A Righteousness That Can Not Save by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 2, 1906

A Righteousness That Can Not Save

By C. M. S.

WHAT God knows of us and our limitations, and what he has said of us and our powers, should be of infinitely more concern to us than any theory of the human mind. It matters not how captivating such theories may be, they can not save—they can only make captive. Everything that is out of harmony with God’s purpose for us and his declarations concerning us, is designed to lead us into ruin. If we could but realize that there is no neutral zone between the powers of good and of evil, no place but a place of danger when outside the line of absolute truth, we would look much more closely to our bearings than we do.

The campaign by pen and pulpit against the position and work of Jesus Christ is extending everywhere, and the masses are becoming saturated with this man-pleasing but deadly solution. It is the supreme effort of the powers of darkness against the kingdom of Christ. While the attack is general all along the line, the citadel of the Christian’s hope is now the chief point of attack. That citadel is the work of Christ in man’s behalf. The fact that this is now the focal point of attack should indicate to us that the battle is nearly finished. In harmony with this deduction are the reiterated statements in recent Testimonies that the work is more nearly finished than we think.

While men are exalting man to the skies and declaring the work of Christ for us unnecessary, the truth of the Bible still rings out over the turbid waters of earth’s night: “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the breath of Jehovah bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever.” Isa. 40: 6-8.

We see that this inspired testimony is directly contrary to the theory of man’s self-sufficiency in the matter of salvation, and his oneness with the divine. “The grass withereth;” and “surely the people is grass.” Then the people wither, and as “the flower fadeth,” so the people fade. As the goodliness of the flower fades in the strong rays of the sun, so does all the goodliness of the flesh fade away into nothing under the bright light of God’s great detector of sin.

The righteousness that God requires is not found in the human heart. Listen to the Word again: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?” Jer. 17: 9. That is how the human heart looks to God, and therefore that is its true condition. In human reasonings, with an exalted opinion of our own worth and power, and with a desire for the exaltation of self, we may blind our eyes to our own imperfections; but we can not turn aside one ray of the searching light of heaven that will show us just as we are; and the reward we receive will be measured according to what we are, and not according to what we think we are. Therefore, if we appear at the judgment bar with the light of heaven shining back over the record of our lives, and we have left out Jesus Christ as our Saviour, we are lost. The law will condemn us; the righteousness which it demands as the condition of eternal life will not be found in us. We shall be clad in the “filthy rags” of “our own righteousness” instead of the faultless apparel of the righteousness of

Christ.

“Christ. “He that is filthy, let him be filthy still,” will be heaven’s decree concerning such.

“Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth.” Rom. 10: 4. Having “the mind of Christ,” having Christ enthroned in the heart, that righteousness will be wrought out which the law demands and heaven approves. “In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.” Prov. 12: 28. God’s law is set as the standard of righteousness. We have not been able by our own efforts to reach that standard; but there stands Christ ready to work out righteousness in and for us. Inside the eternal kingdom will enter nothing that does not meet the standard. There is no other way. Those who are outside of Christ are foredoomed to condemnation by that standard, and that condemnation means eternal death. This will be said of them: “Being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.” Rom. 10: 3. They are “ignorant of God’s righteousness” because they are ignorant of its standard, the law of God.

Let us give careful study to the importance of the work of Christ in our behalf, that we be not lost in the quicksands of one of Satan’s most deceptive errors.

C. M. S.