Themes of law, grace, and righteousness.

Themes of Law, Grace, and Righteousness in Paul (with Focus on Romans)

Orientation: Why these three terms carry the weight of Paul’s gospel

The three nouns law (nomos), grace (charis), and righteousness (dikaiosynē / “righteousness of God,” dikaiosynē theou) are the load-bearing beams of Paul’s theology. In Romans 1–8 (your focus this week) they frame the problem, the divine remedy, and the transformed life: the law exposes sin’s domination yet cannot liberate (Rom 3:19–20; 7:7–25); grace is God’s incongruous, efficacious gift in Christ that pardons, reconciles, and re-creates (Rom 3:24; 5:1–11, 15–21; Barclay, 2015); and righteousness is both God’s saving action and verdict—his covenant-faithful, rectifying justice now revealed in the Messiah and bestowed “apart from the law… through faith(fulness)” (Rom 3:21–26; Dunn, 1998; Moo, 2018; Wright, 2013).

This article moves in seven steps:

1. What Paul means by law; 2) what he means by grace; 3) the range of righteousness; 4) how the three interact in Romans 1–8; 5) how they resolve the Jew–Gentile problem and the boast/shame dynamic; 6) how they ground ethics (Spirit-led fulfillment of the law); and 7) pastoral implications and pitfalls to avoid.

1) What does Paul mean by “law” (nomos)?

1.1 Semantic range

In Paul, nomos typically denotes the Mosaic Torah—the covenantal instruction given to Israel (Rom 2–3; 7). Occasionally, it can mean Scripture as a whole (“Law and Prophets,” Rom 3:21), a principle/power (“a law of sin,” Rom 7:23), or Roman law by context (rare). Distinguishing these senses in each passage matters for exegesis (Moo, 2018).

1.2 The law is holy—but limited

Paul insists the law is “holy, righteous, and good” (Rom 7:12). It reveals God’s will, names sin, and guards Israel’s vocation (Rom 3:20; 7:7–13; Gal 3:19–25). But because Sin (capital “S,” personified power) hijacks the commandment, the law cannot liberate from sin’s tyranny (Rom 7:8–11). In short: the law diagnoses; it does not deliver (Dunn, 1998).

1.3 “Works of the law” and the New Perspective

The phrase “works of the law” (erga nomou) in Rom 3 and Gal 2–3 is debated. The traditional reading treats it as any deeds done to fulfill the Mosaic law, thus opposing law-keeping as the basis of justification. The New Perspective (e.g., Sanders, 1977; Dunn, 1998) emphasizes identity markers—circumcision, food laws, sabbath—as boundary-defining works in Second Temple Judaism. Most scholars today adopt a both-and: the phrase clearly includes boundary markers and reaches to law-doing as a basis of righteousness—the human posture of establishing one’s status by Torah performance (Moo, 2018). In either case, the law’s goodness is not at issue; its saving capacity is.

1.4 The law “fulfilled” not discarded

Paul will speak of believers “not being under law” (Rom 6:14–15), of having “died to the law” (Rom 7:4), and yet of the “righteous requirement of the law” being fulfilled in us who walk by the Spirit (Rom 8:4). This is not contradiction; it is eschatological relocation: the law’s goal (telos) is Christ (Rom 10:4), and in union with him, by the Spirit, believers embody what the law aimed at but could not produce (Wright, 2013).

2) What does Paul mean by “grace” (charis)?

2.1 Gift without regard to worth

In Greco-Roman gift culture, gifts often tracked worth and created obligation. Paul recodes gift as grace: the incongruous (without regard to worth) bestowal of God’s favor on the ungodly (Rom 4:5; 5:6–10). Grace is not God’s kind disposition toward the deserving; it creates the undeserving people it loves (Barclay, 2015).

2.2 Grace as reigning power

Grace is more than leniency; it is royal power. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life” (Rom 5:20–21). In Romans 6, grace transfers us from the lordship of Sin to the lordship of God; therefore, “shall we continue in sin?” meets Paul’s thunderous “By no means!” (Rom 6:1–2). Grace changes masters; it does not excuse slavery.

2.3 Grace and effort

Paul can oppose grace to “works” as a basis of status (Rom 4:4–5) and still summon strenuous effort (Rom 12:1–2). The difference is source and logic: under grace, effort is responsive participation in Christ’s life, not an earning mechanism. “I worked harder… yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me” (1 Cor 15:10).

3) What does Paul mean by “righteousness”—especially “the righteousness of God”?

3.1 The three major nuances

Scholars highlight three mutually enriching senses (Dunn, 1998; Moo, 2018; Wright, 2013):

1. Forensic gift/status: God’s verdict of acquittal counted to the believer (Rom 3:24; 4:5–8).

2. Covenant faithfulness: God’s saving fidelity to his promises (Rom 3:3–4, 21–26).

3. Rectifying power: God’s effective action to set the world right (Rom 1:16–17; 5:17–19).

Paul’s phrase “the righteousness of God” (dikaiosynē theou) in Rom 1:17/3:21–26 signals God’s saving action in the Messiah that issues in a verdict for the ungodly and creates a new people—both gift and power, both law-court and covenant.

