Living by Faith - Romans

The Just Shall Live by Faith

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 2-64

Genre: Talk

Track: 002

Dictation Name: RR311A2

Location/Venue:

Year: ?

Our scripture is from the first chapter of Romans, verses 8-17, and our subject: The Just Shall Live by Faith.

Romans 1:8-17

“8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

10 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;

12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.

15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

Paul never wastes words in his letters. His prefaces always have a purpose in mind. In the letter to the Romans the preface is longer than in most, 15 verses long. There is a reason for this, and it would be a mistake to say that Paul is simply flattering the Romans or that he is introducing himself as it were by telling them that he thinks they are important, far from it. Rome was the capital of an empire, a very great empire, one that ruled the world of its day. Paul was therefore eager to minister to the church in Rome, because that church was influential. Paul may have been in Rome previously before he was a Christian, but never yet as a Christian.

And he says of this church that “Your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” We must take that statement seriously. Paul is not given to flattery. Rome was the capital. The Christians there were, compared to the population of Rome, but a handful; but many of them were apparently important people. For example, in Philippians 4:22 we are told that Paul sends his greetings from believers in Caesars household.

Now the word household, Oikos in the Greek, refers not only to a dwelling but to the members thereof. It has a usage comparable to the word ‘cabinet’. When we speak of the presidents cabinet we are not speaking about a place where he stores things, we are talking about men who are important in the administration, who head up the departments thereof. So those who are of Caesars household refers not to the people who, let us say, waited on tables; as much as those who are important, who governed things. So that it could very well refer to what we today would call the cabinet of the Emperor, people who were given charge of various departments of state.

This was not uncommon, even when Christians were persecuted we find that some of the emperors used Christians because they could trust them; almost to the very last before Diocletian began massacring Christians wholesale, he was depending upon them in his own household.

Then we encounter Priscilla and Aquila. We are told of them in Romans 11:2, a couple who are merchants of note; and we meet with them in other cities as well. We find reference to them in Acts 18:1-3, and also in verse 26 where they are in Corinth; and in 1st Corinthians 16:19, Paul writing from Philippi sends greetings from this couple to the Corinthians, and they appear again in 2 Timothy 4:19. So that they had branches in several cities and were people of note. The evidence indicates that these and other people in the church in Rome constituted a very influential minority. Thus Paul was eager to go to Rome, to strengthen the faith of the members thereof, as he says in verse 11, to the end that ‘ye may be established’. Believers in Rome were both Jews and Gentiles. They included both, as Paul says, the wise and the unwise, and Paul acknowledges his debt to all of them, as one who was first a persecutor of the faith, he had since his conversion been blessed and instructed by a variety of men. He was their debtor, discharging his debt by his ministry.

So Paul goes to an important church, and he begins by telling them as we saw last week, that he is a servant, literally a slave, of Jesus Christ. And to be a slave of an important person is to be more important than a noble man. You had the status of your lord, a honor was accorded to you that was due to your lord, because you represented him. He says also he is an apostle, which means literally an ambassador. So he is the servant or slave, and the ambassador of the king of kings and Lord of Lords.

So he tells an important group of people in the world center that ‘I represent the most important person, God the Son.’ He is there presenting his credentials which is the gospel of Christ, of which he says ‘I am not shamed’. It is, he says, the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.

The word power is literally ‘dunamos’ which we have as the word dynamite. As (San Francine Mills?) observed some years ago, and I quote: “The word for power in the Greek means omnipotent power, strength, energy, authority. It is so used in Matthew 26:64, Luke 22:69, and Mark 14:62. It also means miraculous power, and it is so used in Mark 30, Luke 1:35, and in many other places. The word is also translated ‘miracle’ in Matthew 11:20-21 and elsewhere.”

Thus, when he speaks of the power of God unto salvation he is talking about omnipotent power, miraculous power, and total power.

It is to the Jew first, he says. The Jew knew the power of God first of all. By the end of the 1st Century A.D. there were, historians have estimated, about half a million Christians who were largely Jewish. The Jewish influence remained very, very long in the church, and actually continues. A number of the popes were Jews, a number of the hymns come from ancient Israel. Moreover, many of the great scholars of the church, including one whose works are still intensely popular in Protestant circles, Alfred Edersheim, have been Jewish.

Thus the Jews began with this power first of all, and in the New Testament era they represented the moral superiority of the day. So this power is to the Jew first, but it is not restricted to them, it is also to the Gentiles, it is to all the world.

