The ABC’s of Faith: It’s Greek to Me
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
In the New Testament pistis is never mere 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. (Of course, this is a faith that could kill you if someone else decides not to stop—lol—but the illustration still works: 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!
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!
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 him which is faithing 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 faith in 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.”
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.
Thus:
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.
Action – the living response of the “faithing ones,” the ongoing entrusting of oneself to Jesus.
The Greek does not require us to glue three separate English concepts together. The single word family already holds them. 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.