Trusting the Righteousness of God

The righteous shall live by faith. —Romans 1:17, ASV

Richard Kindig

Romans is the foundational doctrinal book of the New Testament, boldly ..answering the weightiest questions that humans face about death and life, sin and righteousness, unbelief and faith. As we follow the apostle’s teaching, we discover the concept of “original sin,” that all humans are fallen by nature, born under a hereditary curse of sin and death. The burden of this book is to show both the personal redemptions and corporate deliverances that reveal the reasons why God has placed mankind under the curses of Genesis 3. It is in Romans that we can learn about God’s righteousness, a benevolent, thoughtful, fatherly commitment to the human race’s long-term education and prosperity.

The Joyful Message

Paul focuses on the joyful message and recognizes that it represents the power of God with respect to salvation to each individual who receives it (Romans 1:16).

What power is contained in a message such as this! God’s mighty power was demonstrated when he raised Jesus from the dead, and by the various miracles of Jesus and the apostles. Yet Paul calls our attention to the power from God that accompanies the joyful message. The power of God with respect to salvation is a gentle combination of influence from the outside and an intentional unlocking of the inside which allows a person to make a connection with God.

This principle is taught by Jesus: “No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him” (John 6:44). Or as in John 1:12, 13, the authority to become the children of God comes not from ourselves—but from God.

Paul gently hints of this order of things when he writes: “After that ye have known God, or rather are known of God” (Galatians 4:9). We do not come to know God so much as he chooses to know us. And knowledge about God is not nearly as important as personal knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10; John 17:3; Jeremiah 9:24). We sought because God stimulated the motivation we lacked; we found because God opened our eyes in his due time. It is his power that is expended with respect to salvation (Ephesians 2:3).

However, this is not all the saving power that God will ever exert. Everything ever done in the first advent or the Christian era will be dwarfed by the “greater works” of the Messianic reign (John 5:20). It will become totally unnecessary to say to one’s neighbor, “Know the LORD,” because all will know him (Jeremiah 31:34). God’s judgments will be in the earth, and the entire world will learn righteousness directly from his teaching (Isaiah 26:9).

The Wrath of God

Paul continues his argument in Romans 1:18, 19. The wrath or judicial anger of God has been revealed to all. Everywhere we look, we see death. Sodom and Gomorrah experienced the wrath of God (Jude 7). {Note that in Ezekiel 16:55, God promises a return of the people of Sodom to life on earth.  In Matthew 11:23 Jesus indicates that God had not expended all his power with respect to salvation on their behalf.}

Has anyone seen a fiery “hell”? Clearly not. That cannot be the wrath of God Paul refers to because it has not been revealed “to all.” The wrath of God must be viewed as his judicial treatment of sin in this life: each person’s hereditary struggle and ultimate death. Everyone can see that if there is a God, he is angry.

Yet only a few have had the righteousness of God revealed to them. Only these can see that in spite of sin and suffering, God is good. And it is only from faith—from God the faithful author of righteousness and redemption—that human faith springs. Faith in the righteousness of God is God’s gift of grace (Ephesians 2:7, 8, Amplified; Romans 3:22; Colossians 1:9, 10).

“When They Knew God”

The remainder of Romans chapter 1 shows that God was fair in his initial decision to “curse” the entire race of Adam through heredity. To make this point, Paul states in verse 18 that God’s wrath has been revealed against all ungodliness.

He refers to times in human history when a group of people had known God: “When they knew God” (verse 21), they did not glorify him as God. At that time they were not thankful, did not honor God, but became vain in their imagination, and their rebellious heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, (becoming intellectually autonomous), “they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image” (verses 22,23) or icon (an idol). Men who knew better chose a material conception of God, not a spiritual conception of an invisible, but personal, deity.

When did men know the identity of the true God? Certainly the first generations who lived among Adam, Seth, and Enoch knew God. Yet most humans at that time rejected God and became darkened in their hearts. In verse 25 Paul states that they changed the truth of God into the lie, the lie of Satan: “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). And instead of worshiping the Creator, they chose to worship the creature, Satan, who deceived the human race in Eden and since.

After the flood Noah’s family certainly knew God, yet the simple story of the flood became twisted into all the religions of today with their demigods and idolatry. History records God’s intervention to scatter the human race and mitigate its power for evil. Josephus summarizes that rebellion: Nimrod persuaded mankind not to ascribe their happiness to God, but to think that his own excellency was the source of it. (See Genesis 10:8, 9; Josephus, Antiquities I, iv, 2.)

A third time when a large group of people knew God was when Israel experienced its miraculous deliverance from Egypt. In this case idolatry and licentiousness emerged while Moses was yet in the mountain receiving God’s law (see Exodus 32).

