The faith of Christ. This phrase used by Paul is such an important phrase for us to understand. I want to move into an overview discussion of this as we see Paul use the word faith to denote two different ideas as seen, for example in Romans 1:17. Paul says from faith to faith. Faith here is used to mean two different things. What Paul is saying in 1:17 is that righteousness is revealed from one faith to another faith. A quick overview will help us as we move through Romans. Let us look at the uses of faith in the first few chapters.
Faith is first used in 1:5. We see the phrase for obedience to the faith. Here the word the is not in the original language. It should read for obedience to faith. The word for is the Greek word that means into or to. It carries the meaning into obedience of faith. Paul says we have grace and apostleship into obedience of faith. Compare this to Romans 16:26.
Romans 16:26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
Here we see obedience of faith. This is how the original language is also written in 1:5. Paul is calling us who read into obedience of what he is going to say in between these two verses. He is calling us to faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Paul is bringing us the word of God. He is calling us to believe the faith.
Romans 1:12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
Here in verse 12 faith is preceded by the article the in the original language. This designates this faith as the faith. This faith, the faith, is what Paul would call the gospel of God in verse 1. This gospel is both of you and me as he says in verse 12. We do not find comfort in our faith, we find comfort in the finished work of our savior, the gospel of God. Look at 1:17.
Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Here we have the phrase from faith to faith. In the Greek it is out of faith and into faith. We have what I would call both objective and subjective faith in this verse. It is important to distinguish the two. Out of the objective faith, the gospel of God as it is called in the preceding verse 16, comes the revelation of the righteousness of God. This means out of the preaching of the gospel of God the righteousness of God is revealed and that revelation moves into our faith. Out of one faith and into another. Out of the objective faith and into the subjective faith. Out of the faith of Christ and into our personal faith. This distinction will be important as we move through Romans. Revelation comes from without us and moves into us. Faith does not show up again in Romans until Romans 3:3.
Romans 3:3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
Here faith is preceded by the article and is translated accordingly. Does unbelief make the faith of God, the gospel of God, without effect? Our belief has no effect on the merit of the work of Christ. We do not believe to make the faith of Christ effectual. We believe the faith of Christ because it is effectual. Our belief of the gospel is proof the faith of Christ is effectual.
Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
Here we have both the law and the faith in these two verses. The law, the law given to Moses, is contrasted to the faith of Jesus Christ. Righteousness came by one or the other. Either by the law or by the faith. This is the faith that has Christ as its owner. It is the faith of Christ. Compare this to Galatians 2:16.
Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Paul in Romans, or in any of his writings, is not pointing us to our faith for our assurance or for our confidence. He is pointing us to the faith of Christ in which we stand. How can you have confidence bringing your imperfect faith before God? What is brought before Him is the faith of Christ, that work that He completed. It is that work in which God the Father is satisfied. We are justified by that faith, the faith of Christ, mentioned in Galatians 2:16. This is the faith mentioned in Romans 1:17 in which righteousness is revealed out of and flows into our personal faith so that we believe.
Romans 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
In Romans 3:25 we have the faith; the article was not translated here. The propitiation came through the faith, through the gospel. It was connected, it was in connection with His blood. The faith is in connection with His blood. His work and His blood are inseparable. His work could not be complete without His blood being shed. Our faith looks to that blood. The revelation of righteousness comes out of the faith that is connected to His blood and into our personal faith.
Romans 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
Paul says man cannot boast because justification did not come by the law or by anything man did. It came by the law of faith. This law of faith is a phrase to denote the faith of Christ that Paul has laid out.
Romans 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Here we again have the faith. Do we then make void the law through the faith. The faith of Christ, His obedience to the law unto death did not get rid of the law. It fulfilled the law. It established the law for us. It turned what used to be against us and made it now for us. His faith completed the law. The faith completed the law for us.
Romans 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
The question in verse 3 here is what is it? It was counted unto him. It is what God preached to Abraham.
Galatians 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
God preached the gospel to Abraham. In Romans 4:3 this is a promise or prophecy given to Abraham. God promised that what He was going to do through the gospel would justify Him. God counted the gospel that would come in time as righteousness for Abraham. It would come in time.
Hebrews 11:39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
It was a promise Abraham did not receive in his life as Christ, the gospel, had not yet come.
Romans 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Here faith is again preceded by the article the. It should read the faith is counted for righteousness. His can also denote the ownership of this faith, it is God’s. By the faith, by the gospel righteousness would come. Without that faith that would come in time there could be no righteousness as this righteousness had to be fulfilled in time.
Matthew 3:15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
Romans 4:9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
The article is again here. The faith was reckoned to Abraham. Another promise of this coming faith.
Romans 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
Paul shows that this faith, the faith accurately translated here, is for both Jews and for Gentiles.
Romans 4:13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Paul did not include the article here but he has not changed his theology. Righteousness will come as a promise by that faith that Abraham was promised. It will come by the gospel that is to come.
Romans 4:14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
Here the article the precedes faith. Paul says you can make void the faith if by following the law you can be made an heir. If a condition can be met by man to earn righteousness then the faith is made void. The law and the faith contrast one another.
Romans 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
Therefore it is of faith. This is the same phrase we see in 1:17. It is out of faith. It is out of the faith, the gospel of God. We then see out of the faith of Abraham. It was of the faith that God had promised to reckon to Abraham.
Romans 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:
Here the original again contains the article the. Being not weak in the faith.
Romans 4:20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
Abraham was strong in the faith here.
Paul refers to both objective and subjective faith. To misunderstand or not see this leads to error in interpreting the word of God. Paul has laid before us the importance of the faith of Christ. That faith is the body of work that He would come and complete thereby justifying us. This faith is then revealed, that righteousness that came by this faith, to our personal faith. Personal faith does not appropriate righteousness. The personal faith of Abraham looked ahead to the promise of righteousness through the gospel that God preached to him. Our personal faith looks back to the righteousness that came by the faith. We all look to one place and time. We look to the cross.
Hebrews 4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Hebrews 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
The gospel was preached to both the elect of the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Those of the Old looked forward to the promise of the coming Messiah. We of the New look back upon His coming. We all look by faith. We look to the righteousness that is revealed out of the preaching of the gospel which moves into our faith, and we believe. Abraham believed that righteousness would come and died not receiving that righteousness. In time Christ came and earned that righteousness and God would then and there impute this righteousness to the account of Abraham. The distinction between that faith, the body of work of Jesus Christ, and our personal faith will be of utmost importance as we move through Romans. Let us further journey into this epistle of Romans to uncover this truth about the righteousness of God.