Romans bible study

[Benadam]

I think Paul’s focus in this chapter is teaching the christians in Rome the universal characteristic of the Roman mission field and the primary pitfall to effectively revealing Christ there.

He distinguishes the Gentiles from the Jews only by describing how they reject God. The crime of rejecting God is attributed to the Jews in the minds of the christians of that time. Paul is preparing them for the persecution that will come with him when he arrives. If they don’t understand the culpability of the Gentiles their witness will lose the universal quality necessary to reveal Christ in Rome.

The temptation for converts will be to make the Jews a common enemy to the unconverted gentiles thereby forming a bond based on hate rather than love. A sure means of establishing a spurious faith rather than a faith founded on Christ. The Jews will be doing this very thing in order to corral allies against the christians making the temptation even more powerfull. Paul addresses this problem by making them one body of people Jew and Gentile who reject God albeit through different means.

Having taught them the universal characteristic of rejecting God and the universal depravity that results whether Jew or Gentile he reminds them that the Gospel is meant for the Jews first then the Gentiles.

Paul recognizes the necessity of maintaining a universal outlook to effectively reveal Christ in Rome and begins this letter by constructing the necessary vision to accomplish that.

 

[mikeledes]

18
The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and wickedness of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
19
For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them.
20
Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse;
21
for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened.
22
While claiming to be wise, they became fools
23
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.
24
Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies.
25
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26
Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural,
27
and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity.
28
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper.
29
They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite. They are gossips
30
and scandalmongers and they hate God. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents.
31
They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32
Although they know the just decree of God that all who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Whether it’s about Jews or Gentiles, this passage points to the sinfulness and grave spiritual state of man apart from grace and that the end for those who remain in that state is not very good. This is exhibit A in Paul’s argument for the universal need for salvation and a Savior.

God Bless,
Michael

 

[ryanoneil]

Whether it’s about Jews or Gentiles, this passage points to the sinfulness and grave spiritual state of man apart from grace and that the end for those who remain in that state is not very good. This is exhibit A in Paul’s argument for the universal need for salvation and a Savior.

God Bless,
Michael

I agree. My college prof had an interesting comment about the historical context. He said:

Paul wanted to use Rome as a hub for his evangelizing, so he really needed the support of the Jewish Christians in Rome. My prof suggested that Romans is largely about convincing the Jewish Christians that the gentile mission is part of God’s plan (like the controversy in Acts of the Apostles). He was making his case so to speak, to those who weren’t convinced of accepting gentiles. Then by convincing them he’d have a solid base (and support) to go out and evangelize from.

I don’t how accurate all of that is, but found it very interesting.

 

[mikeledes]

I agree. My college prof had an interesting comment about the historical context. He said:

Paul wanted to use Rome as a hub for his evangelizing, so he really needed the support of the Jewish Christians in Rome. My prof suggested that Romans is largely about convincing the Jewish Christians that the gentile mission is part of God’s plan (like the controversy in Acts of the Apostles). He was making his case so to speak, to those who weren’t convinced of accepting gentiles. Then by convincing them he’d have a solid base (and support) to go out and evangelize from.

I don’t how accurate all of that is, but found it very interesting.

And basically the Jewish Christians argued that if Gentiles wanted to be members of the people of God, they basically needed to become Jews- since the Jews were the chosen people of God - and hence be circumcised and observe all of the precepts of the Mosaic Law, including kosher laws:

Acts 15:5

** 5But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”**

We’ll see Paul debunk this argument later in Romans. His basic argument will bascially be ," Don’t think you are entitled to God’s mercy simply because you are an ethnic Israelite and observe the Mosaic Law."

God Bless,
Michael

 

[Catholic_Dude]

**
16For I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: for Jew first, and then Greek.
17For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous by faith will live.” **

I think we should next discuss the issue of the term “righteousness of God.”
Protestants misunderstand this to mean “Christ’s Righteousness” meaning that this righteousness is a status that can be imputed to others. That is wrong, and not how Paul uses the term.

