pp. 44, 41 f.).
(ix.) 'The righteousness of faith is the divine righteousness
• But St. Paul prefers to call them 5i(caiwflei^«? rather than 5i*fa(ot. He does not even call -\braham {txatoc.
376
KIGHTEOUSKESS
RIGHTEOUSNESS
which a man receives when he receives Christ, It is not a mere declaration by God that the sinner is Justified or forgiven for his past sins and accounted rii^'hteous without reu'ard to his actual character ; it is not a mere status into which he is intro- duced by such declaration, but it is at bottom Uie reiU rijfht- eousnesa or the riirhteous nature which is bestowed upon the believer by God' (A. C. McGitfert, ilistorj/ of Christianit}; in the Apostolic Age, Edinburgh, 1897, p. 142 f.)-
(x.) * Kighteousness is an objective condition of mankind transferred into this condition by an act of God ... an objec- tive righteousness which by the ^race of God is imputed to the man who believes in God's ijrace m the cross of Christ, althouch he is actually still sinful' (C. Holsten, Das Evangelium des Paubuty vol. ii. p. 65).
(xiO'tJod'a rij^hteousness is not only judicial righteousness hut also the righteous attitude of (Jod, correspondini; to his nature, which in virtue of his faithfulness to his promise is made accessible to men in the gospel, so that they too share in his righteousness' (P. Feine, Thcolugie des NT^, p. 343 f.).
(xii.) 'There are two great facts which correspond to the doctrine of righteousness by faith, which is also the doctrine of the universality of the Gospel : first, the vision which the Apostle saw on the way to Damascus ; secondly, the actual conversion of the Gentiles by the preaching of the Apostle. Righteousness by faith, admission of Gentiles, even the rejec- tion and restoration of the Jews, are — himself under so many different points of view* (B. Jowett, The Epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, Galatians, and Roinans, London, 1894, ii. 258).
(xiii.) ' It is unbiblical, then, to assume that between God's grace or love and His righteousness there is an opposition, which in its bearing upon the sinful race of men would lead to a con- tradiction, only to be solved through the interference of Christ. The righteousness of inexorable retribution, which would be ex- pressed in the sentence Fiat just iti a, pereat mundus, is not in Itself a religious conception, nor is it the meaning of the right- eousness which in the sources of the Old and New Testaments is ascribed to God* (A. RitschI, Die christlicke Lehre von der Rechtfertigung und Versoh7uing, Bonn, 18S2-83, Eng. tr., ii. [1900] p. 473).
(xiv.) * The Pauline conception of righteousness is not juristic but ethical, and he does not recognise as proceeding from God's nature of holy love any contradiction of righteousness and grace which must be removed bv a satisfaction of the former' (W. Beyschlag, NT Theologie, Eng. tr., vol. ii. p. 137).
(xv.) ' The righteousness of God ... its intrinsic meaning is God's own eternal righteousness, revealed in Christ for recon- ciling the world to himself, rather than (as commonly inter- preted) the /or^/isio righteousness (so-called) imputed to man* (J. Barmby, on Ro l^'^, in Pulpit Commentary, London, 1890).
(xvi.) ' I know that by the righteousness of God is sometimes meant that of which God is the author, and which he bestows upon us ; but here the only thing meant is, that being sup- ported by the expiation of Christ we are able to stand at the tribunal of God' (Calvin, on 2 Co 5-').
This catena is representative so far, that it illustrates the two-fold tendency, since Baur, to re-state the older Reformed idea of an objec-tive righteousness, and on the other hand to moralize the conception. But the more recent movements of criticism (see Literature) have been specially swayed by an emphasis on the eschatological element and an attempt to estab- lish some organic connexion between the Pauline and the OT conceptions. Cremer's monograph is of special value, in both directions, foritsindependeiitre-statemeaton the lines of Ritsclil.
3. Technical Pauline use of the term 'God's righteousness.' — {«) Origin and 'ineaning. — The phrase 'God's righteousness' or *a righteousness of Gotl ' is one which St. Paul has charged with a special meaning. The Greek words btKaioiivvT] Beau are sometimes employed in another sense — e.g., as we shall see, in Ro 3^, where tliey denote His justice or moral equity, and in 3^^-, wliere tiiey similarly e.xpress the thought of His justice or faithfulness to His word.* Dut in a central group of passages they bear a technical meaning. One set of passages within this group connects the Divine righteousness closely with the Person of Christ (1 Co 1=*", 2 Co 5-^, Ro 3- ^s) ; anotlier set presents the tliought in a less definite connexion (Ro V Kfi). What is common to all, however, is the presupposition that this righteousness, this
* In relation to the special problem (resumed afterwards in 9-11) of God's attitude towards Israel. The rejection of Christ by individual Israelites means their rejection by God, but not any refusal of God to fulfil His word and obligations to Israel as a whole. Again, no one (Jew) has the right to plead that because his wrong-doing serves to bring out the Divine con- sistencv and faithfulness, it is unfair of God to punish him (cf. A. Robertson in The Thinker, iii. [1893] 429 f.). Here the Divine Trto-Tis, SiKaLotrvv-rt, and aKt^Scia are ail practically synony- mous. The quotation in 34 is the nearest approach, in St. Paul's Epistles, to the idea of God being justified, which is so characteristic of the Psalms of Solomon (e.g. ix. 3), where the saints humbly acknowledge that He is just even as He chastises them.