RIGHTEOUSNESS
[p. 15] RIGHTEOUSNESS
Romans 4: 22 - 25; Romans 5:18,19; Romans 6:12 - 14
I have, read these scriptures to bring before you three things of great importance. In Romans 4 we see that Abraham’s faith was counted to him for righteousness. And “it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed [or counted] to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed [or counted], if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification”.
Then in chapter 5: 19 we read, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made [or constituted] sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made [or constituted] righteous”.
Chapter 6: 12 - 14 brings before us the practical righteousness of the believer. He yields himself to God as alive from the dead, and his members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
So that three things are before us: (1) The believer’s faith is counted to him for righteousness; (2) he is constituted righteous; and (3) he becomes practically righteous, not as under the law, but as under grace.
To reach the first we have to come to the point that we are as good as dead. Abraham was “as good as dead” (Hebrews 11: 12) when he became the father of Isaac according to God’s promise. God said to him that his seed should be “as the stars of the sky in multitude” when, according to nature, he was beyond the possibility of having seed. Abraham did not consider himself, or the natural circumstances; he well knew that it was “God, who quickeneth the dead”, who alone could effect what was promised. He “believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4: 3).
[p. 16] We have to come to this point, that we cannot move hand or foot in the matter of our justification. We are guilty before God, and as helpless to clear ourselves as if we were dead. An old believer told me that for years she had prayed and devoted herself to an earnest religious life in hope of getting the assurance of forgiveness some day. But this did not bring the desired blessing, and eventually she became conscious that she was as helpless in the matter as if her head had been struck off on the executioner’s block.
Have you ever put your head down on the block? The moment you do so, God points you to One who came under the stroke of justice for you. One who was “delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification”. A person with his head upon the block gives up considering himself, and he begins to consider God. As long as we are trying and striving it is clear that we have not laid our heads on the block. We have not found out that we are “as good as dead”.
Now I ask your attention to four things which are made known as to God.
First, He has shewn forth His righteousness. He has set forth Christ Jesus “a propitiation [or, mercy-seat] through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3: 25, 26). God has maintained everything that was due to Himself in relation to sin and sins. The blood of Christ is the witness that He has died for sins, and as made sin for us. It was right that sins should be visited with their due reward, and that judgment should come upon sin. It was right that the sentence of death should he executed on man the sinner. It was also right that God should shew Himself superior to all the power of evil, and able to justify the ungodly in a [p. 17] way worthy of Himself. And all this is shewn forth in the death of Christ.
Did God pass by the sins of men in times before the cross? Then the blood of Christ shews forth His righteousness in doing so. Is God now just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus? The same precious blood shews forth His righteousness as to this also.
Second, God’s love is commanded “toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5: 8). There are three persons mentioned in verses 7 and 8: the righteous man, the good man, and the sinner. The righteous man pays twenty shillings in the pound, and will have twenty shillings in the pound from others. It is hardly possible that anyone would die for him. The good man is marked by benevolence, and gracious consideration for others. Perhaps someone might be found to die for him. But who would die for one whose only characteristic is that he is a sinner?
It is in the fact that Christ has died for us when sinners that God commends to us a love peculiar to Himself. For love like this cannot he found in any creature. Human love is often used as an illustration of divine love, but in truth human illustrations utterly fail to set forth the quality and character of God’s love. To apprehend that love one must realise the relative positions of God and His creature man; one must take into account what sin is before God and the state into which it has brought man; one must see the greatness of the blessed Person, who came here in flesh that He might die for ungodly sinners. Christ has come under all that to which we were liable that the love of God might reach us in blessing, and His death is the commendation of that love to us. Love has expressed itself in the utmost self-sacrifice, and this in a divine Person who has died to remove from before God in [p. 18] judgment all that we were as sinners. Who would not praise this perfect and holy love?
