The Justification of God
Of the numerous portions of Scripture that declare “God’s righteousness,” the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans stands out. He makes this clear with his thesis statement: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and then to the Greek. For God’s righteousness is being revealed in it from faithfulness unto belief, just as it is written, “But the Righteous one shall live from faithfulness” (Rom. 1:16–17).1 These verses convey a tightly condensed summary of the argument Paul develops throughout his letter. We would therefore be rash and mistaken to suppose that we can comprehend these compressed terms and phrases apart from carefully reading the content of Paul’s letter to the Romans for ourselves. Each phrase and word in this sentence is jam-packed and awaits the apostle’s own unfolding of their meaning in the body of his letter.2
1. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are the author’s. Hear his exposition of Romans 1:16–17 here.
2. Other than in Romans, “righteousness of God” is found only once in all of Paul’s letters, in 2 Corinthians 5:21. Some scholars mistakenly claim that the expression also occurs in Philippians 3:9. There, Paul’s expression is different, tēn ek Theou dikaiosunē. The preposition ek renders the phrase distinctively different from δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ.
Paul emphasizes how the good news, as it is in Jesus, uniquely and preeminently reveals “God’s righteousness” when he states, “But now, apart from the law, God’s righteousness has been revealed, being testified to by the Law and the Prophets” (Rom. 3:21). First, the gospel reveals God’s righteousness uniquely in a way distinct from the law covenant. Whereas the law covenant commands righteous behavior it cannot bring about, the gospel has the power to declare the unrighteous righteous. Second, the gospel reveals God’s righteousness preeminently in that it is the full revelation of God’s righteousness to which the Law and the Prophets bore witness to in a veiled form (cf. Rom. 1:1–2; 16:25–27).
Thus, Paul presents the gospel of Jesus Christ as uniquely revealing God’s righteous character. The gospel is first and foremost a message not about us as sinners but about God. Because God, in his forbearance, passed over previously committed sins, some doubted God’s righteousness (Rom. 3:25). Thus, Paul’s thesis and argument focus on the justification of God—how can God be righteous while forgiving sin? The law court imagery, which dominates Paul’s argument throughout his letter, is not only about how a sinner may stand righteous before the Lord God on the Day of Judgment, but also about how God will vindicate his own righteousness. God’s vindication of himself, therefore, grounds his justification of sinners.3
3. Forty-three years ago, and since, the title of John Piper’s The Justification of God has been overshadowed by his subtitle, An Exegetical and Theological Study of Romans 9:1–23, for his readers who were influenced by viewing Romans 9–11 as an excursus to Paul’s argument. This combination of words, “the justification of God,” seems to have exceeded Piper’s own realization that it effectively captures the apostle’s thesis and argument throughout his Letter to the Romans, despite his earlier contention that Paul’s use of “God’s righteousness” in Romans 3:1–8 and 25, 26 “refers most basically to the characteristic of God’s nature or the unswerving inclination of his will which precedes and grounds all his acts and gifts” (John Piper, “The Demonstration of the Righteousness of God in Romans 3:25, 26,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 7 (1980): 3). See also, John Piper, “The Righteousness of God in Romans 3:1–8,” Theologische Zeitschrift 36 (1980): 3–16. Piper’s more current exposition of Romans is heavily influenced by Luther.
Luther Biased Our Understanding of Paul’s Thesis Statement
No one disputes that Paul presents the thesis of his letter in Romans 1:16–17. But there is great consternation about exactly what the thesis presented in these verses is. The only path forward is to study the text closely.
