Romans 1:16–17
“For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, ‘But the righteous shall live by faith.’”
These two verses are among the most concentrated statements in Romans. Paul has described himself as set apart for God's gospel, identified that gospel as concerning God's Son, explained his commission among the nations, and expressed his eagerness to proclaim the gospel in Rome. He now explains the confidence behind that eagerness. He is not ashamed of the gospel because its effectiveness does not depend upon Paul's eloquence, status, or ability to make it respectable. The gospel itself is God's power for salvation.
In the gospel, Paul says, “God's righteousness” is revealed. He connects that righteousness with faith and grounds the statement in Habakkuk: “the righteous shall live by faith.”
The gospel therefore reveals both God's saving action and the means by which human beings participate in its benefits. God acts powerfully to save, and that salvation is received by faith. It is available without ethnic distinction—Jew and Greek alike—yet Paul deliberately says “to the Jew first,” preserving the historical order of God's promises even while proclaiming a gospel extending to all who believe.
I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel
Romans 1:16
“For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.”
The statement “I am not ashamed” reaches beyond the modern idea of embarrassment about admitting one's religious beliefs in public. Shame in Paul's world carried strong social dimensions involving honor, status, and public evaluation, while the message Paul preached centered upon a man crucified by Roman authority in a deliberately degrading form of execution.
1 Corinthians 1:18
“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 1:22–24
“For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Paul's gospel therefore contained every reason, according to ordinary human standards of honor and wisdom, to produce shame. Its Lord had been publicly executed. Its message appeared foolish to those evaluating it according to conventional wisdom. Its apostle himself could point to suffering rather than prestige as one of the recurring marks of his ministry.
Yet Paul refuses shame because the world's evaluation of the message does not determine what the message actually is.
The gospel is “the power of God.”
The same description appears in 1 Corinthians: the message of the cross is “the power of God,” while Romans calls the gospel “the power of God for salvation.” What appears weak when measured by human standards is precisely where God's saving power is at work.
2 Timothy 1:8–9
“Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace.”
Paul's confidence therefore rests in what God accomplishes through the gospel, not in modifying a supposedly shameful message until the world considers it respectable.
The Power of God for Salvation
Romans 1:16
“the power of God for salvation.”
The Greek word sōtēria refers to salvation, rescue, or deliverance. Paul's use of the term is broad enough to include both present rescue and the final completion of God's saving work.
“Salvation” here should not be reduced to only one moment in the Christian life.
Ephesians 2:8
“for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”
Romans 5:9–10
“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.”
Romans 13:11
“Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.”
Salvation therefore has already begun in the believer's relationship with God, but its final realization includes deliverance from judgment, resurrection life, and the completion of God's work.
Paul's statement is therefore larger than the claim that the gospel is God's power merely for conversion; it is God's saving power from beginning to end.
For Everyone Who Believes
Romans 1:16
“for everyone who believes.”
Paul does not say “for everyone” without qualification. Neither does he restrict salvation according to ethnicity, social status, intellectual achievement, or possession of the Mosaic law.
The stated condition is faith.
Romans 1:5
“through whom we received grace and apostleship for obedience of faith among all the nations for his name’s sake.”
Faith is not an incidental feature of Paul's gospel. The mission exists to call the nations to faith, and God's saving power is experienced by “everyone who believes.”
Romans 3:22–24
“even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For 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 that is in Christ Jesus.”
The absence of distinction does not mean that every human being is automatically justified. God's righteousness comes “to all and on all those who believe”; the universality lies in the absence of an ethnic or social barrier to salvation and in the common condition under which it is received.
Romans 10:11–13
“For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him. For, ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”
The gospel can therefore be proclaimed indiscriminately. Its saving promise does not belong to one ethnicity, one social class, or one level of education.
Everyone who believes.
To the Jew First and Also to the Greek
Romans 1:16
“for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.”
The universality of the gospel does not erase biblical history.
Paul has already told us that the gospel was “promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures” and that God's Son was born from David's line. The gospel goes to the nations, but it emerges from God's dealings with Israel.
Luke 24:46–47
“Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
Acts 1:8
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
Acts 13:46–47
“It was necessary that God’s word should be spoken to you first. Since indeed you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so has the Lord commanded us, saying, ‘I have set you as a light for the Gentiles, that you should bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.’”
“To the Jew first” recognizes Israel's historical priority within God's redemptive purposes: the patriarchs, covenants, promises, Scriptures, and Messiah belong to Israel's story.
Romans 9:4–5
“who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh.”
Yet “first” does not mean “only.”
The gospel is also “for the Greek.”
Here “Greek” functions broadly for the Gentile world in contrast with the Jew. Paul has therefore preserved both historical order and universal scope in a single sentence. Salvation comes through the fulfillment of promises given within Israel, yet God's saving power now extends to everyone who believes.
Neither truth cancels the other.
