ROMANS 3 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 450] ROMANS 3 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC I suppose it is the state of all men as “being all under sin” that makes it necessary for righteousness to come in on God’s part. I suppose coming under righteousness is the contrast to being under sin.
Ques In chapter 1: 17 we get that righteousness revealed; here it is manifested. Is there any distinction?
CAC “Manifested” seems to be rather a stronger word, calling our attention particularly to what is consequent upon the coming in of Christ.
Ques Is it a different kind of righteousness from what would suggest itself to the human mind?
CAC I suppose it is a kind of righteousness that would commend itself to any right-feeling, right-minded man. It is obvious that nothing would be gained by making a demand on the man described in chapters 1 and 3; by no means could he be brought to correspond with God’s thought; the case is hopeless.
Rem It is “borne witness to by the law and the prophets”, it says. It is remarkable at this juncture.
CAC I think the whole of Scripture made it appear that if there was to be anything brought in that was good, it must come in entirely from God’s side, and as coming in from God, as entirely of Himself, entirely perfect. The whole testimony of Scripture is in that direction.
Rem In Psalm 51: 14, David says, “My tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness”.
CAC It is good for us all to be reminded that we start with absolute perfection. We begin with a righteousness that is absolute perfection. So that the righteousness with which the believer is invested, which we are told is “upon all those who believe”, cannot be improved upon.
[p. 451] Rem It is a righteousness for man provided by God, not exactly characteristic of God’s acting.
Rem The “showing forth” of this righteousness, which we get a little lower down, would be a little different thought.
CAC Yes, I think he moves on to show how in its application to us divine righteousness involves justification.
Rem Righteousness is provided without any violation of God’s holy attributes.
CAC It is the foundation really of our relations with God. Many believers go through life in uncertainty as to their relations with Him, but if God is known as providing righteousness and as justifying, well, the soul is set in perfect peace.
God is showing the value of what came in in Christ and the value of redemption as in Him and through His death. It extended backward as the ground by which God was righteous in passing by the sins of Old Testament believers because He had in mind all that would be brought about through the coming in of Christ and by His death; all was present to the mind of God, and He has been pleased to justify Himself in showing us He passed by the sins of Old Testament saints because of it.
Rem This is the antitype of Leviticus 16.
Ques Is justification regarded in reference to God as righteousness is, “That he should be just, and justify him that is of the faith of Jesus”?
CAC God has in view not only the sins and transgressions of man, but his whole state before Him. It is important that God is showing us that what is in His mind will take us completely off the ground of what we were as of the race of Adam and put us on the ground of Christ and His death; so in result Christ becomes our righteousness. God’s glory and His rights in respect of His creature are involved in it and He will establish them, whatever Satan or His creatures may do, by bringing in in the way of grace a perfect divine righteousness.
[p. 452] Ques Why is forgiveness only mentioned in a quotation in Romans?
CAC I suppose the thought is to show us the kind of status we have with God. Forgiveness is on a different line; it is in the heart of the One offended against.
Rem So that “upon all those who believe” is status.
CAC Yes, we have this entirely new status, and it is a fixed matter, it does not depend on our fluctuating emotions or experiences. We know God as the Justifier. It is His pleasure to be known in that character and to bring it out through Christ; to relieve us of our past sinful history and to set us for ever before Him in the blessedness of Christ. God has taken on that character. It is not that there is a moment in my history when I am justified, but a moment in my history when I come into the light of God as Justifier; but that is what He is for all men.
God has lost His creature through the fall, of whom He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”, and He might have left it at that, but He would not. So at first He produced faith in the hearts of Adam and Eve and then clothed them. He brought in what was entirely of Himself; He set them up in an unquestionable status with Him; they could no longer feel naked with Him. So there was nothing left to do but to give thanks and to praise.
It is “by faith of Jesus Christ” that we see how wonderfully God has undertaken for His creature. To see in a divine Person coming in manhood, showing in every step He took how He was prepared to undertake everything for poor man on God’s part — a sense of that sets us up in a wonderful way.
Every human being has a sense of God being the Source of good, and when he prays he testifies to it. And God says, ‘It is so, and I will provide you with righteousness at My own cost, it is the first thing you need’. The mercy-seat shows how God has considered for His glory in the question of sin. The testimony to Israel is the sin-offering consumed outside the camp, and the blood on the golden mercy-seat, and now it is [p. 453] not shut up in the holiest but “set forth” on God’s part. It is God’s matter, so when we preach, it is a setting forth of how things are in God’s mind; He is the Justifier of every human being. The cherubim’s faces turned inwards and downwards, they looked on the blood. What a vindication of the glory of God! The great vindication of God is the death of Christ and His forsaking and what answers to the burning outside the camp. God’s glory is in the matter, in His being known in this character. “Whom God has set forth”, and it is on His own behalf. He wants to be known in the exceeding freedom of His grace, and His thoughts to be known in regard to His fallen creature, that he should be freed from every charge and stain and covered with divine righteousness, so that there is nothing left but what speaks of Christ and His death. I think it is fine.
