FIRST POST
SECOND POST
THIRD POST
FOURTH POST
In his argument that Romans 1.17 refers to a righteousness from God rather than God’s righteousness being demonstrated in the Gospel story, Dr. Riddlebarger’s sums up what he thinks are the results of his three text by saying,
These texts, it seems to me, not only speak of the very thing we are told Paul does not address when he speaks of the righteousness of God–the status of the sinner–-but in the very next clause of Romans 1:17, Paul will speak of this righteousness which is revealed in the gospel, as coming to us through faith.
Riddlebarger’s theology is fine, but I don’t see why Paul has to be referring to that theology in the words that he uses. Paul is obviously talking about salvation (v. 16) that is bestowed upon believers. “The Gospel… is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” But that hardly proves that Paul is referring to the subjective appropriation of salvation, and thus of Christ’s rightiousness, in v. 17.
Dr. Riddlebarger goes on to write,
Therefore, in the gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness which Paul goes on to say, “is by faith from first to last.” Literally in the Greek text, this phrase reads, “out of faith and into faith,” or “from faith to faith.”
Why not stick to the literal reading?
In fact, the word “faith” can mean either “faithfulness” or “faith” Paul is going to talk about the demonstration of God’s faithfulness and righteousness (undisputably in 3.1-6, for example) as well as the primacy of trust in God as the proper response to the Gospel which results in justification. It seems to me at least possible that Paul is setting us up for his argument with a deliberate wordplay–“from God’s faithfulness to our trust.” God demonstrates himself faithful to believers in the Gospel.
What is hapening here is that Paul is arguing that our faith is the only possible response to God’s faithfulness and that God’s righteousness is the sure basis for our confidence that he will justify believers. Just as the Psalmist prayed to be justified according to God’s righteousness (Psalm 35.24) so Paul argues that God’s righteousness is revealed in the Gospel story of the death and resurrection of Jesus so that God is both ” just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3.26), so he is also arguing along a line similar to the what we find in Hebrews 11.11: “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.” God’s faithfulness is the anchor of our faith. This will be Paul’s own emphasis in chapter 4 of Romans:
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
These themes of our faith being the only appropriate response and the only possible means of grasping onto God’s righteousness and faithfulness are amplified greatly by Paul’s appeal to the prophecies of Habbakuk. Habbakuk is consumed with the question of God’s righteousness in allowing his covenant people to be decimated. And in pursuing that question God assures Habbakuk that those who trust in him will live. Thus, Habbakuk ends with statement of faith that sounds a great deal like Paul’s description of Abraham’s faith:
I hear, and my body trembles;
my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones;
my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
Here I have to disagree with with Dr. Riddlebarger who says,
In the original prophecy, Habakkuk was speaking in reference to the Jews, who will live (i.e., “survive”) because of their faithfulness to YHWH, while the pagans around them will perish (“die”) at the hands of their enemies. But Paul reinterprets these words in the light of the coming of Christ, to mean that all those who believe in Christ when the gospel is preached, therefore receive a righteousness from God and will live, that is, they will participate in the life of the age to come, even now in the present.
I highly doubt that God was promising that every Jew who would remain faithful would not be killed, any more than Jesus did when he promises not one hair of their head would be detroyed. Like Abraham, in order to trust God Habbakuk and his readers would have to affirm that God can raise the dead. And while I think faith and faithfulness are related, I don’t think that Habbakuk is concerned about some level of moral behavior over against trust. While I do believe Paul saw things more clearly in the light of the coming of Christ, Dr. Riddlebarger’s despription of how Paul “reinterprets” sounds too much like “changes the meaning of,” for me to agree. Of course, this is only a passing comment and I am probably not understanding Dr. Riddlebarger completely. All I can say is that I think Habbakuk taught that those who trusted in God were accepted by him and promised the resurrection as a result. Since this is said in the context of the invading Chaldaeans who would destroy the Temple and put an end to the sacrifices of the Mosaic Law, I think we have ample precedent here for a justification by faith apart from the works of the Law.”
For what it is worth, here is a series of posts I did on the righteousness of God: