for righteousness of God is revealed therein, on the principle of faith, to faith according as it is written, But the just shall live by faith.
Paul has just said he is not ashamed of the gospel because it is God's power to save. Verse 17 tells us why. Everything turns on one phrase: a righteousness that is God's own, revealed on the principle of faith.
Why righteousness is the point
The gospel reveals many things about God. Here Paul speaks of one quality — the very one a guilty person fears most.
Thirdly, the reason it is God's power to save everyone who believes is that "in it the righteousness of God is revealed". If there is no righteous way for man to be saved, there can be no salvation for man... It is true that in the gospel we see the love, and grace, and mercy of God revealed. But the Apostle does not speak of these blessed qualities in this passage. He speaks of the righteousness of God... The sinner does not fear the love, or grace, or mercy of God; but he fears the righteousness of God must be against him... But suppose you can tell the sinner this: the very quality in God that he dreads most — God's righteousness — is the very quality that is for him, not against him. That will indeed be good news.
Whose righteousness
The whole force of the verse rests on the little word "God's." One writer sets it against what the law required:
Next, notice that it is God's righteousness, not man's — divine righteousness revealed in the gospel, not human righteousness required in the law. There is no question here either of infusion or of imputation. Infusion is completely wrong. Imputation is a precious truth, and Romans 4 presses it: there the apostle shows from the case of Abraham that the believer's faith is counted for (or as) righteousness.
Another puts the same distinction plainly: man has no righteousness to offer.
It is not righteousness of man, for he has none. How can he have any if he is guilty — under judgment? And if he had, it would be righteousness of man, not of God.
What the phrase means
So the word describes something true of God Himself. It is not a standard He hands out.
It is not human righteousness, which would have come by the law. It is God's own righteousness. It is not man being consistent with the relationships God placed him in as a creature. It is God being consistent with His own nature and character, whether He had revealed that character before or not. It is God being consistent with Himself when He takes up the place of Justifier of ungodly sinners.
Commentators differ over how far the language of imputation fits here. Kelly calls imputation a precious truth taught in Romans 4. Another writer notes that Romans 4 speaks of righteousness counted to the believer, but never calls it God's righteousness (C. E. Stuart).
How it was revealed
One writer traces this revelation to the cross and to what came after it:
On the cross Christ was made sin for us, and there bore all the believer's sins. In this position He perfectly glorified God... God has revealed His righteousness by giving Christ, who glorified Him, a place with Himself in divine glory.
"From faith to faith"
The two halves of the phrase do two different jobs — one shuts a door, the other opens one.
The first of these phrases, "from faith," excludes the law; the second, "to faith," brings everyone who has faith within the scope of God's righteousness... God reveals His righteousness from faith. So if there is faith in any soul, He reveals it to that faith, wherever it may be. It was therefore in no way limited to one nation.
A second writer draws out what each mention of faith stands against:
The righteousness which the law demanded from men was to be by (or, on the principle of) works. Faith reaches the righteousness of God which the Gospel reveals. Again, the Gospel reveals God's righteousness to faith, while the law revealed all it brought to sight. The first occurrence of the word, faith, stands in contrast to works, the second to sight.
The quotation from Habakkuk
The same line from Habakkuk 2:4 appears in three letters, with the emphasis on a different word each time. (The ESV reads, "The righteous shall live by faith." The writers quoted here use the older wording, "the just.")
Romans dwells on the truth of justification, and so emphasizes "the just." Galatians deals with living the Christian life by faith and not by works of law, and so emphasizes "shall live." Hebrews emphasizes the means — "by faith."
The quotation is not only about being declared righteous. It also shapes the life that follows: "the believer must prove by a life of faith that he has this righteousness" (H. L. Rossier).
Summary
- Revealed, not required. The law demanded righteousness from man. The gospel reveals a righteousness that is God's own.
- Revealed as good news. The quality the guilty fear most is the very one the gospel shows to be on their side.
- Revealed in Christ. God shows His righteousness by giving Christ, who glorified Him at the cross, a place in divine glory.
- Revealed by faith, to faith. "By faith" rules out law and works; "to faith" reaches anyone who believes, of any nation.
- Revealed, then lived. Habakkuk's word settles who is just, and then calls that person to live by faith.