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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.”
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Righteousness through Faith
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it,
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the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction;
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whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins;
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For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”
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And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.
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So also David pronounces a blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works:
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Is this blessing pronounced only upon the circumcised, or also upon the uncircumcised? We say that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.
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He received circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them,
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God’s Promise Realized through Faith
The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should inherit the world, did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.
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That is why his faith was “reckoned to him as righteousness.”
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If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
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Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men.
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so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
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Slaves of Righteousness
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
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Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
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and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
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I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.
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When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
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But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness.
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Israel’s Unbelief
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith;
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but that Israel who pursued the righteousness which is based on law did not succeed in fulfilling that law.
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For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
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Salvation Is for All
Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on the law shall live by it.
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But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down)
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For the kingdom of God does not mean food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit;
