No question is so important as this: How can man be just with God? Yet there is none about which man is so easily deluded. Conscience tells the man that he has sinned and warns of coming retribution; yet, when the question is pressed on him: How do you expect to obtain future happiness? he either evades the question or shelters in some refuge of lies. The reason is obvious: the man is utterly blind to his true condition; he does not know the malignity of the disease, and he therefore cannot apprehend the remedy.
Before a sinner can even understand the gospel, he must first see his true position under God’s government, and he can learn this only from the Word of God. We are there informed that the God with whom we have to do is infinitely holy, His government is unchangeably pure, He cannot tolerate disobedience, and in every case the wages of sin is death – everlasting death. The Scriptures also teach us plainly that man was placed under a covenant, in which life (confirmed happiness throughout eternity) was promised as the reward of perfect obedience to the law during a time of probation. “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law that the man that doeth these things shall live by them.”
Since these are man’s relations to the government of God and he is confessedly a sinner, his position is plainly this: He has failed to obey the law and he has no title to life; he has transgressed the law, and he lies under sentence of death. How then can a creature occupying such a position be restored to God’s favour? How can God’s government remain unchanged while this creature is saved? How shall the law be magnified so that it shall open heaven to the sinner? How shall justice be vindicated so that it shall cease to curse him? You have the answer to these questions in the text.
I observe that the sinner is saved by means of a righteousness. This appears plainly from the text and from the nature of the case. It was righteousness that God required of man at first; it was by failing to yield it that he lost his title to life and brought on himself a sentence of condemnation. And, as the character of God is unchangeable, he can be restored to favour only when he can plead a righteousness as ample as the demands of the law.
Reprinted, with some editing, from The Free Church Pulpit, vol 2. A native of Sutherland, M’Gillivray’s first charge was Strathy. He was later minister of Dairsie, in Fife.
1. This righteousness is not the sinner’s own, but that of another.
This is plainly intimated in the text, where the Apostle speaks of the righteousness of God without the law, and it is also the subject of his previous reasoning. Having announced as the grand characteristic of the gospel that “therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith” (1:17), he proceeds to demonstrate the necessity of this righteousness. He declares the perfection of that obedience which it requires in every case: “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (1:18). Having then shown that Jews and Gentiles were under this law but had not obeyed it – nay more, that they were wholly corrupt and could not by any possibility obey it – he, in the verse before our text, draws the conclusion: “Therefore, by the deeds of the law [that is, by man’s own obedience to the law] shall no flesh be justified”.
Yet what multitudes vainly seek to enter heaven by a door which their own sins have for ever closed against them! Ask that man whose heart is absorbed with the world what is the foundation of his hope for eternity? His answer is that he has never yet been guilty of open, flagrant sin. Ask that sensualist how he expects to escape the wrath to come, and he answers that he trusts his charitable deeds will atone for these infirmities. Ask that professor of religion, who goes the round of all its duties but detests spiritual piety, how he expects to be saved, and he answers that he sincerely does the best he can and trusts God to take the will for the deed and pardon him at the last.
But you who thus desire to be under the law, “do ye not hear the law”? You who would be justified by your obedience to the law, have you really considered what the law requires of you? It demands perfect obedience in heart and life before it will admit you to God’s favour; it pronounces the sentence of eternal death on the least transgression. Have you such a righteousness as this to meet its demands? Does conscience not tell you that you have broken God’s law times without number? Are your hearts not alienated from God and incapable of loving Him? Is it not then as clear as the sun that, if the law ever relaxes its hold of you, it cannot be because of your righteousness but because of the righteousness of another.
2. This righteousness can only be known by revelation.
The reason is that, as it is a righteousness provided by God, none but He can reveal its existence to sinners. The Scriptures inform us that, even when God’s immutable perfections called for our punishment, He resolved to glorify His mercy by saving an elect world from sin and wrath, making them partakers of an eternal inheritance. In order to this, it was absolutely necessary to provide a righteousness – one by which it would be manifest that God is just and holy and true when He pardons the sinner and admits him to favour.
