| Romans 1:17 – For in [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
The RSV translates it: for he who through faith is righteous shall live!
A Heavenly Treasure by Eric Blick, February 6, 2026
Martin Luther was a miserable person. Of all the places to be miserable, he was miserable in a monastery in Wittenberg, Germany in the 1500’s, doing good things in life! It wasn’t like he was out living a completely selfish lifestyle, but rather he was a devout monk, a very disciplined man. And, he was miserable!! Why? Even as a good person he had the nagging feeling that he was not enough, that he was still falling short of what God demanded. He didn’t feel the pleasure of God over him, smiling at all his beautiful work and efforts. He was miserable!
For years, Luther missed the good news of the gospel. How can we not miss it too? How do we know the gospel is actually good news? In Romans 1-3, Paul makes the argument that the gospel IS good news.
Let’s look at Paul’s logic in reverse order as he lays out the foundation of the gospel starting in Romans 1:18: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”
Yep, Luther found himself there – God’s judgement is deserved. Do you find yourself there? Paul is like a prosecuting attorney that moves through three groups of people to show how each group is guilty. The first group is found in Romans 1:18-32, and they are guilty for suppressing the knowledge of God and instead worshipping what he has made. But the second group in Romans 2:1-16, I believe, is where Luther felt his just sentencing. This is the group that says. “I would NEVER do what these sinful, rebellious, lusting, lying Gentiles do – I am a monk for crying out loud!” But this group can’t even live up to the standards themselves that they condemn others with as a self-appointed judge. The third group is the Jews who suppress the knowledge of God even though they have received the special revelation of God himself (Stott p20-75). In these first three chapters of Romans, Luther, you, and I – all of us are shown to rightly deserve God’s just judgment for our sin. And Luther in his misery did not struggle with that.
But how do we live? How do we make it through the judgment of God? Luther did not like verse 17 of Romans 1 for many years: “For in [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” This verse crushed him because he thought it meant that he had to become even more righteous like God is in order to live.
We do know that Martin Luther got saved. So what changed? What made the breakthrough? What made him cave into something greater? What got him the inner peace he needed? What got him to stop working harder, even as a monk, to be even better somehow? What caused this striving to cease? He saw Romans 1:17 in a whole new light. He saw that this righteousness is not his, but God’s righteousness that comes to him outside of himself. He saw, “for he who through faith is righteous shall live!” – RSV
One author recounts Luther’s story this way. “I labored diligently and anxiously as to how to understand Paul’s word… the expression ‘the righteousness of God’ blocked the way, because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and deals righteously in punishing the unrighteous. Although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner… therefore I did not love a righteous and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him…Then I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us by faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise… I broke through. And as I had formerly hated the expression ‘the righteousness of God,’ I now began to regard it as my dearest and most comforting word” (Keller p4).
Why is this “outside righteousness” such good news? Because verse 16b says, “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” This righteousness given to us is the power of God that saves us.
Because it saves us in this way, Paul was not ashamed to teach and preach this. Verse 16a says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel.” This made him want to come to Rome to preach this gospel to believers and unbelievers alike for years to come.
Verse 15 says, “So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.” That is why Paul wanted to come to Rome to teach this.
The gospel will not be good news for us until we know first what we are up against: we are guilty and deserve God’s judgement. Have you, like Luther, found yourself in Romans 1-3? It will not be good news until you know that you will never have enough righteousness to create on your own. To the degree that your inner defense lawyer “has no further witnesses, your honor”, is the degree that the righteousness of God is sweet. To the degree that you see the righteousness of God as a gift, something to be received, and something to be received through faith, only then will it lift the misery of your own weight from your back.
My favorite way to think about this is that we find ourselves justly condemned on death row, and in one moment Christ springs us from death row by dying for us, and then puts around our neck the Medal of Honor he earned, and now it’s ours. He gets our sin, we get God’s righteousness. We get sprung from death row, AND get the Medal of Honor given to us at the same moment!
Wow. Now that is GOOD news! We measure up. We are enough. We have God’s righteousness given to us. And then, thankfully, it is not as if God “plugs his nose trying to merely put up with us” because He now only sees the righteousness of Christ that we are hiding behind. This holiness of God is given to us and it alone saves us. It gives us new birth and changes us to whom we were always meant to be. And out of that he is actually calling us to live differently, producing actual righteousness by his Spirit that now lives in me. Romans 8:4 says, “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” He saves us with his righteousness alone and so remakes us by his Spirit to walk differently – in such a way that we actually do measure up and are enough. We please him and have his favor over us.
Is this good news for you?
Prayer
Father, we praise you and worship you and are in awe of your holiness, majesty, and splendor. Forgive us for trying to establish our own righteousness. We know we do not measure up and are not holy like you. But, Father, thank you for the good news of your righteousness coming to us through belief in your Son who gets our sin debt so that we get your righteousness as our own. Help us to live from this freedom and joy and satisfaction in you as our Father and friend. We love you,
AMEN!
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Sources:
Keller, Tim, Romans 8-16 For You: For reading, for feeding, for leading (God’s Word For You – Romans Series Book 2), Charlotte, North Carolina: The Good Book Company, 2015
Stott, John, R. W., The Message of Romans, The Bible Speaks Today series, Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1994 |
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