RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SALVATION
[p. 23] RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SALVATION
Isaiah 51: 5 - 6; Romans 12: 2
Righteousness and salvation are coincident and contemporary — this is an important point to remember. You get it in Isaiah 51: 5 - 6 — all prove that God’s righteousness and His salvation are parallel — they run together. Salvation is one step further than righteousness. Righteousness is that we stand in relation to God morally. If a man is not in righteousness, he is in lawlessness. God has had in view that man may be brought morally into relation to Him. The point is to see it in Christ, not in Scripture. We are too doctrinal and we want to see it in Christ. The wonderful thing has come to pass that Christ is the revelation of God’s righteousness and He is also our righteousness. God has made Him unto us righteousness. What is wanted is for people to apprehend things morally, that is, as they must be. The great point on the part of God was to declare His rights. Sin having come in, it became necessary for God to declare His rights and He has declared them in the righteous One. Romans 3 is the doctrine of it, but the reality of it is in Christ. God Himself took up man’s liabilities and met them in the righteous One. That was His grace in order to enforce His righteousness and His righteousness is His rights. To assert and declare the righteousness of God and His rights are to govern the affections of His creatures. Until a man bows to the grace of God he will never own the rights of God. The third chapter of Romans is more moral than judicial. God begins entirely de novo in Christ. The great point is that man should submit to the righteousness of God. If God had not approached man in grace, man would have had to come under judgment God acts for man and yet independent of man. It is the declaration of God’s rights — it is [p. 24] apart from law. The righteousness of God was there before sin came in and will exist after sin has been finally judged. Until sin came in the rights of God had their place — God now wants to bring man back to that. Judgment rested on man and God took it up in Christ to bring man back to His righteousness.
God’s rights have their foundation in His nature, which is love, and love is of God, and He claims the love of man. Grace brings man to the righteous requirements of the law. Everything is centred now in Christ. In the new heavens and the new earth no sin exists, so that righteousness and sin could not be correlative there. In the very fact of God being the Creator He has a right to the affections of every intelligent creature.
The great principle with God is recovery and in order to do that God has taken up man’s liabilities. Noah regained, typically, what Adam had lost. Judgment is God’s strange work. In Isaiah 1, for instance, there is no judgment; salvation runs parallel to righteousness. His righteousness is towards all and His love is the spring of it. It gives you a wonderful thought of God. Man is brought to righteousness by being brought to God in his affections. Man gives up seeking to establish his own righteousness and submits to the righteousness of God and now the righteous One conducts him to the paths of righteousness. We see it in Proverbs 8: 20 - 21. You are righteous as He is righteous — you apprehend that Christ is your righteousness — but He has, in that, terminated you. He could not be holden of death. He terminated us that we may live in Him. Our liability was death and if He takes up our liability He terminates us — so that if you believe in Christ the next thing is you are baptised. You are terminated as in Adam, but you count yourself as alive unto God in Christ. Propitiation is the termination of all, so that you can be in Christ. It is all moral. The gospel and what is connected with it is all moral. Righteousness is a moral thought, not judicial. It is the [p. 25] rule of the moral universe. The rule of the physical universe is attraction. There are certain laws by which all is governed — there is no lawlessness. A meteor may be described as ‘lawless’. But the rule of the moral universe is righteousness and when a man becomes lawless he gets out of his orbit into space like a meteor. You really can read the gospel behind the law — behind it all was the great truth that God is love. The devil could not command love — only a Being who is love could command love.
The great moral principles of the law are, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God”, etc. The declaration of God’s righteousness in Christ explains everything. It is in His death that Christ is the declaration of God’s righteousness. The great point is to see the purpose of the gospel and that is to bring man back to God. In the moral universe you must have righteousness. We are attracted to the righteous One by the very fact that He took our liabilities and now He leads in the way of righteousness.
Christianity is a living system and all is centred in Christ. It has all been set forth in Christ. The two great principles of the will of God down here are that there is no lack and that we overcome evil with good. As we live in Him, He lives in us. Man knows nothing of the love of God till he believes in Christ. People often confound relation to God morally with practical righteousness. The love of God brings you to holiness; grace brings you to righteousness. Practical righteousness is that you are here for the will of God. Everything is out of course down here, and the great point is that the will of God should be proved in us “that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” as it marked the pathway of Christ here. There is abundance for every need.
Righteousness is the first principle in the moral universe. The love of God is the source of it. No one will be right until he apprehends it. It is divine love — [p. 26] not our love. Salvation runs parallel to this and you are free from the power of the enemy — you are not afraid of man or devil. It is only in darkness that evil can work. The moment you come into the light the power of evil is broken — the enemy is dead on the seashore. The will of God has been perfectly set forth in the world in Christ, and He always overcame evil with good. His appointment is eternal life (John 12: 50 and Psalm 133: 3). There is no lack there! In the body of Christ there can be no lack; it comes down even to ‘mercy’! Grace is enjoyed but righteousness is a moral necessity. Apart from righteousness all the world would go into perdition. The effect of grace reigning is to subdue people and bring them to God. It is like the influence of the sun upon every planet — so the righteousness of God is upon all that believe. It is God’s estimate of the man. The last verse of 2 Corinthians 5 is the expression of divine righteousness, everything in perfect gear with God. In the heavenly city there is also unity and perfection, it completely meets the glory of God. His glory abides in it. By means of the heavenly city God puts Himself in relation to the whole universe.