Righteousness and Life by Abdiel

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 3, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 43.

Righteousness and Life

By Abdiel

By Abdiel

How can man be saved from the inevitable death which is the lot of the race? How may he become a living creature instead of a dying creature? He can not accomplish this of himself, for he is a sinner, sick, and doomed to death. All that he could do were he to render perfect obedience to the law, would be present duty. His whole past remains uncanceled. And, further, the normal law of his being has been transgressed; he is below his primal level, and his perverted faculties and powers can not fulfil the law, any more than his conscience, benumbed by sin, can appreciate its holiness. He has but one hope, and that is through Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Repentance toward God, or, in other words, renunciation of all sin, complete submission to God’s will, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, reconciles us to God and gives us peace. Acts 20: 21; Rom. 5:1. God no longer counts us as enemies, but as friends. He not only takes away the sins of the past, but He takes away also that from which the sins sprang, which caused the enmity,—the carnal mind and the unregenerate heart. Eze. 36: 26; Rom. 8: 4-9. We are no longer at enmity with the law of God; we love it. We are no longer condemned, but justified. But how is this done?—That we do not know; it is one of the mysteries of the power of God. We do know, however, by what means. Faith in the promise of God clothes us with the righteousness of Christ, without works on our part; for of ourselves we could do no works acceptable to God. Springing from a sinful heart, the works would be sinful. The infinite fulness of Christ supplements man’s infinite need. “But now the righteousness of God without [the deeds of] the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God [and all believing]; being justified freely by His grace through the re- demption that is in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 3: 21-24.

Perfection of God Restored

The believer is no longer a sinner in God’s sight; the eye of Infinite Perception sees upon him only His own perfect righteousness. He looks not upon a heart which hates His holy law, but a heart which loves it, even as did his Lord, in whose heart was God’s law. Ps. 40: 7, 8. For notice that the righteousness with which God invests the believing sinner is the righteousness which the law approves or witnesses to. It is the righteousness of God, found abstractly in His holy law, and concretely in our Lord Jesus Christ. The law is the rule, and Christ is the Example, of God’s infinite righteousness. And the law of life in Christ Jesus makes the sinner free from the law of sin and death. See Rom. 8:1-3. Will he then keep God’s law?—He can not do otherwise. The transgression of any precept of that law would cause him intense pain and sorrow of heart. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Rom. 8: 4.

But what does this righteousness bring him?—Life; for “by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of LIFE.” Rom. 5:18. This is the purpose and power of God’s free grace, “that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS unto ETERNAL LIFE by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Verse 21. Having righteousness, therefore, man has life. That righteousness is wrought in him through the power of the Word and the Spirit of God. 1 Peter 1: 23; John 3: 5; Rom. 8:11. And that “Spirit is life BECAUSE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Rom. 8:10. It was for the reason that Christ was righteous that death could not hold Him in bondage. Acts 2: 24.

Righteousness and Power

God’s infinite righteousness is a manifestation of His infinite power. This infinite power, manifest through His Spirit, works in us the same righteousness through faith. This righteousness being ours, eternal life is ours. “This Spirit is life [in us] because of righteousness.” “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 1 John 5:12. See John 3: 36, and many other texts. This life is the life of the indwelling Spirit of God. Man may die, but his Lord has passed the portals before him. As death could not hold the all-righteous One, so it can not hold him on whom Christ’s all-righteousness rests. His righteous character before the throne of God is a check for eternal life at the resurrection, signed and sealed with the blood of the everlasting covenant.

For what should we seek—the righteousness or the life?—The righteousness. Having this, we have all. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.” “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in HIM.”

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever BELIEVETH in Him should not perish, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.” John 3:16.

“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 1 John 5:11.