Third, God’s power is displayed in the fact that He has raised Jesus our Lord from among the dead (Romans 4: 24). Death having come in by man’s sin, and having passed upon all men for that all have sinned, it became the terrible witness of man’s state, and of his utter helplessness in presence of that power of evil which had brought destruction upon him. But where man was impotent and resourceless God has shewn Himself in supreme might, and in wisdom that no power of evil could baffle. Christ has come in perfect goodness into death on man’s behalf, and God has raised Him from among the dead. Thus death has been annulled, and the power of God displayed in perfect goodness toward man. Death coming upon God’s creature seemed to say that evil had prevailed over good, but when the Son of God comes into death on man’s behalf, and God raises Him from among the dead, it becomes manifest that good is mightier than evil, and God is known in the power of resurrection. We are probably so accustomed to hear of the resurrection of Christ that our minds do not consider the greatness of the power displayed therein. Men have wonderful powers and resources within a certain sphere, but where are all men’s powers in presence of death? If the science, wealth, and force of the whole world are viewed in relation to death, they are so utterly powerless as not to be worth a thought. Yet men think much of their powers, and very little of that wondrous power in which God has raised from among the dead the One who came there on man’s behalf!
Fourth, God has made known His grace; He has manifested Himself in the most unmistakable way as a Saviour God. This is the attitude in which He stands towards men. He is just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus; He justifies the ungodly.
[p. 19] When a man believes on God in this character, as the One who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, his faith is counted to him as righteousness. It is not that we believe something about ourselves, but we believe on God who has made Himself known by the Lord Jesus Christ in righteousness, love, power, and grace as a Saviour God. Many have not peace with God because they want to have some evidence of blessing in themselves. One day they think they may he God’s children, and the next they are in the dungeons of Doubting Castle. They say, We must be humble; we must take a low place; we must not be presumptuous! When people talk like that you may depend on it they have not laid their heads on the block. They are considering themselves. They have not really learned their own worthlessness, or they would be glad to turn from themselves to the Saviour God.
Christ is the believer’s righteousness. God would not give less and He could not give more. The true humility of faith is to accept the fulness of grace in which God makes Christ to be righteousness for every one that believeth. We are worthless sinners, but God has approached us in grace that is worthy of Himself. The true humility of a repentant sinner is to receive with profound thankfulness the riches of grace which are made known in the gospel. What would be thought of a man who, having been invited to dine with the King, continually protested that he was a very humble individual, and not worthy to receive such good things, and on this ground declined to partake of what was provided for him? Would it not be said that he was wanting in humility, and in the feelings proper in a subject towards his sovereign? And in man as a creature of God — a sinful creature too — it is true humility to receive by faith the full grace in which God has made Himself known. It is thus that we honour God. The falsely-called humility [p. 20] which refuses to accept the riches of God’s grace on account of its own unworthiness is really self-importance which puts a slight upon God. God’s grace is set forth in Christ, and He becomes the righteousness of those who believe. May it be ours to cast every doubt to the winds, and to constantly sound forth the praise of grace so infinitely rich, so absolutely free!
Then in Romans 5: 19 we come to a further point. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made [or constituted] sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made [or constituted] righteous”. This is evidently a step further than faith being counted to us as righteousness. We had to begin with that — to receive the gift of righteousness by faith — but that was in order to set us free to “follow after righteousness” and to learn righteousness so as to be formed in moral suitability to God. A man would hardly he fit to go to court unless he had court manners. It would he a strange thing to see a man in court dress, but with the mind and manners of a ploughboy! Many a believer feels assured that every question is settled, and that Christ is his righteousness, who is not much formed in mind and affection in accord with God. He has court dress, but he is not yet instructed in court manners!
The teaching of grace inclines our hearts to “follow after righteousness” and to “seek the Lord”; it awakens the desire to “know righteousness” (Isaiah 51: 1, 7). We become such as “do hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matthew 5: 6). The effect of grace being known is to make us long to be in moral accord with God, and this prepares us to see that God has set forth righteousness in the fullest way, so that we might learn it and he formed in it.
In Romans 5: 18 we read of “one offence towards all men to condemnation”, and of “one righteousness towards all men for justification of life”. Adam’s one [p. 21] offence was towards all men to condemnation, but Christ’s own righteousness is towards all men for justification of life. The “one righteousness”, as I understand it, refers to what He accomplished on the cross when all that had come in by Adam — sins, sin, condemnation, and death — was dealt with in holy judgment, and man in the flesh (to whom these things attached) was removed sacrificially from before God. In this wondrous work there has been a perfect setting forth of righteousness. Men may not perceive it — they may be indifferent to it — but righteousness has been set forth towards all men. The death of Christ is the great and solemn act in which God has set righteousness forth towards all men. Have we known what it was to sit down in the presence of that “one righteousness” and learn what it means?
