9
We commence reading this epistle, and in the opening verses
we are faced with the fact that `the gospel of God', to which the
apostle had been `separated', was `promised afore by His
prophets in the Holy Scriptures'. This gospel was `for obedience
of the faith among all nations' (1:5), and its power was the
provision of righteousness by faith - a provision to be found
promised in the prophets:
`... As it is written, The just shall live by faith' (Rom. 1:17; cf Hab. 2:4).
After having proved both Jew and Gentile to be under sin,
giving in Romans 3:13-18 a continuous and composite series of
quotations from the Psalms, the apostle returns to the subject of
the provision of righteousness by faith, which constitutes the
basis of the gospel:
`But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being
witnessed by the law and the prophets' (Rom. 3:21).
This righteousness by faith belongs to the believer by
imputation, and in Romans 4, both Abraham and David are
quoted:
`For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted
unto him for righteousness' (verse 3).
`Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God
imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered' (verses 6,7).
Pursuing this theme, we come to Romans 10. There the
apostle speaks of Christ as being the `end of the law for
righteousness to every one that believeth', and declares that it
was `ignorance' on the part of Israel that led them to attempt to
produce a righteousness of their own. For even though Moses