Romans 1:17-20 Bible Teaching

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We left off last week covering the first verse of Paul’s doctrinal treatise of Romans one – verse 16 – where he says:

16 For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation, for everyone who believes – to the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Let’s read verse 17 to finish off Paul’s though before he goes deeper beginning at 18.

Romans 1.17-20
Milk
November 1st 2020
17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

Again, in verse 16 Paul said:

16 For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation, for everyone who believes – to the Jew first and also for the Greek.

At verse 17 he begins with, “for” (again), and this is in reference obviously to the contents of verse 16 and he implies that he is now about to give another reason for that which he just said, a reason why “he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.”

The first reason that he wasn’t ashamed we covered last week – “for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,” now he gives us a second reason, referring to the Gospel again, and saying:

17 For . . . therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

These two passages might almost be considered the thesis statement for the whole of the epistle – “that Gospel is the power of God to all who believe, for therein is the righteousness of God (the righteousness of who? God) “for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written the just shall live by faith.”

In these two passages, referencing the Gospel, Paul says that it is “the Power of God” and that it is “the Righteousness of God.”

What does Paul call the Power of God and the Righteousness of God? The Gospel. And we know that the Gospel is defined as Jesus Christ “died for our sins and was then raised from the grave to new life.”

That, Paul says, “amounts to both the “power” and the righteousness of God.”

Power – dunamis – where we get our word dynamite. And it means “force (literally or figuratively); specially, “miraculous power, ability, abundance, meaning, might power, strength, violence, mighty works.”

The Gospel is the force, miraculous power, ability, abundance, meaning, might power, strength, violence, mighty works” of God.

How is the Gospel, the Good News as the scripture defines it, the power of God (again note, it is not the power of Man).

It appears that the collected elements surrounding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth which therefore it possess the ability, upon faith, to do things that nothing else on earth have the capacity to do or accomplish in the lives of fallen human beings.

We will talk about those things shortly, but I think its important to remind ourselves that the Gospel is God’s solution to the condition of Man.

Our condition has been prescribed all manner of solutions, and they keep coming, don’t they?

Every minute there is a new solution coming down the pike. People embrace them and listen – some of them work, in terms of this world and its ways, don’t they?

There are of course the fleshly solutions – food, sex, drugs and the like, and there are the anti-fleshly solutions – dieting, abstinence, nutrition, exercise and asceticisms.

There are the mental and emotional and spiritual solutions – psychology, psychiatry, the Foundation, mediations, self-help ad-nauseum. There are institutions everywhere established to do the same, governments, military, religions, educations, vocations – but none of them have the capacity, the power, to accomplish what God wants to accomplished in the lives of his creations.

None.

That is the interesting thing about the Gospel is that other things CAN and DO make the human experience better, they can change our status in life, but the Gospel is the POWER of God to salvation.

We sometimes get a little defensive about the Gospel as compared to these other things.

These defenses rise-up when we encounter people who maintain that Buddhism changed their life, or joining the Military or taking acid changed their life.

People can and do experience rebirths in such things – its true. But there is no need for Christian defensiveness or fear.

Mormonism did in fact save Glenn Becks life and moved him from alcoholism to a successful commentator.

But the Gospel is the POWER of God to salvation. It is God’s solution toward the salvation of human beings. No other system or thing has this power nor can fill in and replace what the Gospel of Jesus Christ does.

And that is the first point. MANY things offer rebirth but only one provides it from heaven granting heavenly qualification.

And what it does goes hand in hand with the second description Paul gives of the Gospel in these two verses:

It is the POWER of God and it is the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God.

The word righteousness here in the Greek is dikayoo-sune. Which means “the justification of God, the equitable justification of God.”

The Gospel is the power of God and it is the justification of God.

I want you to contemplate on the fact that the Gospel events all took place – the life, death and resurrection of Christ – here on earth in space and time.

That is where the Good News was established, played and lived out in the flesh of Jesus Christ.

It therefore has application to this life and this world, and because a human being was central to the establishment of the Good News, the Good news has its application to human beings.

Taking all of this, and then looking at what Paul says here, that the Gospel is “the Power of God and the Equitable Justification of God in and toward human beings,” we are able to understand where that power and justification is directed – to us.

To People. To Jew and Greek, male and female, to, as Paul says in verse 16, “to everyone (of us humans) who believe.”

To all who have faith.

So, while the Gospel originated on earth materially in the Son of Man, and it is the power and equitable justification of God of Man, it sits like a gift on the doorsteps of the human heart and needs to be received by individual human beings.

In this gift waiting to be received is the power and equitable justification by God. Again, it is his solution to the state of every human being (which Paul calls salvation.)

