God’s Righteousness as God’s Fairness In Romans 1:17

Abstract

"It would be hard to think of a text more important for understanding Paul’s concept of justi,cation than the sentence that makes up Rom 1:17. It is part of the pithy, programmatic two-sentence statement of the letter’s theme and contains the letter’s ,rst use of righteousness language. Moreover, it connects this language with the gospel, salvation, faith, and life, all terms of critical importance as the argument of the letter unfolds. If we are to understand how justi,cation functions within Paul’s gospel, we need to understand how righteousness language functions in this verse"