 

[Chesster]

St. Aquinas sees this as having two possible meanings:

In one way it can refer to the justice by which God is just: “The Lord is just and has loved justice” (Ps 11:7). Taken this way, the sense is that the justice of God, by which he is just in keeping his promises, *is revealed in it *in eo], namely, in the man who believes the Gospel, because he believes that God has fulfilled what he promised about sending the Christ. And this is from faith, namely, [the faithfulness] of God who promised: “The Lord is faithful in all his words (Ps 145:13); to faith, namely of the man who believes.

Or it can refer to the justice of God by which God makes men just. For the justice of men is that by which men presume to make themselves just by their own efforts: *Not knowing the justice of God and seeking to establish their own justice, they did not submit to the justice of God *(Rom 10:3). This justice [of God] is revealed in the gospel inasmuch as men are justified by faith in the gospel in every age. Hence he adds, from faith to faith, i.e., proceeding from faith in the Old Testament to faith in the New, because in both cases men are made just and are saved by faith in Christ, since they believed in his coming with the same faith as we believe that he has come. Therefore, it is stated in 2Cor 413), “We have the same type of faith as he had who wrote, ‘I believed, and so I spoke’.”

 

[Elizabeth_C]

I haven’t read everything here, but I plan to keep reading. I am currently attending a “non-denominational” (readrotestant mostly) Bible study. I attended 2 years ago when the topic was Acts of the Apostles. Now, we are doing Romans. I know already (one lesson) that I will have some difficulty due to my Catholic perpective vs the program’s Protestant one.) The intructions mentioned St Augustine…then Martin Luther… and specifically “faith alone”. There is a rule about not speaking about “doctrine” but from one’s own perspective.

So, I will gladly follow here in order to help during the class.

 

[Andrew_John_AJ]

Hey Brothers and Sisters:

I’m not learning much from this thread. I prefer Scott Hahn’s Scripture teaching and Father Mitch Pacwa…sooooooooo

sayonaraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…

 

[joyreno]

Thank you, I have been trying to do bible study. It is not an easy task to do alone. I have been trying to study the weekly reading for each Sunday, this will greatly help me.

 

[Odell]

I think we should next discuss the issue of the term “righteousness of God.”
Protestants misunderstand this to mean “Christ’s Righteousness” meaning that this righteousness is a status that can be imputed to others. That is wrong, and not how Paul uses the term.

I think you are on to something

but not sure if this particular verse can be used to support either position unless you see something I dont

maybe Paul will get into this further as we look into Romans

I haven’t read everything here, but I plan to keep reading. I am currently attending a “non-denominational” (readrotestant mostly) Bible study. I attended 2 years ago when the topic was Acts of the Apostles. Now, we are doing Romans. I know already (one lesson) that I will have some difficulty due to my Catholic perpective vs the program’s Protestant one.) The intructions mentioned St Augustine…then Martin Luther… and specifically “faith alone”. There is a rule about not speaking about “doctrine” but from one’s own perspective.

So, I will gladly follow here in order to help during the class.

where are you at in this bible study?

It would be even better if yours was a chapter a week like this one you would be on top of things going into a Protestant bible study

Also I want Protestants to participate in this so if you know any invite them to the study.

As dangerous as a study can be with what does this mean to you. I wanted a study that compared the two theologys behind this book

 

[Catholic_Dude]

St. Aquinas sees this as having two possible meanings:

Cool!

Where did you find these quotes?

