I know that this thread has been dormant for over a year, but I looked to see if there was already a topic on something pretty close to this, and the closest was this one.
So here is the verse & the study note that got me thinking more about this:
Rom 1:17
Study notes for this verse:For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
First I’ll say right up front that my thoughts wandered somewhat from what they say, but the phrase “in relation to God” got me thinking about how “righteousness before God” is related to one’s relationship with God, being in right relationship to God.Righteousness – the state of being “in the right” in relation to God.
James says that Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. In that case, he showed his belief (faith) by his actions – by his willingness to sacrifice his only son by his wife Sarah, Isaac. So, if “righteousness” equals “being in right relationship with God”, then we have God saying “Abraham had confidence in me and obeyed what I told him to do, even though it couldn’t have made any sense to him. By this I know that he is truly in right relationship to me.” In Banawa (Amazonian language in which we did translation work) they say that “We are ‘to God’,” in the same grammatical form as you would say “I am giving this ‘to you’.” This is the way we translated the idea of believing in God – we are to God, or, as we back translated it (back into English for the translation consultant to look over) - “We are oriented toward God”, like being focused on him.
For me, at least, it is so easy to start focusing on “having the right actions”, “doing the right things,” that sort of “obedience” & “faith”. But if righteousness is being in right relationship to God, then the focus is off of those things, and we are, correctly, I believe, focused instead on God himself, on being taken up with him.
What are you all’s thoughts?