First, Paul states, “the gospel is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes,” and then, the gospel “reveals the righteousness of God” (dikaiosynē theou). Biblical scholars offer divergent explanations of “the righteousness of God” revealed by the gospel. Many focus on the believer’s justification before God, while others center on God’s character as righteous.4 Since the Reformation, a large swath of Christians has followed Martin Luther’s assertion that “the righteousness of God is that righteousness which he imparts in order to make men righteous.”5 Earlier in his life, Luther had understood the revelation of God’s righteousness as the bad news that God, who is righteous, was actively against him, a sinner. At his conversion, Luther changed his understanding of the righteousness God revealed. Thus, prompted by Luther, many presume that Paul speaks not of God’s righteous character but of a divine action granting individual believers a gift of righteousness in contrast to works-righteousness.6 While Luther correctly drew this doctrine from Paul’s Letter to the Romans as a whole, he wrongly projects it onto the apostle’s thesis statement in 1:17. This was a mistake, which has prejudiced generations of both Reformed and Lutheran readers against the correct understanding of Romans 1:17. For example, Charles Hodge, following Luther, argues that the righteousness Paul speaks of “cannot here be understood of a divine attribute, such as rectitude, justice, goodness, or veracity, is obvious, because it is . . . a righteousness which is by faith.”7
4. See, e.g., Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans, BECNT, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2018), 66–82, for his interaction with a range of interpretations.
5. Martin Luther, Lectures on Romans, trans. and ed. Wilhelm Pauck, Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1961), 18.
6. Those who hold this view interpret “righteousness of God” (dikaiosunē theou) not as speaking of God’s character but as “a righteousness from God,” with God as the source of a righteous standing (justification), as if Paul’s wording in Philippians 3:9 (dikaiosunē hē ek theou) explains his different wording in Romans 1:17; 3:5, 21–22; and 10:3 (dikaiosunē theou). See, e.g., Schreiner, Romans, 70–71.
7. Charles Hodge, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, 11th printing 1974 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1950), 30, emphasis added.
But Luther’s interpretation of Paul’s thesis is far from the only one. Since the late 20th century, three interpretations, with some variations within each, have competed over how Paul uses “of God” in the phrase “righteousness of God.”
1. The explanation of Romans 1:17 that dominates evangelical, Reformed commentaries is that the passage speaks of righteousness from God. In this majority view, righteousness is God’s gift received by humans who believe the good news. Thus, it is a right standing that God gives. I emphatically affirm that this expresses a correct and proper teaching found in Paul’s letters, including Romans. However, it is wrongly imposed onto Paul’s thesis concerning “God’s righteousness” in Romans 1:17.
Simply because this interpretation of Romans 1:17 has endured and dominated for centuries does not mean it is correct. It fails to explain why the apostle’s first use of the expression, “righteousness of God,” after his thesis statement in Romans 1:17 occurs in Romans 3:5, where “God’s righteousness” speaks unambiguously of God’s character, as all English translations show, not of God’s declaring a righteous standing upon a believer. Following this unmistakably clear use of the phrase in Romans 3:5, Paul uses it again four more times in Romans 3:21, 22, 25, and 26, where in the latter two verses, again, the expression unequivocally speaks of God’s attribute, “his righteousness” (dikaiosynē autou). As with Romans 1:17, each use of “God’s righteousness,” in Romans 3:5, 21, 22, 25, and 26, is the object of a verb: (1) “demonstrates God’s righteousness” (Rom. 3:5); (2) “God’s righteousness has been manifested” (Rom. 3:21, same verb supplied in 22); (3) “to show God’s righteousness” (Rom. 3:25); (4) “to show God’s righteousness” (Rom. 3:26).
The Lutheran interpretation does not account for Paul’s careful distinction concerning God’s acting with reference to two different things. On the one hand, “God’s righteousness” is revealed (Rom. 1:17), demonstrated (Rom. 3:5, 25), manifested (Rom. 3:21, 22), shown (Rom. 3:25, 26), not known and not submitted to (Rom. 10:3). On the other hand, “righteousness” without the possessive qualifier “of God,” may be reckoned (Rom. 4:6), is a gift given freely (Rom. 5:17), enlivens (Rom. 8:10), may be pursued (Rom. 9:30). These latter verses speak of the believer’s standing before God because of his act of declaring one righteous. Hence, Luther’s teaching concerning righteousness as God’s gift to believers is correct, but he tried to squeeze this correct doctrine from texts like Romans 1:17 that do not say what he wanted them to say.
