Justified by Faith
Romans 3:21-28, the righteousness of God, as the early church read it
This is the passage at the heart of the Reformation, and so worth hearing long before it: how did the early church read "a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law"? Chrysostom, preaching through Romans, is clear and warm: justification is the gift of God's own righteousness, freely given through Christ's blood, foretold by the Law and the Prophets so it is no novelty, and received by faith, which he calls the "no small matter" we bring. The Father in his own words below, with a plain restatement and an honest note on where the later traditions parted.
The Father's words are verbatim and attributed (Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans, NPNF, public domain; selected from the running prose, footnote apparatus omitted). The box marked "In plain terms" is our own restatement, never the Father's words.
Romans 3:21-23 · KJVBut now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe… For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
"Here he utters a great thing… if they that lived in the Law not only did not escape punishment, but were even the more weighed down thereby, how without the Law is it possible not only to escape vengeance, but even to be justified?… And this is why he does not say righteousness simply, but the righteousness of God, so by the worthiness of the Person displaying the greater degree of the grace, and the possibility of the promise. For to Him all things are possible."
St. John Chrysostom"Do not be troubled… because it has but now been given, nor be affrighted as though at a thing new and strange. For of old both the Law and the Prophets foretold it… Then that no one should say, How are we to be saved without contributing anything at all to the object in view? he shows that we also offer no small matter toward this, I mean our faith."
St. John ChrysostomChrysostom marvels at the scale of it: the very people who had the Law were weighed down by it, yet here, apart from law-keeping, comes not just escape from judgment but justification. And it is God's own righteousness, so its worthiness measures the size of the grace. It is not a novelty (the Law and Prophets foretold it), and it is not received with empty hands: our part, he says, is "no small matter", it is faith.
Romans 3:24-26 · KJVBeing justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood… that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
"See by how many proofs he makes good what was said. First, from the worthiness of the person, for it is not a man who doeth these things, that He should be too weak for it, but God all-powerful… And he does not say barely redemption, but entire redemption, to show that we should come no more into such slavery. And for this same reason he calls it a propitiation."
St. John Chrysostom"So also is the declaring of His righteousness not only that He is Himself righteous, but that He doth also make them that are filled with the… sores of sin suddenly righteous. And it is to explain this… that he has added, 'That He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.'"
St. John ChrysostomJustification is free, by grace, accomplished by God (not a weak human work), through a full redemption and a propitiation in Christ's blood. And note Chrysostom's striking phrase: God's righteousness "declares" itself by actually making the sin-sick sinner righteous, the way His riches make others rich and His life makes the dead live. God is both "just, and the justifier", He does not wink at sin; He deals with it in the cross and then truly remakes the believer.
Romans 3:27-28 · KJVWhere is boasting then? It is excluded… Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Boasting is shut out, because justification is God's gift, not our wage. For Chrysostom this does not make faith passive or works irrelevant (he preaches obedience hard elsewhere); rather, the door into righteousness is opened by grace and entered by faith, never earned by law-keeping. The whole weight rests on what God has done in Christ.
Where the traditions diverge
This verse became the fault line of the Reformation, so the honest map: Protestants read justification as God declaring the sinner righteous, Christ's righteousness reckoned (imputed) to the one who believes, by faith alone. The Catholic tradition (defined at Trent) holds justification to be by grace through faith as well, but as a righteousness truly imparted (infused), faith working through love. The Orthodox frame it within the transforming union with God (theosis). What the early church plainly held, and Chrysostom shows it here, is that justification is by grace, through faith, apart from law-keeping, with boasting excluded, and that God's righteousness actually makes the sinner righteous. That early reading sits closer to the transformative side of the later debate, with faith central and grace first, but it predates, and does not neatly settle, the precise later questions of imputed versus infused righteousness. The shared ground is large: grace before all, faith as the empty hand that receives, no boasting in our works. (See also Hebrews 11: the faith that does and Hyper-Grace.)
Patristic text from Chrysostom's Homilies on Romans (NPNF, public domain), selected from the running prose with the footnote apparatus omitted; nothing added or paraphrased within the quotation marks. Scripture in the King James Version; the plain-language lines are our own restatement. This passage in the Study Bible; Romans 3 at BibleHub. (Augustine on grace, from the anti-Pelagian writings, to be added.)