These occurrences would fit Paul’s statement in Romans 1:21 that “When they knew God” humans chose not to retain God in their knowledge. At most times and places in human history, however, untold numbers live and die without ever knowing God. They are described in Isaiah 60 as being totally in darkness. Yet these are not lost to all hope; Romans 1 describes the general condition of the human race, prior to the glorious deliverance, described later in the book of Romans.

Trusting Righteous Authority

Romans 1:28 reveals much that we can apply personally in our walk with God. God’s way of dealing with those who knew God but “did not like to retain him in their knowledge” was to “give them a reprobate mind.”

The meaning of “did not like to retain God in their knowledge” hinges on the Greek word dokimazo—to “test, examine, prove, or scrutinize, to see whether it is genuine or not” (Thayer). Most translations seem to miss Paul’s point, that when people knew God, they put God to the test and decided that they would prefer to live outside of his authority. God’s response, according to Paul, is to give them an adokimizo mind. In other words, God gives the rebellious, autonomous soul a non-approving mind that cannot accept any authority. If people find God’s leadership unacceptable, God creates discontent in their soul. Pascal called this the “God-sized hole” in each person’s heart.

Whether we look at the world with its mad pursuit of self-fulfillment, or at our own personal excesses, addictions, romanticized notions, or self-will, the common thread is an inability to recognize and submit to the righteous authority that is available to us. The result, according to Paul, is a slippery slope of misbehavior all the way from parental disobedience to the most perverted moral outrages.

Paul states that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). If we want to enjoy the “hundredfold” blessing (Mark 10:30) which Jesus promises to the willing and obedient in this life, and eternal life in the next, we will need to pay careful attention to this principle. We will submit to God’s righteousness and take advantage of the grace extended to us by God through Christ. We will approach nearer to God by quickly acknowledging our sins, and yet boldly trusting in the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19,20).

Having proper awe and appreciation for God’s righteous authority will make a big impact on the way we relate to our brethren. When differences arise, we will resist our human tendency to draw back from those whom God has also chosen, and instead we will engage more closely in dialog, mutual listening and sharing of what God’s spirit has revealed to each of us.

Finally, if we choose to approve of righteous authority, we will become more effective in our family relationships. We will honor our spouses, our parents, and our children by acknowledging their personhood. And as parents, we will firmly yet gently teach our children while they are young that their key to happiness and true success in life will be to learn to approve of righteous authority—whether wielded by God, parents, spouse, employer, or governmental authorities.

“They Are Without Excuse”

Does verse 18 mean that all people are deserving of hell if they do not respond to the gospel? In fact no mention of hell occurs in Romans 1. The entire chapter refers to consequences that people experience in this life, ending in their death. Further, the judgment of God is the one that all are now experiencing, the original condemnation of Adamic death. After listing many human sins, in verse 32 Paul emphatically states that the judgment of God is that all these things are worthy of death (c.f. Romans 6:23). There is no mention of eternal existence in hell.

When Paul says that all are “without excuse,” he is not saying that the masses of mankind will not one day enjoy the blessings of God’s grace and redemption through Christ. He is saying that their dying condition at the present time is not unfair. He is also warning religious people not to sit in judgment of the less fortunate and less knowledgeable.

Those who live in the world can see vestiges of God’s character and deity in the world around them. They can look up and see stars, they can watch the faithfulness of sunrise, the miracle of life every spring, the joys and pleasures of even a fallen existence, and wonder about the Power that created all these things.

In the Christian age there have been many examples of individuals who have sought and found God in the midst of darkness. God’s arm is not short; he is quietly selecting a “people for his name” (Acts 15:14), and the rest of the world is quietly learning that God is no appeaser of sin and depravity. How glad we are that God’s plan is not completely summarized in Romans 1.

Romans 5 explains God’s universal provision of bringing “justification of life” to every man who experienced the hereditary curse of Adam. Romans 8 reveals that the whole creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption when the sons of God (developed during the Christian age) are revealed. And Romans 11:26-32 shows that even the Jews who rejected the “suffering servant” will have their ungodliness turned away by the deliverer, Christ and his church. Oh, the depth of the wisdom and righteousness of God!

Summary

In Romans 1 we are given the most basic principle of God’s plan: that man fell, that God was fair in ordaining the hereditary curses that he placed upon mankind, and that no person in the human race has an excuse for the sins he commits. However, God has sent a shaft of light into the darkness, the knowledge of his goodness through Christ. It is a goodness that during the Christian age reaches those whom God selects. And it is a goodness that will soon release all mankind from the bondage of hereditary sin, disease and death. In the end, all mankind will be able to see the goodness and righteousness of God. Praise God for his righteousness, which will yet be revealed to all the children of men! (Psalm 107)