RIGHTEOUSNESS

^[p. 259] RIGHTEOUSNESS

Matthew 5: 1 - 48; Proverbs 8: 20, 21

It seems to me of the greatest importance to apprehend Christianity in its moral aspect. From the fact of its being the fruit of the revelation of God, whose nature is the spring and source of all morally, you can understand that you must be impressed strongly with the moral element, and not satisfied with what is merely dogmatic. The apostle desired that the saints might be knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God. Thus he wanted them to be kept from dogma. Dogma in general calls for unintelligent submission. Certain things are laid down to be accepted unintelligently; but that is not the character of true Christianity. The more one knows about it, the more one is impressed with the moral aspect of Christianity.

One element in Christianity, and evidently the first, is righteousness. I want to show you that righteousness must be the first principle in any system which is of God. God is the righteous God, and any system that stands in relation to God must have righteousness for its first principle; and what flows from that is the way of righteousness. It was that which led me to the verse in Proverbs 8, where wisdom says: “I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment”.

The principle of wisdom is personified, and this verse shows plainly the connection of things. Wisdom leads in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment.

My object is first to show you the divine way of bringing us into the way of righteousness; and I ^[p. 260] would like to impress you with this, that righteousness must be the first principle, or law, in any system which is of God. This is the case even in human things. In a country which is well governed under a code of laws, the principle which lies underneath that code of laws is righteousness. Righteousness is the maintenance of rights, and any code of laws which may exist in this or in any other country has that end in view. There are certain rights connected with life and property in society, and there is a system of laws, enforced by penalties, to maintain such rights, so that even in human things the first principle is righteousness.

Now there are two things spoken of continually in Scripture, namely, law and lawlessness. These two expressions are common, but I think people have been defective in the apprehension of both.

The current idea is this, that because Christians are not under law, that is, the Ten Commandments, they have escaped law altogether. This arises, let me say, from an imperfect apprehension of the idea of law. It seems to me that, in the way in which God has constituted things, everything is dependent on the operation of law. How do we keep upon the earth? It is by the operation of law. How does the earth move in its appointed orbit in relation to the sun? It is by the operation of law. Everything is regulated by laws or principles of government. We have it all around.

Now the contrast to law is very simple to understand. There would be utter confusion if it were possible for things to escape from the operation of natural laws, we have no doubt that law binds, and keeps things in their appointed places, and points to the wisdom of the Creator. Everybody would accept that as to natural things, but the same principle must prevail in moral things. It seems to me monstrous and illogical that natural things should come under law and rule, while there should be, in moral things, utter confusion.

^[p. 261] In the moral system or universe things are out of gear. If you look at the heavens, you see the most perfect order. Everything is regulated by law, and so it is in regard to physical things on earth. I only refer to this in order that you should get a right apprehension of law. You may get a specific law like the Ten Commandments, but underneath the outward system there were the great moral principles which are properly the rule of the moral universe. As, for instance, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God ... and thy neighbour as thyself”. These are great moral principles. The point is that everyone may be maintained in relation to God and to his neighbour. Love was to bring happiness, and that has never been abrogated and never can be. It is not simply dogma, but the law of righteousness in the moral universe.

Righteousness is what is right. You get the expression in the prophet Isaiah, “I declare righteousness, I speak things which are right”. You can understand that what is right must come from God. As the sun is the centre of the solar system, so must God be the centre of the moral universe. What is right proceeds from God being love, and everything must be according to that, and what is not according to that is not morally right. The nature of God should rule or regulate all in the moral universe.

I have said that much to give a wider bearing to law than is sometimes attached to it. But now a word in regard to lawlessness. Supposing that such a thing could occur — thank God, it cannot — as that there should be a suspension of the law of gravity, we should all go to destruction, and that would mean, that things on the earth had got into lawlessness. Lawlessness is in contrast to being under rule, and describes anything which has escaped from the appointed rule of law. Man has escaped from the law of the moral universe, and the result is that he has gone morally to destruction — he is lost. The secret of his being lost is that ^[p. 262] he has become lawless. It is well to understand the force of these expressions which occur often in the Scriptures.