3.2 “Faith in Christ” or “faithfulness of Christ”?

The genitive pistis Christou (Rom 3:22, 26; Gal 2:16; 3:22) is debated. Is it our faith in Christ (objective) or Christ’s own faithful obedience (subjective)? Hays (2002) champions the latter; Moo (2018) the former. Many read both as theologically intertwined in Romans: Christ’s faithfulness is the basis; our faith is the mode of participation (Wright, 2013).

3.3 Boasting excluded

Because righteousness is God’s action and gift, boasting is excluded (Rom 3:27). The result is an ethos of humility and welcome (Rom 15:7).

4) How the three themes interlock in Romans 1–8

4.1 The law names the problem, grace supplies the remedy, righteousness declares and effects salvation (Rom 1:18–3:26)

• Problem: Idolatry and injustice pervade humanity; the law exposes guilt but cannot justify (Rom 3:19–20).

• Remedy: “But now… the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, though witnessed by the Law and the Prophets” (3:21).

• Mode: The gift is by grace (3:24), through the redemption in Christ, whom God put forward as a hilastērion (mercy-seat/atoning place) to demonstrate his righteousness (3:25–26).
  The law diagnoses and witnesses; grace gives; righteousness saves and sets right.

4.2 Abraham proves the chronology of grace (Romans 4)

Abraham is counted righteous by faith before circumcision and before Sinai (Gen 15:6; Rom 4:1–12). The law cannot be the basis of inheritance; otherwise promise would be void (4:13–16). Grace is chronologically prior and theologically determinative (Wright, 2013). Righteousness is credited to the ungodly (4:5) because God justifies; this produces a multiethnic family (4:16–18).

4.3 Grace enthroned; righteousness as reigning gift (Romans 5)

Justified by faith, we stand in grace and rejoice in hope (5:1–2). Christ died for the ungodly—grace as incongruous gift (5:6–8; Barclay, 2015). In Adam death reigned; now grace reigns “through righteousness to eternal life” (5:21). Here righteousness is not only a verdict; it is the royal instrument by which grace executes its liberating rule.

4.4 Grace’s objection answered; the law’s limit exposed (Romans 6–7)

If grace super-abounds, does that license sin? No—because grace unites us to Christ’s death and life (Rom 6:1–11). The law cannot produce this; it can only multiply trespass when hijacked by Sin (Rom 7:7–13). The tragic “I” of Rom 7:14–25 exemplifies life under law without Spirit—knowing the good, powerless to enact it (Dunn, 1998; Moo, 2018).

4.5 Righteousness fulfilled in us by the Spirit (Romans 8)

What the law could not do, God did: he condemned sin in the flesh of his Son, so that the law’s righteous requirement might be fulfilled in us who walk… by the Spirit (8:3–4). The Spirit is grace’s agent who internalizes God’s will (8:5–11), assures adoption (8:14–17), and orients hope to new creation (8:18–25). Here righteousness is forensic (“no condemnation,” 8:1) and transformative (8:4)—a verdict that generates a vocation.

5) Jew and Gentile together: law, grace, and righteousness as the architecture of one people

5.1 Boast dynamics and table fellowship

The law, as ethnic badge, could fuel boasting and exclusion (Rom 2:17, 23; 3:27). Paul reframes identity around grace and faith, thereby leveling the ground: one God justifies circumcised and uncircumcised by the same means (Rom 3:29–30). This move underwrites table fellowship and the welcome commands in Romans 14–15.

5.2 Christ the telos of the law (Romans 10:4)

When Paul writes that Christ is the telos (goal/culmination) of the law “for righteousness” to everyone who believes, he does not abolish Torah but asserts that the law’s aim—a righteous people—arrives in him and is distributed by grace through faith. Hence, the righteousness based on faith speaks differently than the righteousness from the law (Rom 10:5–13).

6) Ethics under grace: fulfilling the law by the Spirit

6.1 “Not under law” ≠ lawless

“Not under law but under grace” (Rom 6:14) does not license moral chaos. Rather, those under grace become slaves of righteousness (6:18) and present their members as instruments for holiness (6:19). The law’s moral target is still aimed at—indeed, fulfilled—but now from the inside out by the Spirit (Rom 8:4).

6.2 Love as the law’s fulfillment

When Paul later summarizes ethics—“Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom 13:8–10)—he echoes Gal 5:14. The Spirit produces the fruit the law aimed at (Gal 5:22–23). Thus grace does not replace law with nothing; it replaces letter-reliance with Spirit-empowered love that actually yields the law’s telos.

6.3 Conscience, weak/strong, and public witness

Because righteousness is gift and power, the strong can forego rights for the weak (Rom 14–15). Grace forms communities skilled in mutual accommodation and public integrity—eating, drinking, and disputable matters are governed by edification rather than self-assertion.

