RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LIFE
[p. 403] RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LIFE
Romans 1: 1 - 32; Romans 3: 1 - 31
The gospel of God is “concerning his Son”, and “it is God’s power to salvation, to every one that believes”. God sends glad tidings to make known what is in His heart in regard to men. The Son of God was God, and He became Man that the depth of God’s interest in men might be known, and this, not when men were innocent, but after they had listened to the serpent and come under the sentence of death. The sinless Son of God died that the true condition of the sinful man before God might be set forth in Him. As it is written, if “one died for all, then all have died” (2 Corinthians 5: 14). But if the sinless One has died for the whole race under sin, His love has established a claim upon all. Not only has their true state been set forth in His having died for them, but divine love to men has been manifested in a most wondrous way.
We only get a true thought of what the sinful creature has come under by seeing what the sinless Son of God came under for us. But we learn by God’s glad tidings not only that He came under it but that He has come out of it by resurrection.
God is greater than all the evil that is in man, and He has acted by His Son that we may be saved from the power of evil by a greater power coming into our hearts in the knowledge of our Saviour God. We need God in a far deeper way than Adam and Eve needed Him as innocent creatures. They experienced His providential goodness, but we need Him to bring us out of a state of estrangement from Him that He may have joy in us as those whom He has saved, and that we may joy in Him as the God of our salvation.
The gospel is the telling out of what God is, and of what He has done by His Son, for His sinful creature. It is to be known by faith, for the gospel is the power of God to [p. 404] salvation to every one that believes. God uses the knowledge of Himself as revealed in grace in His beloved Son as His power to salvation. As this comes into the heart of men by faith they are saved from what came in by distrust of God and disobedience. They become pleasurable to Him as knowing and honouring His grace.
“The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him” (1 Corinthians 2: 14). Therefore faith will never be found in the natural man. Until persons are born again they cannot see the kingdom of God, however clearly it may be set before them. That God has come in to secure His pleasure in men is of very small account to the natural man; he prefers the world and his own gratification so far as he can get it. But when one is born again the true state of things begins to be felt, and the gospel which tells how God has come out to meet it in grace becomes a joyful sound. Faith is a divinely wrought assurance in the soul that God is a Saviour God — that He is in that relation to men through the glad tidings — and that He is to be known thus, as a personal matter, so that each believer has the light in his heart of God as made known in His Son. There is the power of salvation in this, for it brings us to what God is as revealed in grace. One cannot be happy with God in the truth of His grace, and under the power of evil at the same time. Every believer can prove this for himself.
Then the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel on the principle of faith. It is “righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ towards all, and upon all those who believe” (Romans 3: 22). This righteousness is purely of God, and the believer is clothed with it just as Adam and Eve were clothed with the coats of skin. God’s righteousness is revealed in the glad tidings on the principle of faith. Neither the law nor human works of any kind have anything to do with it. Not all the learning in the world would show me how the righteousness of God is favourable to His sinful creatures. It can only be known by the glad tidings being received on the principle [p. 405] of faith. There are three statements as to faith in Romans 3 which are to be carefully noted: “The faith of God” (verse 3); “Faith of Jesus Christ” (verse 22); “Him that is of the faith of Jesus” (verse 26).
There cannot be any faith except as men come in contact with “the oracles of God” (verse 2). Hence we read, “So faith then is by a report, but the report by God’s word” (Romans 10: 17). If God did not make known something of Himself there would be no possibility of faith. But He has given “oracles” so that there might be something for faith to take hold of. And though some do not believe, that does not in the least degree take away from the present gain and blessedness of those who have “the faith of God”. Indeed, nothing could be more stable, or more worthy of attention, than what God has made known of Himself, and particularly in His glad tidings concerning His Son. Faith has God Himself as its Object, and to have the faith of God now there must be “faith of Jesus Christ”. It is through that Man that God is known as acting in infinite grace for His creature who has come under sin and death. He has come in perfect, holy manhood to do God’s will, and to become through His death and blood-shedding a Mercy-seat. God’s righteousness is now shown forth in justifying freely by His grace all those who believe the glad tidings. Redemption is the ground on which God can justify every believer, and His righteousness is shown forth in His doing it.
