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 everyone 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.
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 everyone 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.
I would pass over in the review of those verses all that Paul speaks of himself, (very interesting as it is to behold this great champion of his Master's cause), with only one short observation, namely, the ground upon which the Apostle rests, when declaring he is not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. I beg the Reader particularly to notice this. Paul was not ashamed of it, because he knew it in its saving power. And let my Reader not be offended when I say, that this personal knowledge can be the only security and preservative against shame. Any man, and every man, will want confidence to profess the Gospel of Christ, whether preacher or hearer, in all its purity, fulness, and glory, unless he himself hath in his own heart known it to be what Paul saith it is, the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth. There is indeed what is called the Gospel, and which brings no shame among men, either in those that preach it, or those who hear it, and which is in such a spirit of accommodation to the world, that it is even become fashionable in the present day to attend it: I mean, Where the great leading truths of the Gospel are thrown into the back ground, and a system of ethics supply the place. But, Reader! depend upon it, the shame Paul here speaks of, that he shrunk not from, is as much known now where Christ is fully and faithfully preached as it was in Paul's days. The offence of the cross is not ceased. The Lord forbid it ever should! It is the true standard of a real believer. And where the grand truths of the Gospel are held forth, and insisted upon as the whole counsel of God, the man who preacheth, or he that heareth these glorious doctrines, and rejoiceth in their infinite importance, must have received the same convictions as Paul had, or neither of them can adopt his language. Oh! the blessedness of knowing, by the saving work of God the Holy Ghost upon the heart, that it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth!
I cannot but beg the Reader's notice to what the Apostle saith concerning the righteousness of God; that it is revealed from faith to faith. That the righteousness here spoken of, is the righteousness of God our Savior, is too plain to need further proof, than from what follows when it is added, the just shall live by faith, Jeremiah 23:6; Daniel 9:24. See Romans 3:21-22. And there can be no righteousness a man can live upon by faith, but this righteousness. Moreover, the just here named can mean no other than the justified soul in Christ, Romans 3:24. But the revelation of this righteousness of God, from faith to faith, is not so easy to be understood, and hath been not a little perplexing to many. Some have supposed, that it means a revelation from the Old Testament faith to the New. Others have conceived, that the righteousness of God, being revealed, begets faith. And a third class, differing from both the former, and with more appearance of probability, have concluded, that it means from the first revelation of God's method of justifying a sinner, to all the after acts of faith in the enjoyment of it. But if I may venture to give my views of the passage, I should say, that it appears to me to be simply no other than to state, that this righteousness of God, revealed from faith to faith, is revealed to faith by way of shewing that it is not obtained by faith. The whole and sole cause of justification is Christ. Faith is no more than the hand to receive it by. And faith doth not give the least title to it. Nay, so far from that, faith is produced by the com-pleat work of Christ's righteousness. So that as faith hath no hand in the work, neither hath faith any merit in the performance. It is not revealed from works to faith: but from faith to faith. And as Christ is the great object of faith, so all the life and actings of faith are solely upon his person, blood, and righteousness.