7) Pastoral synthesis and pitfalls

7.1 Synthesis in four theses

1. Law reveals and witnesses, grace rescues, righteousness rectifies.

2. Righteousness is verdict and power. God declares right and makes right by the Spirit (Rom 8:4).

3. Grace is incongruous and effective. It meets the ungodly and re-masters them (Rom 5–6; Barclay, 2015).

4. Ethics arises from union and indwelling, not will-powered legalism. Sanctification is participation, not performance (Rom 6:1–11; 8:9–14).

7.2 Five pitfalls to avoid

• Making law the villain. Paul’s polemic is against Sin, not Torah (Rom 7:12–13).

• Reducing grace to pardon only. In Romans, grace reigns and transforms (Rom 5:21; 6:14).

• Collapsing righteousness into morality. It is foremost God’s saving action and verdict, not a human ethical status (Rom 3:21–26).

• Forgetting the Jew–Gentile dimension. Paul’s arguments are deeply ecclesial and inter-ethnic (Rom 3:29–30; 15:7–13).

• Turning “faith” into bare assent. Faith is trustful allegiance that unites to Christ (Hays, 2002; Wright, 2013).

Close-Reading Windows (for seminar use)

1. Romans 3:21–26 — Track the logic: apart from law → witnessed by Scripture → through faith(fulness) of Jesus → for all who believe → gift by grace → redemption/hilastērion → God just/justifier.

2. Romans 4:5–8 — “Justifies the ungodly”: correlate crediting righteousness with forgiveness (Ps 32).

3. Romans 5:15–21 — Note how grace is personified as a reigning monarch and how righteousness functions as its instrument.

4. Romans 8:3–4 — Explicate the law–Sin–Spirit triad: what law could not do; what God did; how the Spirit fulfills the law’s dikaiōma (righteous requirement).

5. Romans 10:4–13 — Christ as telos; righteousness by faith speaking; one Lord rich to all who call.

Suggested Assignments (Week 6, Bullet 2)

1. Exegetical Paper (2,000–2,500 words): Romans 8:3–4
   Analyze the Greek text. Explain to dikaiōma tou nomou (“the law’s righteous requirement”) and how Spirit-walking fulfills it. Interact with Dunn (1998) and Moo (2018), and show pastoral implications for sanctification.

2. Research Essay (1,800–2,200 words): “Works of the Law” in Romans and Galatians
   Compare Rom 3:20–31 with Gal 2:15–3:14. Evaluate Sanders (1977) and Dunn (1998) alongside a traditional voice (e.g., Schreiner, 2018). Conclude with a nuanced definition that accounts for boundary-markers and performance.

3. Theology of Grace Project (seminar handout + 1,200-word reflection)
   Using Rom 5–6 and Barclay (2015), articulate grace as incongruous and effective. Design a pastoral catechesis that counters both legalism and license with concrete practices (baptismal identity, confession, accountability, mercy).

4. Position Paper (1,500–1,800 words): Pistis Christou in Romans 3
   Argue for either objective (faith in Christ) or subjective (faithfulness of Christ) reading in Rom 3:22, 26, engaging Hays (2002), Wright (2013), and Moo (2018). Finish with a paragraph showing how your reading shapes preaching.

5. Biblical Theology Essay (1,800–2,200 words): Christ the Telos of the Law (Rom 10:4)
   Trace telos as goal/culmination rather than mere termination. Show how Rom 10:4 coheres with Rom 8:4 and 13:8–10. Engage Wright (2013) and Schreiner (2018).

6. Case Study (1,200–1,600 words): Jew–Gentile Welcome and Modern Church Divisions
   Apply Rom 14–15 to a contemporary dispute (language, class, culture). Demonstrate how grace and righteousness dismantle boasting and how Spirit-empowered love fulfills the law.

7. Greek Word Study (900–1,200 words): dikaiosynē, charis, nomos
   Chart occurrences in Romans 1–8. Classify forensic/transformative/covenant senses; map co-occurrences (e.g., charis with reign, dikaiosynē with gift/power; nomos with witness/diagnosis/fulfillment). Present findings as a lexical-theology matrix.

References

Barclay, J. M. G. (2015). Paul and the gift. Eerdmans.
Dunn, J. D. G. (1998). The theology of Paul the Apostle. Eerdmans.
Gaventa, B. R. (2016). When in Romans: An invitation to linger with the Gospel according to Paul. Baker Academic.
Hays, R. B. (2002). The faith of Jesus Christ: The narrative substructure of Galatians 3:1–4:11 (2nd ed.). Eerdmans.
Moo, D. J. (2018). The letter to the Romans (2nd ed., NICNT). Eerdmans.
Sanders, E. P. (1977). Paul and Palestinian Judaism. Fortress Press.
Schreiner, T. R. (2018). Romans (2nd ed., BECNT). Baker Academic.
Wright, N. T. (2013). Paul and the faithfulness of God. Fortress Press.