So, there is an issue with Man that needed a solution from a loving God – Man needs to be saved from his natural birth condition.

Human beings are not saved from their sins at birth, nor are they saved to life with God from birth.

We are not born children of God, but “as many as receive him” (by faith) have the POWER (dunamis) to become children of God.

The biblical story is that human beings are alienated from God at birth bearing with us a natural state of rebelliousness and indifference to Him and his ways.

IOW, we “naturally” (or our nature) do not want to live life according to his will and ways, but want to “go our own way.”

And part of our “self-determination” (foisted in rebelliousness,) is to sin. To miss the mark. To not hit the target God would have his human creations hit with their lives.

Scripture makes it plain that all human beings miss the mark, to some degree or another. Scripture also makes plain that it is impossible for human beings to not miss the mark, and then to make matters worse, scripture makes it plain that if we were going to please God with our lives, we can NEVER miss the mark – ever – we would have to strike bulls eyes at every turn.

Both Paul and James make it clear that the Law of God, which was perfect, comes as a whole package, not in pieces.

To be a law abiding citizen of God we have to obey the whole of it.

We might wonder why this would be? God cannot lie nor deny his nature. And his nature is holiness. His nature is pure light. Without turning or shadow.

And for a “material-human-created-creation” to enter that light and have relationship with Him that human being cannot bear with her or him ANY shadow of darkness – sin.

The one (His Light) would consume the other (our sin and us with it).

And so, we have an impasse, and impossible gulf existing between our Creator (who loves us) and the Creation, who misses the only acceptable mark of God’s – perfection.

And therefore, there was the need for a solution. A solution that would not only allow God to save us human beings from ourselves (and our natural sinful state), but a solution that would be possible, equitable, effective, eternal, and one that would operate within the realms of the freewill God grants all who are made in his image.

That solution of course, is found in God himself taking on human flesh, living a life in that flesh (which was in accordance with a perfect execution of his desires), and would then also include that flesh being subject to a sacrificial death, freely and out of love for God and Man, which culminated in that Man rising up from the Grave as “God overcoming Man.”

In Him we have God’s solution played out, evidenced, established, founded – and in and through the elements of him and his life – the Gospel – both the POWER of GOD and the RIGHTEOUSNESS of GOD for salvation is presented forevermore to the world.

The power of God (to meet and overwhelm the sinful rebellious nature of human beings toward Him and His ways,) which is then followed up instantaneously with His equitable justification of everyone (long beat) “who believes” – who places his or her faith in the solution God supplies – not the solutions of men or their concoctions. The Solution God authored, provided, and stamps as effective – the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sinful men and women roam the earth and God calls to all – all, as we will see in the next verses so that no one has any excuse – and we all have the freewill decision and choice to receive the Good News or to reject it for another way.

Interestingly, Jesus himself, standing before Pilate said something really simple:

“Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.”

Another way to cite this is that those “who want, seek, desire the truthful solution God has for this world will hear the truth when it is presented.”

They will receive the message by faith – which brings us to the human part in the rescue efforts – faith.

There are year-long arguments out there on whether a fallen human being can choose to receive the Gospel by exercising some sort of faith in the message or if God alone bestows the faith first, of his own will, making belief possible for those he elects.

I mean these arguments are deep and not easily debated. In the face of them I personally approach the subject in the following way:

Human beings are selfish and blind and love the dark more than the light by nature. This is supported by scripture.

God in his loving provision of this fact has provided, surrounded sensate human beings, with “invitations” to believe.

Without these invitations human beings would be indifferent to Him all together.

His invitations are found in His creation of the universe, galaxies, solar systems, the wonders of nature, our human conscience (which is a big one and likened to the light of Christ in the earth that touches all people), the witness of daily miracles (like the birth of a child, the flight of a bird, the blossoming of flowers in spring). God invites all people with and by His written Word, His direct revelations given by His Spirit (which I find more vast and varied each and every day) and he invites us by the witness of Him from others who share them. And then finally, of course, He reaches us, by the preaching of the Gospel.

In the face of all of these invitations to believe we will soon read that humankind are therefore “without excuse.”

Scripture also describes the several “different but general reasons” why human beings reject these invitations that he is constantly giving. Specifically, we read that people are either

“Blinded” (and this is typically by Satan in scripture of that day, but I would extend this blindness to the darkness of the world today)

“Choked” (by the cares or riches of the world)

“Offended” (because of the word – meaning the doctrines or views presented therein)

Or “they love the dark more than the light because their deeds are evil.”

Which leads us to fifth reason people reject the invitations or the chance to bear fruit – sin.

