THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF GOD

The misunderstanding of love and of the love of God is based on and grounded in a legalistic misunderstanding of God. This legalistic misunderstanding of God was instigated by Tertullian and was fixed on western Christian theology by Augustine. Since legalism is basically an absolutizing the law, either by identifying God with law or making the law stand by itself apart from God and above God, legalism is fundamentally a misunderstanding of God. It conceives of God entirely in terms of the law. The will and mind of God are subject to the law, whether the law is conceived as existing externally apart from God and above Him or as the eternal and essential nature of God. The law is the eternal, objective order, lex aeterna, to which the will and mind of God conforms as the Lawgiver and Judge. In legalistic Christian theologies the law is not external and above God but is internal and in God, the very essential nature of God. "God is law." The law is the essential being of God. According to these theologies God's will is immutably determined by His eternal and unchanging nature; it is the expression of His essential being. [1] God acts freely (?) in accordance with the inner law of His own essence. He does not will the good because it is good; for then the good would be above God. Neither is the good good because God wills it; for then the good would be arbitrary and changeable. God acts freely but not whimsically; He acts always in accordance with the inner law of His being. [2] Thus God's being is understood in terms of the law.

According to this understanding of God's being, the holiness of God is misunderstood in terms of the law. The holiness of God is the eternal conformity of His will to His being which is law; it is the purity and moral perfection of God's being. [3] Holiness is accordingly the fundamental attribute or, more exactly, the consummate infinite moral perfection of all the attributes taken together. Each attribute has its own perfection; holiness is the infinite moral perfection of the whole together. It is not one attribute among others but is the total moral perfection of the Godhead that sets Him transcendently apart and above all the creatures. As such, holiness is the regulative principle of all of them. Accordingly God's love is holy love; His power is holy power; His will is a holy will. "Love must have a norm or standard, and this norm or standard can be found only in holiness." [4] In His eternal and essential nature God is Holy.

Righteousness is understood legalistically to consist in the conformity to the law of right and wrong. [5] The absolute righteousness of God is the infinite moral perfection of God and as such is equivalent to the holiness of God. In His eternal and essential nature, God is righteous. God is immutably determined by the law of His own being to act righteously in His relationships with man. This exercise of the divine will in relation to man, determined by God's infinite righteous nature, has been called the relative righteousness of God. [6] God's righteous nature expresses itself in the form of the law and in all its essential principles of right and wrong, the law is an immutable transcript of the divine nature. This relative righteousness of God is called rectoral, when viewed as exercised in administering the affairs of His government, in providing for and governing His creatures. This relative righteousness of God is also called distributive,

"when viewed as exercised in giving unto each creature his exact proportionate due of rewards and punishments. It is called punitive or vindicatory when viewed as demanding and inflicting the adequate and proportionate punishment of all sin, because of its intrinsic ill deserts." [7]

There is little place in this view of God for love, mercy, or grace. These were totally absent from the legalistic philosophy of the Greek and Roman philosophers and have little place in the legalistic Christian theologies. [9] In the definition of God in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the goodness of God is mentioned but the love, mercy, and grace of God are totally absent.

"God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being,
wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth."

ENDNOTES FOR "THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF GOD"

[1] Archibald Alexander Hodge, Outlines of Theology
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1949), pp. 154
(question 59), p. 411 (question 13).

[2] Ibid., p. 153 (question 58). See also
Henry Clarence Thiessen, Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1949), p. 129.

[3] A. A. Hodge, Outlines in Theology, p. 163.

[4] A. Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology
(Philadelphia: Judson, 1907), vol.1, p.x.
See also Carl F. H. Henry, Notes on the Doctrine of God
(Boston: W. A. Wide Co., 1948), p. 113.

[5] James I. Packer, "Just, Justify, Justification," in
Baker's Dictionary of Theology, ed. Everett F. Harrison
(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1960), p. 305.

[6] A. A. Hodge, Outline of Theology, p. 154, question 59.

[7] A. A. Hodge, Outline of Theology, p. 154, question 59. (underlining ERS).

[8] James I. Packer, "Just, Justify, Justification," in
Baker's Dictionary of Theology, ed. Everett F. Harrison
(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1960), p. 305.

[9] Note the brief treatments of the love of God in
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, 3 vols. 1871;
A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 1878;
A. H. Strong, Systematic Theology, 1907; and
Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God, 1918.

THE BIBLICAL VIEW OF GOD

The Biblical view of God is not a legalistic view. God's will is not immutably determined by His eternal and unchanging nature. On the contrary, God's nature is His sovereign will; He is what he chooses to be (Deut. 32:39; Isa. 45:7; 46:8-11). God is truly free. His choice determines the good. God's will is not determined by the good; for then the good would be above God. The good is what God wills. And it is not whimsical or arbitrary because it is God who has willed it. "Thy will be done on earth as in heaven" (Matt. 6:10, etc.). "God is love" (I John 4:8,16); but this does not mean that God had to love; there was no nature or inner necessity that caused God to love. God has freely and sovereignly chosen to be love. God's will is not determined by His nature; His nature is His will; He chooses what He will be. And God has chosen to be love and He has revealed that choice in the history of the children of Israel and supremely in Jesus Christ, His Son (John 3:16; I John 4:9-10). The true God is a God of sovereign love, not of sovereign justice. Since love is the choice of a person to do good to the person loved, God in His love has sovereignly chosen to do good to man He has created. God does not have to fulfill any condition before he can act in His love to save us; God's love is truly free and does not have to satisfy a supposed divine justice before He can act in love. God can freely forgive man's sin because he is not bound by any prior conditions in his nature. And according to the scriptures, He will forgive when a man will repent and turn from his sin (Ezek. 18:21-23,32; see also Ezek. 33:11).

