I hated the expression righteousness of God, for through the tradition and practice of all the doctors I had been taught to understand it

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2 Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone 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, The one who is righteous will live by faith.

3 I hated the expression righteousness of God, for through the tradition and practice of all the doctors I had been taught to understand it philosophically, as the so-called formal or, to use another word, active righteousness through which God is just and punishes sinners and the unjust. But I could not love the righteous God, the God who punishes. I hated him I pondered incessantly, day and night, until I gave heed to the context of the words, namely: for in the Gospel is the righteousness of God revealed, as it is written: the just shall live by faith.

4 Then I began to understand the righteousness of God as a righteousness by which a just man lives as by a gift of God, that means by faith. I realized that it was to be understood this way: the righteousness of God is revealed through the Gospel, namely the so-called passive righteousness we receive, through which God justifies us by faith through grace and mercy Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning. Martin Luther Preface to Latin Writings [1545]

5 Converts did not, for the most part, first understand the faith and then decide to become Christians; rather the process was reversed: they first decided, then they understood. George Lindbeck The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Post-Liberal Age

6 Galatians 2:11-21 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood selfcondemned; for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?

7 The front of the Queue

8 God has set things right without laying down a prior condition of any sort. God's rectifying act, that is to say, is no more God's response to human faith in Christ than it is God's response to human observance of the Law. God's rectification is not God's response at all. It is the first move; it is God's initiative, carried out by him in Christ's faithful death. J Louis Martyn Theological Issues in Paul

9 Galatians 2:11-21 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.

10 Galatians 2:11-21 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

11 Biblical righteousness, anxiety, and shame

12 Romans 3:21-25 But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.

13 We ate your word and it became a joy and the delight of our hearts ALL: May your words be sweet to us Lord Open our eyes that we may see the wonderful things in your words ALL: Help us to see Lord May we not just hear your words but do them All: Give us strength to act Lord Amen