 

[Catholic_Dude]

I think you are on to something

but not sure if this particular verse can be used to support either position unless you see something I dont

maybe Paul will get into this further as we look into Romans

Rom 1:17 never was a Catholic proof text, but it was literally the verse that got Luther started. See the following quote
(note: back then they used the term “justice” instead of “righteousness” though they are equivalent terms):
Meanwhile in that same year, 1519, I had begun interpreting the Psalms once again. I felt confident that I was now more experienced, since I had dealt in university courses with St. Paul’s Letters to the Romans, to the Galatians, and the Letter to the Hebrews. I had conceived a burning desire to understand what Paul meant in his Letter to the Romans, but thus far there had stood in my way, not the cold blood around my heart, but that one word which is in chapter one: “The justice of God is revealed in it.” I hated that word, “justice of God,” which, by the use and custom of all my teachers, I had been taught to understand philosophically as referring to formal or active justice, as they call it, i.e., that justice by which God is just and by which he punishes sinners and the unjust.

But I, blameless monk that I was, felt that before God I was a sinner with an extremely troubled conscience. I couldn’t be sure that God was appeased by my satisfaction. I did not love, no, rather I hated the just God who punishes sinners. In silence, if I did not blaspheme, then certainly I grumbled vehemently and got angry at God. I said, “Isn’t it enough that we miserable sinners, lost for all eternity because of original sin, are oppressed by every kind of calamity through the Ten Commandments? Why does God heap sorrow upon sorrow through the Gospel and through the Gospel threaten us with his justice and his wrath?” This was how I was raging with wild and disturbed conscience. I constantly badgered St. Paul about that spot in Romans 1 and anxiously wanted to know what he meant.

I meditated night and day on those words until at last, by the mercy of God, I paid attention to their context: “The justice of God is revealed in it, as it is written: ‘The just person lives by faith.’” I began to understand that in this verse the justice of God is that by which the just person lives by a gift of God, that is by faith. I began to understand that this verse means that the justice of God is revealed through the Gospel, but it is a passive justice, i.e. that by which the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: “The just person lives by faith.” All at once I felt that I had been born again and entered into paradise itself through open gates. Immediately I saw the whole of Scripture in a different light. I ran through the Scriptures from memory and found that other terms had analogous meanings, e.g., the work of God, that is, what God works in us; the power of God, by which he makes us powerful; the wisdom of God, by which he makes us wise; the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God.

I exalted this sweetest word of mine, “the justice of God,” with as much love as before I had hated it with hate. This phrase of Paul was for me the very gate of paradise. Afterward I read Augustine’s “On the Spirit and the Letter,” in which I found what I had not dared hope for. I discovered that he too interpreted “the justice of God” in a similar way, namely, as that with which God clothes us when he justifies us. Although Augustine had said it imperfectly and did not explain in detail how God imputes justice to us, still it pleased me that he taught the justice of God by which we are justified.

(Luther’s Tower Experience, 1519)

What is most especially noteworthy here is that Luther was misinformed about what the “righteousness of God” meant, he thought it meant God’s punishing attitude, but I don’t think any decent theologians ever taught that. As a result Luther came to invent an incorrect “solution” to all this under the theme of “imputed alien righteousness” which he says above is that this righteousness is what we are “clothed” in.

He says St Augustine taught the same thing, but that is false, St Augustine meant the righteousness is infused making us righteous, Luther’s erroneous invention was an imputed alien righteousness.

This verse certainly is used to support the Protestant position, and many Protestants will read that MEANING OUT OF the text as if it was as plain as day. Of course, that is not the plain as day meaning and quite a stretch of an interpretation.

 

[SyCarl]

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
(Romans 1:16-19 NASB)

In this passage I don’t think that Paul is talking about imputed or infused righteousness. What he is saying is that through the gospel we can see God’s righteousness displayed if we perceive it by faith.

After this passage Paul starts an explanation of why we are worthy of God’s wrath. He starts this off though with a message of hope; the Good News that God in His mercy has provided a way to show His love and mercy, without abandoning His justice. God is faithful in fulfilling His promise of salvation and we in turn accept this salvation by faith, from start to finish.

 

[Pax]

Romans 1:17 says:

"For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.”