THE HOLINESS OF GOD

According to the Scriptures God is holy (Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:26; 21:8: Josh. 24:19; I Sam. 2:2; 6:2; Psa. 22:3; 99:3,5,9; Isa. 5:16; 6:3). He is the Holy One of Israel (I Kings 19:22; Psa. 71:22; 78:41; 89:18; Isa. 1:4; 5:24; 10:20; 16:6, etc.).

The root meaning of the Hebrew word (qodesh, a noun, and qadosh, an adj.) as well as the Greek word hagios which is translated "holy" is "separation." It has both a positive and negative sense; it refers positively to what is God's and negatively to what is not man's. Something that is holy is not only separated from common or human use but is separated to God. Hence with respect to persons and things it means dedicated or consecrated to God. That is clear from the phrase "holy unto the Lord" (Lev. 27:9, 14, 21, 23, 30, 32). It does not basically mean "sinless" or "morally perfect." This may be seen from the use of the term to describe things as well as persons. In the Old Testament, some things described as holy are the ground (Ex. 3:5; Josh. 5:15), the ark of the covenant (II Chron. 35:30), the vessels of the tabernacle (I Kings 8:4), and the place where they rested (I Kings 8:6, 8, 10). Since things cannot sin, they cannot be sinless. But they are holy. Things and people are holy in virtue of their relation to God Himself; whatever is separated unto and consecrated or dedicated to a deity or deities is holy apart from its ethical or moral purity. This non-ethical meaning is clear from the use of the term to describe male and female temple prostitutes of some pagan gods (qedeshim, masculine, and qedeshoth, feminine, Deut. 23:17-18; II Kings 23:7). As the titles indicate, they were sacred ministrants attached to Canaanite cults of the deity of fertility. They were holy in virtue of their relation to the deity. It does not refer to their moral character. Of course there are moral and ethical implications of the worship of the true God. But this meaning is secondary and subordinate in the concept of holiness. What is primary and foremost is the separation unto God.

"You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am Holy,
and I have separated you from the peoples,
that you should be mine." (Lev. 20:26)

In what sense is God holy? In the Old Testament there are three senses in which God is holy.

1. God is holy in the sense that He is separated from His creation.

   "¹¹ Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker:
   "Will you question me about my children,
   or command me concerning the work of my hands?
   ¹² I made the earth and created man upon it;
   it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,
   and I commanded all their hosts." (Isa. 45:11-12)

   "I am the Lord, your Holy One,
   the Creator of Israel, your King." (Isa. 43:11)

   "For thus says the high and lofty One,
   who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
   "I dwell in the high and holy place,
   and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit,
   to revive the spirit of the humble,
   and to revive the heart of the contrite."
   (Isa. 57:15; see also Psa. 99:1-3, 5, 9; Isa. 6:1-5; 17:7; 45:20; 54:5)

   God is holy in the sense that He is separated from all He has created. He is not to be confused or identified with His creation. Even though He is near the humble and contrite, He is not to be pantheistically identified with Nature. He is not Nature but Nature's God, the Creator.

2. The second sense in which God is holy is related to this first sense. He is holy in the sense that He is separated from all false gods; He is not like any other god.

   "¹⁸ To whom then will you liken God,
   or what likeness compare with Him?
   ¹⁹ The idol! a workman casts it and a goldsmith overlays it with gold,
   and casts for it silver chains.
   ²⁰ He who is impoverished chooses for an offering wood that will not rot;
   he seeks out a skilled craftsman to set up an image that will not move...
   ²⁵ To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him?
   says the Holy One.
   ²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high and see:
   who created these?
   He who brings out their host by number,
   calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might,
   and because he is strong in power, not one is missing."
   (Isa. 40:18-20, 25-26)

   God is not like the wooden idol made by the craftsman;
   He is the Maker of all things.

   "Have you not known? Have you not heard?
   The Lord is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth."
   (Isa. 40:28)

   God is holy in the sense that He is separated from all false gods.

   "⁷ In this day men will regard their Maker,
   and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel;
   ⁸ they will not have regard for their altars,
   the work of their hands,
   and they will not look to what their own fingers have made,
   either the Asherim or the altars of incense." (Isa. 17:7-8)

   It was in this sense that Isaiah was overwhelmed with the holiness of God during the vision in the temple (Isa. 6:1-5). Isaiah feels the contrast between the true God and all the false gods that his people are worshipping. The worship of the true God by the seraphim brings conviction to Isaiah of the uncleanness of his lips and of the people's in the midst of which he dwelt. With their lips they worshipped and praised false gods, not the King, the Lord of hosts. Seeing the Lord, Isaiah recognizes the awful character of idolatry. "Woe is me! For I am lost!" God is holy because He is the Creator of all things; He is not to be confused with any of them; this distinguishes Him from all false gods.

