RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SALVATION
[p. 132] RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SALVATION
Genesis 15: 1 - 17; Exodus 14: 26 - 31; Romans 10: 1 - 13
I have two points which I want to touch upon tonight. They are two subjects which have a great place in regard of us. No truth is available to us unless we understand it. People may take up a passage of Scripture and rest upon it, and say Scripture says so and so, but that is not the divine idea of it. The divine idea is to understand it. The seed sown did not become fruitful unless the word was understood. The good ground represented where the truth was received and understood. There are many parts of truth, and they are available to us when they are understood. The Spirit of God alone can fit in the various parts of truth into the system of truth in the mind. The apostle prayed and had conflict that the saints might have the “full assurance of understanding”.
I want to speak of two points tonight, that is, Righteousness and Salvation. They are simple, but many do not understand the place they have in the system of truth. Take salvation, it is not enough to believe that there are certain things, salvation and the like. We want to be in the good of them, and to understand them. It is only then that we can by the Spirit of God contend for them. Now righteousness is connected with Christ as Head, and salvation with Christ as Lord. Christ is the Head of every man: “who gave himself a ransom for all”, and there is righteousness in no one but as there is faith in that Man. Now salvation is connected with confession. The apostle desired that he might have the righteousness of God, which is by faith. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”. If “thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus”. When Christ comes again He will come “without sin unto salvation”. We want to know the power and value of Christ as Lord. Many say, “Lord, Lord”, all Christendom does that, but we want to know the power and authority connected with it. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe”. There is this strong tower, and the righteous run in and are safe.
This will suffice to shew the distinction between righteousness and salvation. Righteousness is connected with faith and with Christ as Head, and salvation with confession and Christ as Lord. These passages I read in the Old Testament will illustrate the two thoughts. The prominent idea in connection with Abraham is righteousness. The principle of righteousness is what God settled in Abraham. The law was a way of righteousness for man if man could have loved God with all his heart. But long, long before the law was given God had settled the question of righteousness, and that it was by faith. Abraham was accounted righteous in the eye of God because he stood in relation to Christ. Christ was righteousness to Abraham. So with us, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth”. Righteousness refers to another world, and salvation to this world. Righteousness never refers to this world. Salvation does refer to the world that is. Righteousness is prominent in the case of Abraham, and salvation in the case of Israel. Salvation does not come out prominently in connection with Abraham. He was a stranger, but he was not in bondage as Israel were in Egypt. Abraham had promises, and he needed righteousness to enjoy these. In the case of Israel the prominent idea was salvation. They were the seed of Abraham, they were in Egypt and oppressed by the world power and held in bondage by the Egyptians, and God effected salvation for them. Thus God saved Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians.
[p. 134] The people were in bondage to the god and prince of this world, which Pharaoh represented. God interfered for them in salvation to bring them out of the bondage to the world power. Righteousness is standing in relation to Christ. Now Christ has nothing to do with this world. He came into the world and accomplished redemption, but He never had any place here. He came into the world as a helpless Babe, and He passed out of it by the cross. He was “crucified through weakness”. He was not of the world. But now Christ is the Sun of righteousness to another world. He does not shine in regard of this world. He shines on the believer. “Wake up, thou that sleepest ... and the Christ shall shine upon thee”, but that is the believer. Christ will judge this world, but there is a world begun of which Christ is the Centre and Sun.
“Of the vast universe of bliss
The Centre, Thou, and Sun”. (11:4)
In Genesis 3 you get man turned out of the place which God frequented, and in Malachi you read of another Man arising with healing in His wings. The Sun of righteousness will arise and shine upon another world. Now righteousness depends upon standing in relation to Christ. Whoever does not bow to Christ is lawless. All who do not stand in relation to Christ are lawless. The earth is righteous in the sense that it stands in relation to the Sun, and that is righteousness. Christ is the Sun of righteousness. Righteousness for us is in being held in relation to Him. We were lawless in regard of God, wandering stars, but now we have accepted Christ as Head, and He is our righteousness. Christ the Sun of righteousness refers to another world. He will arise with healing in His wings. He is out of sight just now, but as Head He stands in relation to another world, and He is our righteousness, and if so then our righteousness has reference to another world where all God’s promises will be fulfilled. The land has not been given to Abraham’s seed yet as promised, although he received a pledge of it in that the smoking furnace came down and passed between the pieces. Our righteousness refers to another world of which Christ is the Centre and Sun. Christians believe in Christ, but do not sufficiently apprehend Christ as the Head and Centre of another world. They believe in Him personally without believing in Him officially.