This power Paul says in verse 17, is from faith to faith. Earlier Paul says, it is to everyone that believeth. Now there are several things that need to be said about this expression, faith to faith. We will leave part of it to later. But first of all, it is an abstraction. What Paul is saying is that it is from person to person, but he is saying that it is not the person per se, but is the faith, this supernatural gif that the person has that communicates the faith and the power.

This righteousness or justice of God which is so revealed is that the just shall live by faith. Now here we have the great statement which is the cornerstone of the Reformation. Let us stop for a moment and consider it in its wording. We saw last time that it does not say ‘the just shall be saved by faith’, and the great evil is that it has been restricted to that. That is the starting point, it is certainly is inclusive of salvation, but it says that we are not only saved, but we live by faith.

But this is not all, there is another aspect; for therein is the righteousness or justice, because the words righteousness and justice are identical. “The justice of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.”

Now again the way it is commonly interpreted: ‘Therein is the grace revealed, from faith to faith.’ But Paul does not say that this is a revelation of the grace of God, but of the justice of God. So we had better see what Paul means by this, because this is a very startling use. Most people would have said ‘it is the grace of God that is revealed’. It does set forth salvation by the grace of God, but this salvation although all of grace is called justice. It is justice in two important senses, first, it is justice because it is made possible by Christ’s atoning death as our sacrifice, to satisfy the justice of God. All sinners are under sentence of death, they have violated Gods law. Christ as our substitute, by His vicarious sacrifice effects redemption. Justice thus requires our release as members of Christ and His new humanity. So while it is an act of grace, it is also supremely an act of justice because of Christ.

Then, second, it is a covenant act. Both parties to a covenant swear faithfulness until death to the terms of the covenant law, or justice. Thus when God entered into a covenant with man, Man was to be faithful unto death to God, and God said: ‘I will be faithful unto death to you.’ But man broke the covenant is death, always has been historically in every culture where covenants have existed.

But while man was faithless to the covenant, God was faithful. And thus Jesus Christ as very man of very man, took upon Himself the penalty, and as very God of very God, offered Himself as redemption for man’s sins. Hence the fact of John 3:16. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. This was in faithfulness to the covenant, to the justice required by the covenant. Therefore the just shall live by faith.

The just, those who have been freed by the justice of God, because humanity now in terms of the new, the last Adam, Jesus Christ has satisfied the covenant, can now live by faith in faithfulness to the covenant and the covenant law. Therefore the just shall live by faith. They are now the just, they are to live by faith.

We meet that sentence again and again in scripture, first in Habakkuk 2:4, “The just shall live by his faith”; again in Galatians 3:11, “But that no man is justified by the law it is evident, for the just shall live by faith.” Again in Philippians 3:9 Paul says that our justice cannot save us, our righteousness is not efficacious, we cannot be faithful in and of ourselves as sinners to Gods law. We are saved, he says, through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

So the expression, from faith to faith, means from the faith manifested by the incarnate one Jesus Christ, which is communicated to us as his members. Then in Hebrews 10:38 again we have the sentence ‘the just shall live by faith’ and it is clear in Hebrews that it now has reference to sanctification. Very clearly. That day by day we are to live by faith, to walk by faith.

In all these instances the word is ‘live’ not ‘be saved’ so that while it is inclusive of salvation, it takes in far, far more; so that when we say the just shall live by faith, we say that we are saved by faith, and then all the days of our life we continue to walk in terms of that faith.

Luther says in Romans, the righteousness of God is the cause of our salvation. Well, this is emphatically true; but we cannot limit the meaning of Romans 1:17 to justification. It is that, and much more. Luther sometimes saw that it was more, and other times he failed.

To illustrate: in 1520, to his open letter to the Christian nobility of the German nation concerning the reform of the Christian estate, Luther wrote a long attack on the papacy, and at one point Luther concentrated on the papal states in central Italy which the Vatican governed; and at that time as he wrote, the pope was seeking to gain power over the kingdom of Sicily and Naples. And so Luther said and I quote: “The Pope should restrain himself, take his finger out of the pie, and claim no title to the kingdom of Naples and Sicily. He has exactly as much right to that kingdom as I have, yet he wishes to be its overlord.”

Now with that statement, the Catholic princes were in agreement. But the preceding conclusion on which he premised the statement, and which twists everything, was this, Luther said and I quote: “How can a man rule an empire and at the same time continue to preach, pray, study, and care for the poor?” Words were conformity with Luther’s doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Now Luther very often seemed to act as thought politics were a dirty business, and you couldn’t be really a good Christian if you were a prince, if you were a ruler. But why should not a man be able to rule a realm and at the same time be able to preach, pray, study, and care for the poor? If the just shall live by faith, they shall manifest their faith in every legitimate calling. And that is what to live by faith means.