3. But God is also holy because He is the Savior, the Redeemer.

   "Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel!
   I will help you, says the Lord;
   your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel." (Isa. 41:14)

   "For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior."
   (Isa. 43:3)

   In many places the Holy One of Israel is called "your (our) Redeemer" (Isa. 43:14; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7; 54:5). This also distinguishes the true God from all false gods.

   "¹⁰ You are my witnesses," says the Lord,
   "and my servant whom I have chosen,
   that you may know
   and believe me and understand that I am He.
   Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.
   ¹¹ I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no Savior."
   (Isa. 43:10-11)

   "⁶ Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer,
   the Lord of Hosts:
   I am the first and the last;
   besides me there is no god.
   ⁷ Who is like me? Let him proclaim it,
   let him declare and set it forth before me.
   Who has announced from of old the things to come?
   Let them tell us what is yet to be.
   ⁸ Fear not, nor be afraid;
   have I not told you from of old and declared it?
   And you are my witnesses!
   Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any."
   (Isa. 44:6-8; see also Isa. 45:5-6, 14, 18-19, 21-22; 46:9.)

   Of those who worship false gods Isaiah says,

   "¹⁶ All of them are put shame and confounded,
   the makers of idols go in confusion together.
   ¹⁷ But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation;
   you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity."
   (Isa. 45:16-17)

   "²⁰ Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together,
   survivors of the nation!
   They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols,
   and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.
   ²¹ Declare and present your case;
   let them take counsel together!
   Who told this long ago?
   Who declared it of old?
   Was it not I, the Lord?
   And there is no other god besides me,
   a righteous God and a Savior,
   there is none besides me."
   (Isa. 45:20-21; see also Hos. 13:4)

   The true God is holy because He alone can save and deliver. He alone has the power. He alone has unlimited freedom; He alone can and will save because He alone is love.

God is holy because He is love. This truly set Him apart from all false gods. The true God is holy because He is love. That which sets God apart from all other gods and also from all creatures is that feature which is most characteristic of God Himself, His love. God has freely and sovereignly chosen to be love. His choice determined the good. The good is what God wills. And it is not whimsical or arbitrary because it is God who has willed it. "Thy will be done on earth as in heaven" (Matt. 6:10, etc.) God's will is not determined by His nature; His nature is His will; He is what he chooses to be (Deut. 32:39; Isa. 45:7; 46:8-11). And God has chosen to be love and He has revealed that choice in the history of children of Israel and supremely in Jesus Christ, His Son (John 3:16; I John 4:9-10). The true God is a God of sovereign love, not of sovereign justice or holiness.

And since a person becomes like the god he worships (Psa. 115:4-8; 135:15-18), a Christian becomes like the God of love he worships and serves, and this sets him apart from the world. Love is that which makes Christians saints, holy ones (John 13:34-35).

SANCTIFICATION

Sanctification is the act of God by which man is separated from the worship of a false god and is dedicated to the true God. The term is not basically a moral or ethical concept. The idea of sanctification is soteriological before it is a moral concept. The idea of sanctification, which word has the same root as holiness in the Greek and Hebrew, is first of all a religious term and secondarily a moral term. It does not mean basically sinless or morally perfect. To be sanctified is to be dedicated to God. The RSV correctly translates the verb as "consecrated" in I Tim. 2:21. Sanctification denotes first of all the soteriological truth that the Christian belongs to God. Paul uses the term to denote another way of looking at salvation (I Cor. 1:30). Justification emphasizes the right personal relation to God, whereas sanctification emphasizes belonging to the true God rather than to a false god. The view that justification designates the beginning of the Christian life while sanctification designates the development of that life through the internal work of the Spirit is an oversimplification of the New Testament teaching and obscures an important truth. As we will see in the next section, the legalistic interpretation of justification distorts the relationship between it and sanctification. The word "sanctification" occurs only once in Romans (6:22) and is significantly omitted from the steps leading to glorification in Romans 8:30. This is because sanctification is just the other side of justification, and need not also be mentioned when the other is.

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

The righteousness of God in the Scriptures is not an attribute of God whereby He must render to each what is he has merited nor a quantity of merit which God gives, but is act or activity of God whereby He puts or sets right that which is wrong. [1] In the Old Testament, the righteousness of God is the action of God for the vindication and deliverance of His people; it is the activity in which God saves His people by rescuing them from their oppressors.

"In thee, O Lord, do I seek refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
in thy righteousness deliver me!" (Psa. 31:1)

"In thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline thy ear to me, and save me!" (Psa. 71:2)

"¹¹ For thy name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life!
In thy righteousness bring me out of trouble!
¹² And in thy steadfast love cut off my enemies,
and destroy all my adversaries,
for I am thy servant." (Psa. 143:11-12)

Thus the righteousness of God is often a synonym for the salvation or deliverance of God. In the Old Testament this is clearly shown by the literary device of parallelism which is a characteristic of Hebrew poetry. [2] Parallelism may be defined as that Hebrew literary device in which the thought and idea in one clause is repeated and amplified in a second and following clause. This parallelism of Hebrew poetry clearly shows that Hebrew poets and prophets made the righteousness of God synonymous with divine salvation:

"The Lord hath made known His salvation:
His righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen."
(Psa. 98:2 KJV)

"I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off,
and my salvation shall not tarry;
and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory."
(Isa. 46:13 KJV)

"My righteousness is near,
my salvation is gone forth,
and mine arms shall judge the people;
the isles shall wait upon me,
and on mine arm shall they trust."
(Isa. 51:5 KJV)

"Thus saith the Lord,
keep ye judgment and do justice [righteousness]:
for my salvation is near to come,
and my righteousness to be revealed." (Isa. 56:1 KJV)
(See also Psa. 71:12, 15; 119:123; Isa. 45:8; 61:10; 62:1)

From these verses it is clear that righteousness of God is a synonym for the salvation or deliverance of God.