| GOD’S ATTRIBUTE | BELIEVER’S STANDING |
| “Righteousness of God” with possessive qualifier | “Righteousness” without possessive qualifier |
| Rom. 1:17“revealed” | Rom. 4:6“reckoned” |
| Rom. 3:5“demonstrated” | Rom. 5:17“given freely as a gift” |
| Rom. 3:21–22“manifested” | Rom. 8:10“enlivens” |
| Rom. 3:25“shown / demonstrated” | Rom. 9:30“pursued” |
| Rom. 3:26“shown” | |
| Rom. 10:3“not known / not submitted to” | |
| Refers to God’s own character and attribute | Refers to God’s gift of right standing to the believer |
2. Since the twentieth century, some New Testament scholars have opted to follow Ernst Käsemann rather than Luther, contending that “righteousness of God” refers to “God’s salvation-creating power.”8 Those who hold this view mistakenly assume that Paul’s use of “righteousness” in Romans 1:17 signifies God’s saving activity.” They attempt to hold together two competing concepts: (1) God’s righteous character, and (2) God’s saving activity of justifying believers.9
8. Ernst Käsemann, New Testament Questions of Today, trans. W. J. Montague (London: SCM, 1969), 168–82.
9. See Michael F. Bird, A Bird’s-Eye View of Paul: The Man, His Mission and His Message (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2008), 95. Like all who hold this view, Bird assumes the phrase, dikaiosunē theou, is a “subjective genitive,” with the noun dikaiosunē implying an action performed by God (theou), while also treating the phrase as indicating possession. Grammatically, it is either one or the other, but not both. None of these expressions to which Bird appeals—”power of God” (Rom. 1:16), “righteousness of God” (Rom. 1:17; 3:5, 21, 22, 25, 26), “wrath of God” (Rom. 1:18), “faithfulness of God” (Rom. 3:3), or “truthfulness of God” (Rom. 3:7; 15:8)—functions to indicate both God’s possession and God’s action simultaneously. Each is one or the other, but not both simultaneously.
Essentially, to merge “God’s righteousness” (Rom. 1:17) with “God’s power” (Rom. 1:16) fails to account for Paul’s precise statements in Romans 1:16–17. It is not “God’s righteousness” but “the gospel” which he describes as “God’s power.” The gospel is “God’s power for the salvation of everyone who believes” precisely because “God’s righteousness” is being revealed in the gospel. The activity Paul speaks of in Romans 1:17 is the revealing of “God’s righteousness” (his character). The activity is not “God’s righteousness” itself.
3. “Righteousness that belongs to God,” “God’s righteousness.” Righteousness of God is a quality or attribute belonging to God. Foremost among those who hold this view is N. T. Wright, who claims that the righteousness which God possesses is his own covenant faithfulness.
Since N. T. Wright wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on Romans at Oxford University, he has revolutionized discussions of Paul’s letters, in the academy and church alike. Wright argues that Paul used “God’s righteousness” throughout Romans to speak of “God’s covenant faithfulness” and “justice.”10 He popularized his understanding of “God’s righteousness” as “God’s covenant loyalty” in his book, What Saint Paul Really Said (1997).11 Wright is not entirely wide of the mark when he defines “God’s righteousness” as “God’s covenant loyalty,” but he ignores Paul’s distinction between “God’s righteousness” and other divine attributes. In Romans 3:4–7, Paul carefully distinguishes God’s righteousness from his faithfulness and truthfulness without separating them. Paul’s point is that because God is righteous and truthful, he has been faithful to his sworn promise to the patriarchs. So while God’s righteousness is integrally linked to his faithfulness, it is not identical to it.
10. N. T. Wright, “The Letter to the Romans,” The Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 10 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002), 426. He explains, “If God is the creator of the world, and has promised to bring all things into justice, peace, and harmony, then the cosmos as a whole, and the human race within it, is called to believe in this justice and the faithfulness that will bring it about.” To preach the gospel is “to unveil God’s righteousness . . . knowing that as this happens the power of God for salvation is unleashed.”
