Orthodox Jewish thinking.

In order to understand Paul we have to move from Gentile thinking to Orthodox Jewish thinking. Paul was attempting to turn the Orthodox away from trying to gain righteousness in God's sight by the Law of Moses, to gaining righteousness by putting their trust in the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.

We cannot understand Paul clearly as long as we are thinking as a Gentile.

The Orthodox were extremely concerned with keeping the Sabbath, with circumcision, and with the kosher dietary laws.

Are you concerned with these? If you are a Gentile you probably do not even think about them. But they were important issues of those Paul was addressing.

If you are not trying to earn righteousness by keeping Sabbath, by being circumcised, by observing the kosher laws, the feast days, bar mitzvah, and all the other points of the Torah and Talmud, then you will not readily understand what Paul was talking about in the early chapters of Romans.

Paul was telling the Jews you cannot earn righteousness with God by the works of the Law, now that God has given His Son.

For a Gentile to conclude from this that "who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked" means we are to make no effort to keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles concerning righteousness, holiness, and stern obedience to God is to miss entirely the program and goal of the new covenant.

By "who does not work" Paul means who does not try to gain righteousness by keeping the Law of Moses.