Very often in the Old Testament the Hebrew noun, tsedeq and tsedaqah, is derived from the Hebrew verb, tsadaq. [3] Although it is usually translated "to be righteous" or "to be justified," the verb has the primary meaning "to be in the right" rather than "to be righteous." (Gen. 38:26; Job 11:2; 34:5) [4] The causative form of the verb (hitsdiq) generally translated "to justify" means not "to make righteous" nor "to declare righteous" but rather "to put in the right" or "to set right." (Ezekiel 16:51-55). Thus it very often has the meaning "to vindicate" or "to give redress to" a person who has suffered wrong. Thus the Hebrew noun (tsedeq) usually translated "righteousness" means an act of vindication or of giving redress. When applied to God, the righteousness of God is God acting to put right the wrong, hence to vindicate and to deliver the oppressed.

The righteous acts of the Lord, or more literally, the righteousnesses of the Lord, referred to in Judges 5:11; I Sam. 12:7-11; Micah 6:3-5; Psa. 103:6-8; Dan. 9:15-16 means the acts of vindication or deliverance which the Lord has done for His people, giving them victory over their enemies. It is in this sense that God is called "a just [righteous] God and a Savior" (Isa. 45:21) and "the Lord our righteousness" (Jer. 23:5-6; 33:15-16).A judge or ruler is "righteous" in the Hebrew meaning of the word not because he observes and upholds an abstract standard of Justice, but rather because he comes to the assistance of the injured person and vindicates him. For example, in Psalm 82:24:

"How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked?
Vindicate the weak and fatherless;
do justice [judgment] to the afflicted and destitute.
Rescue the weak and needy;
deliver them out of the hand of the wicked."
(See also Psa. 72:4; 76:9; 103:6; 146:7; Isa. 1:17.)

For the judge to act this way is to show righteousness. A judge in the Old Testament is not one whose business it is to interpret the existing law or to give an impartial verdict in accordance with the established law of the land, but rather he is a deliverer and thus a leader and savior as in the book of Judges (Judges 1:16-17; 3:9-10). His duty and delight is to set things right, to right the wrong; his "judgments" are not words but acts, not legal verdicts but the very active use of God's right arm. The two functions of a judge are given in Psalm 75:7:

"But God is the judge:
he puts down one and exalts another."

Since this a statement concerning God as a judge, it could be taken as a general definition of a Biblical judge. In Psa. 72:1-4 these two functions of Biblical judge are given to the king of Israel.

"¹ Give the king thy justice [judgment], O God,
and thy righteousness to the royal son!
² May he judge thy people with righteousness,
and thy poor with justice [judgment]!
³ Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness!
⁴ May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
and give deiverance to the needy,
and crush the oppressor!" (Psa. 72:1-4)

These same two functions are ascribed to the future ruler of Israel, the Messiah, according to Isaiah 11:3-5.

"³ And His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what His eyes see,
or decide by what His ears hear;
⁴ but with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and He shall smite the earth with a rod of His mouth;
and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
⁵ Righteousness shall be the girdle of His waist
and faithfulness the girdle of His loins." (Isa. 11:3-5)

His righteousness is shown in the vindication of those who are the victims of evil, the poor and meek of the earth.

The righteousness of God is not opposed to the love of God nor does it condition it. On the contrary, it is a part of and the proper expression of God's love. It is the activity of God's love to set right the wrong. In the Old Testament this is shown by the parallelism between love and righteousness.

"But the steadfast love of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear him,
and His righteousness to children's children." (Psa. 103:17).
(See also Psa. 33:5; 36:56; 40:10; 89:14.)

God expresses His love as righteousness in the activity by which He saves His people from their sins. In His wrath He opposes the sin that would destroy man whom He loves. In His grace He removes the sin: the grace of God is the love of God in action to bring salvation (Titus 2:11; Eph. 2:8). The grace of God may properly be called the righteousness of God. For in His love, God acts to deliver His people from their sins, setting them right with Himself.

There is a difference between the righteousness of God in the Old Testament and that in the New Testament. In the Old Testament the righteousness of God is the vindication of the righteous who are suffering wrong (Ex. 23:7). God vindicates the righteous who are wrongfully oppressed. In the Old Testament the righteousness of God requires a real righteousness of the people on whose part it is done. In Isa. 51:7 the promise of deliverance is addressed to those "who know righteousness, the people in whose hearts is my law." Similarly, in order to share in the promised vindication, the wicked must forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord (Isa. 55:7). In the New Testament, the righteousness of God is not only a vindication of a righteous people who are being wrongfully oppressed (this view is in Jesus' teaching in Matt. 5:6; 6:33; Luke 18:7), but also a deliverance of the people from their own sins; it is also the salvation of the ungodly who are delivered from their ungodliness (trust in a false god) and unrighteousness. The righteousness of God saves the unrighteous by setting them right with God Himself through faith (Rom. 1:17a).

