Romans Chapter 1The Great Theme - Part 3

Alien Righteousness

Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live."


It cannot be emphasized enough that it is the righteousness of God that is revealed through the gospel to those who believe. To those who do not believe, the gospel is like the parables that are not revealed to the crowds so that “hearing they might not hear…” Nobody can have even the faintest inkling of God’s purity, holiness and justice apart from faith in what He says of Himself in the Living and the written Word.

More than this, no Christian should ever misunderstand that it is always and ever God’s righteousness with which we have to do. We are not righteous. We cannot be righteous. We never own the righteousness in which we stand in Christ. We stand in His righteousness alone. It is imputed to us through faith, but it is not ours. There is none righteous but God. That is the point of the gospel, as we shall see.

Never think you have attained righteousness, but rather think of the Lord God Almighty expressing His righteousness in and through you, now and for eternity. This is why the gospel says, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” He who is righteous in his own right is dead already.

So, I wouldn’t recommend seeing Christianity as the means by which you can acquire righteousness in your own right. Such concepts have forever passed away for those in Christ. It is not Christ and us, or we and Christ together, acting as independent beings, one perfectly righteous and the other gradually getting there. No! Our righteousness is in Christ. We are betrothed to Him in the Spirit. As we abide in Him and He in us we abide in His righteousness.

This will dispel many wrong ideas and any false sense of self-esteem, self-worth, or self-anything else. That concept of self died with Christ, and now there is only Christ joined to us and we to Him. Two persons unified in Spirit. A whole catholic church body unified in Spirit. Christ and His bride.

So here is Paul’s great précis of the gospel. It is a glorious demonstration of the power and wisdom of God by which He has made sinners to be justified in His sight. This is seen and received through faith alone.