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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Romans 1:17 - 1:17
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17. γὰρ. The Gospel is GOD’s power, with this wide range and single condition, because in it GOD’s righteousness (which man needs if he is to answer to his true destiny) is revealed for man’s acceptance as beginning, as far as the human condition is concerned, from faith and promoting faith.
δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ, not ‘a righteousness of GOD,’ but’ GOD’s righteousness,’ i.e. righteousness as belonging to the character of GOD and consequently required by Him in the character of men: so distinguished from any righteousness which man sets up for himself and thinks to acquire by himself; cf. Rom 10:3; Php 3:9; 2Co 5:21; Eph 4:24; 1Jn 2:29; Mat 6:33; and below, Rom 6:13 f. Cf. S. H. “It is righteousness active and energizing; the righteousness of the Divine Will as it were projected and enclosing and gathering into itself human wills.” Cf. Psa 18:2 ib[69]
[69] ib. ibidem
This ‘righteousness’ is in fact man’s σωτηρία, true state of health; and the Gospel, revealing it as following upon faith, puts it in the power of every faithful man to reach. Hence the Gospel is GOD’s power, etc.
As the σωτηρία is that state of man in which he has made his own the righteousness of GOD and so worked out in himself that image of GOD (cf. Joh 1:12) in which he was created, so we shall presently see the converse is true—the damnation, destruction, of man lies in his forsaking that task and reproducing in himself the image of the beasts.
ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν, resulting, as far as the individual is concerned, from faith and promoting faith. It is of the nature of personal trust in one who is worthy of trust to deepen and widen itself. Psa 83:7 (Psa 84:8) (S. H.) is a good |[70]: but 2Co 2:16 (ib[71]) is different. It is important to observe that man’s faith is the source of man’s righteousness only in a secondary degree. The primary source is GOD’s grace.
[70] | parallel to
[71] ib. ibidem
ἀποκαλύπτεται. The Gospel is not a new principle in GOD’s dealings with man, but a fresh revelation of what has always been there. This is emphasised by the quotation from Habakkuk, and the argument about Abraham in c. 4.
καθὼς γέγραπται, Hab 2:4. N. that in Hab. the reference is to dangers from external foes and loyalty to Israel’s king. This is a good instance of the way in which S. Paul applies what is occasional and local to the spiritual experience of man.
ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται. The stress is on ἐκ πίστεως—the life which the man seeks to live, modelling himself, in his degree, on the righteousness of GOD, requires and results from trust in GOD.
N. S. Paul seldom reaches such a degree of abstraction in his statements as he does in these verses. It is due to his desire to state in the most summary form the character of the Gospel as he conceived it. But recalling Rom 1:2-7, we see that we are not even here dealing with merely abstract principles: the Gospel itself is essentially concrete in the Person of the Son: the power of GOD is no impersonal force, but Christ Himself quickening men (cf. Php 3:12); salvation and faith are no mere technical terms, but personal activities and conditions; GOD’s righteousness is not a system of laws or ethics, but the character revealed in Jesus Christ; our righteousness is that same character realised in ourselves.