This Biblical concept of the righteousness of God must be carefully distinguished from the Greek-Roman concept of justice. The righteousness of God in the Scriptures is not an attribute of God whereby He must render to each what he has merited nor a quantity of merit which God gives, but God acting to set right man with God Himself. Luther's apparent identification of the righteousness of God with the righteousness from God lead eventually to the equating of the righteousness from God with Christ's righteousness, that is, the merits of Christ, which Christ earned by His active obedience before He died on the cross and is imputed to the believer's account. Righteousness is misunderstood as merits and the righteousness of God as the justice of God. The idea that the righteousness of God is the justice of God, that is, that attribute of God which requires that God punish all sin and reward all meritorious works, is a legalistic misunderstanding of the Biblical concept of the righteousness of God. This legalistic misunderstanding reduces and equates the righteousness of God to justice, that is, the giving to each that which is his due to them with a strict and impartial regard to merit (as in Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics). It is this concept of righteousness that gave Luther so much trouble.

ENDNOTES FOR "THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD"

[1] Alan Richardson,
An Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), pp. 79-83, 232-233.

[2] Edward J. Young, An Introduction to the Old Testament
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1950), pp. 281-282.
See also Gleason L. Archer, Jr.,
A Survey of Old Testament Introduction
(Chicago: Moody Press, 1964), pp. 418-420.

[3] C. H. Dodd,
The Epistle of Paul to the Romans
(London and Glasgow: Fontana Books, 1959), p. 38.

[4] C. H. Dodd, The Bible and the Greeks
(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1964), p. 46.

THE MANIFESTATION OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

The righteousness of God is God acting in love for the salvation or deliverance of man. This righteousness of God has been manifested, that is, publicly displayed, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"²¹ But now apart from the Law
the righteousness of God has been manifested,
being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets;
²² even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ
for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;"
(Rom. 3:21-22 NAS).

The righteousness of God, as we have just seen, is God acting in love to set man right with God Himself and is synonymous with salvation (Ps. 98:2; 71:1-2, 15; 119:123; Isa. 45:8; 46:13; 51:5; 56:1; 61:10; 62:1). Now this righteousness of God has been manifested (phaneroo), that is, publicly displayed, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God was active in the death and resurrection of Christ for man's salvation. And because He is this act of God for man's salvation, Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God (I Cor. 1:30). And since the gospel or good news is about Jesus Christ, who He is and what He did (Rom. 1:3-4; I Cor. 15:3-4), it is about this manifestation of the righteousness of God. The gospel tells us about God's act of salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ; the gospel is the gospel of our salvation (Eph. 1:13).

THE REVELATION OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

But the gospel is not only about the righteousness of God manifested in the past on our behalf, but in the preaching of the gospel the righteousness of God is being continually revealed (apokalupto) in the present.

"For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God
is being revealed from faith unto faith" (Rom. 1:17a ERS).

The revelation that is spoken of in this verse is not just a disclosure of truth to be understood by the mind, but it is a working that makes effective and actual that which is revealed. Hence, the revelation of the righteousness of God is that working of God that makes effective and actual that which is revealed, that is, the righteousness of God. [1] In other words, the revelation of the righteousness of God is the actualization of God's salvation. And the righteousness of God is revealed when the salvation of God is made actual and real, that is, when salvation or deliverance takes place. Thus in the preaching of the gospel there is taking place continually an actualization of the righteousness of God. In other words, salvation or deliverance is taking place as the gospel is preached. This is the reason that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16. Compare Rom. 1:16-17 with Isa. 56:1 which is, no doubt, the source of Paul's concepts and words in these verses.)

The gospel not only tells us about this manifestation of the righteousness of God, but also in the gospel the righteousness of God is being continually revealed or made effective and actual (Rom. 1:17a). When the gospel is preached, God is acting to set man right with Himself. The result of God's activity of righteousness is the righteousness of faith, the righteousness from God, since it has been received from God by faith. God in His righteousness sets man right with Himself and through faith man is set right with God; faith rightly relates man to God. The righteousness of God is what God does and the righteousness of faith is what man does in response to God's activity. The righteousness of faith is the righteousness from God because faith, which is man's response to the word of God, comes from God (Rom. 10:6-8, 17); that is, in a sense, faith is "caused" by the word of God, even though it is man who does the believing and trusting.

RIGHTEOUS THROUGH FAITH

Faith is the actualization of the righteousness of God or the salvation of God. This is expressed by Paul in Romans 1:17a in a twofold way: "from faith unto faith". These prepositional phrases modify the verb "being revealed", not the words "the righteousness of God." The revelation is "from faith unto faith."

1. Faith is the source of the revelation of the righteousness of God: "from faith". The revelation of the righteousness of God arises out of or comes out of faith. That is, the actualization of the deliverance of God is the faith which the righteousness of God produces. The righteousness of God is revealed only when the one to whom the revelation comes has faith. Without faith there is no revelation, and only when there is faith is there a revelation, an actualization, of the righteousness of God. In this sense, faith is the source of the revelation of the righteousness of God. [1]
2. Faith is goal of the revelation of the righteousness of God: "unto faith". The revelation of the righteousness of God moves toward and is accomplished in faith. When a man has faith, the deliverance of God has reached its goal. Faith then is the goal of the revelation of the righteousness of God.

