Faith and Righteousness

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 9, 1908

Faith and Righteousness

The Sabbath-school lesson for April 18 deals with one phase of Abraham’s experience, and it therefore seems to be a fitting time to consider the subject of faith and righteousness.

Let us first read some passages of Scripture which speak explicitly of Abraham’s faith and righteousness: “And he [Jehovah] brought him [Abraham] forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.” Gen. 15: 5, 6. “For what saith the Scripture? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.” “Looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness.” Rom. 4: 3-5; 20-22. “By faith Abraham, being tried, offered up Isaac: yea, he that had gladly received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; even he to whom it is said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God is able to raise up, even from the dead; from whence he did also in a figure receive him back.” Heb. 11: 17-19.

Much instruction concerning the vital principle of righteousness by faith is crowded into these verses, and it will be profitable to give them a careful examination. When the promise was made through Christ to Abraham that his seed should be like the stars in number, he himself knew that this promise could be fulfilled only by the special power of God—a power which could bring forth life from the dead. “Wherefore also there sprang of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand, which is by the seashore, innumerable.” This thread runs through all the verses. Abraham “in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, So shall thy seed be.” Abraham had the fullest confidence that what God had promised he was able to perform, and that he would perform it. Not only so, but he yielded himself in the line of God’s promise, submitting himself to the will of God, that the revelation of the promise might be made in him by the power of God. The power was wholly of God, but it wrought in and through Abraham.

The test of Abraham’s faith showed that he believed in God as one who could renew life even to the dead. His faith in the promise of God was such that he was sure of its fulfilment even though he should, in harmony with God’s command, offer up Isaac, the very one through whom the promise was to be fulfilled. So far as his own faith was concerned, Abraham did receive Isaac back from the dead. This is the faith which is reckoned for righteousness.

We are now prepared to see the connection between the experience of being made righteous by believing and the experience of the new birth, or the new creation. The statement of Jesus to Nicodemus, “Except one be born anew, he can not see the kingdom of God,” simply emphasizes, from another standpoint, that righteousness by faith is the only way of salvation. As to spiritual things, we were dead—dead through trespasses and sins—“but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus: in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus: for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves,

it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.” The faith which believes that what God has promised in his everlasting covenant—those better promises—he is able to perform and will perform, unites us with the power which raises from the dead, and with him who was raised from the dead, and makes us alive with him, thus bringing about the new birth, or the new creation. And it is in this way that we are made “the righteousness of God in him,” the law of righteousness being written in the heart and becoming “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” But this is all of faith.

We are brought to the same conclusion by comparing two other statements of the Scriptures. “We through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love.” “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” A living faith is so inseparable in its working from a new creation that either implies the other, and they may be used interchangeably; but the new creation, or the new birth, means the new man “that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth,”—“that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him.” And so we see again that the faith which is reckoned for righteousness is the faith which lays hold upon Christ our life as the Lord our righteousness. This means the new birth, the new creation, the life of righteousness.

To justify the ungodly requires the working of the same creative power as is displayed in raising the dead—it is in fact making alive those who are dead in trespasses and sins. The faith by which we are made righteous is therefore the faith which believes in the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the dead through him. Therefore it is written concerning Abraham’s experience: “Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him; but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.” Our being made righteous depends upon the resurrection of Christ, and the faith which justifies is the faith which lays hold of the risen Saviour.

There is a wide difference between the faith which justifies and the sentimental belief in Christ which makes him the excuse for continuing in sin. Abraham believed God, and his faith was reckoned for righteousness, but “when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance.” To him faith in God meant obedience to God—an obedience which retained for him the wonderful blessings of those promises and prophecies which were the preaching of the gospel of righteousness by faith. “If ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” “Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid: nay, we establish the law.” The faith which justifies is the faith which works.