To understand Paul’s meaning of the Righteousness of God it would do us well to look back at the foundation of his concepts.1 Since he had been raised a Hebrew of the Hebrews (Philippians 3:5), his foundational concepts about righteousness are going to be tied to this background. For example, Paul seems to draw upon this heritage since throughout Romans he often shows the contrasts and connections between the Law and righteousness, Romans 2:26, 3:31, 4:13, 8:4, 9:31, 10:4-5. So it would do us well to look back at why this connection is so pronounced.
In the first part of Deuteronomy, Moses is preparing the next generation of Israelites to enter into the Promised Land. Their parents and grandparents have all died off and now they are the generation that is allowed to enter into the inheritance. But before they enter, Moses restates much of the foundational truths of the law that had been given during the days of wandering. His reason in doing this is because the generation in front of Moses either did not see God’s hand of deliverance in Egypt or they were too young to understand what it all meant. So Moses reminds them of God’s greatness and His holiness. He tells them, for instance, that God is jealous (Deuteronomy 6:15) and He will not share His glory with anyone or anything, so He expects their complete obedience.
These “children” were what could be called “second generation” believers, because, they had not actually seen great wonders and they were believing God based upon what they had been told. Moses knowing this tries to explain how a believing generation can influence the next generation toward believing in a God whom them only know through limited experience. He states in Deuteronomy 6:20-25:
“And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you?Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand: And the Lord shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes: And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.”
Moses tells this “second generation” to remind themselves, in detail, of what God has done in the past. For instance, he tells them to explain that it was God Who delivered from Egypt through His great power. But then notice a phrase in verse 25; “It shall be our righteousness…” The children of Israel were being instructed to allow their righteousness to be displayed by the doing of the “statutes” God had commanded them. This truth is timeless but the Jewish mind often based it’s concept of their righteousness upon a misapplication of this concept.2 You see, they believed that Moses was commanding obedience to become righteous, instead of seeing that obedience comes from being righteous.
God had called Israel to be a separated people and He, by His actions, made them such, (Leviticus 20:26). Israel was not righteous until God made them righteous. Then once He made them "righteous," He expected them to obey the law and to be seen as through their obedience to the law. Thus we must grasp that the righteousness of any people is based upon the righteousness of God and not their own actions. He is holy and through His holiness we can be made holy, 1 Peter 2:9. Deuteronomy 6:23 says it best by way of an almost allegorical illustration, “…he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in…” God brought them out of sin (Egypt) that they might live in victory (Palestine). He makes righteous so that living righteousness is possible,
However, when Paul writes Romans, there is still a huge disconnect as the Jews were still believing that their works were making them righteous, instead of their righteousness coming from God (Romans 6) and obedience displaying righteousness following that gift. Their obedience to the law became a source of pride and that is what God was trying to break - their pride! He is the jealous God of Deuteronomy 6:15 and will not share His glory with anyone or anything - including obedience to the law. They were servants of sin, Romans 6:20, even when they were obeyers of the law because the law does not make you righteous.3
So today, we must see the contrast - our righteousness is given by a righteous God and that righteousness of God, which is His character, and our ONLY source of righteousness! In conclusion, there are two possible responses to viewing the righteousness of God. First, there are those who have taken this concept of the Righteousness of God to teach the false doctrine of Calvinism.4 They contest that because God is so righteous, we cannot make decisions on our own accord, which is not biblical. Second, there is the more biblically sound response that God’s righteousness is imparted at salvation and it should encourage God’s people to share their faith with a lost and dying world, because God wants to bring out so He can bring in.5
- Frank Thielman, “God’s Righteousness As God’s Fairness in Romans 1:17: An Ancient Perspective on a Significant Phrase,” Journal of Evangelical Theological Society, March 2011. https://www.galaxie.com/article/jets54-1-04, Accessed October 3, 2018.
- Philip Stafford Moxom, “Personal Righteousness,” Bibliotheca Sacra, January 1900. https://www.galaxie.com/article/bsac057-225-03, Accessed October 3, 2018.
- Nicolas Dobson, “Paul’s Use Of Δικαιοσυνη Θεου And The New Perspective Interpretation,” Journal of Ministry and Theology, Fall 2015. https://www.galaxie.com/article/jmat19-2-06, Accessed October 1, 2018.
- B.G. Felce, “The Ground of Justification,” Tyndale Bulletin, Winter 1956. https://www.galaxie.com/article/tynbul02-1-03, Accessed October 3, 2018.
- David Cloud, “God’s Law and Evangelism,” Sowing and Reaping, May 2, 2017. https://www.wayoflife.org/reports/gods_law_and_evangelism.html, Accessed October 3, 2018.
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