Additional Resources: "Righteousness of God"

It seemed that the last verses (Rom. 1:16-17) that we looked at two weeks ago really inspired a lot of thought and discussion. One of the key phrases that we saw, ‘the righteousness of God’, is really important for us to understand.

We all probably have some vague idea what that phrase means, but I’m betting that we, myself included, would have a hard time explaining what it really meant.

In A. Katherine Grieb’s book she spends a few pages explaining what that phrase would of meant for Jews and those early Christians of Paul’s time. I have a link below for the whole explanation from Grieb.

In summary:

Israel’s Scripture provide the context for Paul’s thought in Romans. In Jewish literature prior to Paul, “the righteousness of God” had at least three interrelated meanings: (1) God’s covenant faithfulness to Israel; (2) God’s justice, especially for the poor and powerless; and (3) God’s eschatological (end-time) saving power to make things turn out right.¹

[Click Here] for the .pdf excerpt from The Story of Romans.

1. A. Katherine Grieb, “The Story of Romans. Louisville: WJK Press, 2002: p. 21. [↩]