Faith is not the means nor the condition of salvation but is the actualization of salvation. Salvation is not a thing which is received by faith but is God's activity of deliverance which produces faith and is accomplished in that faith. In salvation, God does not give us something but gives us Himself, and faith is not receiving of something but is the receiving of Him. In salvation God does not just reveal something about Himself but reveals Himself. Apart from this personal revelation, faith is impossible, but when this revelation take place, faith is possible. Since "faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom. 10:17), faith is the product of God's activity of the revelation of Himself. This revelation takes place in the preaching of the gospel. For the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). The gospel is not only about salvation (Eph. 1:13), but it is the power of God unto salvation. When the gospel is preached, God exerts His power and men are saved. This act of God's power through the preaching of the gospel takes the form of the personal revelation of God Himself and His love. For He is love (I John 4:8, 16). Those who believe in response to this revelation are through this decision of faith realizing the power of God unto salvation, and in this decision of faith they are saved. To believe is to be saved, and to be saved is to believe.

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH

The revelation of the righteousness of God (Rom. 1:17) is also called justification (Rom. 3:24). As we have seen the righteousness of God is the act or activity of God whereby God sets man right with God Himself. Hence, the revelation of the righteousness of God is this act of setting right, and this act of setting right is called justification. Justification is not just a pronouncement about something but is an act that brings about something; it is not just a declaration that a man is righteous before God but is a setting of a man right with God: a bringing him into a right personal relationship with God. Justification is then essentially salvation: to justify is to save (Isa. 45:25; 53:11; see Rom. 6:7 where dikaioo is translated "freed" in RSV). This close relationship between these two concepts is more obvious in the Greek because the words translated "justification" and "righteousness" have the same roots, not two different roots as do the two English words. See my Word Study on "righteousness".

JUSTIFICATION BY GRACE

Justification is the free act of God's grace (Rom. 3:24; Titus 3:7). The source of justification is the love of God. And the love of God in action to bring man salvation is the grace of God (Titus 2:11). Hence justification is the true expression of the grace of God and the act of the love of God. Because justification is a gift (Rom. 3:24; 5:15-17), justification is free and is not something that can be earned (Rom. 4:4; 11:6). Being a free act of God's grace, justification has nothing to do with the works of the law (Rom. 3:20, 28; 4:6; Gal. 2:16; 3:11; see also Eph. 2:2-9; Phil. 3:9; II Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5). The whole legalistic theology is a misunderstanding of the righteousness of God and justification by faith, and is therefore unbiblical and false. The Scripture nowhere speaks of the righteousness or merits of Christ and of justification as an imputation of the merits of Christ to our account. The introduction of such a legalistic righteousness, even if it means the merits of Christ, into the discussion of the righteousness of God and of justification by faith obscures the grace of God and misunderstands the law as well as the gospel of the grace of God. In principle, the grace of God has nothing to do with legal righteousness and merits.

"But if it is by grace, it is no more on basis of works;
otherwise grace would no longer be grace." (Rom. 11:6)

God does not give man His grace so that he can earn merits by works to gain eternal life nor to show that he is legally righteous before God. Eternal life is the gift of His grace and it is received by faith. Neither was eternal life earned by the active obedience of Jesus Christ nor did Jesus Christ satisfy the demands of the law, either in precept or penalty, in our place. Christ fulfilled the law (Matt. 5:17), but not for us. Nowhere in the Scripture does it say that Christ fulfilled the law for us. Neither did he fulfill it legalistically. Not because Christ was not able to do it but because God does not in His love and grace operate on the basis of law or legal righteousness. Christ fulfilled it by love, for "love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. 13:8, 10).

JUSTIFICATION FROM SIN TO RIGHTEOUSNESS

There is a difference between justification in the Old Testament and that in the New Testament. In the Old Testament justification is the vindication of the righteous who are suffering wrong (Ex. 23:7). God justifies, that is, vindicates the righteous who are wrongfully oppressed. Justification requires a real righteousness of the people on whose part it is done. In Isa. 51:7 the promise of deliverance is addressed to those "who know righteousness, the people in whose hearts is my law." Similarly, in order to share in the promised vindication, the wicked must forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord (Isa. 55:7). However, in the New Testament justification is not only a vindication of a righteous people who are being wrongfully oppressed but also a deliverance of the people from their own sins. Thus, Paul says that God is He "that justifies the ungodly" (Rom. 4:5). In the New Testament justification is not just a vindication of the righteous who has been wronged (this view is in Jesus' teaching in Matt. 5:6; 6:33; Luke 18:7), but it is also the salvation of the ungodly who are delivered from their ungodliness and unrighteousness. But justification not only saves the ungodly from their sins, it also brings them into the righteousness of faith. To be set right with God is to have faith in God. "Abraham believed God, and it [his faith] was reckoned unto him for righteousness" (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3,9; cf. Rom. 10:9; Phil. 3:9). Justification as God's act of setting man right with Himself brings man into faith, which is to be set right with God. Thus justification is through faith (dia pisteos, Rom. 3:30; Gal. 2:16) and out of or from faith (ek pisteos, Rom. 3:26,30; Gal. 2:16; 3:8, 24).