As this righteousness is revealed in the Bible alone, you read that “the righteousness of God [is] revealed from faith to faith”. You read in the text that it is “witnessed by the law and the prophets”. It was revealed first in the Garden of Eden as the ground of the sinner’s hope; the whole Jewish ritual was a continued revelation of it; the prophets bore testimony to it, speaking of Him who would magnify the law and make it honourable; and the whole New Testament reveals the precious truth that God Himself has provided a righteousness, through which He can be just when He justifies the ungodly.
When a sinner finds this righteousness and rests his eternity on it, he receives it as pure revelation. An awakened conscience tells him of condemnation; a sense of depravity convinces him that he has no resources with which to meet the demands of a violated law. If he looks around and puts the question to all creation, How can God be righteous and I be saved? creation remains silent. But a voice from the Bible saves him from despair; he raises the eye of faith to see a righteousness provided by Jehovah Himself, and “the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above); or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead). But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom 10:6-9).
3. This righteousness was wrought out in human nature.
You accordingly read that it is a “righteousness which is by faith of Jesus Christ”. The circumstances of the case rendered this absolutely necessary. It was on earth that God was dishonoured, and therefore He must be glorified on earth. “The children [those to be saved] are partakers of flesh and blood”, and their Redeemer therefore “must take part of the same”. The first revelation of this righteousness was accordingly made in the promise that there should come of the seed of the woman One who should bruise the serpent’s head. In due time, this promise was fulfilled in the stable at Bethlehem – a virgin brought forth her firstborn Son, and called His name Jesus, because He was to save His people from their sins. He became the second Adam and stood in the room of His people as their representative. You accordingly read: “As by one man’s disobedience [the] many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Rom 5:19).
In a word, this Apostle tells us that He who was thus born of a woman was “made under the law”; that is to say, He met the law as His people’s surety, and fulfilled to the uttermost all its demands against them. In this character, He obeyed the law. View Him coming into the world in obedience to the Father’s command; contemplate the zeal for His Father’s glory which marks His whole ministry, and view Him as the Father’s servant exclaiming in the midst of His sufferings, “Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done”, and you there see the Redeemer obeying the first and great commandment, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart”. View Him going about doing good, healing the diseased, preaching the gospel to the poor, praying for His enemies and at last dying for them, and you there see the command gloriously fulfilled, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”.
If suffering and trial are the proof of obedience, never was obedience so glorious. Devils put forth their highest efforts to move Him from His steadfastness, and men, guided by devils, obstructed Him at every step. Yet, instead of tarnishing His purity, this added to its lustre. But Christ had to meet the law in another form and for another purpose. He had not only to obey its precept but also to endure its penalty. His people were condemned and, to redeem them from the curse of the law, He was made a curse for them. From the night He was born in Bethlehem till He said on the cross, “It is finished”, He had to bear the wrath due to His people’s transgressions; the Scriptures therefore call Him the Man of Sorrows. His sufferings indeed became more overwhelming as they approached their close, but from the cradle to the grave they were of a penal character. As the sufferings of the substitute, they had the same nature as what the sinner deserved to endure, as far as this was consistent with the perfect purity of His person.
Are the trials which man endures at the hands of his fellow creatures part of the penalty due to sin? Christ had to suffer this, for He bore the contradiction of sinners against Himself. Are Satan’s temptations part of sin’s punishment? Christ endured this, for He suffered being tempted. Is the wrath of God part of what the sinner deserves? Christ had to bear this, for you hear Him exclaiming, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” But must He drink the cup to the dregs? Shall His life not be spared? No, for the wages of sin is death, and Christ is therefore obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Here then is the righteousness spoken of in the text – the righteousness of the second Adam, which He thus refers to: “I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do”. It answers all the demands of a violated law: it obeys its precepts; it endures its penalty. It is therefore written: “The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake; He will magnify the law and make it honourable”. But the question arises: How can this obedience and these sufferings, the righteousness of but one person, obtain eternal life for unnumbered millions?
4. This is the righteousness of God.
True, the Redeemer was a man; and as the Man of Sorrows, He was often so poor that He had not where to lay His head. But under that veil of humanity, faith beholds the everlasting Jehovah. He had to make atonement for their sin, to enter as their substitute the furnace of His Father’s wrath, which would have consumed in a moment the highest created beings. Otherwise the salvation of His people was impossible; a creature’s righteousness would have been utterly insufficient.
