RIGHTEOUSNESS AND THE SEAL OF IT
[p. 186] RIGHTEOUSNESS AND THE SEAL OF IT
There are two points before me in connection with this scripture. One is righteousness, and the other, the seal of righteousness. We read, “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works”. Then afterwards it says, in verse 11, speaking of Abraham, “he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised”. We have here what we might call the first principles of Christianity. What follows upon righteousness is the seal of righteousness. The idea of seal is the confirmation of a thing, like the seal to a deed: it is a kind of attestation. The thought was first brought in in regard to Abraham — he had righteousness and also the seal of righteousness. I want to come to the latter point because it is very important to apprehend that God has nothing here in the world for Himself outside of the Spirit of God. There may be a great deal that professes to be for God which will come under the judgment of God. I admit all that. People like the ground of Christianity, and will come under judgment on that ground; but if you look at things morally, there is nothing that is for God, or that God can own, outside of the Spirit of God. I think the special and peculiar ministry of the apostle Paul was to unfold all that was here consequent upon the presence of the Spirit of God. You get things brought out in connection with the ministry of Paul that are not found in that of the twelve. You get the body of Christ and sonship; and for the reason that the special ministry of Paul was the unfolding of all here consequent upon or involved in the presence of the Spirit. In that connection I [p. 187] want to speak of righteousness. In Abraham the seal of righteousness was circumcision — the same holds good in regard to us, circumcision is to us the seal of righteousness. Righteousness is by faith, but the seal of righteousness is not by faith. It is circumcision. Circumcision is not directly connected with faith, it follows upon righteousness, and is the seal, the confirmation of righteousness.
There is a great deal into which we can now enter by the fact of everything having been in principle established in Christ for God. I want to touch upon that point for a moment. It is a great point that in Christ everything is established for God. You cannot understand Christianity, or the presence of the Spirit apart from “All the promises of God in him are yea and in him amen”. The Spirit has come down consequent upon the ascension of Christ, to make known to us that everything of God is established in Christ. We get this brought out in the first two chapters of Hebrews. In the first you have God’s throne, in connection with God’s kingdom. It is that of which the prophets and the Old Testament writers gave witness. “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness”, etc. It is God’s throne established in a man, and established on the foundation of the perfect discrimination of righteousness and lawlessness. I suppose it was needful in the ways of God that testimony should be given here of the principles upon which the throne would be established, and hence the Lord Jesus came here to this end. There has thus been perfect testimony of what is according to God and what is contrary to God. Christ loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Everything here was discerned in the presence of the Lord Jesus in its true character, and that has become the moral foundation of the throne of God, but the throne of God [p. 188] established in a Man. I need hardly say that that Man is God’s Son.
Righteousness is the assertion of God’s rights — lawlessness refuses God’s rights. Lawlessness virtually says, we will not let God in. Righteousness on the part of man involves the admission of God’s rights. Man’s righteousness is in submitting to God’s righteousness. In Christ God came out in grace to assert His rights. All this was marked in the pathway of the Lord Jesus. He loved righteousness — His ministry was in principle the assertion of God’s rights, in opposition to Satan, to control the affection of man. He “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him”. He did not come to condemn, but in grace and goodness ministered in a way which would tend to gain an entrance into the heart of man. He loved righteousness, but, on the other hand, He hated lawlessness. You find the Lord continually in contact with lawlessness. Lawlessness came out in all kinds of people — in lawyers, scribes — all the different classes of people with whom the Lord came into contact — they virtually said, we will not let God in. There might be a formal acknowledgment of God by man, but men were perfectly determined to keep out the testimony of God. Now the Lord hated lawlessness; Hebrews 1. And you may be confident that when the kingdom is displayed there will be the dealing with lawlessness by a strong hand. On the other hand, there will be the assertion of God’s righteousness, that is, that God will have His own rights in the affections of His intelligent creatures.
Now we see that the throne exists. The throne had to be based on redemption, and righteousness and lawlessness came to an issue in redemption. And hence the throne had to be established in a Man. But then that involves another principle, that man is in the place of highest acceptance with God. The very [p. 189] fact of it being needful on the part of God, that, in the place where good and evil were confounded, there should be perfect discernment as between righteousness and lawlessness, brought the Son of God into this scene as a Man; but as the consequence of His having become man, and tasted death for everything, we get man crowned with glory and honour. That is in the very highest acceptance with God. We can talk about the throne, we know its basis and its principles. We know also the place which man has now with God. The Holy Spirit has come down to report this. These are unseen things, but very important things for us to enter into. They are enduring and eternal things. All that we see around us which tends to connect greatness with man will surely pass away — the world and its fashion, that is, its form, passes away. There are not in it elements of permanence; all will have to give place to the throne of God and to Christ. The throne of God and Christ go together. Now we should apprehend that, and our hearts be in the light of it — we are privileged to walk in the light as God is in the light, for God has come out in the kingdom, and has made Himself known in the gospel. It is that which belongs to every Christian, and I should be inclined to question the Christianity of any person who is not conscious of walking in the light. It is not a question of conduct, but of where we walk and must walk, because God has been pleased to come out in that way. First in grace and in the ministry of Christ here upon earth, and now in the truth of the gospel.