The first principle of law in the moral universe is evidently righteousness, and this stands in contrast to lawlessness. One striking passage which confirms this is found in Psalm 45. Speaking of the Lord, it says, “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: therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy companions”. That is what marked Christ as man here. He abode in relation to God and to all other. He could not move away from the orbit of God’s will for man. He was more than man, but having taken the place of man He remained in the appointed orbit. He also accomplished righteousness on the cross.

The passage I quoted brings the two principles into contrast. “Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness”. I look at Christ coming here as a new departure in the ways of God. Up to that point the world had been lost. The Gentiles had gone out of the way, they were idolatrous and away from God. They had gone to moral destruction, and the Jew was no better. He attempted to imitate the Gentile, and was morally as far away from God as the Gentile. Then it was that the Son of God came upon the scene, made of a woman, made under law, and that was a new departure on the part of God. Christ came here, the righteous One. He is spoken of as the beginning — there was the beginning of righteousness in the righteous One. God had maintained men of faith in measure in righteousness, but with them there had often been great failure. Even with Abraham there were defects, but the Lord as Man upon earth could appeal to the Father as the righteous Father, for He was the righteous One. He abode in the orbit ^[p. 263] which God had marked out for man down here. He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

I read Matthew 5 because the Lord lays stress there on righteousness, and says He had not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it. In Christ, law was to be fulfilled. I do not now speak of the way in which He did it, but the law was fulfilled in the fact that He was the righteous One, and accomplished righteousness. The accomplishment of righteousness was this, that Christ vindicated the judgment of God which lay upon man here. The judgment was right. It was not arbitrary. If man became lawless, it was right for God to terminate his life upon earth. The sentence of death was a just judgment. If God gave a specific rule of duty and man infringed it, it was right that that man should come under curse. Hence you get two things — man under death and, at the same time, Israel under curse.

Christ vindicated God in regard to His righteous judgment. He took upon Himself man’s liabilities, and glorified God in the bearing of those liabilities. That is what I mean by the accomplishment of righteousness. He was the righteous One, and He hated lawlessness. He took up that which lay upon man and glorified God in the bearing of it. He was made sin, and entered into death; He was made a curse in being hanged on a tree. He took up every liability under which man was by the righteous judgment of God and glorified God; hence the accomplishment of righteousness in the righteous One. Death and the curse no longer stand between God and man.

Now it is immensely important to us to apprehend that Christ is the beginning of the ways of God for the bringing about of what is right. New heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells is right, and the beginning of it was in Christ becoming man. Righteousness is in the righteous One, and also the vindication of God’s judgment that lay upon man here. It behoved God to give testimony of the accomplishment of righteousness, and He has given testimony that every liability of man has been met, and that testimony is in the resurrection of Christ. That is the great testimony to what was accomplished in Christ’s death. The testimony of Christ risen God presents for universal acceptance. It is a universal testimony, as the sun in heaven. Christ risen is the testimony that all that under which man was by the righteous judgment of God has been met, and God glorified in the meeting of it, and hence the grace of God goes out in Christ to every man upon earth.

I come now to the place which Christ in resurrection occupies in regard to every man. Evidently, the way which God has taken to retrieve things has been by the raising up of a Head for man. That point has been too much lost sight of by many. As everything was lost in a head who brought in sin and death, so the divine way to retrieve was by raising up a Head, and the grace of God is presented to man in Him in order that man may recognise the Head whom God has raised up.

In the preaching of the gospel there is the presentation of divine grace. Repentance and forgiveness of sins are preached in the name of a Man. “Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins”. The object of God’s testimony is that souls may be brought to recognise the Man whom God has raised up. In the recognition and faith of that Man men get living water; they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in order that they might be attached to that Man. I want every one here to apprehend that God has taken His own way of recovery in raising up One who is Head of every man, and God presents the testimony of grace in the name of that Man in order that He may be recognised by men, so that they may receive living water. Most will recall what the Lord ^[p. 265] said to the woman of Samaria in John 4, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”. In the end of Luke the Lord said, “Thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”. That is in the name of a living risen Man. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke there, and at the same time said that He was going to send the promise of the Father upon them. The disciples were to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. And at the end of Scripture we get “Let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely”. Christ is the Head of every man in order that man may receive from Him the gift of living water.

