²² … even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction …

Righteousness and how to attain it is what the book of Romans is all about. The word and its related forms, “righteous,” “just” and “justify” in the original language, are all related and occur with high frequency in this letter. The basic lexical meaning carries the quality of being “upright.” Paul uses it more pointedly, some would say more technically, for what theologians call “a status of legal rectitude that satisfies the moral requirements of God’s character” (“English Lexicon of the NT and other Early Christian Literature,” BDAG). To justify someone is to cause him to be “in proper or right relationship with someone else.”

Having concluded that “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Rom 3:20), our text now speaks of a different kind of righteousness, namely “the righteousness of God.” This is in contrast to the righteousness that is humanly earned or merited. It is a righteousness, as we have already seen, that is “revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith’” (Rom 1:17). Even when the Lord, in an oft-misinterpreted story, said to the woman who touched His garment, “Daughter, your faith has made you well” (Mark 5:34), it was Jesus who actually healed her, as He said, “Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.” Faith is clearly the “instrumental cause” (as philosophers would put it), but Jesus was the “agent” cause. Jesus is like the carpenter (agent cause) who uses the woman’s faith like a hammer (instrumental cause) to build a house. The woman did not heal herself by believing. Rather Jesus saved her, and He used her faith to accomplish it. Likewise, it is not faith that justifies but God who justifies, and He uses faith to accomplish it.

Some today put so much emphasis on faith that is doesn’t seem to matter what a person believes—so long as there is a strong faith, then much can be accomplished. This, however, reduces faith to human dimensions, the lowest common denominator that can then be used to unite all religions in ecumenical efforts. Nothing could be further from the truth, for such a notion is humanist religion at its worst. This is like having a paper coupon that can be exchanged for something of great value, but on which is written in small print that the coupon itself contains no value. You could have a hundred of them, but they have no value in themselves. Likewise, the true righteousness of God comes not just through faith itself, but through faith that is in Jesus Christ. There is an infinite difference between the two ideas, one of enormous consequences.

Lord, I do believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I embrace Your righteousness.