A Further Study of Romans 3:21-26
ABC stands for Action based on Belief sustained by Confidence. That simple mnemonic captures something the original Greek of the New Testament makes far clearer than most English translations can. Romans 3:21-26 sits at the heart of Paul’s letter and of the gospel itself.
In these six verses the apostle declares that the righteousness of God has been revealed apart from the law, and that it comes through faith to all who believe. Yet the English words “faith,” “believe,” “righteousness,” “justify,” and “justification” bounce between different linguistic families. The Greek does not. Once we recover the original word groups, the passage gains striking clarity—and the ABC of faith comes into sharp focus.
What the Greek Word for “Faith” Actually Means
The central Greek term is πίστις (pistis). It belongs to a tightly related family that all share the same root, connected to the verb πείθω (peithō), “to persuade” or “to be persuaded.” From that root come:
πίστις (pistis) – the noun: faith, trust, confidence, faithfulness, belief
πιστεύω (pisteuō) – the verb: to believe, to have faith, to trust, to entrust
πιστός (pistos) – the adjective: faithful, trustworthy, believing
Earlier in Romans 3, Paul asks whether human unfaithfulness can undo “the faith of God” (Romans 3:3, KJV). Here pistis describes God’s faithfulness. Our confidence has a firm foundation: the character of the One we trust. His faithfulness gives our faith somewhere to rest.
The living faith described in Hebrews 11 goes beyond intellectual agreement that something is true. It is the settled persuasion that produces reliance. It is conviction that moves a person to entrust himself or herself to the object of that conviction. Hebrews 11:1 famously describes it as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” but the surrounding examples show people acting on what they were persuaded was true. Faith, in Greek, already contains the seeds of action, belief, and sustained confidence—the very ABC we are exploring.
A simple everyday analogy helps capture this Greek sense of pistis. When you approach a green traffic light, you drive through the intersection because you are persuaded that drivers coming from the other directions will stop at their red light. That initial belief is not blind; it rests on the design of the system, the law, and your past experience.
Every time you successfully pass through, your confidence grows that it is safe to keep doing so. You act on the persuasion, and the repeated action strengthens the confidence: genuine pistis is persuasion that leads to trusting action and is reinforced by ongoing experience.
English “Word Bouncing” vs. Greek Clarity
English hides this unity. Consider the everyday vocabulary we use for the same concepts:
Noun: faith (from Latin fides via Old French)
Verb: believe (from a completely different Germanic root related to “hold dear” or “love”)
Related noun: belief
We jump between unrelated word families. The Greek reader never does. When Paul writes of pistis and then of tous pisteuontas (“the ones believing” or “the faithing ones”), the connection is immediate and obvious. The same root carries the idea from the abstract noun into the living activity of trusting. In other words “pist” is contained in all the versions of the greek word whether noun, verb, or adjective!
John gives us a striking example. At Passover, many people “believed in his name,” yet Jesus “did not commit himself unto them” (John 2:23–24, KJV). The words translated believed and commit are different forms of the same verb, pisteuō. The Greek connection is easy to miss in English: they believed in Him, while He did not entrust Himself to them.
Here the vocabulary of belief opens into the language of trust and entrusting. The context gives each use its precise sense. Seeing the Greek family can enrich our reading: it helps us hear relationships that English sometimes spreads across different words.
The same problem appears with the righteousness vocabulary. In Greek the entire cluster comes from one root (δικ- / δικαι-):
δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē) – righteousness
δίκαιος (dikaios) – righteous / just
δικαιόω (dikaioō) – to justify, to declare righteous, to make righteous
English again bounces: “righteousness” stays with the Germanic “right,” while “justify,” “just,” and “justification” come from the Latin justus. The visual and conceptual link is broken. In Greek the God who is righteous is the same God who “righteouses” (declares and treats as righteous) the one who has pistis in Jesus. The linguistic unity reinforces the theological unity. In this example, “dikaio” is contained in all the versions of the greek word whether noun, verb, or adjective!
Paul even uses this righteousness word family when he speaks of God being “justified in thy sayings” (Romans 3:4, KJV). Here God is shown to be right; His righteousness is vindicated. The word family supplies the connection, and the sentence tells us how to understand it.
Romans 3:21-26 with the Greek Word Groups Restored
Here is the King James Version for reference, followed by a deliberately “Greek-shaped” English rendering that keeps the word families together. The made-up forms (faithing, righteoused, Righteouser) are teaching devices only; they are not proposed as polished translation. Their purpose is to let the original clarity shine through.
King James Version as written:
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Greek-shaped English
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all the faithing ones: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being righteoused freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be righteous, and the Righteouser of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Notice what becomes clearer:
The same righteousness that belongs to God is the righteousness He freely gives.
The God who is righteous is the One who righteouses the believer. There is no tension between His justice and His mercy; the cross resolves it.
Faith and faithing are not two different things. The noun and the verbal forms are simply different grammatical faces of the same persuasion-that-trusts.
The instrument is consistently faith; the recipients are consistently “the faithing ones.” No bouncing between “faith” and “believe.”