Now the next point I want to touch on is the necessity of our acceptance of redemption. What I understand by redemption is the taking up of an encumbered right. You can understand this from common things. One might come into an inheritance with mortgages and liabilities upon it, and to redeem it involves taking up the liabilities. I believe that to be the idea of [p. 190] redemption, and it covers another important point, and that is the principle of divine sovereignty. We get an illustration of redemption in the case of the children of Israel; when they were sheltered by the blood they ate the lamb roast with fire — they entered in that sense into redemption, and it was preparatory to their being led forth from Egypt; and what was true of the children of Israel is become true of the individual Christian. God has redeemed His inheritance. In times gone by, the children of Israel were God’s inheritance, and it is equally true at the present time that God has an inheritance down here, and His inheritance is His people, and that involves the sovereignty of God. God has set to work to take a people out of the Gentiles. We read that “as many as were ordained unto eternal life, believed”. There is an election from among the Gentiles. Christianity began with an election from the Jews, and it has gone on to an election from among the Gentiles. God has an inheritance, a people here upon earth. I do not want you to confound this with the idea of the gospel. The gospel is on another ground, namely, that of God’s approach to man, and when God approaches man, He approaches every man; the gospel brings in the light of God to every man upon the earth, giving to man the opportunity of being here for God’s will. At the same time we have to accept the truth that God has a people here upon the earth, a people of His choice — and God’s people are His inheritance.
Now if God takes up an inheritance, of necessity He takes up the liabilities on the inheritance. You get the idea of this in the case of Boaz — he took up the liabilities on the inheritance of Elimelech; and that is what God has been pleased to do in grace at the present time. God has now seen fit to take up an inheritance, and He has taken up the liabilities on the inheritance, and all have been met by Himself in the death of Christ — Christ is the Lamb of God — and that [p. 191] is what I understand to be the redemption. It speaks in Romans 3 of “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”. Redemption is effective in Christ, and God can lead His people out and bring them into the promised land. If you accept that, you will see how important it is for us to enter into the great reality of redemption. You have to accept that you are of God’s inheritance — you have no longer right and title in regard to the disposal of yourself — every liability under which you were has been taken up and met in grace on the part of God in Christ. A moment comes in the history of a Christian when he has to accept the sovereignty of God’s mercy, and it is an extremely important moment, for it means that God has entire and absolute right over me. Redemption has been accomplished, the inheritance in that sense is free in regard to God, and we have to admit God’s right to do as He likes with His inheritance. I do not think I am much more of a Calvinist than other people, but I see the sovereignty of God’s mercy. For instance in a family, one may be saved in the midst of a number; the question may come up, Why should God have taken one up and not others? I cannot tell, it is a question of the sovereignty of God’s mercy, God has been pleased to act in that way, and it may be the case in almost any family. But if God has been pleased to act thus in the sovereignty of His mercy in regard to me, I have to recognise that I am part of His inheritance, and that God has title to do with me what He will. I do not see how that can be contested.
Thus we see that God’s people are His inheritance, and His people are for Himself and for the world to come. And our righteousness is for God and for the world to come. I think that is the point that is seen in this chapter; the soul is entering into the reality of redemption. What we come to is that Christ is our righteousness — the One who on the part of God took up our liabilities is the righteousness of His people;
[p. 192] and I think that is intelligible, because it is in Christ that God has been pleased to give witness of righteousness. You get at the end of the chapter, “who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification”. It was in Him that the liabilities were taken up, and in resurrection God has given witness that these liabilities have been discharged. God has broken the bonds of death, hence it is that the witness of righteousness is given in Christ risen; and Christ risen is the righteousness of His people. Now we are justified in Christ. If any one were to appeal to me as to my righteousness before God, I could only point to the One who met my liabilities, because He alone is out of death. God has not yet given witness of righteousness in me, I am still subject to death; the Christian is not yet in resurrection, but Christ is in resurrection; and Christ is our righteousness in the presence of God, also in regard to the world to come. I think you will see the importance of that; in that it is the beginning of the soul’s appropriation of Christ. We then thank God for what He has made Him to us, “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption”. There are many relationships in which Christ stands to us, but we have to begin with Christ as righteousness. God has made Him so for the reason that Christ is the One in whom God has given testimony of our liabilities having been met; that is in the fact that God raised Him from the dead. You cannot press a more important point than the resurrection of Christ, and that the Christian is justified in Christ. Inconsistencies may be pointed out in the ways of the Christian; but he can ever point to Christ, and say that all his liabilities have been met in Christ. The purpose of God was to take up His inheritance in His people, and the liabilities were discharged in Christ. I think the effect of the apprehension of that is the beginning of all attachment to Christ — Christ is inseparable now from us, and we from Christ.