In the face of all of this I think we can then say that God certainly does reach out (first) to all the world giving good reason for them to open themselves up to more of Him as they present themselves, but we also have the choice, the free choice, to embrace the invitations of light, as they come (whether incrementally or in an engulfing wave) or to reject them.

The passages that support our answering knocking doors, and the like, are strewn throughout the text. And the bottom-line is, as tough as this sounds, and as arrogant as it can sound, is found in what Jesus said:

“Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.”

I think that this is why I personally love those who are seekers of God and Christ – they may have faults and even personal issues with sin and such but by God they are all about, or are all of, the truth.

And this truth “sets them free” as God’s solution to the imprisonment of Man, the captivity of Man to Sin, the alienation of Man from God, takes hold and releases them from the chains of this world.

All by faith.

In fact, speaking of Faith, Paul here in verse 17 uses the word “faith” three times, saying

“For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

The bottom line meaning of this from Paul will ultimately come down to being that God’s solution for the salvation of human kind would not be, cannot be, by “the works of the Law,” or by “religious practices,” or by “manifesting human holiness to offset human sin.”

He will get to making the point that there is no other way or means to access the Good News but . . . by faith.

Here in the King James version of verse 17 the wording is cumbersome, when it says:

“For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.”

What does this really mean?

Paul’s phrase “from faith to faith” has been debated by many and there remains a few plausible views in my estimation.

Some see it as a reference to the beginning of faith to the end of faith, meaning “from the faith of God, who makes the offer of salvation, to the faith of men, who receive it the faith stands.”

I’m not so sure on that as I am unsure about “the faith of God” part.

Others see the line as speaking to soteriology as in, “Salvation comes from God’s faith (or faithfulness) to our faith.”

And others suggest that it speaks to “God’s faithfulness,” which always comes first) and then our faith in response to him.

Then there are others who think that Paul is talking about the transmission of faith “going from one believer to another,” hence, from faith (of one) to the faith of another.

I happen to agree with the most widely accepted interpretation of the line which says that “from faith to faith” refers to faith in its most nascent form to every aspect of it as it progresses and grows over the course of the life of an individual.

In other words, as 2nd Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord,”

IOW, we know that whatever place we are at in these “transitions from glory to glory” faith is always the determining factor for salvation.

This is why Paul writes, citing what appears to be the Septuagint’s version of Habakkuk 2:4 which says,

“If any man shall draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him; but the just by my faith” (or by faith in me) “shall live.”

The Hebrew meaning of this “The just man, or the righteous man, shall live by his confidence in God,” and does not really speak to the doctrine of salvation by faith alone as Paul uses it here in Romans.

Notice the whole phrase:

“The JUST (or the justified by God) will Live by Faith.”

This wonderful gift sitting on the doorstep of every human heart, is remarkably constructed.

And having accomplished the creation and establishment of the whole thing, meaning the complete establishment of the Good News by Jesus Christ, those JUSTIFIED by GOD, before God, will live (which is a play on words in some ways because it speaks to the justified really living here on earth and then going on to really live eternally) and all who are really living are doing so . . . by faith.

For this reason, it seems to me that every enemy to “God’s solution” stands in opposition to this incomprehensibly valuable product we call faith.

Fleshly men claim reason! Science! Logic! Some of our greatest cultures and minds make a sheer mockery of faith whenever they can.

But at the end of the day we cannot get around the some important Christian/biblical facts about faith:

We cannot please God without it (according to Hebrews 11)
That there is no power or justification from God without it.
THAT, faith is in general the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true (Php 1:27; 2Th 2:13)
That it’s primary idea is trust; that a thing is true, and therefore worthy of trust.
It admits in many degrees – from slight to a “full assurance of faith,” which is in accordance with the “evidence upon” which it rests.
And that faith is the result of teaching and hearing (according to Paul who says in Romans 10:14-17):

14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Knowledge therefore , is an essential element in all faith, and is, in fact, sometimes spoken of as an “equivalent to faith.” But the two are distinguished in this respect in that faith involves the will. This means that a willful “assent to the truth” is of the essence of faith.
I am not speaking here of faith unrelated to God. I am talking about saving faith.
And saving faith (which has eternal life connected to it) is directly tied to the Gospel of Jesus Christ – it rests upon our faith upon him alone for salvation.
This special willful “act of faith” is pointed, fixed and set on Christ completely – not ourselves.
And it is super important to realize that faith is not “a merit or goodness” on our part. This is hard for some people to understand. It is accepting what God says, what he promises, and what he proclaims.

What does God say?

He says that we are sinful and separated from him at birth. To trust in that is not a merit, it is no different than trusting that a mammal will drown if held under water. There is no virtue in accepting this information as a fact. So, our faith is not a virtue that says, “okay, he is good” or “she qualifies.”

