Leaves From the
Book
DIVINE RIGHTEOUSNESS IN ITS
ACTINGS TOWARDS MEN.
THE righteousness of God is the constant plea of the Old
Testament; and naturally so. Especially the Psalms are full of it - a
righteousness displayed in governmental dealings with men, His creatures. In
the conflict everywhere and at all times going on between good and evil, "the
righteous Lord" who "loveth righteousness," and whose "countenance beholds the
up right," must needs manifest Himself in behalf of what He loves. Divine
righteousness is here plainly, and ever, a part of the Divine character, an
attribute of God Himself; not a gift bestowed upon man in any wise, although
connected with the salvation of His people, for whom, after a long and needed
discipline of suffering, He will at last appear. But that does not solve all
questions as to it; and it could only appear to do so to one whose knowledge of
himself and of God was exceedingly superficial. If sin be a real thing, and of
infinite concern with God, the pardon of it righteously (and no other pardon
could God give) must be no light matter. And if the righteous had still to ask,
in a way that implied the hopelessness of the question, "But how shall man be
just with God ?" then God’s righteousness could not be exhibited even in
behalf of the comparatively righteous without incurring suspicion of partiality
or defect.
It remained to be the glory of the gospel to clear away this
suspicion, and to display "the righteousness of God," not now merely in the
salvation of the righteous, but of sinners yea, of the chief of sinners. "I am
not ashamed," says the apostle, "of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." What constitutes it thus
God’s power to save, irrespective of the character of those that believe
This : "for therein " - in the gospel, in the glad good news to be proclaimed
to every one - " the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IS REVEALED, from faith (or, on the
principle of faith) to faith" (Rom. i. 16) Is this " righteousness of God,"
which the gospel reveals and puts upon the side of the believer, other than
that which the law left unrevealed, in view of that very matter, the salvation
of men ? Is it anything else than that attribute of His, (part of His glory
which He cannot divorce from Himself, or act in contradiction to,) reconciled
with, or rather manifested in, the very love which is in His nature? Let us see
if it be this or any other thought which the New Testament would convey to us
by this expression.
There is first a class of texts which evidently do not
speak of any revelation of it by the gospel, and which we need to keep distinct
in our minds from those which have to do with this. They are five in number,
and of no special difficulty to understand : but should not be confounded with
the Gospel revelation.
The first text occurs in the Lord’s sermon on
the mount: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all
these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. vi. 33). Here the Lord’s
words mean plainly, in the connection in which they stand, "Care you for what
belongs to God, and suits Him, and He will care for you"and "His righteousness"
means all that suits His character, as revealed important as the lesson is, it
is evidently not that we need to dwell upon in connection with the present
inquiry.
The next is in Rom. iii. 5: ‘‘ But if our
unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God
unrighteous who taketh vengeance?" Here again the sense is evident, and we need
not pause to consider it minutely.
Once more, in Romans x, we have: "But
they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God."
Here many, from the connection with what precedes and follows,
suppose the Gospel revelation of righteousness to be referred to; but it is not
so, and the connection is different from what they suppose. No doubt this
ignorance of God’s righteousness is in intimate connection with the
rejection of Christ; but that does not show that Christ is identified in this
passage with the Divine righteousness to which they have not submitted. The law
itself should have so taught them what God’s character was in this respect
as to have made them conscious of how far short their own righteousness must
come of His requirement. They had taken that law to work out righteousness by
it, instead of as the "ministration of condemnation," as indeed it was : a
‘‘ law of righteousness - which for that very reason could not
accommodate itself to the unrighteousness of man. Had they hnmbled themselves
nnder the solemn sentence of the law, Christ would not have been a
stumbling-stone : repentance would have led them beyond the law, for salvation
through faith in another. The fourth passage is similar to the first. It is in
James i. 10: "For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."
The fifth and last requires a little more notice. It is in 2 Peter i. i : "To
those that have obtained like precious faith with us, through the righteousness
of our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ." This is the marginal reading, and the
true one. It is strange that any should confound "faith through righteousness"
with "righteousness through faith"; but so it is. Evangelical orthodoxy has
discovered to the satisfaction of many that the two are one; but it only shows
how prepossession with other thoughts will obscure very plain Scripture. The
apostle is speaking really of the precious faith of Christianity replacing the
Judaism which had now come to an end, through His righteousness who had come in
to make good His prophetic Word, and sustain the hearts of the true Israel with
His abundant loving mercy. It is plainly Divine righteousness still exhibited,
not conferred, and exhibited in not allowing those really His in Judaism to
lose by its being set aside. And now the way is open to consider the
righteousness of God as the Gospel reveals it. The texts are few in number, and
for their importance need to be all and well considered. The due order will be
that in which their mutual connection is best illustrated and maintained.