Civil authorities, according to Paul in Romans 13, are Gods ministers. This is no small calling, and it is a calling because justified men in whatever station he may be, must live by faith. Our Lord says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. This our Lord says in Matthew 4:4, in answer to the tempter.

Paul says in Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty where with Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Paul was here using a legal formula for the emancipation of slaves. What he is saying is that we are not emancipated to do nothing, but to be free men, free men in Christ, doing the work, assuming the responsibility of free men. This means that to do what some Greek Orthodox monks at Mount Athos did in bygone centuries, try to become more holy by contemplating their navels, is hardly living by faith. I suspect we have too many people who in different fashion are navel watchers in our own day. They do not recognize that after salvation comes growth, living by faith in every area. We are made free in brief, we are justified to live, and we are to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Let us pray.

Thy word is truth, and Thy word oh Lord speaks to our every condition. Give us grace to hear and to obey, and to live as Thy servants in obedience to Thy word, as dominion men going forth to bring all things into captivity to Christ; and as men of justice called to be the citizens of Thy kingdom. Bless us to this purpose we beseech Thee, in Jesus name, amen.

Now, are there any questions about our lesson? Yes.

[Otto Scott] Luther’s conversion (?) came by reading the just shall live by faith, if he was in error in any primary purpose of that verse, has it effected the rest of his theology then also?

[Rushdoony] Luther was not a systematic thinker, and he very often saw the full implications of Romans 1:17, “The just shall live by faith.” But he also very often retreated from it, so there was a very definite inconsistency there. Now in Calvin there was a greater consistency, as also in the Puritans. Pietism has led to a recession from that, into a retreatism and into pious gush, simply talking about being saved, not doing anything about applying it. Yes?

[Otto Scott] Since the Catholics pressed so heavily on poverty as a synonym for holiness, and Luther was more Catholic I believe than is generally considered, he didn’t break with the church entirely, he kept out of the rituals, and from what you say there he argued in favor of the poor; and I seem to see a parallel in this day where so many people confuse modern conditions with concern for the poor, if you don’t express concern for the poor every other minute like a Hail Mary you are not a good citizen, you are not a good Christian.

[Rushdoony] Yes, both humanists and many church men equate a concern with… they don’t use the word poor quite as much, the ‘people’ by which they mean the common people. In fact I have come to regard it as a mark of a political charlatan if he says he is ‘for the people’, because he is going to be an exploiter, nine time out of ten.

So we have done exactly what you have pointed out, we have made being poor synonymous with virtue. But we have to say that at least the Medieval Church had more sense there, it saw voluntary poverty for Christ as virtuous, not a poor estate because you didn’t have anything and hadn’t earned anything.

Now it sometimes spilled over into that with some sentimental thinkers, but very strictly it was a voluntary poverty. Now, somehow, if you are poor you have a particular virtue, and the third world poor are seen as the virtuous segment of the world, and we because we are prosperous as the depraved and evil segment.

I’m more than a little weary of being told that we have something like, what is it, 6% of the world’s population, and we use so much of the world’s resources. What they don’t tell us is, those resources we supposedly use are largely produced as a result of our abilities. Actually some of these third world poor have more resources than most countries, Mexico is a good example; an exceedingly wealthy country as you know better than I do Otto, as far as resources are concerned; and yet wretchedly poor.

[Audience Member] … comment that it would seem awful hard to take that phrase in verse 17, the just shall live by faith in a context of soteriology alone when the context of the chapter back in verse 5 talks about having received grace, true, but also apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations, and certainly far more than salvation.

[Rushdoony] Yes, the world scope of the implications of the faith is set forth very clearly in verse 5. Any other comments or questions? Yes.

[Audience Member] I was just making the comment that we hear people say over and over you know, that they don’t need to go to church, they don’t need to worship, because they do their part in helping the, quote, “poor.”

[Rushdoony] Yes. Yes, that type of comment is very common, and nonetheless false for being common. It’s in line with what Otto was observing. Any other questions or comments? Well, if not let us bow our heads for the benediction.

Oh Lord our God, it is good for us to be here, Thy word is truth, and Thy word feeds and nourishes us, and enables us to serve Thee with all our heart, mind and being. Now dismiss us with Thy blessing, give us joy in Thee and in one another, and faithfulness all the days of our life.

And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, this day and forever, amen.