Since Paul says “as it is written”, it clear that he is referring to the Old Testament and that he wants us to look at it for context and clarification. Habakkuk chapter 2 reads as follows:

“I WILL take my stand to watch, and station myself on the tower, and look forth to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end–it will not lie. If it seem slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Moreover, wine is treacherous; the arrogant man shall not abide. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations, and collects as his own all peoples.” Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, in scoffing derision of him, and say, “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own-- for how long?-- and loads himself with pledges!” Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be booty for them. Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of men and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell therein. Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm! You have devised shame to your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond. Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and founds a city on iniquity! Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor only for fire, and nations weary themselves for nought? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink of the cup of his wrath, and makes them drunk, to gaze on their shame! You will be sated with contempt instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and stagger! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and shame will come upon your glory! The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you; the destruction of the beasts will terrify you, for the blood of men and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell therein. What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For the workman trusts in his own creation when he makes dumb idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a dumb stone, Arise! Can this give revelation? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

 

[smkw]

I want to start a study for my self and others of what I think is one of the books that on how one interprets it is pretty much what makes you catholic or protestant they are two very different ways of interpreting this book. And I would like to have a study that others and I can come back to and reference the different interpretations of this book.

please tell me what and how you interpret the particular chapter we are on, how a protestant should or a catholic should interpret it.

please no debating I just want to compare and contrast the different views. I want it to be a real bible study

But I will start a thred in apologetics where we can debate the differences. And link it here for us to turn to

If that thred is getting off the topic of a particular chapter you want to debate start a thred in the apologetics page and link it to the study for people that are anxious to debate someone elses interpretation I may be one of those

im going to try to keep this at a week per chapter

thanks and im sure we all can learn from this

**Chapter 1

1
Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God,
2
which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy scriptures,
3
the gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh,
4
but established as Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.
5
Through him we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles,
6
among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ;
7
to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
8
First, I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is heralded throughout the world.
9
God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in proclaiming the gospel of his Son, that I remember you constantly,
10
always asking in my prayers that somehow by God’s will I may at last find my way clear to come to you.
11
For I long to see you, that I may share with you some spiritual gift so that you may be strengthened,
12
that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by one another’s faith, yours and mine.
13
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you, though I was prevented until now, that I might harvest some fruit among you, too, as among the rest of the Gentiles.
14
To Greeks and non-Greeks alike, to the wise and the ignorant, I am under obligation;
15
that is why I am eager to preach the gospel also to you in Rome.
16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: for Jew first, and then Greek.
17
For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous by faith will live.”
18
The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and wickedness of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
19
For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them.
20
Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse;
21
for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened.
22
While claiming to be wise, they became fools
23
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.
24
Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies.
25
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26
Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural,
27
and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity.
28
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper.
29
They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite. They are gossips
30
and scandalmongers and they hate God. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents.
31
They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32
Although they know the just decree of God that all who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. **

 

[smkw]

For a Catholic perspective on Romans, here’s some writings of Chrysostum, that are pretty interesting.
Sue

clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/e0.htm

 

[smkw]

I haven’t read everything here, but I plan to keep reading. I am currently attending a “non-denominational” (readrotestant mostly) Bible study. I attended 2 years ago when the topic was Acts of the Apostles. Now, we are doing Romans. I know already (one lesson) that I will have some difficulty due to my Catholic perpective vs the program’s Protestant one.) The intructions mentioned St Augustine…then Martin Luther… and specifically “faith alone”. There is a rule about not speaking about “doctrine” but from one’s own perspective.

So, I will gladly follow here in order to help during the class.

If “faith alone” is already mentioned in your study, isn’t the “program” already into doctrine?

 

[Catholic_Dude]

In this passage I don’t think that Paul is talking about imputed or infused righteousness. What he is saying is that through the gospel we can see God’s righteousness displayed if we perceive it by faith.

After this passage Paul starts an explanation of why we are worthy of God’s wrath. He starts this off though with a message of hope; the Good News that God in His mercy has provided a way to show His love and mercy, without abandoning His justice. God is faithful in fulfilling His promise of salvation and we in turn accept this salvation by faith, from start to finish.

