Romans 1:17

Romans 1:17, in plain English

The reason the gospel has that power is because it reveals God's righteousness—His right standing with us—which comes through faith and nothing else. People who have faith in God are the ones who truly live.

Why it's here

Paul is quoting the prophet Habakkuk. He's saying the gospel shows us how God makes us right with Him, and it happens entirely through faith. From beginning to end, it's faith that connects us to God's righteousness.

Who's speaking

Paul

Where it sits in the story

This quote from Habakkuk ties the gospel back to the prophets. God's way of dealing with people has always been through faith, not through human effort or works. Jesus doesn't change that; He fulfills it.

The scholarly reading

Paul explains that the gospel reveals God's righteous character through faith from beginning to end, quoting Habakkuk to support this principle.

Language and setting

This verse introduces one of Romans' most debated interpretive questions: the meaning of 'righteousness of God' (dikaiosyne theou). Since the nineteenth-century scholarship of Albrecht Ritschl and the twentieth-century work of Krister Stendahl, interpreters have recognized this phrase can mean either God's own righteous character or the righteousness God gives to believers. Paul's argument suggests both dimensions work together: God's righteous nature is revealed through the mechanism of faith-based justification. The phrase 'by faith from start to finish' (apo pisteos eis pistin) emphasizes that faith is both the entry point and the sustaining principle of Christian life. The quotation of Habakkuk 2:4 ('The righteous will live by faith') anchors Paul's argument in prophetic Scripture; the Qumran community and later rabbinic tradition debated this verse's meaning, making it a crucial proof-text for establishing gospel continuity with Judaism.

Voice

Paul, now transitioning from exordium to doctrinal exposition, making his central claim about how salvation operates.

Significance

Habakkuk's original context—a prophet questioning God's justice in a corrupt world—provides backdrop for Paul's argument: God's justice is revealed not through human performance but through God's initiative in Christ. This verse is the pivot point of Romans, the statement around which all subsequent argument revolves. It announces that God's character and humanity's response (faith) are intrinsically linked in the gospel's operation.

15That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek.

17For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

19For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

Read all of Romans 1 — Paul's masterpiece — the most systematic explanation of the Christian faith ever written. Dense, brilliant, and life-changing from first verse to last.