(i.) The passages in the third of Romans naturally present themselves here
first.
The Epistle to the Romans is that in which pre-eminently the
subject of righteousness is treated of, as a glance at the concordance will at
once suffice to show. The apostle in the first place is occupied in proving
that, whether Jew or Gentile, man has none. The sins of the Gentiles (the
heathen) are manifest: their heathenism itself the fruit, not of seeking light
when denied it, but of refusing it when God had given it them. "When they knew
God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened: professing themselves
to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God
into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and to four-footed
beasts, and creeping things." And from this their notorious immorality
proceeded: "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness," etc.
But if
this was the case with the heathen, what about the people to whom God had
restored the light when they (as the rest) had lost it? Was Israel better? So
far from that, the "name of God," committed to their trust to sanctify, had
been "blasphemed among the Gentiles through" them. The very law in which they
trusted was their righteous accuser, and had pronounced already as to them,
"There is none righteous, no, not one." And "We know," says the apostle, "that
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God."
There was no difference then between Jew and Gentile: righteousness,
measured by the Divine standard, was to be found nowhere among men. There the
law left man, helpless and hopeless; with the knowledge of sin, but without
escape from it: by the deeds of the law no flesh being justified in the sight
of God.
And now the way is opened for the Gospel. The shutting of
man’s mouth opens God’s. The exhaustion of man’s resources
throws the full burden of his salvation upon the arm of God. Human
righteousness there is none: the Gospel can not open again that question; it is
ended forever. "But now the righteousness of God without thelaw is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
But the righteousness of God!
the dreadful sound! What hope can be for guilty man in that? What Gospel in the
display of Divine righteousness? It is what aggravates all his fears, when
perhaps the thought of God’s mercy has given hope. Yet unrighteous mercy
clearly there cannot be. Mercy, above all with God, can only be exercised
within the limits which His righteousness imposes. There cannot then be hope
for man in a righteous God, except it come in a way of righteousness. It is the
glory of the Gospel, not merely to reconcile righteousness with salvation, but
more, to manifest it in that very way: to take this object of man’s
natural dread, and show it him as his friend and advocate, not accuser. In the
Gospel it is God who justifies man,"justifies the ungodly,"and He does this,
not simply although righteous, but as righteous. His righteousness is the safe
shelter of the sinner. Not merely His mercy is "upon" all them that believe,
but His righteousness is: the exact force of which statement we must presently
inquire.
But where is there Divine righteousness in this way exhibited? It
is in Him "whom God hath set forth to be a propitiatory through faith in His
blood, to declare His righteousness with regard to the passing over of sins
before committed, through the forbearance of God; to declare His righteousness
in the present season, in order to His being just, and justifying him who is of
the faith of Jesus" (iii. 25, 26).
I have altered some words, to try and
bring out the sense more clearly. The word "propitiatory" is the one used in
the Greek translation of the Old Testament for "mercy-seat"; and that is
doubtless its force here. "The sins that are past" of our Authorized
translation, are not, as it might be thought from the way it is there put, the
sins of a man’s past life, up to the moment of his justification, but the
sins committed in the ages before Christ, while God forbore, but the ground of
His forbearance was not yet made manifest. Now, "in the present season" of
Gospel grace, God does not forbear merely, or "pass over": He positively
justifies, or pronounces righteous. The cross, the blood of atonement, now
declares His righteousness both as to the past and in the present. The precious
blood has made God’s throne a "throne of grace " - a "mercy-seat." Grace
reigns through righteousness. Righteousness and peace toward man are one- "they
have kissed each other."
And where indeed, as in the blood of atonement,
has God’s righteousness been displayed? Where has it been seen, as here,
that God’s judgment of sin is no arbitrary thing, but the fixed necessity
of His holy nature? The penalty had to be met, when God Himself had to meet it,
and at His own personal cost (and who can estimate at what cost?) to "provide
Himself a lamb for the burnt-offering."
Yet this declaration of Divine
righteousness, was it against sinners, or rather was it not specially for them,
- for sinners as such, - for sinners only? Who else could claim the blood of
atonement as shed for them, but such as needed it ? - such as deserved the
awful place to which the Son of God stooped to set them free? Hence we can
fully understand how, "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." To confess
our sins is just to put in our claim as sinners to that to which sinners alone
have title, and to which they have (if they will claim it) undoubted title. God
is "faithful" to make over to them the provision made for them, as soon as they
put in their claim. God’s righteousness is pledged thus in behalf of all
who by faith take shelter under it. Declared as regards sin by the cross, it is
by this put upon the side of sinners, instead of against them. Hence it is "the
righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all." It is, as declared in
the blood of Christ, a city of refuge with a door ever open - shut upon none
that come. And therefore it is "upon, (or, better, "over," which is the exact
force: - it is over) all them that believe" (chap. iii. 22). It is not a dress
clothing, but a roof sheltering from every storm, or a shield protecting from
every shaft of the enemy.