Christ Jesus is set forth in the gospel. It is meant to set forth Christ Jesus. It is a title of great dignity; first what He is in reference to the work of creation and now in redemption; and its stands in all the value of His wondrous work and His Person — and that is how redemption is known and, we might say, experienced.
We begin with faith and it matures into confidence. In learning how God has provided this is a powerful incentive to confidence in God. Confidence is a thing that grows. A righteousness has been established that is more than adequate to clothe the whole human family in a way suitable to God. What seems to shine out in this is the cost at which God has secured before the universe His title to be Justifier. So now for a believer to have any question as to status is robbing God of glory as Justifier and Christ of glory as Redeemer. If there is a spot against him it is a terrible dishonour to God who has done everything that he might be set in the blessedness of Christ before Him.
Christ is the mercy-seat in the power of His blood, and faith apprehends it. Mr. Raven said it probably should read, a mercy-seat in His blood through faith. That is, the mercy- [p. 454] seat is in His blood — it stands in all the value of His blood, and faith gets the light of it and gives God the glory.
Rem Faith in the Person gives the value to the blood.
CAC That is just it. It is that wonderful Person coming in on God’s part and undertaking everything on man’s part, so that everything is secured for God. God has rights over His creature to be exercised in redemption. It is in this way we get the knowledge of God. It is not that I believe that I am justified, as some think, but I come to the knowledge of God as Justifier. So this righteousness is “towards all”, you cannot possibly limit it; but “upon all those who believe”, they are invested with it. “The faith of Jesus” — it is brought down to the lowest capacity — a child of two years may have the faith of Jesus.
Rem In Acts 13: 39, “in him every one that believes is justified” — justified in Christ.
CAC It does not mean that the broken-down sinner is merely set up again, but set up again in another Man. So we get in Galatians 2: 17, “justified in Christ”, and in our next chapter, “who ... has been raised for our justification”; that is, it is that blessed One raised from the dead who is the measure of and sets forth the character of it. It is in One risen from the dead, so that we could not be justified as on the earth. The death of Christ cleared the ground, it was the end in God’s eye of man after the flesh. “One died for all, then all have died”, but Christ risen is the beginning of a new order of things which sin and death can never touch. It is made very clear that faith is what gives us a link with it. God is very pleased with those that have faith in Him and in Christ Jesus and in Jesus.
Ques Would you explain why justification is not attached to us as living in this world?
CAC In Corinthians it says, “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption; that according as it is written, He that boasts, let him boast in the Lord”. That is,
[p. 455] you glory in God, He has done it all. The only ground I can take before men is as a repentant sinner. I have no thought of any other person but Christ, or of any other work but His death, He has covered the throne of God with redemption glory.
Every word of grace He uttered and every miracle He did when here was based on His death. He was going into death, He could not have done one thing otherwise. Now He is living. I have often thought the evangelists as they wrote the gospels would say at the end of every verse, ‘And now He is glorified in heaven’.
Wherever there is appreciation of Christ, God is free to take up this character. It may only be a handful of meal. If I come to God to say anything about Jesus, how pleased He is. Not many of us here present have much appreciation, have we? I know I have not, but I pray I may have more appreciation of Him. Being on our side, it comes to us on the principle of faith.
Ques The thief on the cross would be an example?
CAC I have thought so. He had perfect confidence in asking to be remembered in the kingdom. He was not afraid to. He learnt so much, with nothing but the smallest opportunity. He was as suitable to be in paradise as Jesus; he could not be with Him without it, but his suitability was all provided by God.
These things are progressive with us. We do not arrive at the faith of Jesus at once or of Jesus Christ the anointed One. I hope we are more characterised by the faith of Jesus Christ today than we were ten years ago. The apostle strikingly illustrates it when he says, “that I may be found in him, not having my righteousness, which would be on the principle of law, but that which is by faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God through faith” (Philippians 3: 9). He is looking for a fuller and deeper knowledge of what we are speaking of tonight at the end of his course. You know very well when you are on this course that you are very pleasing to God, you [p. 456] do not belong to that race morally, spoken of in chapters 1 and 3, but have an appreciation of God’s anointed Man. You are not of Adam’s race now, but of that race of which Christ is the Firstborn.
Rem The name of Jesus stands alone.
CAC It is the nearest approach to His personal name; in other titles He wears an official glory. In Ephesians 4: 21 it is, ‘as the truth is in the Jesus’ (see note b, Darby Trans.), as if the Spirit of God would concentrate our thoughts on that Man.
Rem It says of the eunuch, Philip “announced the glad tidings of Jesus to him”.
CAC That is very fine.