JUSTIFICATION FROM WRATH TO PEACE

But justification as salvation is not only the deliverance from sin to righteousness but also the deliverance from wrath to peace and from death to life. Justification as deliverance from wrath to peace is set forth by the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:24-25:

"²⁴ Being justified by His grace as a gift,
through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,
²⁵ whom God set forth to be a propitiation,
through faith in His blood."
(Rom. 3:24-25 ERS; see also Isa. 32:17)

Paul here connects justification with redemption, which is the liberation aspect of salvation, and with propitiation, which is the sacrifical aspect of salvation. Redemption is the deliverance from sin by the payment of a price called a ransom which is the death of Jesus Christ. And propitiation is the deliverance from the wrath by the sacrifical death of Jesus ("His blood") which turns away or averts the wrath of God through faith in that sacrifice ("through faith in His blood"). Christ's death as a propitiation turns away God's wrath from the one who has faith in that sacrifice. The wrath is turned away because the sin has been taken away ("forgiveness") by the death of Christ as a ransom, by which a man is redeemed or set free, delivered from the slavery of sin. When sin has been removed there is no cause for God's wrath. No sin, no wrath. Man is saved from wrath because he is saved from sin.

"Being justified freely by faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5:1)

"Much more then, being justified by His blood,
we shall be saved through Him from the wrath of God." (Rom. 5:9)

JUSTIFICATION FROM DEATH TO LIFE

Justification is also deliverance from death to life. Man is delivered from sin to the righteousness of faith because he is delivered from death to life. As sinners we were enemies of God, but through the death of God's Son we have been reconciled to God and are now no longer enemies. To be reconciled to God means we have passed from death to life and we are saved in His resurrected life ("having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Rom. 5:10; see also II Cor. 5:17-21). We are delivered from death by being "made alive together with Him" in His resurrection (Eph. 2:5). He was "raised for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). Thus justification is "justification of life" (Rom. 5:18). To be set right with God is to enter into fellowship with God. And this right relationship to God is life. Justification puts us into right relationship to God and hence is a justification of life. Fellowship with God is established when God reveals Himself to man and man responds to that revelation in faith. Life is a personal relationship between God and man that results from this revelation and the faith-response to it. Apart from this revelation the response of faith is not possible, and this revelation is the offer of life and the possibility of faith. But life is not actual unless man responds in faith to the revelation of God Himself. Life is received in the act of faith. Since God's act of revelation is first, and man's response in faith is second and depends upon God's revelation, life results in the righteousness of faith and man becomes righteous because of life. Justification as the revelation of the righteousness of God brings about life and the righteousness of faith.

The righteousness of God is God acting in love for the salvation or deliverance of man. This righteousness of God has been manifested, that is, publicly displayed, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-22). God was active in Jesus Christ, particularly in His death and resurrection, for salvation (Acts 4:12; I Thess. 5:9; I Tim. 2:10; 3:15; Heb. 5:9). Because He is the act of God for our salvation, Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God (I Cor. 1:30). The gospel or good news is about this manifestation of the righteousness of God. The gospel tells us about God's act of salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:3-4; Eph. 1:13). God acted in Him to deliver man from death, from sin, and from wrath. But since wrath is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18) and sin is caused by death ( Rom. 5:12d), salvation is basically the deliverance from death to life. Man cannot make himself alive. Only God can make alive, for He is the living God and the source of all life. Because God loves man, He did not leave him in death but has provided for him deliverance from death by sending His Son into the world (John 3:16). God in His love for man sent His Son to become a man -- Jesus Christ, the God-man (John 1:14). He was the perfect man; He lived in perfect fellowship with God and perfectly trusted God throughout His entire life (John 1:4; 8:28-29; 12:50; 16:32; 17:25). But He came not just to be what we should have been or just to give us a perfect example. He came to die on our behalf in order that we might have life in Him. Jesus said,

"¹⁰ I came that they might have life,
and have it more abundantly.
¹¹ I am the good shepherd:
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep."
(John 10:10-11 KJV)

The Apostle John wrote,

"In this was manifested the love of God toward us,
because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world
that we might live through him." (I John 4:9)

He entered not only into our existence as man, but he entered into our condition of spiritual and physical death. On the cross, He died not only physically but spiritually. For only this once during His whole life was He separated from His Father.

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46 KJV)

He was forsaken for us; He died for us.

"Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us"
(I John 3:16).

But God raised Him from the dead. He entered into our death in order that as He was raised from the dead we might be made alive with and in Him (Eph. 2:5). Hence Christ's death was our death, and His resurrection is our resurrection (II Cor. 5:15). He became identified with us in death in order that we might become identified with Him in His resurrection and have life. He became like us that we might become like Him. As Irenaeus (125-202 A.D.), the second century Christian theologian and bishop of Lyon, said,

"...but following the only true and steadfast teacher,
the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are,
that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself." [2]

He tasted death for every man (Heb. 2:9).

"¹⁴ Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood,
he himself likewise partook of the same nature,
that through death he might destroy him
that has the power of death, that is the devil,
¹⁵ and deliver all those who through fear of death
were subject to lifelong bondage." (Heb. 2:14-15)

He acted as our representative, on our behalf and for our sake.

"For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge,
that one died for (on the behalf, huper) all,
therefore all died," (II Cor. 5:14)

that is, in Christ who represents all. Adam acting as a representative brought the old creation under the reign of death. But Christ acting as our representative brought a new creation in which those "who have received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life" (Rom. 5:17).

