It is in righteousness and by righteousness that God saves the sinner.

He justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5), but he does it in and by righteousness. For "the righteous Lord loves righteousness" (Psalm 11:7). He "justifies freely by his grace" (Romans 3:24), but still it is "in and by righteousness." His grace is righteous grace; it is grace which condemns the sin while acquitting the sinner; nay, which condemns the sin by means of that very thing which brings about the acquittal of the sinner. His pardon is righteous pardon and therefore irreversible. His salvation is righteous salvation and therefore everlasting.

It is as the righteous Judge that God justifies. He is "faithful and just" in forgiving sin (1 John 1:9). By his pardons he magnifies his righteousness, so that he who goes to God for forgiveness can use as his plea the righteousness of the righteous Judge, no less than the grace of the loving and merciful Lord God.

God loves to pardon because he is love; and he loves to pardon because he is righteous, and true, and holy. No sin can be too great for pardon, and no sinner can be too deep or old in sin to be saved and blest because the righteousness out of which the salvation comes is infinite.¹

The sacrifices on which the sinner is called to rest are "the sacrifices of righteousness" (Deuteronomy 33:19; Psalm 4:5). It is from "the God of our salvation" that this righteousness comes (Psalm 24:5). It is with the "sacrifices of righteousness" that God is "pleased" (Psalm 51:19). It is with righteousness that his priests are clothed (Psalm 132:9). It is righteousness that looks down from Heaven to bless us (Psalm 85:11), and it is righteousness and peace that kiss each other in bringing deliverance to our world. It is the work of righteousness that is peace, and "the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance forever" (Isaiah 32:17).

It is with the "robe of righteousness" that Messiah is clothed, over and above the garments of salvation (Isaiah 61:10), when he comes to deliver Earth. When he proclaims himself "mighty to save," it is when "speaking in righteousness" (Isaiah 63:1). When he came to "finish the transgression, and to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity," he came also to bring in "everlasting righteousness" (Daniel 9:24).

"This is the name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:6); and as if to mark the way in which he blesses and justifies, it is added in another place, "This is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness" (Jeremiah 33:16)--his name passing over to the sinner, with the sinners name lost and forgotten in that of his substitute. Oneness in name, in nature, in privilege, in position, in righteousness, and in glory with Messiah his divine sinbearer is the sinner's portion.

"Their righteousness is of me, says the Lord" (Isaiah 54:17); for "he, of God, is made unto us righteousness" (1 Corinthians 1:30). The transference is complete and eternal. From the moment that we receive the divine testimony to the righteousness of the Son of God, all the guilt that was on us passes over to him, and all his righteousness passes over to us, God looks on us as possessed of that righteousness and treats us according to its value in his sight. Men may call this a mere "name" or "legal fiction," but it is such a "name" as secures for us the full favor of the righteous God who can only show favor to us in a righteous way. It is such a "fiction" as law recognizes and God acts upon in dealing with the unrighteous as if they were righteous--supremely and divinely righteous in virtue of their connection with him who, "though he knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

This is "the righteousness of God which is revealed from faith to faith" (Romans 1:17). [That is, "Therein is the righteousness of God, which is by faith, revealed to be believed."] This is "the righteousness of God without the law which is manifested and was witnessed by the law and the prophets" (Romans 3:21); "the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe" (Romans 3:22).² Thus, "in believing" (not in doing) this "righteousness of God" becomes ours; for the promise of it is "to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly" (Romans 4:5).

On our part there is the "believing"; on God's part, the "imputing" or reckoning. We believe; he imputes; and the whole transaction is done. The blood (as "atoning" or "covering") washes off our guilt. The righteousness presents us before God as legally entitled to that position of righteousness which our surety holds; as being himself not merely the righteous one, but "Jehovah our righteousness." We get the benefit of his perfection in all its completeness, not as infused into us, but as covering us: "Your beauty was perfect through my comeliness which I had put upon you (Ezekiel 16:14). Applying here the words of the prophet concerning Jerusalem, we may illustrate and extend the figure used by the Holy Spirit as to the "perfection" of him whom this righteousness covers. Spread out, it is as follows:

1. "I said to you, 'Live'" (Ezekiel 16:6).
2. "I spread my skirt over you" (16:8).
3. "I entered into a covenant with you, and you became mine" (16:8).
4. "I washed you" (16:9).
5. "I anointed you" (16:9).
6. "I clothed you" (16:10).
7. "I shod you" (16:10).
8. "I girded you" (16:10).
9. "I covered you with silk" (16:10).
10. "I decked you with ornaments, bracelets, chains, jewels, a beautiful crown" (16:11, 12).
11. "You were exceedingly beautiful" (16:13).
12. "Your renown went forth for your beauty" (16:14).