Take the highest seraph and let him in human nature obey the law and suffer and die. What satisfaction is there to the majesty of heaven? As a creature, he already owes to God all the obedience he can yield, and he therefore cannot redeem his brother. To accept any created being as the substitute of the sinner would be to overturn the government of God and hold forth to creation an encouragement to rebel. No righteousness can, in fact, be accepted unless it shall show the unchangeable glory of the law and God’s determination to vindicate it. The righteousness therefore through which the sinner is justified is that of a divine person. You accordingly read that Jehovah our Righteousness is the name whereby He shall be called, and that God purchased His people with His own blood.
He was God in the manger; He was God on the cross; He is God now at the right hand of the Father; His righteousness therefore is the righteousness of God. It is not the essential holiness of the Godhead, for that cannot be communicated to the creature; neither is it the righteousness of the man Jesus, for, as man, Christ never had a personality distinct from the Godhead. But it is the righteousness of the Mediator, of God manifest in the flesh, who is God and man in two distinct natures and one person. As such it answers – yea, more than answers – all the demands of a violated law. It magnifies the law and renders it glorious in the view of intelligent creation, for what higher honour can the law receive than for God Himself to obey all its commands? It magnifies the justice of God and shows it to be inflexible, for when sin is imputed to God’s own Son, He must drink the cup to the dregs. In a word, it establishes the government of God, shows its purity and rectitude, as it makes an end of sin, by demonstrating to the universe that, though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not pass unpunished.
Here is the righteousness which the Bible reveals as the ground of hope for a sinner – the foundation stone which God has laid in Zion. It was wrought out in human nature, but it is the righteousness of Him who is God as well as man. But here the question may arise: How does the sinner obtain an interest in this righteousness? How does it become his so that he may plead it as the ground of his acceptance? He is a rebel, destitute of all righteousness; what title has he to plead the righteousness of Christ?
5. This righteousness is “unto all”.
Christ wrought out this righteousness for those who were given Him in covenant; He gave His life for the sheep. His finished work not merely makes it possible that they may be saved; it infallibly saves them. As revealed in the gospel, this righteousness is the free gift of God. It is placed so completely within the sinner’s reach, for his acceptance, that he cannot perish if he once hears of it unless he rejects it.
The Bible abounds with illustrations of this truth. The brazen serpent, set up within the camp of Israel, was God’s free gift to them all. All were commanded to look to it; and just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so has the Son of Man been lifted up, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life. The manna, which came down from heaven to support the Israelites in their journey, was given to them all and was free to them all. Christ accordingly says to a multitude, most of whom were rebels at the time: “My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven”. The cities of refuge were open to every manslayer in the land. And so it is with the righteousness of Christ; every sinner who hears of it is invited and commanded to flee for refuge and lay hold of the hope set before him.
It is like the sun in the sky, whose light is free to all of every nation. The blind cannot, indeed, rejoice in its light, but that arises from no defect in the sun – its beams shine forth alike for the rich and the poor, the just and the unjust. So it is with the righteousness of Christ. It says to every sinner who hears the gospel: “Be thou reconciled unto God, for He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin”. This is the special glory of Immanuel’s righteousness – it is unto all, and it utterly repudiates any limitations of its grace. It does not ask the sinner if he has any righteousness, for it knows him to be dead in sin; it does not ask whether his sins are few or many – whether he has just entered on a career of vice, or is already a white-haired profligate. Putting all on a level as condemned rebels, it tells them all: “Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool”.
But are all men saved by this righteousness? Do all to whom it comes in the gospel obtain eternal life? No. There must be an acceptance of this righteousness before we are justified through it.
6. This righteousness is upon all that believe.
An individual sinner has been living, perhaps, in a land of gospel light and yet, though he has been again and again urged to receive the righteousness of Christ, he has hitherto rejected it. The truth is, he knows not the God with whom he has to do, nor his obligations to Him as His creature. His heart is set on worldly and forbidden objects; and though uneasy reflections may at times intrude on him, he contrives to banish them, saying, “Peace, peace, while there is no peace”. But this peace is at length disturbed; the Spirit of God breathes on his soul, and the Word of God comes home to his conscience with a light and an authority he cannot resist and tells him that he is perishing.