I have attempted sometimes to show the distinction between Christ as Lord and as Head. As Lord, He, like Moses, presents to man the authority of God. Christ presents the authority of God because in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. As “Head” He is pre-eminent of men like Adam was to all the human race. Christ is the Head of every man, and He occupies that place that He may give to every man who recognises Him the living water. He does not have to say to those who do not recognise Him, but to every one who receives the testimony in His name He gives living water, in order that the Head may be law to us, that we may come under the influence of moral rule. This is the way in which God has recovered man, bringing him back to righteousness, which is the rule of the moral universe.

I would like you to turn for a moment to Romans 7: 4, “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should ^[p. 266] be married to another, to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God”. Mark the last clause. Again, “For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, being dead in that wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter”. That passage shows that we have by death got away from the law, that is the specific law, by the body of Christ, to be married to another, and now Christ has become law to us. We get into the influence of rule by being attached to another, to one who has been raised up from the dead. Then there is a passage in 1 Corinthians 6: 17, “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit”. I have no doubt that both these passages hang on the fact that Christ has communicated to us the living water, the object of which is to attach us to Himself. In both passages the figure employed is that of a husband, and we have become joined to Christ as husband. He is husband to us. We are married to Him that we might bring forth fruit unto God. We have been brought thus into the way of righteousness, and fruit is the fruit of righteousness. You have been brought into man’s orbit in relation to God and his neighbour, and all by being attached to the Lord. You bring forth fruit unto God.

Now as to Proverbs 8. I have no doubt that the chapter is prophetical and looks forward to the New Creation. What I understand by wisdom is resource. A man of wisdom is a man of resource, one who is not baffled by a difficulty or in an emergency. So Christ is spoken of as the wisdom of God, and in emergencies in things moral the resource of God is Christ. In the recovery of things God has effected everything by Christ. If it were a question of setting forth righteousness here upon earth in the path of a ^[p. 267] Man, this was in Christ. If it were the accomplishment of righteousness in the bearing of judgment, this too was in Christ. If it were a question of raising up a Head who could communicate living water to man, this was in Christ. He is the expression of divine wisdom. Wisdom has become our Head, and what is important for us is that we have become children of wisdom. That is the divine way for us. By the living water we are attached to the Head; we are joined to Him. And it is but right that you should be attached to the One who bore your liabilities, the righteous One. You are joined to Him to bring forth fruit unto God. He is wisdom to us, He leads in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment; that He may cause those that love Him to inherit substance.

The more you enter into Christianity the more you see that it is morally right. It declares God. The divine and only possible way of grace has been to raise up a Head. Himself the righteous One, who has taken up man’s liabilities in order that man, by the Spirit which Christ gives, may be attached to Christ; that He may lead us in the way of righteousness that we may bring forth fruit unto God. It says in Philippians, “Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God”. The fruits were by Jesus Christ and not by the Philippians.

The righteousness of God expresses the rights of God. God has rights. He is love, and love is of God, and there are rights which thus belong to God. God is entitled to the supreme place in the affections of every intelligent creature. Christ bore the righteous judgment of God which lay upon man that these rights of God might have place.

I hope I have made things plain. I speak of these things because many amongst us are young, and I feel much for them. I see the enormous importance ^[p. 268] of their apprehending Christianity as the declaration of what is right, and God’s way is right and according to divine wisdom; and His way has been, not to attempt to reform man by eradicating the evil from man here, but in the raising up of a Head, to communicate living water that He may lead men in the way of righteousness.

The point for us is, have we accepted the drawing of Christ? The woman in John 4 was greatly drawn to Christ. The time had not come then for the communication of the living water, but she was greatly attracted by Christ. She had been in lawlessness, outside of moral rule, but she was drawn to Him, and she got into the way of righteousness by being drawn to the One who gave living water.

And it is the same with us. The gift of living water attaches us to the Head of every man. He leads us in the way of righteousness, you bring forth fruit unto God and you serve God, and He is entitled to be served in holiness and righteousness. Instead of being in lawlessness we are led in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment, we are caused to inherit substance instead of wind.