The blood of Christ shows that the sentence of death has been carried out; the sins that called for judgment have been judged; the whole state of man as under sin has received its righteous condemnation. But it has all come about in a wondrous way of grace, for the sinless Son of God has come under all that was upon us so that God might righteously hold us free from every charge. Justification means that God does not account that believers have any sins. They have committed many sins, but they are justified from them all in pure grace, and in the value of the blood of Christ. Faith sets [p. 406] its seal upon the justifying efficacy of that blood, upon its value Godward. It has met everything that the divine glory demanded for sin and sins, and the believer has the faith of this. He does not believe anything about himself, but he believes the testimony that God has given to the value of the blood of Christ. In having “the faith of Jesus” we think of Him, and of the value of His death and blood as God has made it known to us. And every one who has the faith of Him is justified. The righteousness of God is upon every believer as the coats of skin were upon Adam and Eve.
It must not be thought that faith can be found in the natural man. It comes about through a divine operation which gives the word of God living power in the soul. In a word, it is the result of new birth. The fear of God enters into the heart and conscience by new birth, and a desire is awakened for light from God. For “The fear of Jehovah is clean” (Psalm 19: 9), and its cravings can only be met by what is clean; that is, by what is purely of God. So that the one born anew must needs also be “born of water and of Spirit” (John 3: 5) if he is to enter into the kingdom of God. Moral cleansing is effected as divine testimony is received, and there is the actual begetting of what has “spirit” character in contrast to “flesh”. By faith I receive light from God, and I know it is purely of God, and I am perfectly conscious that if He has not begotten me anew I never should have received it. I know that the whole bent of my nature runs the other way.
Living is on the principle of faith in the early chapters of Romans. It is not until chapter 6: 11 that we are told to reckon ourselves alive to God in Christ Jesus, and in chapter 8: 10 we read that the Spirit is life on account of righteousness. Living on the principle of faith means that I live by what I know of God through the glad tidings, of which faith is the vital principle in my soul. What is of God comes into the soul vitally by His word and Spirit, and this becomes faith. Initially this is small; the measure of growth in this sense is [p. 407] the measure of faith. I do not really live beyond the measure in which my faith knows God and Jesus Christ His Son. The gospel is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes (Romans 1: 16), because it makes God known as a Saviour God. If there were no evil in the world or in our hearts we should not need salvation. But we know it is there, and if God were not a Saviour God there would be no hope for us. But He is a Saviour God, and He has sent us glad tidings that we may know it and get the benefit of it, faith becoming a personal link between the creature under sin and his Saviour God. Sin means that we have turned from God, and have lived on the principle of doing our own will. But the gospel makes known to us that God is ready to befriend and save us in spite of all the evil under which we have fallen. He is ready to set us in a far better place with Him than Adam had as an innocent creature. When we believe this our hearts are won back to God, and we see that it is our greatest possible gain to know Him, and to worship Him as the God of our salvation.
This all turns on the coming in of the Son of God, and on His death and resurrection. What was due to the creature under sin has come upon the sinless Son of God who bore it in love, but who has come out of it as risen to be the salvation; the righteousness and the life of every one who believes the good news. This gospel of God concerning His Son is His power to salvation. It brings Him, through faith, into the heart of His creature in most blessed grace, and when He is thus there the power of a divine salvation is there.
Then the gospel reveals the righteousness of God in setting the believer before Him without spot or stain. God undertakes to place every believer before Him free from every charge, and He glorifies His own righteousness in doing it. The righteousness of God is upon all those that believe; they are clothed with it so that before God no sin is seen; nothing is seen but divine righteousness. The believer has no fear nor uncertainty as to how he stands with God. Without God he [p. 408] was lost and overwhelmed with sins. But as having faith in God known through the gospel he is saved and justified, and God has brought it all to pass, for none would ever have had faith thus to know Him, if He had not begotten them anew, and made them His called ones.
Faith is ever accompanied by subjection to God, for the glad tidings are “for obedience of faith” (Romans 1: 5).