I would agree with much of this, I think the ‘righteousness of God’ described here is God’s faithfulness to His promises. Renegade Protestants like N.T. Wright have said this, but I never looked that deeply into the issue. However, I noticed this the other day when I was re-reading Rom 1-3:
Rom 3: 1What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.

3What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? 4Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written:
“So that you may be proved right when you speak
and prevail when you judge.”
5But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.)

6Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” 8Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved.
I included some context, but my main focus was on verses 3 and 5. What Paul appears to be saying is that though the promises of God were through the Jews, “not all had faith.” In otherwords, the question is did God’s plans and promises fail because His human agents failed to remain faithful? Paul says it is just the opposite, somehow God in His Mysterious way STILL managed to fulfill His Plans and Promises. God infact takes sinners and sin and turns it around and uses it to fulfill His Plans. Mysteriously, even when we sin God’s plans are not only not stopped, they are furthered.

Verse 5 makes this even more clear. The issue in verses 5-8 now make sense. The objection is if our sin actually plays right into God’s plans then why does God get mad and, better yet, why not sin EVEN MORE if it is just to fulfill God’s plans.

The answer many Protestants give to this question is incorrect. Many Protestants say though we CAN sin and wont lose our salvation, a “true Christian” will not want to sin. The real answer is that sure you can do evil and it will further God’s plans, but the one doing the evil is still opening himself for punishment (cf Rom 2:5-8).

Romans 1:17 says:

"For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.”

Since Paul says “as it is written”, it clear that he is referring to the Old Testament and that he wants us to look at it for context and clarification."

Habakkuk chapter 2 reads as follows:

"I WILL take my stand to watch, and station myself on the tower, and look forth to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the Lord answered me: "Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end–it will not lie. **If it seem slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.**Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Moreover, wine is treacherous; the arrogant man shall not abide.

This is very important to bring up, I forgot about how important it is to look back into Hab 2. While Hab 2 is kind of confusing, I think verses 3-4 basically are teaching patience and faithfulness both of God and believer. I just checked Not By Faith Alone to see what it said and it pointed to an even better place,
35So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37For in just a very little while,
“He who is coming will come and will not delay.
38**But my righteous one will live by faith. **
And if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.” 39But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.This is a verse about PERSEVERING in “faith working through love,” and not a one time “just believe and your saved ‘n’ secure.”
I never realized this before, but this is also just before the famous “faith” chapter of Heb 11.

So given this, I am now even more strongly inclined to say Rom 1:17 and “righteousness of God” means God’s faithfulness and implies ours as well.

Realizing this hurts Luther’s claims even more.

 

[Pax]

I also think the choice of words in the OT context is significant when it says:

“Behold, he whose soul **is not upright in him **shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”

The soul is either upright “in” the person or it is not upright “in” the person, and the righteous shall live by faith. This needs to be kept in mind when thinking about righteousness.

 

[Chesster]

Cool!

Where did you find these quotes?

It’s in his commentary on Romans.

Personally I prefer the first meaning.

Years ago on another forum someone posted a brief explanation that helped me to understand a little better:

In the NT, Paul shows us that God’s righteousness (justice) is the same thing as His mercy. The theme of the Letter to the Romans is the “righteousness of God” (Rom 1:17). The saving righteousness that Paul describes is not primarily the retributive justice God exercises as a Judge, but rather God’s faithfulness to His own promises. God’s righteousness was “manifested” when He provided Jesus Christ as an expiation for sin, a sin offering. By doing this, “God showed that He is just (righteous) and justifies the one who puts faith in Jesus.” (Rom 3:26) Through His public exposure of Jesus on the cross, God has vindicated His claim to be the Savior of His people (Isa 59:15-20). For Paul, God demonstrates His justice by honoring His promises, not by punishing an innocent man. The justice of God is saving justice, not vindictive justice.