ess.' And why? Because he knows what the gospel means. It is
not mere words; it is a power. It is a 'power of God,' a divine force,
which, like the wind, bloweth where it listeth, and which nothing can
stop. It is a power of God. It is a power of God 'unto salvation,' a
power that is to work men's deliverance, and that in the deepest sense.
Roman emperors not very long after St. Paul's time are commemorated in
public inscriptions as 'saviours of the world[3].' That is in the
sense of maintaining peace and civil order. But Christ's salvation was
of a deeper sort. It was salvation from the bondage of sin, a
salvation which enabled people to be truly and eternally free. It is a
power of God unto salvation, and that 'to every one that believeth,' on
the mere basis of the simple willingness to take God at His word; 'to
the Jew first and also to the Greek.' 'For'--and here St. Paul reaches
the great text of his whole epistle--'therein' (that is, in the gospel)
'is disclosed,' or revealed here and now in the world, {59} 'a
righteousness of God.' By this phrase it will appear that he means
both a righteousness which is God's own, and also a righteousness which
God gives to men; for the gift of God is real moral and spiritual
fellowship with His own life. This is what is now offered to men. A
righteousness of God is revealed, starting from faith and at every
stage moving on upon the support of faith, 'a righteousness of God by
faith unto faith'; and that not in repudiation of the old covenant, but
in fulfilment of its vital principle: 'as it is written.' For the
words of Habakkuk may be interpreted to express the central spirit of
the Old Testament--'the righteous shall live by faith[4].'

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith
is proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom
I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I make
mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if by any means
now at length I may be prospered by the will of God to come unto you.
For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift,
to the end ye may be established; that is, that I with you may be
comforted in you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine.
And I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed
to come unto you (and was hindered hitherto), that I might have some
fruit in you also, even {60} as in t