It’s actually the assent that says, “I don’t qualify. He does. And I trust this just like I trust that if a mammal is held underwater long enough it will drown.”

I trust in the promises of God – what he says. There is nothing meritorious of my trusting the knowledge that 2 plus 2 is four. I choose to trust this or not. That’s all. Same with having faith in the promises of God.

What does God promise? He promises that if we receive and believe what he says, that we are sinful and alienated from Him and that we are in need of His solution, the Good News of Jesus Christ, he will forgive us of our sin and we will be reconciled to him here and now, and hereafter.

So in essence, “faith is really accepting the promises of God as fact.”

We recall the difficult to comprehend statement from Hebrews 11

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.”

Notice that the words, “things” is used twice in this verse – I suggest that things refer to the promises of God.

“Faith is the substance of the promises of God hoped for, the evidence for the promises of God not seen.”

I use the example of honey and bees to help this passage make sense relative to faith, knowledge and choosing to believe.

Suppose that in our world nobody has ever seen a honey bee. Ever.

We are told stories about them, stories that say they fly around and collect pollen and nectar and it turns to a substance called honey, but nobody has ever sighted a honey bee.

However, when we go out into the woods we locate honey in the crotch of a tree and we choose to conclude that they really do exist by saying:

“Honey is the substance of bees hoped for, the evidence of bees not seen.”

From this little twist on words, we know that faith in the promises of God is not in a vacuum. It is based on a view of God that says he is worthy of our trust and faith and this is supported by his coming through on all the promises he has ever made.

We see many of those promises in the contents of the Old Testament, in prophesy, in the cosmos, in our consciences, in the Word, and in the testimonies of people who walk with God.

And so at the end of the day, it is up to every single individual, with the capacity, to choose to accept, agree, embrace and believe what God says, and what God promises – or not.

And His big promise is His big solution – the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

To receive and believe it amounts to life eternal – both here and there.

It is at this point, after having established that the justified can and will only truly “live” by faith, Paul gets deeper into the presentation and says, beginning at verses 18:

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Back to verse 18 where Paul now says:

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Again, the word, “for,” is present, connecting us to the former verses.

Paul had first talked about his obligation to go to all peoples, then he says in verse 16

16 For (meaning relative to the cost of taking the Good News to Jews and Greeks) I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation, for everyone who believes – to the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For (meaning relative to the Gospel) therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith. (And now the last for for today) 18 For (relative to those whose who refuse to receive the things God has given the world to recognize Him) the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

This last FOR explains the reason for having just said that the “Just shall LIVE by faith.”

Meaning, if or since “the Just LIVE by faith,” then the unjust (the unjustified) are the walking dead and will continue in death once their mortal lives are over.

Verse 18 begins the major proposition of why the plan of God’s justification is revealed in the Good News.

To illustrate this, Paul shows that other ways or approaches fail and he will devote the next two chapters to building the case.

Now, at this point I want to explain something about the letter to the Romans. I see the way Paul has written this letter, for the most part (there are exceptions) sort of like parents of six children addressing them before the parents go away on a weekend get-away.

These six children range in age from 17, 15, and 13 and from 10, 6 and 4.

They are all one family and what the parents will say to them has application to all of them – you know, “we want you in bed early, we want you to keep your rooms clean, we want you to get along” – all the things parents would say to their children as a whole, but the older children (who represent the Jewish converts in Rome) will be addressed more directly (relative to their longer history with the parents) while everything that they say has application and reference to the youngsters too.

Paul will specifically refer to the Gentiles a few times throughout the epistle (especially in chapter 15) but most of the time he is speaking either to “both groups” (as one) or to the Jewish converts specifically.

He does this as a means to help establish the arguments that he makes relative to salvation by grace (instead of by conformity to the law) and things like that.

So, as we read, try not to see the letter as having application only to the Jewish converts because much of what he says flows over to the Gentile converts as well, and therefore over to us.

So, what happens now is Paul, in an attempt to show that men were sinful by nature, he describes the heart of humanity that is existing amidst all the invitations God has placed around humn life to reveal him.

And from verse 18 to the end of the chapter, he describes the carnal nature of Man.

Now, many people today take these passages and read them to indict others, saying things like:

“Romans 1:18 to the end of the chapter describes homosexuals.”

But what they forget is Paul is describing the hearts of all people, not just a special segment of sinner.

Is he speaking of Jews here? Yes. But Gentiles too. The whole family. All the kids. And he is doing this as a means to build a case – and that case is that the human race, not any group nor individual, can be saved by obedience to the Laws of God – whether they are written in stone or written on the human conscience. Therefore, there must be another way – and that way, is faith.

We will stop here and begin at verse 18 next week.

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