s revealed in the pages of Scripture, the faith - that is, the revealed Word - becomes our faith, and so the objective standard becomes my standard for living, and that’s how God’s righteousness can be seen in my life and yours.
So I hope that this lesson has been helpful.
As we look at phrases like this and we think in terms of words that sometimes because men in their scholarliness and in the fact that they turn to sources other than Scripture for understanding the Word of God and begin to drink from the fountains that are polluted by Calvinistic thought, sometimes the simplest of ideas become corrupted, and you end up with a notion that really excuses sin and it makes grace - while grace is vitally important, grace is made basically the entire equation and man’s response to grace is minimized.
And so the effect of Calvinism is ultimately to expand the bounds of fellowship beyond faithful adherence to the word of God and to allow continual cleansing and the notion that God forgives us even as we sin without the direct need for forgiveness and without the direct obligation of repentance. And that’s simply not true.
God required David to repent before David was forgiven. And so for us, the way in which God’s righteousness is imputed to us is through forgiveness. So this evening, as we offer the invitation, as we think in terms of drawing nearer to the Lord, the only way that’s made possible is if we share a relationship with Him. And the only way sinful man can share a relationship with a holy God is by submitting to His will revealed in Scripture and accessible to us if we will but draw near. So, if you’re subject and in need of obedience, baptism or repentance, come as we stand and as we sing.