No wonder then that the apostle should say of a
gospel which reveals this, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ;" or that
it should be "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (i.
i6). He who can appeal to the very righteousness of God against every challenge
of the accuser, may indeed boast of a "salvation" complete, free, and eternal,
which the Gospel, and the Gospel only, can bestow on man.
(2) There is a
passage next which we must look at, although it be only to show that it does
not bear, as it might seem to do, upon the present question. It is that in
which the apostle speaks of "having the righteousness which is of God:" "and be
found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God through
faith" (Phil. iii. 9).
Here, it is naturally asked, have we not the
doctrine announced of our actual possession of the righteousness of God, and
must we not understand the expression somewhat differently from that in the
former cases? Does not this show that Divine righteousness is in some way the
righteousness which is ours by faith?
A glance at the original will,
however, clear up the difficulty. The "of God" is really "from God," as it is
in i Corinthians i. 30: "who of God is made unto us righteousness." In each
case it means simply that from God our righteousness comes, but does not
further reveal its nature. The expression is really a different one, and must
not be confounded with that in the former passages.
(3.) But we have now,
however, to trace further the development of the Scripture doctrine. We have
seen the righteousness of God declared in the death of the Lord Jesus, and
therefore available as the safe shelter of him who takes refuge under it. We
have now to see it declared further (but as the necessary result of this) in
the Lord’s resurrection, where God first - as able fully to show Himself
on the side of the One who had now glorified Him as to sin, and suffered to
redeem those whose condition it was. He "was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father" (Rom. vi. 4). His resurrection was now an absolute
necessity to the display of that glory. Could He leave it as an unsettled
question between Him and the world that crucified Him, on which side He was?
Could He leave His cry for deliverance out of death unheeded? or suffer His
Holy One to see corruption? Manifestly He could not do it. God must act in
righteousness and in power, and that both towards Christ Himself and the people
whose cause He had taken up.
As between Himself and the world, the
Lord’s appeal had been: "0 righteous Father, the world has not known Thee,
but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me" (John xvii.
25). There he had linked His believing people with Himself in that appeal to
righteousness in His own behalf. And prophetically already had He seen and
announced the answer. The Comforter, the Holy Ghost, shortly to come as the
witness of His ascension and of His glory, would therefore, by His very
presence in it, "reprove (or convict) the world of sin, and of righteousness,
and of judgment." "Of sin," says the Lord, "because they believe not on Me; of
righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more" (John xvi. 8
10). The Father would take back out of the world that beloved Son whom He had
trusted in the world, and whom the world had so unanimously, so scornfully, so
murderously rejected. They should lose the inestimable blessing which they had
no heart to value. It was a righteous thing that they should lose it; how
necessary a part of Divine righteousness to take Him who had vindicated it with
a zeal which consumed Himself as the sacrifice to its majesty, out of the
sepulchre in which man had with impotent hatred sealed Him up, no longer to
leave Him in the world the man of sorrow He had been, but to exalt Him in the
manhood once for all assumed as His, to the right hand of power!
(4.) And
this will lead us to the last text, where the result of His work is seen, and
where those who are its fruit are linked together with Him, as needed for the
display of Divine righteousness: the full answer to His appeal to the
"righteous Father." "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. V. 21).
In
our behalf He was made to be what He was not: for had it not been for others He
was suffering, this would have been no display of Divine righteousness at all.
It would have been the very reverse of righteousness. But therefore, in order
to its display, those for whom He suffered must be identified with Him in the
results of His suffering. He must not be alone in that place which as man, for
man, He acquired, - which for Himself He had no need to acquire. The
manifestation of Divine righteousness in the cross required, that, as the fruit
of it, His people should have the place which He had toiled to bring them into.
They as in Him, blessed and exalted, are made God’s righteousness; not
merely righteous, but His righteousness, - its embodiment, as it were, and its
display.
How complete, then, the triumph over sin, when Divine
righteousness, not allows merely, but requires the presence of those once, and
but now, sinners, in the glory into which He has entered! How marvellous to be
linked thus with the display of Divine attributes forever! The glory put upon
us is thus in every ray of it the glorifying of Himself before His creatures,
so that in us His character may be made known, in us the depth of His heart
exhibited, to an adoring universe ; - to creatures blessed unutterably by this
knowledge. Not righteousness only shall be thus displayed, but treasures of
"manifold wisdom" also, as well as (surely most of all shall we acknowledge it)
"the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness towards us through Christ
Jesus."
The Two Natures and What They Imply
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