THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

The righteousness of God is presented in two aspects in scripture, typified by brass and gold. In the one sense it was called into activity by the presence of sin. In the other sense it was and is inherent in God. There is the righteousness which must judge evil, this was typified by brass. Outside the tabernacle all was brass—the brazen altar, the brazen laver and the brazen sockets for the pillars of the door of the tabernacle and for the court. In this we learn how the righteousness of God must exclude all that is unsuited to the presence of God. If holiness repels evil, righteousness judges it. Inside the tabernacle all was gold. Gold represents what is divine, the righteousness which is inherent in God, the righteousness which approves what is good, what is in itself excellent.

In Romans 3: 25; 8: 3, we get the former, that is, the righteous judgment of evil in Christ dying as the victim, and this in view of God acting in grace toward sinful men. In this sense the blood of Christ declares God’s righteousness. And in consequence of this the same righteousness of God now justifies the ungodly who are of the faith of Jesus, and is the power of God to salvation to every one who believes. It is a great thing to see that everything for us stands on the ground of God’s righteousness. Grace reigns through righteousness.

In 2 Corinthians 5: 21 we get the thought of God’s inherent righteousness displayed in Christ. It is seen in His manifest approval of all that was excellent and perfect in man. In Christ God found a Man after His own heart—One who in every sense answered to His desire in regard of man. There was One who loved God with all His heart and soul and strength, who devoted Himself entirely to God’s will and glory, became obedient even unto death. He was the righteous One. Such an One if He goes into death must rise again; such an One must go to glory, nothing less would be an adequate expression of God’s righteousness. “Of righteousness, because I go to my Father”, John 16: 10. Thus God has displayed His righteousness in raising up and exalting the righteous One. It is the righteous approval of that which in itself is good and excellent. This is what answers to the gold, what is suited to the glory of God.

It is more difficult to see how this applies to us, how it becomes our title to be in the same glory with Christ, so that we become God’s righteousness in Him, and shall be the display of God’s righteousness in a future day. In order to this we must be of the order of the righteous One, we must partake of the condition and character of the righteous One. There are two things to be seen. First, He who knew no sin was made sin for us, in Him on the cross all that we were in the flesh, all in us which was obnoxious to the judgment of God, all that was unsuited to His glory, all has been righteously condemned and removed from before God for ever. Hence God no longer identifies us with that which He has condemned once and for ever. It may, and does, still continue in us, but God does not identify us with it.

Secondly, on this ground God is able to take us up and create us anew in Christ Jesus. “If any one be in Christ, there is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new” (2 Cor 5: 17), or behold, new things have come to pass. Old things have passed away in death and new things have come to pass in Him glorified. Then in receiving the Spirit of Christ we derive from Him a new life, a new condition of being. Thus as derived from Him we are of His order; like the corn of wheat which goes into the ground and dies and begets a crop of its own kind, so He has begotten a new generation of His own kind. Christ has been formed in us and God now identifies us with that which He has formed in us, that is, with the product of His own work. All that we were in the flesh belongs to the old things which have passed away; all that we are as saints is part of the new things which have come to pass in Christ in glory. “And all things are of God”, v 18. Being of God, they must be according to God. As God sees saints in Christ, He sees that which is the product of His own work, hence that which is perfect and excellent. Every saint is an integral part of that system which is of God, and is suitable for the glory of God. Therefore in placing the saints in glory like and with Christ, God will display His righteousness in the appreciation of that which is excellent, that which is suited to Himself, it will be one new man, Christ all and in all.

God’s mind is that we should be brought into the good of these things now by the ministry of reconciliation, so that we may be able to approach Him in Christ with boldness and liberty.

How wonderful all this is, that we should have such a title to be with Christ in the glory of God and to enter into the holiest now. All is to the praise and glory of God. May our hearts respond to the abundance of grace bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus!

From Helps for the Poor of the Flock vol 18 (1913)