THE law of Jehovah is the expression of His character. In fact, whatever is said of the moral attributes of God is said also of His law. God is said to be righteous, holy, just, true, sure, faithful, pure, wise, spiritual, perfect, merciful, everlasting, loving, etc. These adjectives, or their equivalent nouns, are spoken of God over and over again, but not more emphatically than of His law, either directly or impliedly. Read the whole of Psalm 119, where nearly all of the above qualities are spoken of God’s law, under the various terms applied to it, such as law, commandments, statutes, testimonies, precepts, judgments, ways, words. Read also Ps. 19:7-9, where the terms perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true and righteous, are all applied to the precepts of God. They are said to convert, make wise, rejoice, enlighten, endure, and warn. Love is the law’s fulfilling; he who loves the law keeps it. 1 John 5:3. Judgment, mercy, faith, and the love of God (Matt. 23:23; Luke 11:42) are all component parts of the great reflect of God’s character; and that law demands of every responsible soul all these things, and condemns those who do not meet its claims, as coming short of God’s glory, or goodness of character. Rom. 3:20; Ex. 33:18, 19. But man is a sinner. Not only has he sinned in the past, but it is his nature to sin. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh [carnally minded] can not please God.” Rom. 8:7, 8. Man has no righteousness in himself; he can not get it out of the law. In fact, man can not of himself get righteousness from any source. In his natural condition, following his natural desires, he does not want righteousness. And even tho he desired to do God’s will, he could not do it, for God’s law is of one nature, he another. Therefore, while God’s righteousness is in His law, man can not get it from thence, because his very nature is against the law, antagonistic to its principles. He thus stands condemned by the law. And the law can not impart to man its character, because man’s fleshly nature is against it. Rom. 8:3. But man’s is not a hopeless case. The sinless Son of God took man’s flesh and overcame sin in the flesh. He kept all God’s commandments in all their perfection while in the flesh. He demonstrated God’s character in the flesh. He changed it from what might be called an abstraction of law, the way it presented itself to man apart from God, and incarnated it in mortal flesh, that by union with Christ the law, or character, of God might be triumphantly manifest in the mortal flesh of every soul who wanted it. How all this is done, how God does it all, we need not now inquire, nor could we comprehend the working of infinite power. But we may apprehend, or lay hold, of the righteousness of God. All that God asks on our part is to choose His way, to yield up our way, to renounce sin in both deed and nature, to admit our demonstrated and condemned condition, and to accept of the death of Christ for the death of which we were worthy, the life of Christ for our life, the character of Christ for our character. That is all. What a glorious exchange, the poverty and wretchedness of sin for the eternal riches and joy of righteousness! This is the Gospel, which brings the righteousness of God upon all and into all who believe. “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; for therein [in the Gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” Rom. 1:16, 17. That righteousness comes to every man who will renounce all of self, and accept Christ for what He has revealed Himself; and the law comes in as a blessed witness to show that the righteousness is the same that before condemned the sinner. Rom. 3:21. The righteous man, the one whom God has made righteous, keeps God’s law. The righteousness of God’s law in Christ Jesus has been placed within and upon the man who has accepted Christ, and the righteousness within the heart recognizes the righteousness within the law, and by the same faith in Jesus Christ fulfils it. This is what the apostle states: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. . . . For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God [did by] 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.” Rom. 8:1-4. He who hates God’s law knows not Christ as Saviour. He who knows Christ, loves God’s law, the blessed witness of the character of God, which is in him. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3:31.