11. Tom Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 125–31.
Unfortunately, Wright didn’t stop by redefining the “righteousness of God.” Instead, he used this as the basis for a redefinition of justification. For Wright, a believer’s justification before God is simply membership in God’s covenant. Wright’s approach ignited no small reaction from those who follow Luther’s approach, including a book-length reply by John Piper (to which Wright published a rejoinder).12 Though Wright correctly recognized that “righteousness of God” refers to God’s character, he wrongly equated it with “God’s covenant faithfulness,” and leveraged that to recast the believer’s justification as “covenant membership,” thereby making a mockery of the Reformed doctrine of imputed righteousness and altering the gospel message.
| Three Incorrect Interpretations of Romans 1:17 | |||
| Interpretation 1: Lutheran/Reformed Majority | Interpretation 2: Käsemann / “Salvation-Creating Power” | Interpretation 3: N. T. Wright / New Perspective | |
| Proponents | Dominant evangelical and Reformed commentators; rooted in Luther | Ernst Käsemann; followed by various twentieth-century NT scholars | N. T. Wright (and his followers); developed from his Oxford dissertation on Romans |
| Definition of “Righteousness of God” | God’s gift of right standing received by the believer through faith | Both God’s righteous character and his saving activity of justifying sinners | God’s own covenant faithfulness and justice |
| Key Claim | “Righteousness of God” = a status God declares upon and gives to the believer | “Righteousness of God” merges with “God’s power” (Rom. 1:16) as his salvation-creating act | “Righteousness of God” = God’s loyalty to his covenant with Israel |
| What the View Gets Right | Correctly reflects genuine Pauline teaching on imputed righteousness found elsewhere in Romans | Correctly recognizes that God’s righteousness involves his active character, not merely a transferred gift | Correctly recognizes that “righteousness of God” refers to God’s own character, not a gift given to the believer |
| Fatal Flaw | Wrongly imposed onto Rom. 1:17; cannot account for Paul’s consistent use of the phrase elsewhere (Rom. 3:5, 21–22, 25–26) as God’s attribute, not a gift | Conflates two distinct things Paul separates: the gospel is “God’s power” (Rom. 1:16); “God’s righteousness” is what is revealed in the gospel (Rom. 1:17)—it is not itself the activity | Wrongly equates God’s righteousness with his faithfulness, ignoring Paul’s careful distinction between the two attributes (Rom. 3:3–5) |
| Downstream Error | Reads a correct Pauline doctrine into a text that does not teach it | Produces an incoherent hybrid that tries to hold together two competing concepts without textual warrant | Redefines justification as covenant membership, requiring believers to maintain covenantal obedience—undermining imputed righteousness and the gospel |
12. John Piper, The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007). For his reply, see N. T. Wright, Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009).
The Good News in Jesus Christ Justifies God
The thesis Paul argues in his Letter to the Romans is that, distinct from God’s previous revelation, “the Law and the Prophets” (Rom. 3:21–22), which we call the Old Testament, the gospel of Jesus Christ uniquely reveals “God’s righteousness” (Rom. 1:17), the disclosure of God’s righteous character. In Romans 1:17, Paul compels us to recognize that he places “God’s righteousness” in parallel with two other displays of God’s character—”God’s power” (Rom. 1:16) and “God’s wrath” (Rom. 1:18).
- God’s Power (Rom. 1:16).
- God’s Righteousness (Rom. 1:17).
- God’s Wrath (Rom. 1:18).
Clearly, if these word combinations—”God’s power” and “God’s wrath”—denote two of God’s attributes (one absolute attribute and one relative attribute), it would be clumsy and convoluted for Paul to shift mid-stride to use the same grammatical construction—”God’s righteousness”—to signify something other than God’s attribute and expect his readers to comprehend. Furthermore, antithetical to “God’s righteousness” is “human unrighteousness,” “unrighteous humans who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18).
That the three expressions in Romans 1:16–18 refer to God’s attributes of power, righteousness, and wrath is confirmed when Paul next mentions “God’s righteousness” in Romans 3:5, unambiguously referring to God’s attribute, as every Pauline scholar and English translation acknowledges. In this passage, as in Romans 1:17, Paul places “God’s righteousness” in parallel with two other correlated attributes of God’s character—”God’s faithfulness” (Rom. 3:3) and “God’s truthfulness” (Rom. 3:7).
