Walter Rauschenbusch, Father of the Social Gospel, casting what he referred to as “old theology” in a bad light stated: “Wherever doctrine becomes rigid and is the pre-eminent thing in religion, ‘faith’ means submission of the mind to the affirmations of dogma and theology, and acceptance of the plan of salvation and trust in the vicarious atonement of Christ.”[1] While Rauschenbusch declared that faith in the atonement was antiquated, Paul affirmed saving faith indispensably necessary for salvation: “Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins” (Romans 3:25). Propitiation is appropriated by faith in Christ based on Christ’s shed “blood” in 3:25. It is better to connect “blood” with “propitiation” rather than as the object of faith.[2]
This righteousness of God is appropriated “by faith in Jesus Christ” (3:22). For the first time the object of faith is stated clearly in Romans three. Paul is not being redundant when he says that this righteousness of God accepted by faith is for “all them that believe.” Not only is faith the means of receiving righteousness in 3:22a, but “all” or anyone can “believe” and receive this righteousness in 3:22b. The first “all” refers to the means, and the second “all” refers to the scope.
There are three aspects of saving faith that appropriates the righteousness of God
First, there must be knowledge of the Gospel. The sinner must know certain biblical facts about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Just any knowledge sincerely believed is not sufficient as illustrated by the Jews in Romans 10:1-3. In Romans 10:9-10, Paul states those necessary facts of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection that the sinner must know in order to receive Christ as his Savior. In Acts 16:31, Paul informed the Philippian jailor that he must “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” and he would be saved.
Second, there must also be agreement or mental assent with the truth of the gospel. It is possible to know the gospel message of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection and not agree with them. Paul referring again to the Jews who rejected his gospel message said, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel” (Romans 10:16). Those Jews had the knowledge of the gospel but did not agree with the facts.
The third aspect of saving faith is trust in the person of Christ and His penal substitutionary death and resurrection. It is also possible to have the knowledge of the gospel and agree with that knowledge and still be unsaved. James writes of this possibility in 2:19: “You believe that there is one God; you do well: the demons also believe, and tremble.” What was the content of the demons’ faith? It had to include the first two aspects of saving faith. Saving faith, however, requires more than knowledge of the gospel and more than agreement or mental assent to the truth of the gospel. Saving faith requires a third aspect. Paul describes this faith in Romans 10:9: “If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.” This is the act of the will of the sinner who has heard the gospel and has been convicted by the Holy Spirit of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The sinner who rejected Christ, under conviction of the Holy Spirit, changes his attitude about sin and God and no longer rejects but trusts Christ as Savior. The sinner is saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) when he “calls upon the name of the Lord” (Romans 10:13) and he is “justified” and is as good as “glorified” (Romans 8:30).
[1] Walter Rauschenbusch, A Theology for the Social Gospel, 101.
[2] Leon Morris writes: “Grammatically it is possible to take in his blood as qualifying faith (as KJV; so Hodge), but it is an unlikely understanding of the words. For Paul faith is in Jesus Christ, and it is not easy to see him speaking of faith in blood. It is better to see it as referring to propitiation. The propitiation is affected (a) through faith, and (b) in Christ’s blood. His is emphatic from its position: it is the blood of none less than Christ that brings propitiation” (Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans [Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1988], 182).