A slightly smoother pedagogical reading might run:
“…the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who are faithing… being righteoused freely by His grace… that He might be righteous and the One who righteouses the person who is of faith in Jesus.”
Paul carries these same word families straight into the next chapter. Romans 4:5 brings them together in a single sentence:
“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
— KJV
The one who believes entrusts himself to the God who justifies. Faith receives the gift; the righteous God gives it freely. Paul contrasts this gracious reckoning with wages owed for work. Our “faithing” rests on the One who justifies the ungodly through grace.
Abraham gives that trust a human face. He was “fully persuaded” that God could fulfill His promise (Romans 4:20–21). His confidence rested on God’s ability to do what He had said, and he gave glory to God. Here belief and confidence take the shape of a life turned toward the One who promises.
Why the Greek Clarity Matters for the ABC of Faith
When English readers hear “justified by faith,” the words can feel like two abstract theological terms placed side by side. The Greek reader hears one continuous idea: the righteous God righteouses people by means of the persuasion that produces trusting reliance on Jesus Christ. That reliance is never static. Because pistis grows out of being persuaded, it naturally moves into confidence that is sustained over time and into action that flows from that confidence.
Paul himself brings belief and persuasion together: “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able” (2 Timothy 1:12, KJV). The Greek places a form of pisteuō beside a form of peithō. His confidence has a living center: the One he knows and trusts, even in suffering.
Thus:
Action – the living response of the “faithing ones,” the ongoing entrusting of oneself to Jesus.
Belief – the persuasion that the gospel is true (Christ’s blood as propitiation, God’s free grace, the public demonstration of His righteousness).
Confidence – the settled trust that rests on what has been persuaded.
The action in this ABC is the fruit of trust. Salvation remains God’s gift, received through faith, and the life that follows begins to reflect His grace. Our confidence grows as we learn the faithfulness of the One we trust. Even a trembling heart can turn toward Him: “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” (Ephesians 2:8–10; Mark 9:24, KJV.)
Paul also gives the action of faith a clear direction: “faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6, KJV). As we learn to trust Christ, that trust finds expression in patience, generosity, forgiveness, and care for others. Faith reaches toward God and opens its hands toward our neighbor.
The Greek does not require us to glue three separate English concepts together. The Greek word family helps us recognize the connection; Scripture shows us how that trust becomes a way of life. Romans 3:21-26 therefore becomes not merely a doctrinal statement but a living invitation: be persuaded of what God has done in Christ, rest in that persuasion with confidence, and live as one who is actively faithing.
Conclusion
“It’s Greek to me” is usually an admission of confusion. In the study of Romans 3:21-26 it can become the opposite—an invitation to greater clarity. The Greek word groups for faith (pistis / pisteuō) and righteousness (dikaiosynē / dikaioō) refuse to bounce between unrelated English roots. They keep the concepts organically connected, just as Paul intended.
When we recover that connection, the ABC of faith—Action based on Belief sustained by Confidence—emerges not as a clever modern slogan but as a faithful echo of the language in which the gospel was first written. The righteousness of God is revealed through faith to the faithing ones, so that the Righteous God may be both righteous and the Righteouser of all who entrust themselves to Jesus.
This clarity is not limited to six verses. Try reading the rest of Romans—and then the wider New Testament—while deliberately replacing the bouncing English terms with consistent “faith-family” and “righteous-family” language: faith / faithing / the faithing ones and righteous / righteoused / the Righteouser.
Suddenly the mechanics of the gospel snap into sharper focus. You see more clearly how God’s own righteousness is both the standard and the gift, how faith is the living instrument that receives that gift, and how salvation is the gracious act of the Righteous God who righteouses those who are actively faithing in His Son.
The same word groups that illuminate Romans 3:21-26 continue to illuminate justification, the life of trust, and the entire flow of redemptive grace throughout Scripture. What begins as a simple exercise in “It’s Greek to me” becomes a richer, more coherent vision of the gospel itself.
Scripture and source notes
Living faith and the Greek word family. The ABC illustration summarizes the biblical pattern of living trust; it is not an exhaustive definition of every occurrence of the Greek faith words. Compare Hebrews 11 and James 2:14–26. See William D. Mounce’s entries for pistis and pisteuō; context determines the sense in each passage.
The teaching rendering of Romans 3. Romans 3:26 uses the noun pistis, which “the one who has faith in Jesus” reflects. For “faith of Jesus Christ” in verse 22, see Part 1: Faith of Jesus Christ and the NET translation note. Christ’s faithfulness and faith in Christ are debated interpretations of the construction; the shared word family alone does not decide between them.
“Righteoused” and “Righteouser.” These invented English forms highlight the related Greek vocabulary. Here they describe God’s gracious justification of the believer, not a claim that the believer has already become morally flawless. See Romans 3:24–26; 4:5 and Mounce’s entry for dikaioō.
The additional Greek examples. John 2:23–24 uses forms of pisteuō for believing and entrusting; see Mounce’s concordance. The Greek of Romans 4:3–5 brings the faith and righteousness word families together. 2 Timothy 1:12 places forms of pisteuō and peithō side by side. These examples illustrate the connections in particular sentences; each passage’s context governs its meaning.