- God’s Faithfulness (Rom. 3:3).
- God’s Righteousness (Rom. 3:5).
- God’s Truthfulness (Rom. 3:7).
Yet, even before Paul’s first mention of “God’s righteousness” after his thesis statement in Romans 1:17, he makes it clear that he is speaking of God’s character by quoting Psalm 51:4, which speaks of God’s justification.
“That you may be justified in your words,
and triumph when you judge” (Rom. 3:4; CSB).
Initially, within his letter, the Lord’s apostle serves as God’s prosecuting attorney, in the tradition of Israel’s prophets. He adjudicates God’s righteous case against humanity apart from Christ Jesus, both Gentiles and Jews—”God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all human godlessness and unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18–3:20).13 Throughout Romans 2, Paul prosecutes Jews for violating the law covenant. While presuming that possession of the law covenant and circumcision of the flesh insulate them from God’s wrath (Rom. 2:25), their unfaithfulness renders them as Gentiles, the “uncircumcision.” Thus, in Romans 3:1–8, Paul confronts the Jewish objection to his argument concerning God’s righteousness: “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?” (Rom. 3:1). Though he responds, “Much in every way,” here, the apostle offers only the first of several counter responses that silence their objection: “First, they were entrusted with the oracles of God” (Rom. 3:2). Here, he suspends his list to continue it much later in his letter in 9:1–5, when, as God’s defense attorney, Paul resumes his argument concerning “God’s righteousness” concerning the patriarchal promises: “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Absolutely not!” (Rom. 9:14).
13. Two observations are fitting: (1) The passive voice—”God’s wrath is being revealed“—prepares readers to discern that God displays his wrath not only by actively pouring out his punitive judgment, as in the Day of Wrath, but also retributively withholding his common grace. (2) That Paul wrote, “God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven,” implies two corollaries: (a) the Day of God’s Wrath is not yet but will be inescapable, and (b) the Day of God’s Wrath already invades the present age but obliquely. See, Ardel B. Caneday, “Wrath and Justification: Proleptic Visitations of Last Day Judgment,” in Paul’s Letter to the Romans: Theological Essays, eds. Douglas J. Moo, Eckhard J. Schnabel, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Frank Thielman (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2023), 259–60.
Thus, from Romans 3:21–11:36, Paul takes up his role as God’s defense attorney. First, he counters a false judgment inferred from God’s patient forbearance of former sins he passed over (Rom. 3:21–26) by insisting that God’s righteousness is not jeopardized by declaring sinners righteous. Herein is the heart of the good news, which is God’s power for the salvation of Jews and Gentiles alike. Because of his forbearance, God passed over sins previously committed, but now, at the present time, God has shown his righteousness by publicly displaying Jesus Christ’s faithfulness as the propitious sacrifice in his blood, the faithful one who received the righteous punishment for unrighteous sinners. Thus, God has demonstrated that he is both faithful to his promise to the patriarchs and righteous, freely declaring righteous each one who is of Jesus’s faithfulness (Rom. 3:25–26).14
Thus, continuing as God’s defense attorney, Paul argues that God’s declaring righteous vast numbers of uncircumcised Gentiles does not signify failure but fulfillment of his oath and covenant to the fathers (Rom. 4:1–11:36). For while yet uncircumcised, Abraham became the father of everyone who believes, though not circumcised in the flesh (Rom. 4:9–12). Thus, the gospel reveals God’s righteousness by declaring sinners righteous and by keeping his promise to Abraham: “In you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:8).
Therefore, in Romans 15:7–13, Paul presents his closing argument to the Jew-Gentile blended congregation in Rome as God’s defense attorney, arguing that Isaiah’s prophecy concerning God’s Servant has come to fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ.
14. For an explanation of my translation “Jesus’s faithfulness” for pistou Christou see Ardel B. Caneday, “The Faithfulness of Jesus Christ as a Theme in Paul’s Theology in Galatians,” in The Faith of Jesus Christ: Exegetical, Biblical, and Theological Studies, ed. Michael F. Bird and Preston M. Sprinkle (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2009), 186–205.
