Righteousness

If the reader has followed, with any profit, the [previous piece] and the thought of “salvation” (that is, of a present deliverance from the pressure of things and influences in which we are now, and which came before us as one factor of the gospel), he may now turn to the other. That other is righteousness—how man is made eternally righteous before God, which the gospel also fully declares!

Both “salvation” and “righteousness” come before us in the gospel. The love of God originated and lies at the back of both. They were necessities to that love of God, so that the object of it—man—may pass into full, perfect deliverance, and should be able to “joy in God” (Rom 5: 11), that is, IN ALL THAT HE IS, see v 5.

I have no doubt that the thought of “salvation” carries in it, and takes account of, the opposing elements on the earth. These are many. But notwithstanding in “salvation” the believer is seen to be preserved in the good of the present thought of God for man! And thus seen, He is in it now. But the thought of “righteousness” is different. It is not preservation where evil is, but rather the display seen in him (man) of all that which delights the heart of God, where (in God) holiness is! The one is before men, angels and demons. The other is that in which I am set before God and for all eternity! Thank God that it is all so stable and so calculated to “establish”.

We shall see that both are set forth in the gospel. This gospel in the epistle to the Romans is the most wonderful treatise that we have on righteousness, and that to the Hebrews may be in like manner read as a treatise on salvation. (The reader may profitably compare the occurrences of each word in these two epistles.)

But in Romans he refers to both; the apostle says: “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth”, Rom 1: 16. So far, salvation is the subject which the gospel effects, and which it is “the power of God” to effect. The gospel is here looked at in its progressive work, for it is doing a progressive work. Its effects are seen in the emancipation of the human soul from every present pressure. The longer the person lives in it, and the older he or she becomes as a Christian, the more the power of the gospel as the “power of God” effects his or her “salvation” from and in things and influences here. This is to me the key to the understanding of a passage also in Romans, which will be otherwise a mystery to many—“Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed”, Rom 13: 11.

But let us read on in Romans, chap 1, “For therein (that is in the gospel, of which the apostle is not ashamed), is the righteousness of God revealed, from faith to faith”.

Here we have the second grand factor of the gospel. The love of God in the gospel, therefore, desires me to obtain the “salvation which is in Christ Jesus”, 2 Tim 2: 10, and also places me in Christ as my righteousness before God. Sin is not imputed by God and righteousness is, Rom 4; Rom 3: 22. This gospel is most establishing, if these, its two factors, are seen to be its now resultant, and I think that we should preach it. No wonder that the apostle closes with such a note of thanksgiving. He seems to say I am set up in it both now and forever in triumph and in victory, ‘God is for me, and nothing can separate me from His love’, chap 8, for it is this which has thus wrought, and in this marvellous way. And thus the epistle ends, “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel”. It is the saints who need establishing, and it is they who get it as they at Rome did, if they drank into the truth of the gospel, see Gal 2: 14.

From Words of Grace and Encouragement—vol 5, 1905

FIRST LOVE PRODUCES FIRST WORKS

If one whom I seek (from love) to serve, reveals Himself to me in the Word saying, “I know thy works”, I begin to look around. I find that the whole of the housework is in a state of confusion. It is not in the order in which He would have it. His attitude is that of discerning scrutiny as to all that is going on in it. Works are busily going on. The more busy I am, the more I feel self-condemned by what He thus says, if my activity has not its source in communion with His mind ! He has His own estimate of them, when he says to me, “I know thy works”—What does He think of them? There were first works, and they had their spring in the servant. They were then also appreciated by Him. What is the resource now? There is no comfort to me in the words, “I know thy works” (now that He addresses these words to me) save as they have, poor as they are, His appreciation. His silence about them and His telling me He knows them, are not enough. First love, I think, produces first works.

From Words of Grace and Encouragement—vol 5, 1905