Romans 1:17 : For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written 'But the righteous shall live by faith.' The seventeenth verse has given a good deal of trouble to commentators. They have not so much trouble in determining the meaning of the words as in determining the proper place of the two prepositional phrases namely, "from faith" and "unto faith." Translators and commentators differ as to the proper placing of these phrases. Some would have the phrase "from faith" to modify the word "revealed." But to say that the gospel was revealed from faith is, to me, meaningless. I can see how the revealed gospel might produce faith, but cannot see how faith could produce the gospel. And to say, as some would have it, that the gospel was revealed from one degree of faith to another is equally meaningless. The gospel was not revealed by faith, but by inspiration. If we take into consideration Paul's reason for making the statement, together with a correct conception of the plan of salvation, we should not have much difficulty in arriving at a proper understanding of the verse. Notice carefully this clear statement by James Macknight: " 'The righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith' is an assembly of words to which no distinct meaning can be attached. But the original, rightly construed, gives the following clear literal sense 'The righteousness of God by faith is revealed in it, in order to faith.' The apostle was not ashamed of the gospel, because a righteousness of God's appointment, to be obtained by faith, is revealed in it, in order to produce faith in them to whom it is preached. The latter clause, 'as it is written, The just shall live by faith,' were better translated, 'The just by faith shall live.' " I. B. Grubbs, in his commentary, says "We follow the translation given in the English Revised Version deviating only as to the rendering of the clause in question, a deviation which, as we think, can be abundantly justified. The sentence with its separately indicated parts will read as follows: (1) 'Therein is revealed (2) a righteousness of God by faith (3) in order to faith'." Other authorities can be cited to the same effect. But what is the meaning of "righteousness of God?" Paul does not mean to say that the truth that God is a righteous Being is revealed in the gospel--that truth had been fully revealed in the Old Testament. Of the Jews, Paul said: "For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God" (Romans 10:3). The Jews were not ignorant that God was a righteous Being, but they were ignorant of this gospel plan of righteousness, and therefore did not submit to it. In Philippians 3:9, Paul refers to it as a righteousness "which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith." In the gospel is revealed a plan by which God makes men righteous. To be righteous is to be free from guilt. If a man never sinned, he would be righteous by his own works. But all have sinned and are under condemnation. If no plan had been devised by which guilty sinners might be made righteous, the whole world would be lost without remedy. Some power had to be brought to bear on the sin-polluted sons and daughters of men that would make them clean and holy, or all were lost. Paul af-firms that the power which accomplishes that very thing is the gospel. "But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye be-came servants of righteousness" (Romans 6:17-18). When a sinner obeys the gospel, he is made free from sin; he is then in God's sight as free from sin as if he had never sinned; he is justified; he is righteous; he is clean. If the gospel did not accomplish this for the sinner, it would not be God's power to save. Such a person is not righteous because he has always lived right, but because he has obtained righteousness by becoming obedient to the gospel. But what of the phrase "in order to faith"? Is it in harmony with the rest of the Bible to say that a plan of righteousness, or justification, is revealed in the gospel as an inducement for men to believe? Notice the following: "Yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law" (Galatians 2:16). To get out from under condemnation, to be released from the penalty of sin, to be justified in God's sight--is that not enough to make any sin-burdened person want to become a Christian? The gospel, then, is God's power for saving men, be-cause in it is revealed God's plan of righteousness by faith. The gospel makes those who accept it right. eous, and that great benefit to be found in the gospel induces men to believe it.