Therefore, accept one another just as Christ has accepted you unto God’s glory. For I say, Christ has become the Servant of the circumcision on behalf of God’s truthfulness, to confirm the promises which the patriarchs were given, and with regard to the Gentiles that they might glorify God on behalf of his mercy, just as it is written, “On account of this I will offer praise to you among the Gentiles, and to your name I will sing psalms.” And again, it says, “Gentiles, rejoice with his people.” And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples sing praises to him.” And again, Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse shall come and the one who will rise to rule over the Gentiles, upon him the Gentiles shall set their hope.” Now may the God of hope fill you all with joy and peace in your believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.15
15. My own translation, emphasis added.
Conclusion: The Gospel Vindicates the Judge of All the Earth
Paul’s Letter to the Romans summons readers to view the gospel from a vantage point that is often neglected. The apostle’s concern is not first how sinners may be justified, but how God himself stands vindicated in justifying sinners. When Paul declares that “in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed” (Rom. 1:17), he is announcing the public disclosure of God’s own righteous character. The good news in Jesus Christ answers the deepest question raised by human sin, Israel’s unfaithfulness to their covenant Redeemer, and divine forbearance with sins: Is God righteous?
Throughout Romans, Paul carefully constructs a courtroom drama in which God is simultaneously Prosecutor, Defendant, and Judge. In Romans 1:18–3:20, God’s prosecuting case demonstrates humanity’s universal guilt. In Romans 3:21–26, the drama reaches its decisive turning point, where God’s righteousness is publicly displayed in the cross of Christ. There, God’s prior forbearance toward sin is not exposed as moral indifference but is vindicated as righteous patience awaiting the appointed time when Christ would bear sin’s penalty. At Golgotha, God proves himself to be both “just and the justifier of the one who is from Jesus’s faithfulness” (Rom. 3:26). The cross, therefore, is not primarily the place where sinners are acquitted; it is principally the place where God’s righteousness is most fully demonstrated.
This understanding clarifies the proper relationship between God’s righteousness and the believer’s justification. The declaration that believers are righteous before God rests securely upon the prior reality that God himself is righteous. Because God is faithful to his covenant promises, truthful in his word, and righteous in his judgments, he can justly declare the ungodly righteous through the faithful obedience and atoning death of Jesus Christ. Thus, justification by belief in Jesus Christ does not compete with God’s righteousness; it flows from it and depends entirely upon it.
Furthermore, Paul’s argument in Romans 4–11 confirms that God’s righteousness is demonstrated by his unwavering fidelity to the promises made to Abraham and the patriarchs. The inclusion of the Gentiles does not signal covenant failure but covenant fulfillment. The multinational people of God gathered through faith in Christ demonstrate that God has indeed kept his word: through Abraham’s seed, all the nations of the earth are blessed. Even Israel’s present unbelief, within Paul’s argument, serves the larger purpose of magnifying the depth of God’s mercy and the unassailable integrity of his saving plan, culminating in Paul’s doxology that celebrates the unsearchable wisdom and knowledge of God (Rom. 11:33–36).
Recognizing Paul’s thesis in this way helps correct long-standing interpretive tendencies that, while preserving precious truths about justification by faith, have often eclipsed the apostle’s primary emphasis. The gospel certainly proclaims how sinners are made right with God, but it does so by first proclaiming how God has proven himself right before the watching universe. The justification of the believer is grounded in, and inseparable from, the justification of God.
Paul’s Letter to the Romans ultimately calls the church to recover a God-centered vision of the gospel. The good news is that the Judge of all the earth has done what is just. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has revealed his power, displayed his wrath against sin, and manifested his righteousness in saving sinners without compromising his righteousness. The gospel, therefore, summons all people—Jew and Gentile alike—not merely to seek personal salvation but to behold, trust, and proclaim the radiant righteousness of God revealed in Jesus Christ. And as Paul himself concludes his theological exposition, his doxology is fitting and inevitable: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36). When the church rightly proclaims the gospel, it proclaims not only the salvation of sinners but also the public vindication of the Judge of all the earth, who has indeed done what is just.