[p. 193] I am thankful to be able to refer to Christ as to righteousness. If any one were to ask me, how I am justified, I would point to Christ risen, and say that He is the witness from God that every liability has been met, and is therefore my righteousness. Now I come to the seal of righteousness. Look at Genesis 15: 6 for a moment, “He believed in the Lord, and he counted it for righteousness”. And in chapter 17: 9 - 13 we get the seal. It is alluded to in Romans 4, “He received the sign of circumcision”, it was not the thing signified, but the sign of it. “He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised”. Now in the ways of God circumcision must hang upon righteousness. As we have seen, righteousness is in this, that in Christ all our liabilities have been met; and in the meeting of those liabilities there was the end before God of the flesh. I want everyone to enter into that. Our liability in the presence of God was death, and for the meeting of that liability, death was essential. But death was the end of the flesh, therefore it follows of necessity that circumcision, the putting off of the flesh, must follow upon righteousness. Righteousness was accomplished in the death of Christ, when our liabilities were met; but circumcision necessarily took place there, that is, the cutting off of the flesh. And the same thing must become true in the Christian. When we come to application, the one is really the seal of the other. I think it is most remarkable that it should have been set forth in the case of Abraham — he was justified, accounted righteous in anticipation of the death of Christ, and he received circumcision, not perhaps in the reality of it, but as a sign; you could not get the reality of it in those days. Both his righteousness and the seal of it pointed on to what was yet to come to pass; still, Abraham was justified in God’s mind. We now have Christ for righteousness. And we get circumcision not simply [p. 194] as a sign, but as a seal. Circumcision could not be brought about except by the Spirit of God. It means that following upon righteousness there is the putting aside of the rule of the flesh, seeing that in the death of Christ, where righteousness was established, the flesh was cut off. In the epistle to the Colossians, we get the expression “circumcision of Christ”, that is in regard to Christians. We enter into redemption by faith — Christ is our righteousness. But though circumcision be accepted, it can only be effectual in the power of the Holy Spirit. Hence you may speak of the Spirit being the seal in our case. But the seal of righteousness is not so much the Spirit as the effect of the Spirit; and the effect of the Spirit is to set aside the rule of the flesh. The flesh never could come into the righteousness of God, I may come into the righteousness of God, but the flesh never could, it never could come within the rule of God — “they that are in the flesh cannot please God”; but I come under the rule of God. How can I come within the rule of God? By the setting aside of the flesh, and the flesh is set aside in the power of the Holy Spirit. We read, “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh”. And I believe that the first sense which follows the reception of the Spirit in the believer is that the flesh is no longer to rule — thus circumcision comes in by the power of the Holy Spirit. You can understand the reality of this, for how can we be near Christ and give licence to the flesh? There is no doubt that the allowance of the flesh comes in very much between Christians and Christ. But I do not think it is possible to be practically near Christ and to allow the flesh, the very condition of nearness to Christ being that the flesh has no place. If Christ is our righteousness, and you want to enjoy your righteousness, it is evident you need to be near to Christ, and the Spirit of God will keep us near to Christ, but on the other hand will not [p. 195] tolerate the flesh. The flesh may come in in a very subtle way, it is not always in great things that the flesh will show itself, it is the little foxes that spoil the vines. The flesh will intrude in a thousand ways in regard to the Christian, working to draw us aside in the way of conformity to man and the world by self-pleasing. Many a person believes in Christ who is not practically near to Christ.
We surely want to be near to Christ, for all spiritual progress depends upon the soul’s appropriation of Christ. God has been pleased to place Him within the reach of our appropriation, but appropriation is conditional on the truth of circumcision. Circumcision follows upon righteousness, and it is practicable now to the people of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Had it not been for the place which the Spirit of God has taken up in the people of God, circumcision would not have been practicable to us. If you are prepared to accept the rule of the Spirit of God, you will see great gain to be got from it, and that is, that the Spirit will make you conscious of nearness to Christ; and if in nearness to Christ, then you enter into the great reality of Christ being your righteousness in the presence of God, so that you have acceptance with God and for the world to come. We are in the habit of taking things up too dogmatically, simply resting upon statements in Scripture, which is hardly faith. So far as I understand faith, it connects itself with divine living Persons. The Lord Jesus said: “Ye believe in God, believe also in me”. And we want not only to be in the faith of Christ, but in the appropriation of Christ. He is our righteousness, and if so, we are entitled to be near to Him, and this really involves circumcision. You have got the power to carry this out, it is practicable since the Spirit came. I give you one word more, from the epistle to Titus, which will express the idea of nearness to Christ. “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us”
(He has taken up the liabilities) “from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works”, Titus 2: 11 - 14. If He has a peculiar people they are to be near to Him, they are a people for a possession — “zealous of good works” — walking practically in circumcision down here in the power of the Spirit of God, nothing allowed to come between Christ and them. This is a remarkable passage, for in the beginning of it we get “the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men”; then in the latter part, it is, “Who gave himself for us” — not exactly for all — “that he might redeem us from all iniquity”. That evidently involves the sovereign mercy of God. If we are a peculiar people to Him, then do not let anything intrude between us and Him. The practical result will be that we “stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free”. That is, we are drawn by the Spirit of God closer to Christ, and are conscious that we are a peculiar people to Himself.