Now a word as to salvation. Salvation refers to this world and to man’s deliverance from the pressure and bondage under which he is to the world system. The children of Israel were under oppression by the great world power, and God took in hand to save the people. All was typical. Now Egypt is the great world power, and the people of God now who have come into righteousness begin to feel the oppression. For a long time we may not feel it, but a time comes when people awake to the oppression of the great world system, and people want then to be delivered. This proves that salvation has to do with the deliverance of the people of God from the great world power, which is governed by the god and prince of this world. The prince of this world would hold people in bondage, but when the light of God comes in then the oppression begins to be felt, and people sigh by reason of their bondage, and then it is that they get salvation, and it is a great moment when we feel we can dare to stand here against the world power because we are conscious of the support and authority of the Lord. Thus we have had the two points before us, righteousness and salvation.
Now turn to Romans 10 for a moment. These scriptures (verses 11 and 13) refer to the future, that is, to the time of trouble which is coming upon Israel. What has come in at the present time is what will come in at the time of Jacob’s trouble. God will appoint salvation, and whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The passages quoted from [p. 136] Deuteronomy 30: 8 refer to the time when God will again take up His dealings with Israel. The point of the chapter is that the prophetic scriptures are true now in principle although not in literal application. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness”. The lawless man has been removed, and the righteous Man has taken his place and abides. To remove the lawless man Christ took his place and became the victim. The victim is not revived, but He who took his place — the righteous One — is. The victim is man after the flesh — the lawless man — and Christ accepted that place, “He was made sin”. Now the lawless man is removed, and it was within the right of God to remove that man. God did it in the righteous Man, and the righteous Man is revived. Christ is no longer living after the flesh. The righteous Man abides, and He is the Sun of righteousness. Redemption is accomplished in the righteous One, and He is the Sun of righteousness. Christ is the righteousness of the whole system of the world to come. The whole system depends upon the Sun of righteousness. He is the righteousness of the whole system as much for Israel as for the church. The Lord will be the righteousness of Israel. We have been placed in relation to the Sun of righteousness, and our righteousness refers to the world to come. This is most important, for if apprehended it will have the effect of connecting you in thought with the world to come. We belong to that world as being placed in relation to the One who is Centre and Sun of that universe. But if we are placed in relation to that world we need deliverance from the system of this world, so that we may stand in the liberty wherewith Christ makes free.
There are two great principles which work in the great world power, that is, lust and glory. The present world could not subsist apart from lust and pride. People like the world. There are those who would like all brought down to a dead level, but the majority [p. 137] of people admire it and like it. But when the soul begins to find pleasure in moral principles like righteousness, then people begin to feel the oppression and bondage of the world system very keenly, and then they are very glad to run into the name of the Lord as a strong tower, and in His grace and strength we can withstand what is opposed to us. The whole world system is against the Christian. It came against the Lord at the beginning and also at the end. The prince of this world will come perhaps with blandishments and perhaps with persecution, or with both, but you can stand here in the grace and strength of the Lord whatever the strength of the world or Satan. We can find the name of the Lord as a strong tower. The people were obliged to own that with authority and power He commanded the unclean spirits and they obey Him. The great thing is to stand against the power of evil here. If you put on armour and shew fight, let it be felt that you are not going in the current of the world. This you could not do in your own strength, but in the strength of the Lord who will cast Satan into the abyss. He is vested with all power and authority. We appropriate Him as Lord, and we confess Him as Lord as against all the forces and power of evil. The Lord will subdue all the power of evil, Satan and sin, and death will be swallowed up in victory. Christ has authority to do so in order to make way for the world to come where God will be glorified and where Christ will arise with healing in His wings. In our understanding we should anticipate the world to come. We are exhorted to awake from a dead world so that Christ may shine upon us, so that we may be delivered from the influences of this world. When we stand in relation to Him, we stand in relation to One who is the Head of another world. We have to stand (not to sit, you do not sit down to put on armour, you stand, putting on the helmet of salvation), and to shew fight.
[p. 138] I am glad, as I am getting near to the end of my course (and I think I have had before me the service of the saints, and one could not render them better service than in bringing before them their connection with the great system of the world to come), that I am not much endowed with this world’s goods, for then the tendency is to sit down. We are called upon to stand and to shew fight, to make it evident that we do not settle down to complacency with what is the course of this world. People speak of going to heaven, but the great point of going to heaven is that you may come out of it with the glory of God. People’s thoughts have terminated too much with the thought of going to heaven. The thought of God is to go to heaven, to come out of it with the glory of God.