The Revelation of God's Righteousness Apart from the Law

He remarks on these matters regarding our brother and what follows. Even if Job lived before Moses, he insists that even if he sinned deliberately, he concealed his transgression and what follows. Thus it seems to me that it is not the Mosaic law now being addressed to the apostle, but the natural law, which also stands written in the hearts of humanity. Who then are those under the law? Or is every person who fulfills the word a human being? For those still living apart from the law are not under it—such as Paul once was. Yet the saints whom he foreknew and predestined, he also called, justified, and glorified, both within and beyond the law; therefore their mouths will not be silenced, nor will they become guilty before God, for they are not flesh. And if they are justified, it is not by works of law, since the law does not justify through works, but through inherent righteousness. Thus, through the law comes the awareness of sin, just as through medical insight comes the recognition of illness, especially the hidden ailment and the sufferer himself. Moreover, just as the adulterer and murderer ought to be punished by law, the Lord has withdrawn the prohibition, so that it is no longer the law’s will but the grace of the lawgiver. Therefore, having spoken precisely that works of the law do not justify, he did not add 'Every person' but 'Every flesh'. For justification by intention is possible when the intention inclines toward the law, but not by works; for the works of the flesh are whatever the soul chooses. Now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, witnessed by the law and the prophets; the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all and upon all who believe. What he says is this: just as knowledge of sin does not come through the law, so neither does the revelation of God’s righteousness come through the law; for apart from the law, God’s righteousness has been revealed, surpassing natural principles, which are insufficient to grasp righteousness—not merely, but his righteousness, whose judgments are unsearchable. Therefore, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, whose teacher is Christ, receiving nothing from nature into the representation of divine righteousness. This was testified, just as by prophetic words spoken in the Holy Spirit enigmatically, and by the law of Moses the prophet. And do not wonder if two meanings of the one word 'law' are taken in the same place; for we will find this custom also in other writings; for example, do you not still say 'four-month' and 'the summer comes'? Lift up your eyes and see the land, that it is white already for summer. For twice there the harvest is named: according to the former, it refers to the bodily; according to the latter, to the spiritual. If indeed the same law is received by some, yet if apart from the law it is revealed, it is not witnessed by the law; if it is witnessed by the law, then it is not revealed apart from the law. There is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood. It is right to set forth those who have come after blood, according to the law of propitiations, that they may be found among the things set forth and of which the written things are symbols. It is written therefore after the sacrifice of the high priest in Leviticus, that if the whole congregation sins in ignorance, and a word escapes from the eyes of the congregation, and they do any one of the commandments of the Lord which ought not to be done, and they become guilty, and they know their sin which they have committed therein, then the congregation shall bring a young bull for the sin, and after a little while, if the priest, the anointed one, takes the blood of the bull and brings it to the tent of meeting, and again after a little while and does thus concerning the bull for the sin, so it shall be done for him and the priest shall make atonement for them and they shall be forgiven. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By works? No, but by the law of faith. Since all boasting from works has been excluded from all people, therefore everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, even if he speaks truthfully, saying 'God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men', and what follows. But by the law of faith, all boasting is excluded which people would make who do not understand justification from faith.

Furthermore, the divine righteousness manifested apart from the law is not a mere echo of natural order but a surpassing reality, disclosed not through legal observance but through the faithful witness of Christ, who embodies it without deriving it from created principles. This revelation, attested both by the Spirit-inspired prophets and the Mosaic testament, carries a dual significance in the term 'law'—sometimes pointing to ceremonial observance, sometimes to the eternal moral order—just as we speak of 'four-month' harvests and the coming of summer, where one refers to the grain’s cycle and the other to the season’s turn. The land lies white for reaping, already ready for the sickle, symbolizing how the same divine action can be understood in bodily and spiritual senses. Those who receive the law yet find its truth revealed apart from it do not contradict the law’s witness; rather, the law points beyond itself to the grace it cannot give. All have fallen short of divine glory, yet all are justified not by merit but by the free gift of grace in Christ Jesus, the atoning sacrifice whose blood satisfies divine justice. Those who come after this sacrifice are to be received as living symbols of the true atonement, as prescribed in Leviticus: when the congregation sins unwittingly, and a command is broken unknowingly, and guilt follows awareness, they offer a bull, whose blood the priest brings into the sanctuary, making atonement and securing pardon. Thus boasting is silenced—not by human achievement, but by the law of faith, which excludes all pride rooted in works. Even the one who thanks God he is not like others shall be humbled, for true faith knows no ground for self-exaltation. And so, through faith alone, the boastful mouth is closed, and the humble heart is lifted.