RIGHTEOUSNESS BY ATTACHMENT
[p. 214] RIGHTEOUSNESS BY ATTACHMENT
God has a definite thought in the gospel. Man has a wrong thought, he thinks he just wants pardon. He does need pardon, but that is not the great thought with God in the gospel. Man is lawless and unattached and God purposes to bring him into bond and the object He has in doing it is that man may practise righteousness. The child of God practises righteousness because he is righteous — he is attached. The earth stands in relation to the sun — is attached to it — and so gets the benefit of warmth and rain and is fertile; in the same way God’s thought in the gospel is that man should be attached and should bear fruit for God, that is, that he should practise righteousness. There is no true evidence of a christian except that he practises righteousness, that is the real test. The purpose of the gospel is to bring man into righteousness that he may practise righteousness, so in Titus 2 we get that He might redeem us from all lawlessness. The meaning of righteousness is that you are faithful in every relationship in which man is found down here, both to God and to man; that is true righteousness, it is not a mere paying of debts. The practice of righteousness is God’s thought in the gospel and that because the man is righteous. Everyone who is not in bond to Christ is lawless and everything that is lawless must go to destruction. God has intervened in His goodness to attach souls to Christ and bring them out of lawlessness.
This Psalm is for Solomon, David prayed for Solomon and then his prayers were ended. There are many things in the Psalm that were never accomplished in Solomon, but they will be accomplished in the greater than Solomon. Verse 8 for instance was never accomplished in him, nor was verse 17: “All nations shall call him blessed”; this was not fulfilled in Solomon, although God gave him very wide dominion, but as a fact the end of Solomon’s reign was very sad, the kingdom was divided. The reason was that Solomon never could be the point of attraction for men, for he was not personally or absolutely righteous, and he could not bear the curse that lay upon man. That curse needed to be taken up in order that man might be really blessed: in verse 17 it says, “Men shall bless themselves in him”, it must therefore point on beyond Solomon.
Solomon’s heart, alas, turned away to idolatry. Therefore, he was not righteous and could not discharge the curse that lay on men. Hence nations could not be blessed in him, we have to go on to the true Son of David. Now turn to Luke 2: 14: “On earth peace, good pleasure in men”. In Psalm 72 you get peace and good pleasure in men, for men are to be blessed in Him and in verse 7 you get abundance of peace spoken of.
Christ is the righteous One; Peter says, ‘You denied the righteous One’. In Christ we can see the righteous One who was here entirely for the will of God. He was righteous and therefore able to take up the curse under which man lay. He came to discharge the liabilities under which man lay; when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son. But not only was it so, He was able to rise again. He had power to lay down His life and He had power to take it again, He could take His life again as Man. He gave proof of His power by healing the sick, and greater proof still of His power in being able to take again His life that He had laid down: He had authority to take it again.
God maintains government in anyone’s hands. Christ is crowned with glory and honour, but it is not seen: it is known by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit came down to bring the report of the glory of Christ; this we see in the first preaching in Acts. He is presented to man in order that man may be brought into bond to Christ and may practise righteousness. “I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me”. He discharged the curse, He laid down His life and took it again. He loved righteousness and as raised He becomes the point [p. 216] of attraction for man. In the history of the children of Israel you get in Numbers 21 the serpent of brass as the remedy for those bitten by the fiery serpents. We too have been bitten by the serpents. We have been bitten by lawlessness; I see it all around that man has been bitten by lawlessness; you have now to look at the Son of man lifted up and you live. A man becomes morally conscious of the lawlessness by which he has been bitten, and he looks to the serpent of brass. If a man is lawless he is under the ban of God, but the Son of man has been lifted up, that man might be free of the curse and be brought into blessing. The last Adam has discharged the curse that had come in through the first Adam, and has brought in blessing; here we see the great contrast between the first Adam and the last. It is indeed “abundance of peace”.
There is a King of Kings and Lord of Lords now. He may be hidden for the moment, but He is not always to be hidden. The Holy Spirit has come here to bear witness of Him, who was content to be lifted up and content to be the witness of the love of God. Christianity is moral and not dogmatic; it is right in every part of it. We were all lawless once and man in general is lawless; he sets himself up as a rival to God, to do his own will instead of God’s. All was perfect in Christ; He learned obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect — that is being crowned with glory and honour — He became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him. I can see no other way possible in which God could have wrought for man, save as it is in christianity. Christ had every right to live on earth for He was righteous, but He was lifted up. Do you not think you want the living water? You are dry and hard and selfish? You want water, moisture, living water. Are you content to go on being lawless? Look to the Son of man lifted up, look at the serpent lifted up. He is presented to every man. If you believe on Him you get the living water and are brought into the practice of righteousness. Lawlessness is deadly, and can end in [p. 217] nothing but moral destruction. Contemplate Him. To meet that thirst of yours you need the living water.