"He that believes is not condemned" (John 3:18). This is the negative side; even were there no more for us, this would be blessedness, seeing our portion was by nature that of "children of wrath." But there is more, for it is written, "All that believe are justified from all things" (Acts 13:39); and "Christ is the end [or fulfilling] of the law for righteousness to every one that believes" (Romans 10:4). "As by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men into justification of life" (Romans 5:18).

The strength or kind of faith required is nowhere stated. The Holy Spirit has said nothing as to quantity or quality on which so many dwell and over which they stumble, remaining all their days in darkness and uncertainty. It is simply in believing--feeble as our faith may be--that we are invested with this righteousness. For faith is not work, nor merit, nor effort, but the cessation from all these and the acceptance in place of them of what another has done--done completely and forever. The simplest, feeblest faith suffices: It is not the excellence of our act of faith that does anything for us, but the excellence of him who suffered for sin--the just for the unjust--that he might bring us to God. His perfection suffices to cover not only that which is imperfect in our characters and lives, but that which is imperfect in our faith when we believe on his name.

Many a feeble hand--perhaps many a palsied one--was laid on the head of the burnt offering (Leviticus 1:4), but the feebleness of that palsied touch did not alter the character of the sacrifice or make it less available in all its fulness for him who brought it. The priest would not turn him away from the door of the tabernacle because his hand trembled, nor would the bullock fail to be "accepted for him, to make atonement for him" (Leviticus 1:4) because his fingers might barely touch its head by reason of his feebleness. The burnt offering was still the burnt offering. The weakest touch sufficed to establish the connection between it and him. Even that feeble touch was the expression of his consciousness that he was unfit to be dealt with on the footing of what he was himself and of his desire to be dealt with by God on the footing of another, infinitely worthier and more perfect than himself.

On our part there is unrighteousness, condemning us: On God's part there is righteousness, forgiving and blessing us. Thus unrighteousness meets righteousness, not to war with each other, but to be at peace. They come together in love, not in enmity. The hand of righteousness is stretched out not to destroy, but to save.

It is as the unrighteous that we come to God; not with goodness in our hands as a recommendation, but with the utter want of goodness; not with amendment or promises of amendment, but with only evil, both in the present and the past; not presenting the claim of contrition or repentance or broken hearts to induce God to receive us as something less than unrighteous, but going to him simply as unrighteous; and unable to remove that unrighteousness or offer anything either to palliate or propitiate.³

It is the conscious absence of all good things that leads us to the fountain of all goodness. That fountain is open to all who thus come; it is closed against all who come on any other footing. It is the want of light and life that draws us to the one source of both, and both of these are the free gifts of God.

He who comes as partly righteous is sent empty away. He who comes acknowledging unrighteousness but at the same time trying to neutralize it or to expiate it by feelings, prayers, and tears, is equally rejected. But he who comes as an unrighteous man to a righteous yet gracious God, finds not only ready access, but plenteous blessing. The righteous God receives unrighteous man if man presents himself in his own true character as a sinner and does not mock God by pretending to be something less or better than this.

For then the divinely provided righteousness comes in to cover the unrighteous and to enable God to receive him in love and justify him before Earth and Heaven.

In all this we find such things as the following--each of them bringing out a separate aspect of the answer to the great question, "How can man be just with God?"

1. The Justifier--"it is God that justifies." The sentence of acquittal must come from his lips and be registered in his books.

2. The justified--man, the sinner, under wrath, the ungodly, the condemned.

3. The justifying fact--the death of him whose name is Jehovah our righteousness.

4. The justifying instrument--faith. Not strong faith, or great faith, or perfect faith, but simply faith, or believing. "We are justified by faith."

5. The justifying medium--the righteousness of God. This is the "best robe" which is prepared for the prodigal. By it he is clothed, beautified, made fit to enter his Father's house, and sit down at his Father's table. Christ is himself our justification. In him we "stand." In him we are "found." Him we "put on"; with him we are clothed; by him we are protected as by a shield; in him we take refuge as in a strong tower.

"Found in Him." What then? Our own "self" has disappeared; instead there is Christ, the beloved Son in whom God is well pleased. Found in ourselves, there was nothing but wrath; found in him, there is nothing but favor. We are hidden in Christ. God seeks for us; when at last he discovers us in our hiding-place, it is not we that he finds, but Christ, so complete is the exchange of persons, so perfect and so glorious the disguise. Yet it is not a disguise which shall ever be taken off, nor of which we shall have cause to be ashamed. It remains ours forever. It is an everlasting righteousness.⁴

Jehovah is satisfied with Christ's obedience. He is well-pleased with his righteousness. And when we, crediting his testimony to that obedience and that righteousness, consent to be treated by him on the footing of its perfection, then is he satisfied and well-pleased with us.