The man now becomes earnest about his soul; his great question is, How can I escape the wrath to come? He very soon discovers that he must have a righteousness before he can be saved. He sees that God is a holy God who requires the obedience of His creatures and that it is utterly inconsistent with His glory to save them without a righteousness. Thus the man labours hard to work out a righteousness for himself: he forsakes sin, he performs commanded duty, he labours in the very fire. His great question is, Have I yet brought myself into a state in which God shall pardon and accept me? But the Spirit proceeds to show him, on the one hand, the obedience which God requires and, on the other, the nature of that obedience which he is yielding. He sees that the law is spiritual, calling for the obedience of the heart and demanding perfection. And when he attempts to meet this demand, sin revives, the blasphemy and enmity of the heart are discovered, and he sees that his past obedience has not only been imperfect but it was the constrained obedience of a slave and an enemy.
Yet the sinner makes one more effort to build on the old foundation. He hears of faith as the grand means of saving the soul; he attempts to believe and persuades himself that he does so; and he then pleads his faith as the ground of his acceptance. But the Spirit in mercy sweeps this away also – the utter hypocrisy of his faith is made known to him, he sees that he does not and cannot believe the gospel, and yet that this is his highest guilt, arising as it does from the pride and enmity of his heart. Now the man feels himself to be wholly lost; he sees that, instead of being able to yield perfect obedience, he is dead in sin, utterly corrupt, and is on this account most justly condemned. Now at last the Spirit shows him that the very thing he needs has been already provided. He sees that Jesus has brought in an everlasting righteousness; he sees that this righteousness is unto all, and unto him; he hears the Redeemer saying to him: “Turn thou unto the stronghold, thou prisoner of hope”. And, believing this call, as a lost sinner he receives Christ, resting his eternity on the finished work of Immanuel.
The consequence is that this righteousness, which was formerly unto him, comes now to be on him – he is covered with it. Being one with Christ by faith, Christ’s righteousness is his own. God deals with him as one who obeyed when Christ obeyed, as one who suffered when Christ suffered, as one who is therefore accounted as righteous as Christ; “for He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”. There is instantly a most glorious change in the man’s state and character. All his iniquities are pardoned, for Christ has atoned for them; his title to heaven is as complete as it shall ever be, for this righteousness is complete. His character also is changed. The image of God is stamped on his soul, because this righteousness has purchased life for him.
True, this life is still weak, and there is still in him a mass of corruption which has to be destroyed. But he is complete in Christ his head, and the sin within him has been condemned and crucified. The Spirit of Christ in him will continue to strengthen the life and to destroy the corruption, till he is made perfect in holiness. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”
Application.
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Let true believers live, by faith, on this righteousness alone. Your spiritual comfort, brethren, depends on this. If you look to anything in yourselves as the foundation of your hopes, an element of distrust is introduced into the soul, which, if cherished, will necessarily destroy your peace. Look away from everything in yourselves to the finished work of Jesus. Say with the Church: “Surely in the Lord have I righteousness”, and you will have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Your usefulness also is connected with simple dependence on this righteousness. Just in the degree in which you look to anything in yourselves as the foundation of your hopes will a spirit of bondage prevail which will unfit you for duty and render God’s work a burden. But by faith contemplate the perfection and suitableness of this righteousness. Above all, realise the glory and love of Him who still continues to plead it before His Father’s throne, and then you will say with the Psalmist: “I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only”.
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Let sinners come to Christ and receive this righteousness. There are gospel hearers whose hope for eternity appears to be that, because God is merciful and Christ died for sinners, they shall somehow be saved. But I beseech you to consider that while this righteousness is “unto all”, it saves only those who receive it. It was not enough that the brazen serpent was lifted up, the Israelite must look to it in order to be healed. So, before you can be justified through His righteousness, you must come to Christ for yourself, just as if there were no other sinner who needed Him. Do not evade the call by asking: Did Christ die for you in particular? You have nothing to do with that question; you have to do with the glorious truth that Christ, who wrought out a righteousness which infallibly saves every sinner who receives it, at this moment offers Himself freely to you. “This is [God’s] commandment that you believe on Him whom He hath sent.” Therefore we beseech you “in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God”. Flee from the wrath to come. Flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before you.