The man of the world will not accept that he is under condemnation, root and branch. He will not admit that his goodness and religion avail nothing before God. If you tell him so he regards it as the most UNrighteous thing he ever heard of. He will not learn righteousness, nor submit to it, because it makes nothing of him but a lost and condemned sinner. But God has set righteousness forth in the death of Christ, and the believer learns it and submits to it. In presence of that death we realise that man in the flesh is rejected by God; we see that all that we are, morally is under judgment, and has been set aside in the death of Christ.
But this is the negative side of righteousness; the positive side comes in when we think of “the obedience of the one”. It is not only that Christ has removed sinful flesh by His death to the glory of God, but in that act all His own moral perfection in obedience has come into view. We see Man devoted in love to the will of God; we see One who could and did maintain everything for God’s good pleasure at all [p. 22] cost to Himself; in a word, we see righteousness. Christ is the Righteous One. As our souls learn to appreciate His moral excellence we are constituted righteous. We look at everything from an entirely new point of view. Our estimate of things is according to God. We learn in Christ what is pleasurable to God, and as we learn it and appreciate it in Him, we are morally formed in it before God. In this way the believer is formed in an entirely new moral constitution. He is constituted righteous, by coming thus into relation with the Righteous One. He is held to Christ
“By law of sweet compulsion strong and sure,
As gravitation to the greater orb
The less attracts, through nature’s whole domain”.
Matthew 5: 2 - 11 gives us a suggestive epitome of the characteristics of those who are constituted righteous. It is not what they do, but what they are and what they suffer. The unconverted man can go a long way in imitating good works, but he cannot produce in himself this entirely new moral character. It can only be formed in us as we feed upon Christ. The blood was for shelter from judgment, but the lamb roast with fire was for food. We must feed upon Him in order to be formed after Him.
God brings us to see that all that we are as in the flesh must go in judgment. Then He forms our souls in the appreciation of all that moral perfection which has been set forth in Christ, and of which the beatitudes speak. We thus learn righteousness; we learn it in Christ and by the cross; we get a new and divine estimate of everything; we are “constituted righteous”.
Then in Romans 6 we get the practical result. In the first place we are able to speak of “our old man” as having been crucified with Christ. Everything that constituted our life morally according to the flesh is [p. 23] seen to have come under divine judgment. And it is a past and judged thing in the estimation of our hearts; it is “our old man”. What happened at the cross was with a view to “the body of sin” being annulled, “that henceforth we should not serve sin”.
The totality of sin is found in the life of “our old man”, but in the light of the cross we look upon that life as a condemned thing, not to be gratified or ministered to in any way.
I often think of Mephibosheth as illustrating this. Ziba said of him, “Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem: for he said, Today shall the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father”. But was it so? Not at all. When he met David he said, “For all of my father’s house were but dead men before my lord the king; yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eat at thine own table”. He recognised the fact that as of the house of Saul he was a dead man. He wanted no exaltation or gratification as of that house. If we recognise that as Adam’s children we are dead men we shall not want the pleasures, honours, and gratifications that the world can offer. In this way we come to take account of ourselves as dead to sin. The actings of our own will do not yield us pleasure; we find the life of our hearts in another system of things altogether. Whatever Mephibosheth esteemed to be life was connected with David; all connected with the house of Saul was death.
In Romans 5, the believer is brought to partake of the abundance of grace on David’s table. Our hearts live in that which has been administered to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. The practical outcome of all this is that we do not let sin reign in our mortal body. Sin is there, but it is dethroned.
Then in verse 13 we read, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield ourselves unto God, as those that are alive [p. 24] from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God”. The thought suggested by this verse is full of moral beauty. Our members were once instruments of unrighteousness through which the horrid discord of sin found expression, but now they are to be yielded unto God as brought into harmony with His will. To be yielded to God as those who have been brought, through grace, into subjection to Him, is practical righteousness. We are then in our right place in relation to God, and the effect of this must be to adjust and regulate our behaviour in every relationship and responsibility in which we are set by His will. Our members become “instruments of righteousness unto God”.
In conclusion, I should like to read two scriptures in connection with this. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2: 11 - 14). “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23: 3).
Grace teaches us to live “righteously” in this present world, and the Shepherd leads us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. The honour of His name is bound up with His saints. In the tabernacle there were 280 cubits of beautiful curtains within, and 280 cubits of white linen around the court. This seems to suggest that while we are invested with the beauty of Christ before the eye of God, we are also called to display His moral excellence in testimony here. May it be so increasingly with each one of us!