Jehovah is satisfied--more than satisfied--with Christ's fulfilling of the law which man had broken. For never had that law been so fulfilled in all its parts as it was in the life of the God-man. For man to fulfil it would have been much; for an angel to fulfil it would have been more, but for him who was God and man to fulfil it was yet unspeakably more. So satisfied is Jehovah with this divine law-fulfilling, and with him who so gloriously fulfilled it, that he is willing to pass from or cancel all the law's sentences against us; nay, to deal with us as partakers of or identified with this law-fulfilling if we will but agree to give up all personal claims to his favor, and accept the claims of him who has magnified the law and made it honorable.
 

¹"How are you righteous before God? Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ: insomuch that if my conscience accuse me that I have grievously transgressed against all the commandments of God, nor have kept any one of them, and, moreover, am still prone to evil; yet, notwithstanding, the full and perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ is imputed and given to me, without any merit of mine, of the mere mercy of God, even as if I had never committed any sin, or as if no spot at all did cleave to me, yea, as if I myself had perfectly performed that obedience which Christ performed for me. . . .  Why is Christ's sacrifice and obedience called the material cause of our justifi cation? For that it is the same for which we are made righteous (Romans 5:19).--Is Christ's death and last passion only imputed to us, or also the obedience of His life? Both. His satisfaction by punishment merits for us the remission of sin. This is his passive obedience. Then there is the obedience called active obedience. . . . We owed to God not only punishment for the transgression, but also a perfect obedience. All this Christ has satisfied for us. But our justification is most ascribed to Christ's suffering, blood-shedding, and death" (Heidelberg Catechism). Return

²That is, the righteousness which God has provided for us--the righteous ness of him who is God and which comes to us by believing in Christ--is presented to all without distinction and is put upon all who believe for a robe or covering. As it is written, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 13:14), and again, "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27). Return

³"I may boldly glory of all the victory which he obtains over the law, sin, death, the devil; and may challenge to myself all his works, even as if they were my own, and I myself had done them. . . . Wherefore, when the law shall come and accuse you that you do not observe it, send it to Christ, and say, 'There is that man who has fulfilled the law; to him I cleave; he has fulfilled it for me, and has given his fulfilling unto me.' When it hears these things, it will be quiet. If sin come, and would have you by the throat, send it to Christ, and say, 'As much as you may do against him, so much right shall you have against me; for I am in him, and he is in me.' If death creep upon you and attempt to devour you, say unto it, 'Good mistress Death, do you know this man? Come, bite out his tooth: Have you forgotten how little your biting prevailed with him once? Go to! If it be a pleasure unto you, encounter him again. You have persuaded yourself that you should have prevailed somewhat against him when he did hang between two thieves, and died an ignominious death; but what did you gain thereby? You did bite, indeed, but it turned worst to yourself. I pertain to this man; I am his and he is mine, and where he abides I will abide. You could not hurt him; therefore let me alone. . . .'

Hereof we may easily understand what kind of works those be which make us entire and righteous before God. Surely they are the works of another. . . . Salvation has come unto all by Jesus Christ, as by the works of another. Wherefore this is diligently to be noted: Our felicity does not consist in our own works, but in the works of another, namely, of Christ Jesus our Savior, which we obtain through faith only in him. . . . 'Before God your righteousness is of no estimation. You must set in place thereof another, namely mine. This God my Father allows. I have appeased the wrath of God, and of an angry Judge have made him a gentle, merciful, and gracious Father. Believe this, and it goes well with you; you are then safe, entire, and righteous. Beware that you presume not to deal before God with your own works. But if you will do anything with him, creep into me, put on me, and you shall obtain of my Father whatever you desire.'"   --Martin Luther, Sermon on John 20:24-29. Return

⁴In this there is no confusion of personalities; no transfer of moral character; no exchange of inherent sin on the one hand or inherent righteousness on the other; no literal or physical identity. Rather a judicial verdict or sentence is given in our favor, constituting us partakers in law of all the results or fruits of the work of him whom God, as Judge, appointed our substitute. "As we are made guilty of Adam's sin, which is not inherent in us, but only imputed to us; so are we made righteous by the righteousness of Christ, which is not inherent in us, but only imputed to us" (John Owen).

The legal or judicial gift of benefits is certainly different from the personal meriting of them; but the benefits are not less real, nor their possession less sure. That they should come to us in a righteous way with the consent and sanction of law is the great thing. The reality is to be measured by the actual possession and enjoyment of the benefits and not by the way in which they come. The security for them lies in this, that they reach us in a legal and honorable way. Return