Romans 3:21-26
The Greek word that we translate as righteous or just is “dike” (pronounced dee-kay). At the time that Paul wrote Romans, translators were using different forms of “dike” to translate Hebrew Scriptures about righteousness and right relationships into Greek. At the same time, they used forms of “dike” to translate Latin texts dealing with the Roman legal system, about justice, about being just, or being justified according to Roman law.

Paul uses a form of this Greek word “dike” over 50 times in the book of Romans. If we are going to understand Romans, we must understand what the word “Dike” meant to Paul. Paul was a Roman citizen and he had at least a basic working understanding of Roman law. When the Jews at Jerusalem threatened him, he used Roman law to protect himself. However before he met Christ, he was a Pharisee, the strictest of the strict Jews. He had spent his life studying the Old Testament. He knew its teaching about righteousness and relationship. He knew that Genesis taught that God created humanity to walk with and commune with God in fellowship. His writings show how sin broke and continues to break our relationship with God. The law reveals the broken relationship to us, but it cannot mend the relationship.

If we insist on understanding Paul’s use of the word dike in the context of law and not relationship, we will never truly understand God’s grace. In the legal context we are not justified by faith. A man is rushing his wife to the hospital to have a baby, and he gets a speeding ticket. When he goes to court, the judge hears his story, and throws his ticket out; he was justified in breaking the law for the sake of the baby. No matter how much faith we have, there will never be any justification for our sins.