The Righteousness of God Is Revealed
Romans 1:17
“For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, ‘But the righteous shall live by faith.’”
The word “for” connects verse 17 directly with verse 16. Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because it is God's power for salvation, for in that gospel God's righteousness is revealed.
The phrase “righteousness of God”—dikaiosynē theou—is one of the most important and debated expressions in Romans. It can easily be flattened into a single theological definition before Paul has been allowed to develop it.
At minimum, the phrase directs attention to God's own righteousness and to the righteous saving action God reveals in the gospel. Romans 3:25–26 provides a direct example of the connection between God's righteousness and his justification of the believer.
Isaiah 46:12–13
“Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness! I bring my righteousness near. It is not far off, and my salvation will not wait. I will grant salvation in Zion, my glory to Israel.”
Righteousness and salvation stand closely together.
Isaiah 51:5–6
“My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The islands will wait for me, and they will trust my arm. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment. Its inhabitants will die in the same way, but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished.”
Isaiah 56:1
“Yahweh says, ‘Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is near and my righteousness will soon be revealed.’”
The language is remarkably close to Paul's statement that God's righteousness “is revealed” in the gospel. Isaiah can speak of God's righteousness drawing near, being revealed, and appearing alongside salvation.
Paul's use of the phrase therefore should not begin with an abstract theological dictionary. It belongs within a scriptural pattern in which God's righteousness is demonstrated by God's faithful and just action to save.
The righteous status of believers is not detached from that divine action.
Romans 3:25–26
“whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time, that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.”
God is righteous, God demonstrates his righteousness, and God justifies the believer.
The righteousness revealed in the gospel therefore cannot be reduced either to a human moral achievement or to a divine attribute with no saving consequence for human beings. God's righteous character and God's righteous saving action meet in the gospel.
From Faith to Faith
Romans 1:17
“from faith to faith.”
The Greek expression ek pisteōs eis pistin has generated several interpretations. It has been understood as “from God's faithfulness to human faith,” “from one person's faith to another,” “from beginning faith to mature faith,” or as an emphatic way of saying that salvation is by faith from beginning to end.
The immediate context strongly emphasizes human believing. Verse 16 has just said that the gospel is God's power for salvation “for everyone who believes.” Verse 17 then speaks of righteousness “from faith to faith” and immediately supports the statement with Habakkuk's declaration that “the righteous shall live by faith.”
Whatever additional nuance the phrase may carry, Paul unmistakably surrounds it with faith.
Romans 4:16
“For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.”
Faith corresponds to grace because it receives rather than earns the promise.
Romans 9:30–32
“What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness. Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law.”
God's righteousness is thus revealed in a gospel whose saving benefits are received through faith rather than achieved through human performance.
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Romans 1:17
“As it is written, ‘But the righteous shall live by faith.’”
The quotation comes from Habakkuk 2:4.
Its original setting matters.
Habakkuk had cried out over violence and injustice in Judah. God answered that he was raising the Chaldeans as an instrument of judgment, which produced another problem for the prophet: how could a holy God use a nation even more wicked than Judah?
Habakkuk waits for God's answer, and the Lord responds:
Habakkuk 2:2–4
“Yahweh answered me, ‘Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it. For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won’t prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it, because it will surely come. It won’t delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith.’”
The contrast is between the proud person whose soul is not upright and the righteous person who lives by faith or faithfulness while awaiting God's promised action.
Paul is not extracting a convenient phrase about faith from Habakkuk. The original text concerns trusting God's promise when its fulfillment is not yet visible; the righteous person lives by relying upon what God has said.
Galatians 3:11
“Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’”
Hebrews 10:35–39
“Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. ‘In a very little while, he who comes will come and will not wait. But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.”
Both uses preserve something essential from Habakkuk: life belongs to those who trust God rather than abandoning confidence in him.
Paul uses that scriptural declaration as support for the thesis he has just announced. God's righteousness is revealed through a gospel received by faith because Scripture itself testifies that the righteous shall live by faith.
The quotation also prevents faith from being reduced merely to assent to a collection of facts. Habakkuk's faith is trust in God and his promise in the midst of circumstances that appear to challenge that promise, and Hebrews preserves precisely that persevering dimension.
Faith receives because faith trusts.
The Gospel and God's Righteousness
Romans 1:16–17 gives a compact statement of the gospel's character.
Paul is not ashamed because the gospel is not merely a religious opinion competing with other philosophies. It is God's power for salvation to everyone who believes. Its reach does not erase the historical priority of Israel through whom the promises and Messiah came, and the righteousness it reveals belongs to God's saving action rather than human moral accomplishment.
Habakkuk anchors Paul's announcement in the same Scriptures that promised God's saving work beforehand: the righteous live by faith in what God has said and done.
Its power belongs to God, its scope reaches Jew and Gentile, and it is received by faith.
Paul's confidence rests there: the gospel does not depend upon the world's approval to possess its power. God saves through it, and the righteous live by faith.