"For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
(I Cor. 15:21-22)

"Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature:
the old things are passed away;
behold, they are become new." (II Cor. 5:17)

(Jesus said) "Because I live ye shall live also."
(John 14:19 KJV)

Acting through our representative, God has reconciled us to Himself through Him, that is, God has brought us into fellowship with Himself.

"¹⁸ But all things are of God,
who reconciled us to himself through Christ...
¹⁹ to wit, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself."
(II Cor. 5:18-19;
see also Rom. 5:10-11; I Cor. 1:9; I John 1:2-3).

This representative work of Christ should not be understood as a vicarious act, instead of another, but as a participation, a sharing in the act of another. Christ took part or shared our situation. He entered not only into our existence as a man, but also into our condition of spiritual and physical death. On the cross, He died not only physically but also spiritually (Matt. 26:46). We were reconciled to God through the death of Christ because He shared in our death (Rom. 5:10; Heb. 2:9). But He was raised from the dead, and that on behalf of all men (II Cor. 5:15). He was raised from the dead so that we might participate in His resurrection and be made alive with Him (Eph. 2:5-7). His resurrection is our resurrection. He was raised from dead for us so that we might participate in His resurrection and life, both spiritual and physical, in Him. Since spiritual death is no fellowship with God, being made alive with Christ we are brought into fellowship with God. Hence, we are reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10; II Cor. 5:17-19). Reconciliation can therefore be defined as that aspect of salvation whereby man is delivered from death to life. The source of this act of reconciliation is the love of God. It is a legalistic misunderstanding of reconciliation which says that God was reconciled to man. The Scriptures never say that God is reconciled to man but that man is reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10; II Cor. 5:18-19). The problem is not in God but in man. Man is the enemy of God; God is not the enemy of man. God loves man, and out of His great love He has acted to reconcile man to Himself through the death and resurrection of Christ. It is true that God in His wrath opposes man's sin and in His grace has provided a means by which His wrath may be turned away. But this aspect of salvation is propitiation, not reconciliation. Reconciliation should not be confused with propitiation. God in reconciling man to Himself has saved man from death, the cause of sin ( Rom. 5:12d), and hence He has removed sin, the cause of His wrath -- no sin, no wrath. Propitiation is salvation from wrath to peace with God, and propitiation is salvation from wrath to peace with God because of redemption which is salvation from sin to righteousness. And redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness because of reconciliation which is salvation from death to life,

THE THREE ASPECTS OF JUSTIFICATION

Since salvation is from death to life (reconcilation), from sin to righteousness (redemption), and from wrath to peace with God (propitiation), these are the three aspects of salvation. And these three aspects of salvation are the three aspects of justification.

God has acted in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of man from death, sin and wrath. Since wrath is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18) and sin by death ( Rom. 5:12d), salvation is basically from death to life and then from sin to righteousness and then from wrath to peace with God.
Reconciliation is deliverance from death to life;
redemption is deliverance from sin to righteousness; and
propitiation is deliverance from wrath to peace.
These three aspects of salvation are accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Propitiation is the sacrifical aspect,
redemption is the liberation aspect, and
reconciliation is the representative aspect of His work of salvation.
This threefold act of God for the salvation of man is the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God (=salvation) has been manifested (publicily displayed) in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-26). The gospel tells us about this act of God, about this manifestation of the righteousness of God. In the preaching of the gospel, the righteousness of God is being continually revealed or actualized (Rom. 1:17). That is, God is exerting His power for the salvation of man in the preaching of the gospel (Rom. 1:16). This revelation of the righteousness of God is justification by faith. The results of this act of God is not a legal fiction, a legal relationship, but real personal relationship to God, spiritual and eternal life. Justification is not just a legal declaration or imputation of Christ's righteousness, the merits earned by Christ's active obedience, but the act or activity of God that saves one from death to life, from sin (trust in a false god) to righteousness (faith and trust in the true God), and from wrath to peace with God through faith in the death and resurrection of Christ (Rom. 3:24-25).

END NOTES

[1] Burton on Galations in the ICC in contrasting phaneroo and apokalupto points out that
"for some reason apokalupto has evidently come to be used especially of a subjective revelation, which either takes place wholly within the mind of the individual receiving it,
or is subjective in the sense that it is accompanied by actual perception
and results in knowledge on his part: Rom. 8:18; I Cor. 2:10; 14:30; Eph. 3:5."
Ernest deWitt Burton,
A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Galations, in
The International Critical Commentary
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896), p. 433.
He goes on to say that
"phaneroo throws emphasis on the fact that that
which is manifested is objectively clear, open to perception.
It is thus suitably used of an open and public announcement,
disclosure or exhibition: I Cor. 4:15; II Cor. 2:14; 4:10-11; Eph. 5:13."
Ibid.
The use of the word apokalupto by Paul in Rom. 1:17 thus seems to place an emphasis on something happening to the individual receiving the revelation. The word "subjective" is probably not the right word to use to describe this event because it suggests that the source of revelation is from within the individual, the subject. Clearly the revelation that Paul is speaking of is from without the individual, and from God. But it does make a difference, a change; a response does take place in the person receiving the revelation. It does bring about that which is revealed, salvation.

[2] Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book V,
preface Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds.,
The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1.
The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1956), p. 526.